He thanked us for witnessing.

Last night was my first time going out evangelizing with Jesus Freaks.  I had a good time and it felt very good to serve / obey God in this way.  I was partnered with Mark, our elder.  We talked to about 8 people. 

The first man that we talked to was sitting on a bench with his son waiting for someone.  He seemed appreciative that we were talking to him and understood why we were, but he was not open to receiving Jesus.  He said that he believed in a higher power but didn't know who that was.  We presented him the gospel and wished him a Merry Christmas.

One of Mark's witnessing tools was a group of pictures that he shows the person and asks which picture represents their life, which one represents God, and finally which represents what God is doing in their life.  One of the next people we talked to knew that we were witnessing and said "I don't think (talking about the pictures) that's necessary.  I'm already saved."  Mark wasn't satisfied with that answer but after a few more questions Mark believed him.  He thanked us for witnessing.  It was good to meet a fellow believer!

Another group of people I talked with spoke Spanish.  With my limited Spanish I asked them if they were Christians, they said yes, then I told them that I was too and that they were my sisters and brother.  The smiled and said "si!" and I told them Feliz Navidad.

One person that Mark and I talked to told us he didn't want to talk to us at all.  A separate group of 4 teenage boys also were not interested.  One said that he went to a Lutheran church but that he was not a very devoted Christian.

The most exciting conversation we had was with a group of three young men who are freshmen in college.  They are here for hockey.  One is from Alaska, two are from California.  They enjoyed the pictures from Mark and seriously thought about their answers.  All of them had gone to church at least a few times and two of them said they were Christians.  We found out that they do not go to church here in MN and one of them was very honest (which I appreciated) and said that it was hard to be a Christian and be in the world at the same time.  We told him that this doesn't change as you get older, light heatedly.    I sent the leader of the group my email address and invited them to church.  I have a friend who run an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) hockey ministry here in MN and I told them about it.  They got very excited about it and I gave them the contact information for my friend. I also gave my friend who runs the FCA hockey ministry their email info.  My hope and prayer is that the do join the FCA league and grown closer to God as they do the bible studies that are part of that and have fellowship with more "on fire" believers.

I also spoke to a Chinese man who had a hard time hearing me and understanding English when he could hear me.  I did learn that he likes Jesus, has a Chinese bible, but doesn't go to church and doesn't plan to.  I encouraged him to read one of the gospels in his Bible this Christmas season.  It was the seed that I felt like I could plant and I hope God waters it.  As our conversation ended he seemed really grateful that I talked to him and he said "I wish you good luck!". 

I felt like we got a lot done in the couple of hours that we were there and I am looking forward to doing this again.


Matt

Jesus Freak

This is a biblical description of a Jesus Freak.

2 Corinthians 6:
⁴ but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships,

 calamities, ⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ⁶ by purity, knowledge, 

patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; ⁷ by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the 

weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; ⁸ through honor and dishonor, through slander 

and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹ as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and 

behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰ as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making 

many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.



Mark16:15
 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

The fruit of endurance

                                                           

  The essential ingredient of being a true follower of Christ is to having the ability to endure the pain, suffering, and persecution for His sake. We all, at one point or another, feel victimized or thinking that our sufferings and heartaches are massively insurmountable. It’s quite understandable to feel that way, but as followers of Christ, we need to view our suffering within the purview of Christianity and within the framework of our commitment to Christ. It means that we are not of this world even though, we live in it, but we are from a world that is above these mundane human –made trivialities and the superficial wounds and aches that we may sustain during our temporal citizenship here on earth.

Paul‘s suffering is the epitome of who we ought to be as followers of Christ and how to fight the adversity and yet remain content and spiritually unshakable.

Read what Paul says, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel,⁹ for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. ¹⁰ Therefore I endure everything for the [sake of the elect] that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory” 2 Timothy 2: 8-10

Paul’s suffering and his enduring character must encourage us to stand tall while we are boldly preaching the gospel in the face of all the adversities.

We must endure all the unjust causes for Christ’s sake, and then we’ll clearly see the fruits of our endurance blossoming into love, and compassion for those who unjustly caused us pain and suffering. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” Matthew 5: 11-12

From a worldly vantage point, it’s easy to rebel and fight back against those who inflict pains upon us but Christ taught us to confront it with love and compassion and be happy because our reward will be great in HEAVEN.

Amen,

Barukzoy 

The unmerited love of God is called Grace

It simply means we don’t have anything attractive within us to be loved by God, it means we cannot earn love and His mercy; it means we don’t have intrinsic capacities to be loved by God. He chose to love us by His own volition& will. This divine love is called “Grace”. It’s profound and it must change the very depth of who we are as human beings. The grace of God is so powerful that can renew the mind and regenerate our selfish heart.

I am talking about the substantive aspect of God’s grace.I am not interested in the stylistic presentation of grace by nonchalantly saying, we are saved by God’s grace alone; therefore, we can do whatever our fleshes crave for because God loves us. That is not God’s grace! That is merely an infatuation with the concept of grace; having that kind of superficial attitudes perverts the very divine nobility of God’s grace.

Grace is when God decides to provide you and I with His mercy and love in order to see the work of His son on the cross; so we can become transformed by it and transmit that love and grace to others around us.

When God gives us His grace, we must become sanctified that is to say we are not going to associate with the temporal and lustful things of this world. It is, however, going to be a challenge for us to separate ourselves, but we have the spiritual weapons to abort those worldly thoughts that may perversely entertain our minds.

God’s grace is sufficient for us through whom we will come to know our Lord and have a relationship with Him, through whom we see the redeeming work of Christ. Christ is the very essence of God’s grace meaning Christ is the grace Himself and He wants to clothe us through it. There is nothing we can do to earn it, it’s completely unmerited and that is the divine mystery of His volition and will. We will know when we have God’s grace in our lives; because it changes us and it produces abundant fruits.

God’s Grace in our life equals to love, mercy, forgiveness, tolerance, patience, understanding, respect, and compassion. Our lack of enthusiasm to manifest these qualities in our daily life is the paramount evidence that we severely need God’s grace.

Hence, I urge you to come to Him in humility so He can grant you His riches grace that is so pure and life transforming.

Barukzoy

The Unjustified can become justified through Christ

 

The holiness of God demands justice; conversely, his grace provides mercy, love, and compassion. He determines our faith; He grants us a regenerate heart. According to prophet Isaiah “all our righteous works are like filthy rags" Isaiah 64:6

 

In reality, what he's saying is that we are culpable down to the core, we're filthy and sinful. The apostle Paul said, “There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no who seeks God, all turned a way , they've together become worthless; there is no who does good, not even one" Romans 3:10-12.

In the Judicial theater of God, we are all charged with treason, corruption, deception, duplicity and sinfulness. Hence, the verdict is death and we definitely deserve it. No one can save us and there is nothing we can do to meet the standard of God's holiness except to accept His wrath, indignation and ultimately His divine judgment.

Every religions in the world seeks to please God through some form of ritualistic or ceremonial practices such as sacrificing animals , Ramadan ( fasting), giving alms, praying five times a day , meditative prayers, yoga, etc. It's a noble thing to be an altruistic humanitarian, helping our fellow brothers and sisters, and doing all sort of charitable works but that cannot change our corrupt hearts, our good works can not reverse God's judicial verdict nor propitiate God's wrath.

Therefore, the question is: what can we do to become justified? It's not a matter of carnal rehabilitation to advance our case in the divinely court of God ; it is the spiritual birth which grants us access to our redeemer whose divine nature regenerates our filthy hearts, renew our minds and then continues to sanctify us. That divine redeemer is Jesus Christ, He is our advocate before God, He's our purifier, and He is the only way to heaven. "For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ" 2 Corinthians 5; 21

God's holiness demands justice and His justice is divinely righteous and we are unjustified before Him through our own merits but through Christ we become justified and He becomes gracious, merciful, and a forgiving God.
^"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". John 3:16

Believing in Christ is an action which requires a complete surrendering of our life to Him, not merely knowing Him intellectually ; it's accepting Him and believing in His accomplished work on the cross, it's like saying " I don't live anymore, but Christ lives in me through Him I live again " . We then become justified and then through the power of the Holy Spirit we see the mortification of the sin within us that is called Sanctification.

 

In other words, Sanctification is the process of being set apart for God's work and being conformed to the image of Christ. This conforming to Christ involves the work of the person and his or her believability & faith in Christ which is still the work of God.

 

This is a divine mystery which is way beyond our comprehension and God revealed His son to us through faith we can be saved and justified.

You are all loved

Barukzoy

What do we value more?