5 Things We Need to Understand

3. We need to understand that life can be very tough, unfair, and unjust, but God loves us, controls everything in His creation, and always work things out for our greatest good.

            God is NOT a genie in a bottle. Yes, God controls all things, but because He gives all of mankind a free will to do as he pleases, the door for evil to manifest itself has been opened. His children are obliged to seek His will rather than stumble thru life on their own. Your battles are not your own. God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, enables you to avoid evil and/or withstand it if it takes place. 

Do some believers die unexpectedly. Yes. That can be seen as the product of a dark, and sin-sick world. If God stopped all evil from taking place then what would be the point of giving us a free will. With that free will many enter into situations they have no business getting into, but our curiosity is our downfall. Do we not trust God? He’s not trying to keep us from having fun, but think about the things we want to do for fun. Some are innocent and some cross a line into the danger zone. God allows it because we insist by our actions. 

No matter what transpires in our lives, in the end as you look back over your life, you should see that everything worked out just as God planned it. He won’t interfere with any consequences a person may have won as a prize for a possible misstep, but even then I believe God shows us mercy. Know your Bible. Try to understand how God operates. Trust Him implicitly and without hesitation. Your reward shall come in the end. Until next time, walk with the King & be a blessing.

In His Name and for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

5 Things We Need to Understand

2 - We need to see others as God sees them.

            Judging others is a well-documented problem of mine, but I am not the lone ranger regarding this issue. I think most people have this problem to some extent and it’s not right. We know nothing about the individuals we judge. We judge their appearance, their voice, the way they talk, and so on. I’m really not sure what we think gives us the right to do this, but we do it. 

            To combat this issue I’ve been asking God to enable me to see others thru His eyes. We need to consider how He looked at us prior to conversion. I can tell you that He looked upon us with compassion, love, and mercy. I can tell you that for sure because of how 
scripture describes our God. “God looks upon us with a mix of holiness and love, seeing us as His creation, His children, and His friends, while also being fully aware of our sin and desiring our salvation. For those who are in Christ, God sees the righteousness of His Son rather than our sin. This means that God sees us as justified, redeemed, sanctified, even glorified.”

            Knowing all this, we should do the same, but it doesn’t come easy. We have to WANT to stop judging others; however, if we’ve been doing it for most of our lives stopping could be harder then it seems. It takes a conscious effort to stop and look at that person as a creation of God, just like you. It is a challenge for a lot of us, but if we’re serious about stopping then the effort expended will be rewarding. 

I have no doubt I’ve been judged by someone I may not even know, and you have been to. Have compassion on our fellow man. We all fall short of God’s glory, so we should keep that in mind and treat others the way we’d like to be treated. Let’s start adjusting our vision today, okay. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

Source: www.gotquestions.org

5 Things We Need to Understand

1 - We need to see ourselves as God sees us ...

Too many of us Christians fall for the enemy’s lies regarding our worth. Maybe it’s negativism from your parents, or your friends, or bullies at work or school, or your bosses or teachers. We have no control over how others treat us. To counter the negativism, which can be understandably polarizing at times, we really must learn to see ourselves the way God sees us.

A negative Christian is an ineffective Christian. Once saved we have a clean slate. Any past mistakes in judgment we made do NOT define us now. God loved us prior to our conversion and His feelings for us have not changed one iota.; and they never will. The enemy will continue to try to drag us down; however, searching the scriptures and familiarizing yourself with God’s Word and more specifically God’s promises can elevate your mood and better equip you to combat the negativity that permeates our society.

            God sees us as highly valuable. You are one of His most precious creations. His love for all of us is unrivalled and never ending. After our salvation we are looked upon by God as a new creation: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are seen as holy and blameless because we are in Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:18). God sees me as His child (cf. John 1:12–13). He sees me as “dead to sin” (Romans 6:11). God sees me as His handiwork (Psalm 139:13–16; cf. Ephesians 2:10). God sees me as part of His flock: “He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (Psalm 95:7). So as you can see from scripture, Christians are valued very highly by our Heavenly Father. Don’t ever look down on who you are in Christ, for you are very special in His eyes and frankly, should anything else really matter? Until next time, walk with the King & be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

Conviction vs. Condemnation

            There is a massive difference between conviction and condemnation. This is especially true in God’s economy. In the world to be convicted means you are guilty of some crime. But in God’s world to be convicted means that you’ve done something wrong, and you have sincere regret for doing it. 

                  Condemnation in the world means a judgment has been pronounced against you, as in a court case. Condemnation doesn’t exist in God’s economy. The condemnation comes from the enemy of God, namely Satan. 

                  This is what God says to us thru the apostle Paul: “Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.”^{[Romans 8:1 Amp]}

                  God knows us. He understands us. Most importantly, He loves us. The Holy Spirit is responsible for bringing conviction into our hearts. Believers know better than to sin and even though it won’t send you to hell, it is still wrong. But we are painfully human, and God knows this. That is why His patience defies logic. 

                  The difference between a self-controlled follower of Christ and a person who claims to be a follower, yet plays fast and loose with the statutes of the Lord is simply that one feels conviction for what they have done or are doing and the other one does not. The one may sin from time to time, but it doesn’t define them. On the other hand, those who tend to be cavalier about their walk with God is more likely to habitually sin in a rather flippant manner, knowing that forgiveness is in the offing. While it’s true that God will forgive you as often as you ask, He does expect us to grow spiritually and rid that particular sin from our lives. However, He NEVER condemns us. He convicts us as a means of helping us grow spiritually.

                  The devil is a master at condemning believers and non-believers as well. That approach can become crippling and for the believer it can cast doubt that God has forgiven them. This is one reason why one should diligently strive daily to commune with God so as to get to know Him intimately. Once you know certain things about God’s character Satan’s fiery darts will have little negative effect on you. 

                  John 8:44 (CEV) lays out the character of our greatest enemy when he says, “Your father is the devil, and you do exactly what he wants. He has always been a murderer and a liar. There is nothing truthful about him. He speaks on his own, and everything he says is a lie. Not only is he a liar himself, but he is also the father of all lies.” Don’t be tricked by your chief adversary. Understand who he is and what his tactics are.

                  So thank God for the instructive force provided by conviction and rebuke the enemy in Jesus name for his condemnation of you.  Until next time, walk with the King & be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

Are Prayers of the Unsaved Heard by God?

The way I would answer that would be in two ways. I would say, yes, he does and, no, he doesn't, and, of course, the yes is obvious. I mean, the eyes of the Lord are on every place. He sees the evil and the good. He knows all things. God is the creator of the universe. Every idle word that men speak will need to be accounted for on the day of judgment. God knows everything that comes out of everybody's lips, so, yes, he hears, but if by hearing you mean does God answer the prayers of the unsaved, this is where I would go into the category of the no rather than the yes for these scriptural reasons. 

I think Isaiah 59:2 addresses this, where God says, "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear." Notice that he will not hear. He'll hide his face from you, Isaiah 59:2, so he's talking to a sinful people who have sinful motives that can't be praying in accord with the will of God. 

Even the Jews say in John 9 that God hears not sinners, so there was an understanding in Jewish theology that God is not communing with the unconverted, even though the unconverted may think that they can address God any way they choose, and that God is just waiting like a waiter to serve them. The reason God won't be answering prayers of that sort is found in James4:3; “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” 

Any request from the unconverted, aside from one seeking forgiveness, would be from a wrong motive. That isn’t right in the sight of God. They wouldn’t be praying that His will be done, because they are not inclined to DO His will. For the most part, the unconverted are praying not that HIS will be done, but “MY” will be done, and Jesus says in the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew 6, "They think that because of their repetitive prayers."  They're praying often, "that they're heard," but simply because they pray so frequently or they pray repetitively, doesn’t mean God is obliged to answer. It's a rhetorical question. Jesus says, "No, God doesn't hear the prayers of those."

There's many examples where God does not hear the prayers of the unconverted. Another good one would be on 1 Peter 3:12, where it says the eyes of the Lord are in every place and the ears are open unto all of them that are righteous. The ears of the Lord are open, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, so, again, there's a direct scripture that says God's eyes or ears are open to those that are righteous. James 5:16 says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

The way I see it, the unsaved want the benefits of being a Christian without paying for it. Christ paid the price owed, but the unsaved balk at making any lasting commitment to the Lord in exchange for having their prayers answered, and even then, as believers find out, He doesn’t always answer.

Jesus says when you pray, the model prayer begins with what? Our Father who art in heaven. Can just any person call God their father who is in heaven? No, they can't call God honestly, sincerely, and genuinely their father unless they have received the spirit of adoption which enables them to call God their father. The new birth generates new life and a new family unity that they never previously possessed, so you must be born again. You have to have new birth. You have to be in the family of God to expect the father of the family to be hearing your prayers, and that's not to say that even the prayers of Christians are always heard in the sense that they're going to be answered according to their desires, because God can supersede what we think and answer it the way he wants to and to answer it or not answer it according to his own purposes, and hopefully, if we're biblically informed enough, we're willing to say, "Not my will, but yours be done." 

 

Scriptures on the Prayers of Sinners

“We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” ~ John 9:31

“If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” ~ Psalm 66:18

 

 

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” ~ 1 Peter 3:12

 

“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” ~ Isaiah 59:2

 

                  Until next time, walk with the King & be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

Resource: www.christianity.com

7 Proofs Our Salvation is Eternally Secure - 7

7. Christ has promised not to cast us out

 

John 6:37 says: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and him who comes to Me I shall by no means cast out.”

What a precious, unconditional promise from our Savior!  He will never cast out or reject those who have come to Him. We can fully trust in Him and His Word to know our salvation is eternally secure. So we shouldn’t live our Christian life in constant fear and doubt. Our salvation is eternally secure, and we can and should trust in the Word of God, which assures us of this fact. 

“According to biblical teachings, once a person accepts Jesus as their Savior and Lord, they become eternally part of God’s family. This means that believers are children of God and members of His family forever, regardless of their actions or sins. However, believers can fall out of fellowship with the church or God due to sin, which can result in consequences such as being handed over to Satan for discipline. This does not mean they are cast out of God's family but rather that they are experiencing divine discipline to bring them back to a right relationship with God. The ultimate goal of such discipline is repentance, reconciliation, and restoration, not destruction.”

Since we’ve already discussed the fact that God never changes in any way, we can rely on His promises. He is reliable, making Him trustworthy. Our creator has a very high level of integrity that we must imitate. As I like to say: “It is never right to do wrong, and it is never wrong to do right.”  Our Heavenly Father ALWAYS does what is right. And everything that happens in this life happens for a specific reason and purpose, most of the time the WHY is known only to God. 

So if Jesus Himself said that there would never be a reason that He would cast you out of God’s family you can count on that to be true, because throughout the Bible you will find NO lies or deception coming from any part of the Holy Trinity. What they say they mean and at the right moment in time all that has been promised shall come to pass. So rest easy, take comfort in these 7 reasons that reveal our salvation is ETERNALLY SECURE. Until next time, walk with the King & be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

Source: https://blog.biblesforamerica.org/eternal-security-verses/

Resources: ebible.com, chrisitianity.com, pilotonline.com, gotquestions.org.

7 Proofs Our Salvation is Eternally Secure – 6

6. God never changes

Hebrews 13:8 says: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes, even forever.”

Everything changes: people, circumstances, environments, the weather. Even our own emotions fluctuate constantly; we can be up one minute and down the next. But our salvation doesn’t hinge on our feelings. God never changes, neither does His salvation, and neither does His love for us. 

“The concept that God never changes is a fundamental belief in Christianity, rooted in several biblical passages. Malachi 3 states, "For I the Lord do not change," and James 1 emphasizes that God is "the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." These verses affirm God's immutability, meaning that His nature and attributes remain constant.

This belief in God's unchanging nature provides comfort and stability in a world of constant change. It means that God's love, faithfulness, mercy, justice, and power are the same as they were when the universe was created. His promises and covenant with humanity also remain unbroken, offering assurance and hope.” ^[1]

            God’s grand plan from the foundations of the world has not changed. Knowing His creation would disobey, He provided a singular sacrifice that would pay the cost of all our sins. The perfection of God realized in His own Son; the second person of the Trinity with all the traits and abilities of the Father. Christ laid down His own life once for all time ushering in the Age of Grace. This is not something that is temporal; it is eternal. God doesn’t take back that which He promises. If you confess your sins and receive Christ into your heart/life, that is eternal with eternal repercussions. Missing heaven is not to be a concern for the true, bible believing individual who’s life, once transformed, lives for the King ... now and forevermore.

So in summary, the belief that God never changes is a cornerstone of Christian theology, providing a stable foundation for faith in an ever-changing world.

            Rejecting Christ along with God’s redemptive plan, voids out the gift. Until time is no more, there is always an opportunity to receive forgiveness. Be very careful not to cast aside your only hope for eternal salvation. Until next time, walk with the King & be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

^[1] https://www.fromhispresence.com/you-may-change-but-god-never-changes/

Source: https://blog.biblesforamerica.org/eternal-security-verses/