A monument to man's fear and ignorance
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How God Changes the Hearts of People- The Apostle Peter...."
Apostle Peter
"And
Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called
Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were
fishers. And He saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers
of men. And straightway they left their nets, and followed Him."
-Matthew 4:18-20. ....
Is there a more interesting disciple of
the Savior than Peter? I've heard many humorous messages over the years
spoken about him because of his propensity to 'put his foot into his
mouth', to speak before thinking, and for his alternate bravery and
cowardice in the face of danger.
It appears that Peter was one tough
dude. When Jesus called him, he left all- immediately- and followed Him.
He was a bold talker, his loyalty to his Lord was unfeigned and strong,
and I have no doubt that he'd walk up and punch a man in the face if
the man had said anything less than good about Jesus.
Some have wondered
out loud why Jesus would choose such a tactless time bomb of a man to
be His disciple. I think that Peter was a wonderful example of God's
grace and power, as he eventually became perhaps the most important and
influential disciple that Jesus had.....
Now, we all know of his
bold affirmations of his love and loyalty to Jesus, of his being the
first to declare Jesus' divinity ("Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
Living God"), of his being rebuked by Jesus for suggesting that Jesus
would not go to the cross, of his denial of his Lord in the face of
persecution- but it's what happened after the Holy Spirit fell upon the
disciples that we see a dramatic change in this wild man.
He boldly
proclaims to observers just what had happened to those in the upper room
as God poured out His Spirit, he proudly testifies of Christ in the
face and in the very midst of imprisonment and persecution- he is bold,
sure- but no longer boastful, no longer trite, NO LONGER LIVING FROM HIS
FLESH.
God had changed this man from a loud fraidycat to a man
who eventually wrote two epistles dealing with standing for Christ IN
THE FACE OF PERSECUTION (1 Peter deals with persecution via enemies from
without, 2 Peter addresses the reality of enemies from within the Body
of Christ).
Everybody is different, and God does not make
'cookie-cutter' Christians. Peter was not a GQ kind of guy. He was
'rough around the edges', to be sure. He was also somebody whom God's
hand was upon mightily. God help me, I want to be a man like that!
En Agape, Jim Ewing
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Is There Really Only One Way To God?.......
Is
There Really Only One Way To God?.......and is Jesus Christ the one and
true way? There have been about three times in my own life in which
that question, in differing forms, has hit me right between the eyes and
made me ponder for a minute just what the absolute truth about a
genuine relationship with Christ was really about......
The first
time occurred when I was just a boy. I wasn't saved yet, and I didn't
have much of a grasp of Christ, the Bible, sin, or anything spiritual,
but I had been to church a number of times, and thought I was a
believer. A friend asked me if I believed the bible, and I replied,
"yes". He instantly challenged me with his incredulous question, "Does
that sound like a merciful God- sending you to hell just because you
don't believe in his son?" I was blindsided by his question (as well as
his attitude) because I had never before in my young life really been
challenged about the Gospel, or about why I believed what I believed (or
thought I believed)......
The second time I was quickly
challenged about my faith (and I was truly born-again at that point,
having been apprehended by the Lord at twenty years of age) was in a
wheat field on a summer job as I was sharing the Gospel with a
co-worker. The man retorted, "That sounds like a threat!" Again, I was
taken back for a moment, trying to figure out just how to respond.....
The
third time happened as I was leading a Bible study a few years ago,
when a man asked, "Sincere Muslims aren't wrong, as long as they really
believe, right?"... All of these questions seem poignant and honest,
don't they? We as believers in Christ and His Gospel must understand
though, that we do not come from the position of a neutral world view.
If we did, then who could say who's right and who's wrong about eternal
life and the true condition of a soul? We in fact DO come from a
Biblical world view- a view which clearly states that mankind is
helplessly and hopelessly dead in sin, and that only God Himself could
and did take the initiative in bringing lost humanity back into a right
relationship with Him through the substitutional death and subsequent
resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ......
One of
the first scriptures we learn as new Christians is John 14:6- "Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by Me." So simple, really. But an unsaved
individual must be confronted with the fact that they are lost. If they
cannot see that, then they'll never really see the need for a savior.
Jesus didn't just die and rise from the dead to be our friend- He did it
to bring us to the Father and deliver us from eternal damnation.....
Objections
to the Gospel will not take us by surprise, and answering them will be
considerably easier when we realize just what world view we espouse, and
the lost will be forced to look at their own spiritual condition and
seriously consider it as we make it clear to them that Jesus takes us
FROM death and hell, and TO salvation and life- eternal life.
En Agape,
Jim Ewing
****
Leading of the Holy Spirit.....
John
15:5
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I
in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."
Jesus
is letting His disciples know the true relationship between He and
them. They are completely dependent on Him for everything spiritual, and
He emphatically stresses, "Without Me you can do NOTHING"....
Now,
before leaving this world to return to His Father, He knew that they
had no real concept of what was actually happening in terms of His death
and resurrection, so He lovingly prepares them-
"...I tell you the
truth,
it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go
away, the Helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send Him
to you (John 16:7)"....
He shows them the intimate relationship
within the Godhead- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-
"But when the Helper
comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who
proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me". Never lose sight of
this truth, Christian- The Holy Spirit always bears witness to the truth
of the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ, always testifies of Him, and always
leads people to Him. On earth, Jesus pointed people back to the Father,
and since His death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit leads lost
humanity to the risen Lord of all of creation, Jesus Christ, the
Messiah, as the only Divinely accepted sacrifice for the sin of the
whole world.
Any teaching that would take you away from these truths
must be identified and rejected, for the Holy Ghost will support only
God's truth. Praise His Holy Name, He made the way so clear to mankind,
and so simple that any fool or wayward man could understand it!.....
Ever
since Jesus' resurrection, believers were and are to be totally dependent on the Holy Spirit in our walk with Christ- This is God's will
and design. Yet today we see believers doing many other things, don't
we? So many Christians are getting involved in 'seeker-friendly'
classes, in 'church-growth' programs, in various method teaching- all
designed to reach today's unbeliever, as if TODAY'S unbeliever was
somehow lost in a different way than the rest of lost humanity
throughout history, or that they now must be reached through other
avenues than their spirit, and the Holy Spirit can no longer reach them
through the anointed presenting of the Gospel of Christ! .....
When
did we cease depending on the Spirit whom our Savior sent as promised,
and who He said would lead us into all truth (John 16:13)? When did the
Body of Christ decide that there was perhaps a more sophisticated or
clever way to share the Savior with the unsaved?
How can we honestly
expect to be successful in reaching the lost with our silly programs and
methods, when only the Spirit of God can bring a soul to Christ, and
yet we're so unwilling to depend and lean on Him in the process? ......
Christian,
do you want to see the lost truly be brought to Christ? Do you want to
be involved in bringing them in? Then cease with all of your
self-confidence, your fleshly methods, your arrogance, and begin to seek
to be lead of the Spirit of the Lord. He can do what we can't. Trust
Him. Beloved, there is no other way.
En Agape,
Jim Ewing
****
A Fascinating story. Make your own conclusions...
****
