In Christ - I Am Created By God

 

EPHESIANS 2:10

We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

    It is impossible to live a holy and righteous life without first believing that Jesus Christ is Lord; that He died on the cross taking the punishment of our sins upon Himself, and rising up from the grave to walk out into newness of life. 

Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:16-18.

    When we believe this, God is able to create us in His only begotten Son into a new creation, a new creature. We have been born again by the blood of God's only begotten Son Jesus Christ. In us God has planted a seed of faith which we are to exercise by trusting in His promises and His Holy Word; by going where God wants us to go, doing what God wants us to do, and speaking the Word which God has set forth for us to speak. 

    In our natural birth, we are created male and female. This does not change when we are created anew in Christ Jesus. Both men and women are called to believe in The Only Name Under Heaven by which we can be saved. Both men and women are called by God to serve in whatsoever capacity God calls us to serve. Ephesians 4:11-13.

    We are called by God, in Christ, to witness to the world around us and to the parts of the world where God sends us. Mark 16:15. For the need to hear the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ is just as urgent as it is to speak the gospel. There are thousands of languages, many with different dialects. Even sign languages are different around the world. The gospel needs to be heard by all. Until the last person hears and then God will begin the next step in His war to defeat Satan once and for all. 

    In Christ there is no fear, no doubt, no wavering. There is boldness to speak, tact to speak with compassion and the love of God. There is a desire to reach everyone we know with the Love of God in Christ. And The Spirit within us nudges, prods, opens our mouths, (or causes our fingers to type), to speak up and speak out against injustice. For what is more unjust than to not know whether or not our neighbors, our families, our friends are saved by this Marvelous Amazing Grace which is alive within us?

    I seldom speak to our neighbors because I remain indoors often, but I have begun to pray for my neighborhood the same way I pray for everyone else, even you. In Christ I am made strong, for He is my Strength. And in His Strength my frail body accomplishes the will of God in my life. Because my life belongs to Christ Jesus. 

IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE  

YET NOT I BUT THROUGH CHRIST IN ME

Prepositional Faith - Created In Christ

 

Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

which God prepared in advance as our way of life. 

    We are created in Christ, when God creates a clean heart in us, upon our belief in His only begotten Son as our Lord and Savior. Psalm 51:10 tells us, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." The Holy God working in our hearts begins the preparations for His Holy Spirit to change us and make us into the persons He designed us to be. 

    Sin got in the way of that and ruined everything. Everything sin touches it destroys. But God. But God had a plan to destroy sin once and for all: the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. The Innocent died for the guilty. His death mitigated the believer's death. 

    For the righteous, those whose sins are washed away by the blood of God's Lamb, death is but a breath, for Christ has conquered death for us. But for those whose sins are not covered by the blood, death is eternal. Eternal suffering, eternal pain, eternal destruction. 

    Now is the time to repent of the sin that has kept you from receiving God's grace through Jesus Christ, The Gift given to everyone, but received by so few. The Gift that is not opened is not really received at all.  Now is the day you open your Gift; this is the time before time runs out. When we seek God with a sincere and believing heart, then God will hear our prayer, and answer us. 

CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART - Steve Green 

DON'T BE AFRAID - The Song of The Lord 

Heart & Soul - - All That Is Within Me

 

Mark 12:20

And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 3650

All: the whole, complete, entire

From the Greek word 'holos' (pronounced hol'-os): wholly, where all the parts are present and working as a whole – i.e. as the total, which is greater than the mere sum of the parts.

EVERYTHING THAT IS WITHIN ME

Deuteronomy 6:4, 5

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

    Abraham had God's promise that through the son he would have with Sarah, the son not yet conceived, would come many nations. The promise came before the test. Abraham had faith that God would restore life to his son. For he knew that God keeps His promises. (Genesis 17:1-18:15; 21:1-8; 22:1-15). Abraham fulfilled the first commandment.

    Hosea, under God's command, married a prostitute and had children with her. He was God's prophet and his actions may have seemed crazy to his contemporaries, yet God had placed a great love within Hosea's heart for her: a heart that forgave her whoredoms (fornications and adulteries) and loved her back into a right relationship. This great romance is not only a historical fact, but an allegorical relationship of God wooing His people back to Himself. Hosea fulfilled the first commandment.

    Jesus' mother, Mary, fulfilled the first commandment in a simple reply to the angel who spoke the prophecy to her: Luke 1:38 "“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her." Fully surrendered to God, Mary submitted to the Word spoken over her. 

    The widow, who gave God everything she had, fulfilled the first commandment. (Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4). She placed all of her finances in the Lord's treasury: she gave all that she had. Though wealthier people had given some of their riches, she out of her necessity gave it all to God. 

    These people are but a few Biblical examples of giving everything within them to the Lord God. Because their hearts were filled with a desire to please God, they were able to serve Him in such a way as to glorify Him. Are we? We have current contemporary examples who show us how to love God first and foremost, by their outspoken faith: Brock Purdy. Tim Tebow. Joyce Meyers. Elisabeth Elliot.

    Worshiping God is more than singing, more than playing a musical instrument. God wants our everything, our all. And He wants it when He asks for it. To worship God is to obey God when He speaks. And He's still speaking today. 

    We hear Him speaking when we pray while we study out His Word for ourselves. Before the many comes the individual. Adam walked and talked with God before anyone else existed. He was intelligent and able to speak clearly. He could think for himself and make decisions on his own. He was no caveman as junk science would have us believe, but a man with whom God could converse, as friend to friend.

    We hear God speaking when we spend quality time with Him and Him only. In whatever space or room we have set aside for just being alone with Him, our prayer room or prayer closet: a smallish space that leaves no room for anything else. We make a decision to do so and stick by it, regardless of outside discord, which threatens our alone time with Him. 

    Have you asked yourself, "Why am I here? What is my purpose?" God knows. In fact, God is the only One Who knows exactly why He created you. But in order for us to fulfill our purpose in Him we need to seek Him out and ask Him what is our specific reason for existing? Besides the basics.

CREATED TO

>We are created to commune-listen to, hear from, speak with-with the God Who created us. 

>We are created to worship God and Him only. Deuteronomy 6:5.

>We are created to love God, to love Him above all other loves. Exodus 20:1-5.
>We are created to be God's hands and feet, carrying the gospel of salvation wherever He sends us. Mark 16:15. John 15:16.

>We are created to be productive. As He set Adam and Eve up in the Garden of Eden to take care of all that was in it, so we, too, are expected to work in God's kingdom. Everyone has a job to do. Genesis 1:26-31; 2:4-24. John 4:34-38. Acts 1:8. 

>We are created to love all other people in the same way in which God loves us: unconditionally (no strings attached, no quid pro quo, without measure or merit). Mark 12:31. John 13:34; 15:17.

>We are created to conquer, to overcome, to rise above every obstacle in our path. Psalm 18:32-35. Isaiah 40:31. Ephesians 6:10-20.

>We are created to endure, to outlast our enemy. Hebrews 12:1.

>We are created to persevere, to continue on, to move forward regardless of what tries to grab our attention and focus. Proverbs 4:27. 

    These are some of our most basic reasons for our existence. If we have not attained some of them, there's still time. Only three things can prevent us from accomplishing God's purpose for our lives:

1. Death. After we die, there are no more opportunities to love God and fulfill our purpose in Him.

2. Christ's Second Return. When the Father sends His Son back to this earth to collect His bride, all of the people who make up this bride (the church) will leave. After that you'll have seven years to make up your minds whether or not you will choose God to be your God. 

3. Unwillingness. Ignorance is not your friend, nor is it available to you after you have been reading these studies with me. You cannot say, 'I did not know'. Apathy is not your friend, either. To hear the Word of the Lord and not receive is to have an 'I don't care' attitude towards God's Word. It is to be unwilling to surrender your all to His all. 

    Can I say I have done my part up to this point in sharing the gospel, in testifying of God's amazing grace to me, to us? Yes. Can I do more? Always. The Holy Spirit takes me where God wants me to go. And right now, that's here. All that is within me desires all that He is. 

DESIRING GOD'S PRESENCE 

Guard Your Heart - - A Clean Heart

 

Psalm 17:3

You have tried my heart; You have visited me in the night. You have tested me and found no evil; I have resolved not to sin with my mouth.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 974

Tried: examine, test, prove

From the Hebrew word 'bachan' (pronounced baw-khan'). 

    In the night watches, The LORD tries His people. He tests our hearts to see if we are ready to do His will, to serve Him, to work for Him.

    How does He visit His people? In prayer. We must be awake to pray with our LORD. We must be conscious and meet Him on a heart to heart level. For the LORD looks on the heart, not the mind or the face (1 Samuel 16:7; Luke 16:15). (Psalm 42:8). In meditation on His Word (Psalm 77:6). The LORD searches our hearts (Proverbs 20:27; Jeremiah 17:10; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Acts 1:24). 

A CLEAN HEART IS CREATED BY GOD

    Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

    Psalm 32:1

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered!

    Matthew 6:12

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

A CLEAN HEART IS A FORGIVEN HEART

    Isaiah 1:18

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool."

    Isaiah 42:35

"I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more."

A CLEAN HEART IS A MALLEABLE HEART

    Ezekiel 36:26

"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."

    John 3:5

"Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit."

A CLEAN HEART IS A PURE HEART

    Matthew 5:8

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

    When God cleans our hearts, it is not merely that our slates are wiped clean, but that we may be useful vessels for God. When we let Him, God decides how best we may serve Him. 

    We have several vases atop our hutch. We do not use most of them and one of these days some of them will become garden decorations. But for now, they are in a waiting period. Like some of us: we offer ourselves to God, then wonder why we aren't doing some great deed for Him. 

    While we think we are just sitting on the shelf, God is testing us, proving our hearts to be His. The Spirit searches all things (1 Corinthians 2:10). If our hearts truly belong to God, then God knows that we are His people. And He wants us to be ready. Even if our readiness includes sitting on a shelf. 

    The LORD hears our cries (Psalm 61:1; Psalm 130:1-4). 

Psalm 27:7

"Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for Himself; the LORD hears when I call to Him."

O LORD, make us clean. We repent of the wickedness of our hearts, of our transgressions against Your Word, of the sins we have committed. You say to me, when I have awakened, 'Wash you, make you clean before you begin your work'. And every morning I wash my face and make me clean. 

But You, O LORD, desire a clean heart and a renewed spirit. These things only You can do, LORD, but I must ask You to do so. For I know You want to be asked, that You are not a controlling God, but a loving God, Who wants only what is right for us. You have given us free will, the conscious ability to choose right from wrong, to make decisions for ourselves.

Forgive me, LORD, for I do so want to be found in Your good graces. So, try my heart: test me, prove me; examine me according to Your Word, Your Will and Your Way. Remove anything not good in me and replace it with the better thing You have for me. 

You are the God of my life and I want no other.

In Jesus' Name, I pray,

Amen.

O COME TO THE ALTAR 

COME AS YOU ARE

CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART 

SANCTUARY

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