God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit

After my tearful realization that I had not allowed God to work in my life and I certainly had not worked for Him, I could not find enough books about prayer, Jesus, life in the church, bible studies, etc. to satisfy my hunger for "more."  I bought no telling how many books that I just knew would help me grow as a Christian and prepare me for my "ministry."

I would open a book and read a chapter or two and put it down.  I would open up another one and read a chapter or two and put it down.  Later, I would find the first one and not even remember that I had started it.  The same with the second one.  Then, as I prayed one day, God stopped my book reading and told me that I needed to get to know His Son before He would allow me to go further in my pursuit of knowledge.  He was the One putting the brakes on my reading causing me to lose interest before I got started well.  So I bought another book, Jesus, the Authorized Biography, by Gary C. Wharton.  I thought this would be easier for me to understand since it put everything in chronological order, satisfying my quest for analyzing everything.  You got it....wrong, again.  I could not get anything out of it even though it was based in Scripture. It is a good book and I have read it since, but I was directed, you guessed it, to God's Word, where I should have started.

So that's where we're going with this...to God's Word.  The book of John, to be specific.  John was one of Jesus' inner circle.  He is credited with writing the book of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation.  His purpose in the book of John was to tell about the Divine nature of Jesus...that He was indeed the Son of God, the Christ, and the Word from the beginning to the end, the Alpha and the Omega.

John 1:1-5 (NKJV)  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."

John starts, not with the birth of Jesus, but with the statement that Jesus existed before the world existed and that He was with God as all things were made and that He was God.   That can be confusing, and the way that I simplify the Trinity is by making each part of it a separate "being" if you will, in my mind.  Maybe this will help you, as well....

God is Spirit and is all powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscient), and everywhere (omnipresent.)  Jesus has this same Spirit, but also had a physical body when He was on the earth.  His father was God and His mother was Mary, a woman.  So Jesus was both Spirit (God) and human.  Then when Jesus returned to heaven to be with the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to be in us, as believers... brothers, sisters, daughters, sons. fellow heirs.  The Holy Spirit is part of God's Spirit that has been sent to help us.  The Holy Spirit was there when God made the world. This same Spirit lives in God, Jesus and in us.  That doesn't mean that we are God.  That means that we have been included in His family to receive all that He has for us and that the Holy Spirit is a way for Him to comminicate with us, live in us and guide us.  So all three, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are God....the Holy Trinity because God lives in all three.  I hope that explanation helps and keeps within biblical context.

Always verify anything and everything you read or hear with Scripture.  If it doesn't line up with Scripture, it is wrong.  God's Word, the Holy Bible is never wrong.

Psalm 139 View passage at BibleGateway.Com  (This is one of many references in the bible that shows God's omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. This is one that shows them all at the same time.)

Luke 1:26-38   View Passage at BibleGateway.Com  (Christ's Birth Announced to Mary)

Genesis 1:2 (NKJV)  (Shows that God's Spirit was there in the beginning)

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Mark 16:19 (NKJV)  (Jesus returned to heaven.)

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into Heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.

John 14:16-17 (NKJV) (The promise of the Holy Spirit sent to live in us.)

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

May God Bless You Some More!

Accepting Jesus into Your Heart

When you decide to ask Jesus to pull you up out of the mud that is your life of sin, be ready to make some changes.  We all mess up so it probably won't be the last time you wallow in the mud, but Jesus is always there to pull you out, again.  In the meantime, we must try hard to obey God's commands and we must continuously thank Him for His grace.  We are saved by the grace of God, because He loves us and He wants us to be reconciled back to Him. 

When you are ready to take this first step, please pray this simple prayer or one similar.  Keep in mind that God hears what your heart is saying, even though you must speak this out of your mouth, so even if you think you sound silly, God will not think so because it's filtered through His love and you are talking to HIM!  He loves you unconditionally and is just waiting for you to come to Him.  You can ask Jesus into your heart and life anywhere at any time!  (The first time when I was about 8 years old, I went down to the front of the church and talked to the preacher, but the time when I cried out to Him on my back porch through many, many tears is when I truly knew what I was doing by asking Him to be Lord over my life.)

Lord Jesus,

I am a sinner.  I repent of my sins and ask that You forgive me.  I believe that You are the Son of God and was born a virgin birth, that You lived a sinless life, that You died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins and that You rose to heaven 3 days later to sit at the right hand of God, interceding for me.  Come into my life right now and be the Lord of my life.  I turn it all over to You.  Amen.

From the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT)

Matthew 4:17, From then on Jesus began to preach, "Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near."

Matthew 11:28, Then Jesus said, "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you.  Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."

John 1:12,  But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.

John 3:16-17, "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him."

Romans 10:9-10, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

Romans 10:13, For "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

I hope that all who call on the Lord Jesus get to know Him well.  Spend time in God's Word.  Spend time praying to God and listening for Him to speak to you.  Attend a church service or home group or bible study....connect with other believers. 

We will begin covering other subjects or Scripture as the Holy Spirit leads.  Until then,

May God bless you some more!