Stretching Forth To Know Christ
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Philippians 3:12
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Shepherd Or Scholar The Real Issue
What does God look for in a man or woman through whose life He will do wonderful things? As was the case of David, He looks for loyalty and faithfulness. He looks for someone who will do all His will, and who is teachable to learn His ways. God blesses the shepherd and scholar alike, but only the one whose heart is truly in tune with His own.
Essential Steps Of Faith
There are essential things that need to be known and lived by if one is to walk by faith. These essential truths, and the call of God to obey them, are vitally important to the believer walking in a manner worthy of Christ. Essential truth is the basis for knowing the blessing of God, for He gives His power and grace to the one who will trust Him according to the truth.
The Peace That Is Beyond Understanding
The peace of God is something which cannot be explained. This is because it is a gift of God, the very gift of Christ's presence by the Spirit. It is one of the fruits of His life which He gives in a manner that is not of this world. He gives it when one trusts Him fully and follows Him with a whole heart. Why? It is because of communion with God, with Christ. Out of that fellowship with Him, the peace of God is communicated by the Holy Spirit.
The Highway To Heaven
Christ declared that He was, and is, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The highway of holiness is a picture of God's means by which He works to save and sanctify men. This Highway is a Person, Christ Himself. It is the true way to know God, and possesses the promise of God that for the one who will truly repent of one's sins, and trust wholly in Christ alone as Savior and Lord, He will know eternal life.
The Cross God's Way
The Cross is God's provision by which all that is of the old life in Adam has been crucified, put to death. This was necessary so that one's new life IN Christ would be just that, absolutely new, revealed by both the power and fruit of it. On the one hand the believer is to believe that he has died. On the other hand, he is to believe that Christ is his life.
Newness Of LIfe
Every man and woman and child is called by God to live "another" life than the one he originally was born with. This is so because of the new birth, and the resulting life lived by the Spirit of Christ. On the day, at the moment of the new birth, Christ became the life, the eternal life of the believer. His life is always NEW for He does not age or change. It is always good, bright, holy, and true, and abundant life.
Christ The Path Christ The Prize
Christianity is Christ. He is not only the essence of it, for He IS Life, but he is the very means by which the believer can live for the glory of God. Christ is thus, by His words and leading by the Spirit, the very path that the believer is to walk by and for.
Breaking Forth In The Last Days
To break forth is to escape the confinement of bondage and opposition, to know Christ more fully by the doing of the will of God for His glory. It means to know, by the power of the Spirit, a liberty in running the race, fighting the fight, and living the life that is well pleasing to God, and this by overcoming the power of the enemy, and the difficulty at hand. Christ by the Spirit enables us to break forth by faith.
The Power Of Christ's Indestructible Life
Christ's life is indestructible and can never change. It is for this reason that His salvation is an eternal one which cannot be altered. Christ in the believer is the hope of his glory, and the eternal experience of it, because Christ is indestructible, always faithful to fulfill His word, His promises, and the declaration of His truth.
The Call To Go Forward
The issue in following Christ that is so very imperative to always respect is that the believer is not to lean to his own understanding, regardless of the circumstances. Only God knows the circumstances of one's life, and only He can lead the believer victorious through them if there is the response of faith to go forward, looking only unto Jesus. He is the Guide and Great Shepherd.