The Real Thing in the Real World

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just-us-2

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Mar 3, 2013
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So…now I’m saved. Now what? I repeated the “sinner’s prayer” after the evangelist finished his preaching and some of us in the audience went up front to get saved. After the prayer we were all dismissed and told it would be good to start going to church. I went home and began to think about what had just happened, what I had just done. Let me see now - the preacher said my life would be changed in a good way once I “accepted Christ,” as he put it. I like the sound of that! I wonder, “How is that going to happen?” That must be why we are supposed to go to church. Sure enough! I went to church and I learned all about what I had “accepted” that evening. Because I had “accepted Christ as my Savior,” that means I repented. I had wondered about that word – now I know. And I discovered that all I have to do is come to church and the Holy Spirit will teach me all I need to know. And when we, meaning everyone who is saved, get raptured out before the tribulation that the heathen will have to suffer, that’s when the “saved” part kicks in. We will be saved from the horrible part of the end of the world and live in heaven for eternity. It is so nice that Jesus loves me so much that He took all of my responsibilities and anything I am accountable for. I don’t have to do anything else! Now that is a nice kind of love!

John 3:16 says it all, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”……but it makes no sense why all that other stuff would be written in that big thick Bible. The pastor told us there is no need for anything in the Old Testament – that was before Jesus.

Saved…really?
 
Without reading the Old Testament, you would not really understand what the blood of Christ really did. You would never understand what the Passover accomplished with the blood of the lamb smeared on the doorposts.

You would not understand most of the attributes about God (especially as mentioned in the Psalm). And the 23rd Psalm where we see how God shepherds us. Or iwhere God reveals Himself as The Healer.

You would not understand how the presence of God filled the place where people were worshiping Him, nor all the examples of how faith brought about the promises of God, and how they lived their faith. You would not even see so many promises that now belong to us as the "righteous".

You would not understand how patient God was with His people - how thoughtfully He covered Adam and Eve when their sin exposed them - the first example of how God seeks to cover sin - leading to the blood of Christ which now covers.

Just to name very few examples. Oh, there are so many.
 
Being a Christian isn't about all the things, or even any of the things you mentioned. That's just religiousness. I have no interest in that stuff either, it means nothing.
The only thing that means anything, what I don't see in your post, was the revelation of knowing Jesus personally, and receiving all future direction and guidance from Him. Without that, religion is nothing, and certainly can make one wonder, "what next". Jesus is next! :)
 
Wouldn't it figure that to know someone personally you would have to know everything about Him? Hence, the whole bible comes into play here.

But when you know exactly all about someone and find they are the most loving person you ever knew, wouldn't you would want to spend a lot of time talking to this person? Being in a relationship?
 
Let me see now - the preacher said my life would be changed in a good way once I “accepted Christ,” as he put it. I like the sound of that! I wonder, “How is that going to happen?” That must be why we are supposed to go to church. Sure enough! I went to church and I learned all about what I had “accepted” that evening. Because I had “accepted Christ as my Savior,” that means I repented. I had wondered about that word – now I know. And I discovered that all I have to do is come to church and the Holy Spirit will teach me all I need to know.
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I really hope that you are being facetious with your statements above. If not, may I humbly suggest that you spend some time in the Word of God, especially in the book of Acts. You see, that book contains so many vivid examples of how people who were lost in sin, came to realize Jesus Christ as the promised Savior and did what was commanded of them to be saved. Consider those present on the Day of Pentecost when Peter stood up and, after telling them the story of the crucified Christ, responded to their pleas for help in chapter 2 and 3. Consider the stories of Lydia, and the Philippian jailor, and the Samaritans who responded to the preaching of Phillip, and the Ethiopian eunuch. All of these people were told of the crucified and risen Christ Jesus, and responded in exactly the same way. We should do likewise. And you have been misled by your 'pastor'; those things written in the Old Testament are exceptionally important (see Hebrews 8-10), but served as a teacher for the things to come in the New Covenant of the blood of Jesus.
 
One night a man named Nicodemus came to talk to Jesus. As Jesus was talking to him, he said something that Nicodemus didn't understand.

He told Nicodemus, "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Nicodemus was really puzzled by what Jesus said. He just couldn't understand how someone could be born again.

To this day, a lot of people still have trouble understanding how that can be possible.


This morning I have brought something that might help us to understand what Jesus meant.

I have brought a butterfly. Just look at my butterfly! Isn't it beautiful? I think the butterfly is one of the most beautiful things that God has ever created, but it wasn't always so beautiful.


As you probably know, the butterfly started out as a fuzzy little caterpillar. Now some people may think caterpillars are cute, some may think that they are funny, but probably no one would say that they are beautiful.

A caterpillar is a worm -- and worms are not beautiful! Then, one day the caterpillar spins a cocoon about himself and stays there for several weeks. When it comes out, it is no longer a caterpillar, it has been miraculously changed into a beautiful butterfly.


God didn't just take a caterpillar and stick some wings on him and paint the wings all different colors. When the cocoon opens and the butterfly crawls out, it is a new creation. The caterpillar is gone! It has now become a butterfly.


That is a good picture of what Jesus meant when he said we had to be "born again." The Bible says, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

When we invite Jesus to come into our heart, we become a new creation. God doesn't just clean us up and slap on a little paint, he makes us into a new person.

Would you rather be, a worm or a butterfly? Jesus will make you into a new creation if you will invite him into your heart.


Dear Lord, we thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross so that we, like the butterfly, can become a new creation. We ask you to change us and to make us beautiful. Amen.
 
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