Kelahiran semula

Kasih dan karunianya Kristus atas kita telah menyelamatkan kita. Melalui apa semua ini terjadi? Melalui iman.  Darimana datangnya iman ini? Semestinya dari Allah. Seperti firman Allah di dalam Efesus 2:8 “…pemberian Allah”,

Sesungguhnya kita yang menerima keselamatan dari Yeshua mempunyai iman yang datang dari Allah (fikir dan renungkan sejenak). Dengan iman ini kita menerima hakikat bahawa kita telah disalibkan dengannya. Paulus menyatakan bahawa diri kita yang lama sudah disalib bersama kematian Kristus di atas kayu salib. Sama seperti Paulus, kini kita juga boleh mengatakan “Aku telah disalibkan dengan Kristus, namun aku hidup, tetapi bukan lagi aku sendiri yang hidup”(…melainkan Kristus yang hidup di dalam aku”). Sesungguhnya Dia yang mematuhi dalam diri kita. Inilah satu-satunya “Aku” yang kita dibenarkan. Bukanlah Paulus itu berkata “Aku akan cuba mengikuti dia” atau “Aku nekad untuk mati” tetapi dia mengatakan “Aku telah disalibkan”.

Kerana semua ini adalah pemberian Allah kepada kita, maka janganlah ada yang bermegah diri. (Keperluan kita hanyalah mengikuti ajaran dan berhubungan intim denganNya). Amal kebaikan yang kita lakukan selama ini tidaklah cukup untuk mendapatkan tiket masuk syurga.  Adakah Dia memerlukan kita berbuat baik? Berapa banyak kebaikan yang perlu kita lakukan? Bagaimana kamu yakin bahawa segala perbuatan baik yang dilakukan itu dapat membawa kamu ke syurga? Ya, memang kita perlu berbuat baik tapi kebaikan yang kita perbuat itu perlulah hasil iman kita yang datang dalam Yeshua. Sebab dengan keimanan kita kepada Kristus yang menjadi Juruselamat dan Penebus, Dia menciptakan kita menjadi satu manusia baru di dalam diri kita. Untuk apa semua ini? Kerana pekerjaan baik yang Dia telah rancangkan untuk kita sedari awal, Pekerjaan yang DIA pilih untuk kita – maka janganlah ada yang bermegah diri. Karena kita ini buatan Allah, diciptakan dalam Kristus Yesus untuk melakukan pekerjaan baik, maka janganlah ada yang berkata bahawa ini semua hasil pekerjaanku sendiri.

Reminders

1. The words of God cannot be understood without first washing and cleansing our soul. Without a pure mind and modeling life after the saints how can we comprehend their words? So we can take practical steps of denying self and obedience and the understanding will come. "Fear" of the Lord is displayed through such denial and obedience then comes wisdom.

2. With an impure heart how can we understand divine truth? Will the holy spirit dwell in such a person? He will dwell only in the redeemed. Without His dwelling in us can our hearts be pure? (so with true receiving of Christ which results in His life in us we may understand divine truth. We will be christ minded not flesh minded. What a gift?!).

3. And ye shall receive power- Luke 24:49. This power is supernatural. It is the ability to do. It is the ability to feel the reality of Yeshua. He is with me a real person,close to me. Love for God and the children of God takes possession. Heaven becomes real. Earth becomes distant. Holy spirit in us is power!

More than knowing About God

More than knowing About God

3. Man then relies on the inferior organ ie the brain to reason and understand. He cannot know God. He can only know ABOUT God.

“But the natural man received not the things of the Spirit of god for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Man’s intellect is far inferior (1 Corinthians 1:20)

The intellect organ was not given to know God. So we may have all the knowledge about God and some may even outwardly practice and do good works but never have a relationship with God. (Good works here inevitably is motivated for self advancement)

4. There is hope however in our believe (Trust) in and obedience to Yeshua. His spirit will then dwell in us and this is the spirit of truth that will reveal God to us.

1 Corinthians 2: 9-12

But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

Nor have entered into the heart of man

The things which God has prepared for those who love Him

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?  Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”

Is this emotion right?

Is this emotion right?

It is not all the time that our hearts will blaze at a spiritual high. In our everyday life facing many circumstances, many people, many challenges, this emotional high may not be able to be sustained. How then do we keep walking in the Spirit? One of the ways is to stop and ask ourselves, this emotion that we are feeling – what is the end of it? [Eg. festering a dislike or harbouring ill feelings towards another. Good health to my body? Distraction to what I should be concentrating on? Hate and anger that Yeshua will be displeased about? (He is our suffering Lord and is still suffering by the way, looking at mankind and their ways). Or is it an emotion that will move me to be more compassionate?) If the end result is in line with that of the clear cut instruction of the Lord, clearest instruction being the Bible – then follow it. If not then just stop it and the Lord will lend you support to do it.

Reminders: We are to walk in close relationship with Him that He and us become one, that what we ask will be what He wants.

Created beings

Created beings

We are created beings. His work of creation from day one is continuous. We are being created in this new life we now have as redeemed people. So we stay close to our source of life- our Lord. When we humble ourselves and realize we are weak created beings, we are able to rise up with power because when we realize we are weak, we turn to this source willingly and for all things. It was the work of the evil one to tell man they are able to live independently from this source and therefore brought death upon us.

The Old Man is Dead

The Old Man is Dead

For we are saved by His mercy, His grace. Through what? Through faith. And who gave us this faith? God. As is said in Ephesians 2:8, it is a gift from God. 

We who accept salvation from Yeshua now have faith that comes from God! (pause to ponder). With this faith accept that we have been crucified with Him. Our old fleshy self has been crucified with Him. We can now say with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live…” (but Christ lives in us). It is He who abides in us. These are the only “I” s we are allowed. Paul did not say “I will try to follow Him “or” I am determined to die” but “ I have been crucified”.

All are through God’s gift. So no man can boast. (Our only requirement is to respond to Him, have a close relationship with Him. Our good works are not enough. Most religions will tell us good works are our ticket to heaven. Does He need our good works? How much good works are needed? How assured are you that all the good works are enough to get you to heaven? We need to do good works, yes, but these comes as a result of our faith in Yeshua. When we accept Christ gift of salvation, He creates a new man in us. For what? For good works that He prepared before hand. Good works that HE chose for us – that no man may boast – that no man can say it is through MY faith, it is through MY works that I made it).