WHAT IS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PLAN OF SALVATION?
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
It feels like millions of times I have gone over the basics of the Plan of Salvation without really touching on the truth that continues to stare right back at me. In order to really understand this simple plan I must break down the parts of it for my personal life. This process is not as easy as one might think because it demands that I stop and think about each piece of the puzzle as I lay it out in front of me.
Let's take as an example the old familiar concept we were all taught about the process of believing in Christ: HEARING, BELIEVING, REPENTING, CONFESSING, BAPTISM, AND WALKING IN NEWNESS OF LIFE. These are all the steps that we have heard of and which have been a part of what we have said is even now a part of our tradition of belief; but is there something missing for you in all of this? For those of us in Christ now for a long time are there parts of this process that we still do not understand because we have never really dealt with the affect of it in our life? We are going to start looking at this simple process that we have called God's Plan of Salvation from both our side
(which is what we view almost everything from) and as we settle in to each step we also need to look at God's intended message to us.
HEARING: Is the first one which many people go (DUH) about because we all hear for most part, and our communication many times equals our ability to hear. It is this first area that is so simple that it becomes the one thing we overlook the most. If we hear wrongly we get the truth of anything that God says to us wrong. This becomes among the very first objectives of the enemy of God; to make sure that at a critical point in our reception of the Good News from Christ we get something wrong.
The reasons for that are really simple as well...if we believe something that is not true then eventually someone will point it out to us, which will cause friction between us and them, and division within the body of Christ. Hearing has many things that are involved in it other than detecting sound and knowing what direction that sound is coming from. In God's view of hearing His word He demands that we stop and listen. We have learned how to distract ourselves from hearing anything that we are not interested in from a consumer standpoint by blocking out the commercials that fly around us continuously during our day. Our listening is turned into a mode within us that captures only what we want to hear, and in many cases those things that we have allowed to enter into our realm of belief are rarely subjected to the truth again. It is because we think we already understand that as truth, and in many cases would be somewhat embarrassed if we were to admit that something so simple as the fact we may not have heard correctly the simple truth of what God meant.
For God the idea of hearing involves intimate communication between us and His Spirit which by any standard means much more than just hearing something, and yet not understanding what it is they have heard. "HE THAT HAS EARS, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE CHURCH" This is a statement is is heard many times coming from Jesus own teachings, and subsequently from the teachings and letter of the Apostles to the churches as Christianity grew. The statement "He that has ears" automatically gets my attention because it tells me to be on my guard and not think that I will get this message simply by hearing what is said. There are reasons for why God does everything that He does. God involves the whole person that we are in each one of these activities; hearing something therefore takes on a whole new role for us when we deal with God.
In many ways when God gets involved with communication with us it is never to simply transfer knowledge or information in the ways we do with one another; there is always so much more involved. Everything that God does with us is directed to the part of us that is so unique and precious to Him; which is our soul. Everything that God does is pointed toward the salvation of our soul, and even the best of what we are allowed to experience and the worst of what we may experience may all be tied into getting us past the first stages of HEARING so that we can have our attention planted in God's Spirit to LISTEN to what He has to say. God's Spirit will have me deal with this subject this coming week. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
It feels like millions of times I have gone over the basics of the Plan of Salvation without really touching on the truth that continues to stare right back at me. In order to really understand this simple plan I must break down the parts of it for my personal life. This process is not as easy as one might think because it demands that I stop and think about each piece of the puzzle as I lay it out in front of me.
Let's take as an example the old familiar concept we were all taught about the process of believing in Christ: HEARING, BELIEVING, REPENTING, CONFESSING, BAPTISM, AND WALKING IN NEWNESS OF LIFE. These are all the steps that we have heard of and which have been a part of what we have said is even now a part of our tradition of belief; but is there something missing for you in all of this? For those of us in Christ now for a long time are there parts of this process that we still do not understand because we have never really dealt with the affect of it in our life? We are going to start looking at this simple process that we have called God's Plan of Salvation from both our side
(which is what we view almost everything from) and as we settle in to each step we also need to look at God's intended message to us.
HEARING: Is the first one which many people go (DUH) about because we all hear for most part, and our communication many times equals our ability to hear. It is this first area that is so simple that it becomes the one thing we overlook the most. If we hear wrongly we get the truth of anything that God says to us wrong. This becomes among the very first objectives of the enemy of God; to make sure that at a critical point in our reception of the Good News from Christ we get something wrong.
The reasons for that are really simple as well...if we believe something that is not true then eventually someone will point it out to us, which will cause friction between us and them, and division within the body of Christ. Hearing has many things that are involved in it other than detecting sound and knowing what direction that sound is coming from. In God's view of hearing His word He demands that we stop and listen. We have learned how to distract ourselves from hearing anything that we are not interested in from a consumer standpoint by blocking out the commercials that fly around us continuously during our day. Our listening is turned into a mode within us that captures only what we want to hear, and in many cases those things that we have allowed to enter into our realm of belief are rarely subjected to the truth again. It is because we think we already understand that as truth, and in many cases would be somewhat embarrassed if we were to admit that something so simple as the fact we may not have heard correctly the simple truth of what God meant.
For God the idea of hearing involves intimate communication between us and His Spirit which by any standard means much more than just hearing something, and yet not understanding what it is they have heard. "HE THAT HAS EARS, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAYS TO THE CHURCH" This is a statement is is heard many times coming from Jesus own teachings, and subsequently from the teachings and letter of the Apostles to the churches as Christianity grew. The statement "He that has ears" automatically gets my attention because it tells me to be on my guard and not think that I will get this message simply by hearing what is said. There are reasons for why God does everything that He does. God involves the whole person that we are in each one of these activities; hearing something therefore takes on a whole new role for us when we deal with God.
In many ways when God gets involved with communication with us it is never to simply transfer knowledge or information in the ways we do with one another; there is always so much more involved. Everything that God does with us is directed to the part of us that is so unique and precious to Him; which is our soul. Everything that God does is pointed toward the salvation of our soul, and even the best of what we are allowed to experience and the worst of what we may experience may all be tied into getting us past the first stages of HEARING so that we can have our attention planted in God's Spirit to LISTEN to what He has to say. God's Spirit will have me deal with this subject this coming week. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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