John 3:16 – Everlasting Life

The Blog has posts that begin with a title of a month, and should have a new post out every month or two (intending to publish about 12 posts). You can read it and the posts should map onto your walk with Jesus as a Christian through the coming months, and allow you to see what you can expect. I am not touching on core biblical teachings such as the resuscitation of Christ, because it is with Him I am talking about walking with throughout the posts. If you have become a Christian you will also want to find a mentor or a pastor to help you understand awesome and deep things like baptism and communion, although I expect to touch on these in the coming months. God bless you, may you be blessed in the field and blessed in the home, blessed in your coming, and blessed in the going.

Also, how about sharing a bit about your own testimony with us at http://www.glorifica.me (under development) and we can hear from you and help spread your story?

Welcome to this new series on how to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, and in this first section I want you to know how easy it is to receive that gift which has been given to us by grace, which is eternal life. To help you take the small step to the greatest gift we have been given, it’s as simple as confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believing in your heart that he was raised from the Dead.

You might want to grab a Bible, I will be telling you many things, but don’t take my Word for it, take a look at the alternatives and read what I understand, and look into these things. After all it’s a mark of nobility to not take a man for his word but to take his word to God’s word, (look into the Bereans in Acts).

Believing in the Lord is easy, but you are not free from tribulation when it happens, in fact you can expect more of it once you are a Christian. We become a part of the body of Christ, and in him are victorious over this tribulation. This will increase the glory that we bring to God, for we depend on him and need to ask him for things to help us in this time of trial. And it brings our Father God glory to ask him for things in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, because we will receive them in his name, and therefore it brings him glory.This tribulation also increases our own [weight of] glory. For He finds great pleasure in bringing many sons to Glory. Think about Jesus, no one suffered a greater trial than him, yet there is no other name that is greater under heaven than his, and if we are to share in his glory, we have to suffer as he did. Don’t worry, what you receive far outweighs what you endure, I guarantee it.

Also, it perfects you, you can read James 1:2-4, it mentions that we are to be thankful when we face trials of many kinds because it develops patience. Why Patience and not skill? Because we are already been guaranteed victory over those trials in Jesus, we just wait for him to perfect us until we overcome them. And it says that in the end we will lack nothing, does lacking nothing mean having everything? Or not needing anything more? We will be able to endure any situation, and will not lack anything that really matters.

So what matters? I had a friend that told me that on a class quiz he was asked one day what he wanted to be when he grew up, and his answer was to be happy. God gives us a life where no matter what, we can be in peace, happy, righteous and calm, being able to make the right choice even under the most stressful and fearful circumstance.

Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and the world offers many things in outwardly beautiful forms that are rotten to the core. Once you become a Christian, you begin to notice that things aren’t quite what they used to seem, but it might be hard to give everything up to God who will help make sense of what is good to keep and what is to be thrown away. One thing is for sure though, you have been made new and all old things have passed away. As you step into this new life, even the innocence of childhood pales in comparison to what is growing in you and what you are transforming and renewing into.

Remember how as a kid you could better sense what was behind things, better defend the truth you knew, better believe in what people you trusted told you, and better obey what your parents told you – at least the things you were afraid of disobeying?. As you grow into this new life and begin to use your discernment to tell between right and wrong, it will grow more accurate with its use. And as you cut away all the bad things with the sword  of The Spirit of God, that is God’s Word, you will soon you will begin to see yourself taking better, wiser, and more prudent decisions. You will also have the same fear of disobeying the things God tells you, that you will know will keep you out of harms way and to walk clearly on the path of life (including all the wonderful things that are in God along the way that are far better than anything your previous life could offer). You will also be able to believe faithfully in God’s promises and decrees, and see him faithfully applying them and working in your life and in the lives of people around you.

The shallow things Satan and the world offers will become things you dislike and want to keep away from and then try to keep away from the people around you, as you become strong in God in a life filled with purpose, joy, peace, goodness, mercy, gentleness, meekness, temperance, grace, and especially love. Just remember telling the difference between what is right and wrong takes practice, and is developed over time. It takes patience, persistence, and perserverance to reach a point where you feel comfortable with your own discernment, and it will continue to grow after that. In the meantime find Godly Christian Friends you feel you can trust in and talk to, learn from, and work things out as you grow. And always keep your faithfulness to God first. And don’t worry, God will help you find the right people, and probably use more than one or even several Christian people to inspire you and teach you throughout your Christian life. This isn’t to say you can’t learn things from people who aren’t Christian, but God will be able to speak directly to you through your Christian friends in a way that will help lead you closer to the truth, as you better can see why what you have in you as a Christian is far more valuable than anything anyone else can offer you that is outside of God.

Jesus has said that he loves us, that he laid down his life for us. That we are his sheep and he is our Shepherd and that as his Sheep we will listen to his voice, and follow him. He gives us eternal life, and no one will be able to take us out of his flock. He is not willing that a single one of us little ones be lost. So we have, if we are from his flock, the gift of eternal life. We will follow him. And no one will be able to take us away from that.

I will let you know this, that if you have truly given your life to Jesus, then you are on a Golden Road, where even a fool will not be able to step foot off of it, and you will reach that destination. In 1st James it says that we are to give thanks for the many trials that we face, because it builds patience/perserverance and this means that it does not build tolerance or acceptance of anything less than complete and utter vanquishment of anything ill that may happen the ‘harm’ you along the way. If you have any threat in your life, it is only an illusion put there to try and intimidate you. March forward, keep going, i’m only an inch more from being an inch less far away from victory. But it will not be easy, it may be a very difficult road to travel, but it will be happy, and your burden will be very light and most of all, if you truly give your life to Jesus, it will not be possible for you to fail.

Some people believe in Jesus, but do you believe him? If you do believe him, you would obey him, because there’s no greater promise than what he offers for obedience, whether you view it as better than anything else that is offered by anything else, or better than the alternative of disobeying which is eternal condemnation. It has been my point throughout the Blog though, that if the Lord has chosen you to believe in him, you will believe in him and see his mercy and love work things out of you and perfect you until the coming of Jesus Christ. It will also be a tough battle because the thing that doesn’t want you to make it to Him is strong, stronger than any man but Jesus himself, but not as strong as the love that lives in you.

People will try to dissuade you from reaching the best goal, the highest calling, remember: Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you but beware if people speak well of you, for people spoke well of the false prophets… stay salty and full of life for the gospel,

Keep reading God’s word and stay in charge of yourself, his word states that there have been people who have shipwrecked in the faith when you don’t follow what the Lord has called you more specifically for, and it is important to have patience and not race ahead of others. Remain true to what your specific calling is in the Lord (don’t try to be an ear if you are an eye). And above all abide in the teaching of Christ which is LOVE. This is what you heard from the beginning, stay rooted in what you know Christianity is really about, and once you know what the Lord has called you more specifically for, don’t try to make plans that are outside of (exclude) that; and above all else guard your heart and don’t fret.

God will reveal his beautiful and good plan for your life over time and bring its pieces about to completion in your life as you are guided to ant through his good, pleasing and perfect will.