Category: Convinced of the gospel

Faith Today: The Promise of Eternal Life Through Jesus

On By Ed AlgreenIn Accept Jesus NOW, Allegiance to the Lamb, Ask and Receive, Believe, Believers, Biblical Decisions, Blood of Jesus, Born Again, Christ's Representative, Christian, Christianity, Cleanse me Oh God, Commitment, Convinced of the gospel, Decisions, Know and Believe, Know Jesus, Surrender, The love of God, The Plan, The WordLeave a comment

DATE POSTED
Friday, November 22, 2024, and I was blessed to be at Mariposa at Hunter Road, San Marcos, TX when God inspired me to prepare this devotional. My Footnote will tell you how to find and read any and all devotionals that I have shared over the years.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Quoted from the Living Bible (TLB) and found in John 1:1-4; 11-13

THE SCRIPTURE READS
 1-2 Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. 3 He created everything there is—nothing exists that he didn’t make. 4 Eternal life is in him, and this life gives light to all mankind. 
11-12 Even in his own land and among his own people, the Jews, he was not accepted. Only a few would welcome and receive him. But to all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God. All they needed to do was to trust him to save them. 13 All those who believe this are reborn! – not a physical rebirth resulting from human passion or plan – but from the will of God.

APPLICATION – as inspired by the Holy Spirit
Just as John saw fit to declare the name, power and authority of the Christ in whom he believed, and who inspired him to write the Gospel of John, I believe it is important for us to understand this when we look at the instruction from this book, the Bible. Interpreters have labored over translating the Bible as accurately as they possibly could, but some words – like ‘Logos’ in the original language, actually translates to God; Christ; or the Word. Therefore, many Bibles show ‘the Word’ in their translation of John chapter one. The version I quoted here is not incorrect, the writers just used a word that we relate to more, to help us understand the intent.
BUT, after establishing the person of Christ and His relationship to God, John impressed even more upon me as I got down to verse 11, and I hope that God will also impress upon you, the importance of these words. John wanted God’s chosen people, the Jews, to know that he was aware of the ones who rejected Jesus as the Christ – the Son of God, but more importantly, John wanted them to know that for those who heard the voice of God and accepted Jesus as Lord, they were awarded the right to become children of God. And we all long for a sense of belonging to someone. For the casual reader, no doubt you are excited that the Jews read John’s words, listened to, and obeyed his invitation, and they could now rest easy knowing their eternity is secure in the fact that they will be with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit forever. However, to my readers today I must share that God also wanted this chapter included in His Word to us today, so that we could know that His Word is still the same powerful force today; His love is even more expansive that we may have first thought, because this Good News also applies to us today. The promises of God are just as true today for us as it was for the Jews: ‘to all who receive him, he gives the right to become children of God‘. To those who really read into this, you owe it to yourself to ask ‘but what about those who don’t receive Jesus?’ It is a good reminder for us that there are only two places available to us after life here on this earth: Eternity in Heaven for those who have invited and received Jesus into their life and given Him authority to be Lord of their life, OR Eternity in Hell where Satan will torment you way worse than anything you have experienced while here on earth. Friends, God created us in His own image, and He wants us to stay especially close to Him as our Creator and Father, why would we allow Satan to tempt us into thinking anything else? Please allow the Lord to open your heart, mind and soul today and impress upon you any adjustments necessary for your impending eternity.

PRAYER
Dearest Lord Jesus, You are indeed my Creator; my King; my Savior; My Lord and my eternal Father. I thank You Lord for that assurance and I am renewed in my resolve after reading the words You impressed upon John the apostle. I earnestly pray that You will impress upon the hearts of my readers the importance of not only hearing about You, but in accepting You as Lord of their lives. This life, as we know it today, will conclude here on earth, but it is clear that our souls will go on to a place made possible by the choices we make here on earth. I long to be with You in Heaven one day soon, and I would love to convince my audience to prepare for that day also. Please impress upon them the importance of making that decision, and doing something about it TODAY. In just my small circle of family and friends, several have been called out unexpectedly recently, and possibly without knowing You personally. To all those reading this devotional, please be reminded that you can make the decision today to right your final destination, for tomorrow may be too late. Have Your will and way in our lives today, Lord, and may You be glorified by the decisions we make and the stances we take to be honest and true representatives of Yours everywhere we find ourselves today. AMEN!

FOOTNOTE
If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please take advantage of information provided on my page ‘To Know Jesus’. I would also suggest that you speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com and share your good news! Perhaps one of God’s servants will pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue, your walk with Jesus. If you would like to read more of my devotionals, or subscribe for a daily email containing each new devotional, please go online to NuggetsFromGodsWord.org. Friends, please allow me to encourage you to find a church home nearby your home and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider being a part of that, while also growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

Reasons To Defend The Faith

On By Ed AlgreenIn Convinced of the gospel, Defend, Stand FirmLeave a comment

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? This might be a day, or a week that you may need to challenge a ‘Christian’ worker about a false teaching. Do you feel fully equipped to do that? May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for your blessing, friend!………

Today’s Bible Reference: Jude 3–4
Today’s Bible Text: …. I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
The Bible Translation: New Living Translation (NLT)

My Take Away: I believe that some early believers will look at our churches today and wonder why do we bother to call it a ‘House of God’ because it is so far from their traditional idea of what God’s house should look like. Think about it friend, in earlier churches, ladies had to cover almost every piece of skin, compared to many today that aim to expose as much as they feel like they can get by with, or at least tightly wrap it. Women had to be silent in church, but today men are so passive in their roles, that many churches survive because of the work, and in some cases teaching of the Word, especially to our kids. Some churches even have female pastors, because of the shortages of men willing to step up to the place of responsibility in their denomination. Styles of music has drastically changed, and I won’t get further into that because even today it is a very controversial subject among church goers. So because we have become so tolerant of these few things that I mentioned, among the many other things out there, I believe that Jude could just as easily have addressed His letter to either of our churches today. The words that God caught my attention with are the words where Jude challenged the church to ‘defend the gospel’  or ‘defend the faith that God has entrusted to us’. This tells me that we must be so convinced of what we truly believe that we would be willing to defend it among our friends, our coworkers, or even in a doctor’s office waiting room area, when others speak falsely or derogatory of it. Defending the Word of God becomes critical when our faith tells us that what is being declared disagrees with the Word of God, and when we are prepared to go to battle to defend it. I know, we never like to argue over religion, and I’m with you on that, but what if the circumstances that Jude recognized at his local church was happening at your church, where members became teachers and then started out to ease what God really intended believers to adhere to? What if we got a few new members and within a short period of time they were sharing some beliefs with us that we had never heard of before? They may have even wiggled themselves into a teaching position, as most churches today could always use more workers, and we wound up under their teaching. Would we recognize any false doctrines being taught and then be willing to defend against the hypocrisy? Even if it meant that we would lose that wonderful new couple who joined our church and were already paying good tithes into our church treasury? God had Jude include this very short one-chapter book in His Word, because He knew that all down through the ages we would need to be reminded of this. I would encourage us to soak this in real good today, and be willing to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ in every circumstance of life – especially in our local churches.

Prayer: Lord, we have become a people willing to compromise our souls because of numbers in our church membership, or in order to satisfy our church budgets, or even to fill the teacher voids in our Bible schools. Unfortunately, I believe we may also easily let someone slide in with varying beliefs who might influence our church memberships or at least cause them to question what they truly believe. Forgive us Lord. We have such a large percentage that attend our churches without any intention of maturing spiritually, or becoming confrontational about Your precious Word, should it become necessary to defend the Gospel as Jude has taught us today. Please forgive us Lord. Draw us close to thee dear Lord and give us a clear understanding of Your Word so that we might defend its truths when and as needed. We need You precious Lord. Amen!

Footnote: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

2016