As I was thinking a moment ago, it just hit me that if we as believers sense that we have drifted from the Lord through neglect, or even outright sin in our lives, we don't have to seek to do some type of penance, or hope that we can be eloquent enough in a prayer to turn God's head back toward us. In fact, we don't have to necessarily do anything. I remember reading a great sermon by a great Bible preacher of the past, Dr. John R. Rice, entitled simply The Backslider. In that message, he had about 5 points, including such great topics as Is the Backslider saved or lost, What is a Backslider, & the like. Yet the very best part is the last which is simply How to Get Back into Full Fellowship with God or something on that order. It was the shortest & simplest portion of that powerful sermon, & it conveyed all that the believer needs to do to return to fellowship with God. Dr. Rice said that the believer only needs to return in his heart to the Lord & cry out in the genuine sorrow of his heart that he wants back in fellowship & like the Prodigal Son who just took that first step back toward Home, the Father does the rest!
During this Thanksgiving Season, I believe one of the greatest blessings that we, believer or unbeliever, has for which to thank God is that, as a newfound blogger said, God is for us! We don't have to somehow make God aware of our desire to turn toward Him, we need to just do it! If we're wanting to come to Him, or return to fellowship with Him as believers, we can know without a doubt that it is only because our gracious, loving God has first been seeking us!
The lost person can believe in Christ as Savior & we believers can turn back to our Savior in just an instant of time! So, I was just thinking, God is so good! What do you think? May the Lord bless you all!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Bro. David,
When we think about it "good" is really not sufficient a word to describe God's wonderful character.
As my g'children would say, "He is gooder than good."
Just a note which you covered well.
As believers, our relationship with God is eternal and unchanging through Jesus Christ.
Our fellowship, however, is variable and depends upon our obedience to Him and our application of:
1 John 1:9
"If we confess [acknowledge and agree with God] our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Now, the slate is clean and we can begin again, our wonderful fellowship with the Lord.
Not complicated, just Biblical.
In Christ eternally,
ExP(Jack)
Isn't that the truth bro. Jack! Your grandkids are theologically astute! No wonder our precious Savior has a special love of children!
You filled in the blanks I left beautifully! Thank you for frequenting this humble blog, & you can become even more frequent!! God Bless you bro. Jack.
Hey bro David,
You have encouraged me again. God is so good. I loved reading a book by Dr John R Rice while out in the Persian Gulf and often thought of how good God was to supply me with this book as there were other believers out there that had many crazy ideas that would trouble me at times. I can remember getting such wonderful assurance about how God loved me in spite of how I sinned against him in reading a portion of scripture supplied to me by my mother while I was out there and wanting to grow in the Lord. She sent me the portion of scripture in John where Jesus says "No man is able to pluck them out of my hand."
I was so excited about that portion until a fellow believer, who was pentecostal, looked at me and said, "Yes, but what if you jump out of his hand?"
I went around for days troubled at this until I opened up that book by John R Rice that had some similar questions in it and he said, "Jump out of his hand?! Who ever heard of such a thing. Who would want to jump out of his hand?"
That was from the Lord and great encouragement to me. Soon after I would become very troubled by arminian belief and perhaps that is what led me into an understanding of seeing the Calvinistic perspective as being more sound...yet I am not truly a Calvinist and am troubled by some of their rabbit trails as well. I am just at peace with belonging to Jesus, yet I understand that He came to me and that gives me great hope and encouragement.
Hey, Terry posted some similar good and encouraging stuff here:
Where to go
I love your blog:-)
Grace upon grace,
Brian
Thank you bro. Brian, You have encouraged me as well, or I should say more accurately God has used you to encourage me! Thank you brother for your service to your contry as well as the Lord. Thank you for your friendship in Christ. I will check out the link to bro. Rayburn's blog as well. May the Lord bless you brother!
You have a very encouraging blog.
I loved this post! I think we all, (believers), go through seasons in the desert, but that doesn't change our position before God,and neither does it cut off our relationship with Him. It is sealed. AMEN!
Our God did it all and one of the signs that He is truly in us is the mere fact that we struggle with sin to the point where it really bothers us, especially if we are not closely walking with Him. That is a clear mark of a believer.
I just wrote a book here, but erased it! Great post!
Oh Rivka! It is good to hear from you & I certainly appreciate your affirming, kind words. I do wish you'd published your "book" though! I enjoy & appreciate your blog as well. Very needed truth but with Christlike grace & self-control, unlike many of us!! May the Lord truly bless you all!
Hi, David! Oh, goodie..more posts from you! You'd had a little lull there...:0( !!
I'm leading my Comm. Bible Study group in GALATIANS, you'll have no argument with ME on this post, that's for sure!!
Oh, Galatians is such a powerful & wonderful Book (as is every Bible Book!). May I point you to a phenomenal free study of the first chapter of this Epistle in the free BBN Bible Institute (www.bbnbi.org) that may be some asistance for you.
It is course number 31900, & is taught by Dr. David Allen, who was a Bible teacher par excellence! I will pray for your study & I am so excited that you ladies will be studying this tremendous Epistle! I am certain that you will do a magnificent job through God's grace! May the Lord bless you.
Post a Comment