15. No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above".John 3:3
16.Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the spiritual forces of evil.Eph 6:11.12
17.we wait for new heavens and a new earth. 2Pet.3:13
18.you shall be holy, for I am holy. Lev. 11:45
19 I am a good shepherd. John 10:11
15.Jesus answered him. "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above". John 3:3
Watching a TV program, I saw a personality said, "The words of the Bible look like Greek indeed to me. They are Japanese translated from Greek and Hebrew, but they do not seem to be Japanese languages for me". No one can understand the true meaning of the Bible unless he has become a Christian.
All Scripture is God-breathed and it's scribes wrote from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.(2Pet.1:20,21; 2Tim3:16). So that readers have to read it by the guidance of the Holy Spirit and by the life of born-again Christian. If you feel a sense of alienation in a Christian church, it indicates that you must be born again in Christ Jesus.
Being born again stands for rising from the dead (Eph2:1-15;Luk15:24) and being created newly(2Cor5:17) and having citizenship in heaven(Phil3:20).
16. Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the spiritual forces of evil.Eph 6:11.12
Modern rationalists deny the existence of not only angels, but also devils as a holdover from the premodern society. And some churches influenced by them also deny their being.
The Bible, however, tells the existence of the devils and their boss Satan as real beings and orthodox churches also believe it.
The business of devils are to have people worship idols hiding behind them, and draw them into the Hell which was made for the Satan and his followers. The purpose of Satan is to prevent from the work of God in the Savior Jesus Christ and to be hostile to God and men.
The lives of Christians are the ones of fighting and the adversaries are three; one is selves and the next the world and the last the devils.
Demon possessing and mental diseases are not the same, but sometimes they have mutual relations.In the case of non-Christians, devils can live in their parts of spirits, but they can not live in the spirits of Christian, for the places are the residence of the Holy Spirit. But there are some cases in which believers are harassed being possessed by demons on their minds and bodies.
According to the Bible, every Christians have the authorities over the devils and are able to put them in practices.
There are many,however, who believe that demons-casting belongs to the special people having the gifts and that they themselves are not able to cast them out.
17. But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. 2Pet.3:13
Jesus saves not only us mankind , but also the universe. He saves the spirit,
mind and body of us. and he is going to transform our world into the new
heaven and new earth.
We Christians do not stop living at our moment of death.
When we became Christians believing Jesus. we started our living with God
as travelers unto heaven and as foreigners having citizenship in heaven.
When Jesus comes again, the universe and the world we live on will be destroyed
by fire, and the new heaven and new earth will be created again. We Christians
will be permitted to enter there to live eternally.
How we may live the lives after death depends on how we lived on this world (Lk16:10-12).Those who built their lives on the word of God believing in Jesus and using their gifts will be committed more big works to their care (Lk16:10-12).
Those who lived wayward lives apart from Christ will be thrown into the
eternal fire of judgement (Mt25:24-30;Rev21:8).
18. For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy.Lev. 11:45
Holiness is one aspect of God's nature, as He says in here. The holiness
of God is the very nature of God, which makes a sharp distinction between
Himself and the created world. It stands for His dignity and perfectness
as God the maker of the world. And it is simbolized by the fire in the
end time of the world, which will judge Satan and the world profaned by
it.
For indeed our God is a consuming fire (Hb 12:29).
We, all the people on the earth, are born sinners because of Adam's sin, who was the representative of all mankind. So we by nature can not stand in front of the Holy God. But the God who are not only holy, but also the one of love (1John4:8,9) and forgiveness (Lk15;1John1:9) provided the way for us to be forgiven and sanctified by the Son of God Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ shed his holy and sinless blood on the cross in behalf of
us, so that his holiness and righteousness were given to us as our own
ones(1Cor 1:30).
We believers are, therefore, permitted to be present in the face of God
wearing the holy cloth of Christ, named "the holy and righteous work
of Christ(Gal3:27), and recognized as holy and righteous and sinless ones
(2Cor5:21).
On this faith and hope, we Christian strive to walk on the road to holiness
by the Scriptures, the Spirit and prayer, in order to become the holy and
righteous people of God both in name and reality.
We believers are called the saints, that is the holy ones in Greek. We
can not grow as Christians,that is saints, without our putting the word
of God into practice, which means daily Bible reading and prayer and following
out the teaching of the Bible day by day.
19. I am a good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11
It says that sheep are so weak animals that they can not find out pasture
and water by themselves, can not return to pasture land when they got lost,
and can not get up when they fall down to be upside down.
Man should know that he is by nature like these sheep in the face of God.
The reason is that he can not find out his spiritual food and water by
himself, and can not come home to the Father of his spirit, and does not
know the fault living the upside down life which he lives for his desire
instead of doing with God.
Christians are the sheep who were saved hearing the voice of the shepherd
Christ and having believed in his Gospel.
Sometimes good shepherd gives his life up to protect and save his flock.
Jesus Christ gave his life for us to be saved from sins and it's destruction. The shepherd Christ himself became the Lamb of God to expiate our sins (John1:29) and deliver us from the curse (Gal 3:13,14). He gave us eternal life abundantly and exuberantly.
8 Dec. 2007 Published
URL http://31church.net
