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Crossroads Community Church

June 30, 2015   ·   0 Comments

Sunday June 28th, 2015
A rainy Sunday morning could not dampen our spirits, the Lord always brings times of refreshing. We were blessed and honoured by our friends Ruth and Ken Shaw with special worship music. Pastor Don came forth to pray, “Dear Father God we praise you for you are merciful, we ask for your forgiveness in our times of doubt, we ask for a renewed spirit and a strengthened faith in who you are and what you have done, in Jesus name Amen.”
Today we are still exploring matters of the heart; we will look at the believing heart, not our heart made of flesh but our spiritual countenance. When we come to the knowledge and acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Saviour our hearts will carry His Spirit inside, we will become sons and daughters of the most High God and call Him our Daddy;” And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father,” Galatians 4:6. However if our hearts become deceived, doubtful or unbelieving we will pull away from God and other believers thus weakening our relationships with both, (Hebrews 3:12-13). If we continue to fellowship with other brothers and sisters of faith, talk about our mutual faith and encourage one another we will be better guarded against deceitfulness, doubt, disbelief, and sin.
To maintain a believing heart is simple but not always easy. The steps spell out a little acronym, B.A.S.E.; Believe, Admit, Surrender and Express. First we need to accept God’s gracious gift of salvation and receive Jesus, confess with our mouths that we believe, then continue to trust Him, put our faith in him and allow Jesus to guide our hearts, He will wash us from sin and make us true and pure, he will establish rich roots within our hearts, (Ephesians 3:16-17). To be saved means we are delivered from something that keeps us in bondage, stuck in a life we can’t escape because we don’t have hope of changing our lives for the better, it is to be set free from guilt and shame because we are loved and forgiven. None of us are exempt from this need to be delivered from past mistakes,(sins), we are all guilty of sin and need to be redeemed, in other words spoken for and defended so we don’t have to suffer the consequences of our sins, like a criminal sentenced to die and a hero comes and takes his place, (Romans 3:23-24). That is what Jesus did for us; He took our punishment to set us free. This ought to compel us to share what He did for us, express our gratitude for Him and give that same hope to others, (Romans 10:14-17).
When we hear the Good News of Salvation, open our hearts, act upon it and believe we will start to understand and believe God’s word and all the incredible stories of men and women of faith, (Genesis 5:5, Matthew 16:15-17, Luke 1:38). God himself reveals to us His truths by His Holy Spirit which dwells in us. This is not of ourselves so we have no reason to boast, we believe from the heart where Jesus is,(Romans 12:3). The heart is a representation of our spiritual state, the core of who we are, so we ought to guard it against evil, temptation, confusion and sin. The heart is the means through which our Abba Father communicates with us and transforms us into the likeness of His Son. God many times in scripture addresses the matters of our feeble hearts. He tells us not to fear, to not be troubled, to not grow weary, instead to trust Him, follow Him and cast our cares upon Him, (Romans 10:10, Proverbs 4:23, John 14:1).
Jesus came to save us but also to show us the way to the father, the way is through confessing our faith in Jesus, that he died, was raised from the dead by God and will return. We need to choose to believe this with all our hearts, this is why God gave us free choice so that we would willfully and genuinely desire Him, otherwise we would be mindless robots without much love or sincerity. Hypothetically, if we were told that we lost our faith, how would we feel? For us who truly believe it would rock us to the core, we would feel an ache in our hearts and feel lost. Sometimes when we study God’s word there will be things we find difficult to grasp and believe but when we have Jesus dwelling in us he will gradually bring our minds in agreement with our hearts, our obedient faith will bring the understanding.
Beloved it has been written that a good person produces good things from the treasury of their heart, when we treasure Jesus in our hearts he will naturally produce goodness through us. It is true there will still be some struggle with our human ways, thoughts and feelings that will make us stumble, but Jesus will pick us up and give us the confidence we need to stay on track. He gives us the assurance of His love and forgiveness, He is our hope to carry on and not give into doubt or feelings of unworthiness. When we pray we will not say sheepish prayers like if you want or if you can, for Jesus tells us that all is possible for those who believe in Him. So let us go ahead and boldly ask God to reveal Himself to us and receive His gift of grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ His Son. Asherey Shalom!

         

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