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The group of religious zealots back in Bible times were called Pharisees. I think that it is important to read through and see what Jesus called them and said about them also, I won't do that here. In our day the world's message on television and everywhere is really the same as the one preached so long ago. It says that what is important is "how things look," "who you know and are associated with," "how holy and religious you look," "how many good deeds have you done," etc. It is the same old story. We hear it so much that we start to believe it. We start to feel convicted by it because the enemy is sitting on our shoulder repeating this message over and over. "You are not good enough!" "You are not holy enough!" etc. Jesus brought the message of "Good News" not condemnation. There is only one yard stick that God holds up to us and that is Jesus. If He sees Jesus in us, because we asked Him in to take away our sins, not because we are good enough and earned the right. Then He says, This is my child!" "I see the blood of My Son." That is all He sees. Jesus' blood is all that is necessary for the remission of our sins. All of us have sinned and fallen short. Remember Paul? He had Stephen stoned and martyred other Christians, and Jesus still saved him and used him. It is only us that look at our sins and think they are too big or too many. Some might say they only told a little white lie and another might say that they committed murder and can not be pardoned but all sin separates us from God. It is only by the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross that we can find salvation. We love someone or some thing because of the who or what it is. We love the picture because it moves us or it is pretty, we love people because they are kind or good or beautiful but God loves because of who He is not because of who we are. God so loved us that the sent Jesus to die for us so that we could be made clean, so we can fellowship with the father and always be with Him. We are His creation and He loves us . Jesus loved us enough to lay down His life and shed His blood for the remission of our sins. Once we except that we ARE clean. We are reminded of our sins, Satan is always bringing them up to us so we won't forget, but not God, He looks at us and all He sees is His creation washed white as snow by the blood of His son and by adoption he says "that is my son or my daughter, they stand clean before me." It is not because we are worthy or good it is because He is good and cannot lie. He knew mankind and knew we needed a Savior and He gave us all that we need to be expectable in His sight. We get caught all up with how good or how bad we are and it doesn't matter. If we accept Jesus as our Savior and accept the work that He did on the cross and ask forgiveness, He is faithful to forgive and save. I once heard a story that impressed me very much. A sheep farmer was watching his sheep and one of the ewes died after giving birth. He was asked if he would hand rear the lamb, and he said he did not have time but would have another sheep take care of it. The person asked if the farmer wanted them to bring it to one of the mothers who had given birth and the farmer said "no because the ewe would kick it and chase it away, she will know it isn't hers." He told them to "wait" so they did. After a while a ewe gave birth and the lamb was still born. He took out his knife and skinned the dead lamb and tide it around the live lamb. He said "now when the mother ewe sees and smells this lamb all she will see is her own lamb, and in a few days the skin will fall off and the lamb will be in printed to its adopted mother and the skin won't be needed any more. "That is what happens to us when we except the Lord, God looks and sees His child. God made Salvation so easy that it is difficult for us to understand. We want to earn everything. That is why Jesus said that we must become like a little child. If someone gives a small child a gift, a child does not wonder what they must do to earn it, they accept it. God does not expect us to "clean up or act" or do so many good deeds or anything else. The gift is just that. It is free, it is beyond price, it cannot be purchased anywhere or negotiated for. It was purchased once and it is freely given, end of story. You are valuable enough so that if you were the only human here on earth Christ still would have died for you and God still would want fellowship with you, His creation, and would want you to spend eternity with Him. You are loved!!! We do not manifest perfection here on earth, and that does not matter, Jesus said that we wouldn't. What matters is Jesus' perfection and ability to save. He said that we will become like Him, but not until we are in our new bodies. For us to say that we must do this or that so God will love us or so God will forgive us is to diminish God and change the entire Gospel story. We can not earn anything that God has for us. He gives because He loves. He brought us Good News not more laws and legalisms. Gods' desire for His people is that they come into His fullness. The Bible says that the ultimate plan is that we take are position as "joint heirs with Christ" that means full "son" ship or a true child of God with ALL the provisions that go along with it. Paul wrote a prayer in Eph. 3:19 & 20..........that you may become filled to ALL the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. This is not talking about behavior modification by shear will power. It is talking about Him........God who comes in todwell. Jesus said " behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice I WILL come in." He is talking about the door of our heart. When he comes in He is the one who does the changing in us. He says that he will never leave us. That does not mean that a Christian can never do anything wrong again, because we all do. If we give Him full control everything goes right but, when we take over control He won't stop us. The thing is that we just have to recognize that we have taken over control again and have to give it back to God. Say we are sorry and move on. Not wallow in our mistakes. God does not keep throwing them back at us so why should we. We are very hard on ourselves, and that is not what God wants us to do. He wants us to accept His forgiveness and go on. We are useless to ourselves, others and God if we are wallowing in remorse, regrets or shame. They are nonproductive. The prophet Isaiah tells us that God gives special attention to hurting believers. He does not discard them or is embarrassed by them. God restores them. What if Paul had been consumed by his guilt, would he have been able to accomplish all that God used him to do? In Jesus' time there were groups of religious people called the Pharisees. They were very religious and prayed and memorized vast amount of scriptures. They were so religious. They wentaround praying out loud for every one to hear. Jesus was not impressedand they were not impressed with him. They hated Him because they wantedthere "religiousness" to be based on their works and Jesus said "your hearts are evil and full of deceit" and they could not accept Him as the Messiah or the true plan of salvation. Matthew 9:36 says," And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd." When you look at the Greek words that were used to describe the people it means they were bewildered harassed and distressed, dejected and helpless. Distressed comes from the Greek word skullo which means to skin, to flay; then rend, mangle; hence to vex, trouble annoy. The Greek expression was that they compared their trouble to the pain of flaying alive. Downcast comes from the Greek rhipto.......to throw down with a sudden motion, to jerk, cast forth....hurl, to be thrown down prostrate. The people that Jesus was looking at were those who had been flayed and left prostrate by the religious belief system of the day and He was moved with compassion toward them. And He still is !!! Matthew 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The Greek words used here weary, KOPIAO toil resulting in weariness, laborious toil. Jesus called those who were toiling to the point of weariness and who were bearing heavy burdens to come to Him and enter into a life of rest. The Greek word for rest ANAPAUSIS: cessation, refreshment, rest, it is the word that is translated as "Sabbath rest" (more on that later) Matthew continues in 11:29 .....You will find rest---relief, ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet. (Amplified Bible) If we want to move out of exhaustion into God's unlimited strength, we must face our belief system and see where it has failed us. Sometimes this can be traumatic, but it is also the beginning of building our lives on the foundation of truth. A foundation that can stand any test and can and will endure forever. Matthew 5:3 " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Jesus has to be the focus of our faith. People put there faith in formulas for life and doctrines and have missed a personal, living relationship with Jesus himself. God's grace (unmerited favor) has been turned into law. Movements of the Spirit have been crystallized into monuments. Sons of God have become rule keepers, converts to a behavior modification program. This is a life of rest in Christ, but to the very end it is also a battle. The last words of Paul, the greatest exponent of the rest that is found in faith were: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course.......Tim.4:7
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