Oak of Righteousness???? Say what? Thats certainly not me!!!!
Lately I have heard that statment more than once and I smile. Just so there is no confusion I'd like to share with you what you are in Christ.. A person is a "Oak of Righteousness" when they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, Repented of their sins, and are sincerely following the teaching of the Bible but only in God's sight. When God looks at us, he doesn't see what we used to be...He see's Jesus in all his perfecton..... Even though we are not perfect, we are forgiven and our sins have been washed away. Therefore we are an "Oak of Righteousness" in God's sight... Praise the Lord!!!!
Although from our perspective..some of us are little acorns....a seed that hasn't sprouted yet...others are acorns with a little sprout...and others are young oak trees, and others are mature Oak Trees with a strong faith. No matter where you are in this example....the important thing is that you are alive and growing in faith. Someone told me one time that if you are not growing in your faith you are backsliding...cause there is no such thing as standing still. What do you think?
In our Oaks of Righteousness Class, we have just started reading and discussing the book "Experiencing God". So many folks "know about" God but they don't "know" God. God desires a deep intimate personal relationship with each one of His children and has made that possible through Christ. (John 17:3)
No matter where you are in your life, no matter what stage or age. You are welcome to join us on Tuesday evenings at 7PM at Media Church. I'm sure you will fit right in. Contact me at robinmartin3@hotmail.com if you have any questions.
Read: Isaiah 61:1-3
Look at the type of people God was referring to when He referred to them as Oaks of Righteousness....interesting.
Come check us out and don't let our name scare you!
Robin Martin
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
God Is Life - 1st John 5
WE have been taking a look at the book of 1st John and learning that God is Light and God is Love and God is Life....and hopefully learning what all of that means. Now we will continue our study.....
John is telling us in Chapter 3 how much God loves us and that we ARE His children. Take comfort in that...we are children of the only true God...we are HIS and HE loves us so very very much.
He continues to repeat the importance of living a life worthy of the name of Jesus. The importance of
obeying God's word and loving one another in the body of Christ. John goes as far as to say if you choose to live in sin after accepting Christ then you are not a child of God. He also says that if you do not love those in the body of Christ that you are not a child of God. What does it mean to love your brother or sister in Christ? We need to have concern for them and help them whenever we can. John ends chaper 3 by telling us that we will know that Jesus lives in us by the Spirit that he gave us.
In Chapter 4 John begins by telling us to test the Spirits to see if they are from God. John is recognizing that not all spirits are God sent and we should not believe all of them. John says that any spirit that says that Jesus did not come in the flesh is not from God. You cannot have God w/o acknowledging that Jesus came as a baby through the virgin birth. Anyone who does not acknowledge Jesus is anti-christ which means against Christ and a false spirit is at work. John continues to tell us that we have nothing to fear from them because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and God's Spirit is greater than the other spirits in the world. False teachers will have a following....the world...they follow the false teaching of evil spirits because often they will tell them exactly what they want to hear. But we are from God and those that listen to us know the true God in whom is the Spirit of Truth.
Remember that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all and God is Love and whoever lives in love has been born of God and when we live in love we can have confidence on judgment day that we are His. We will not live in fear of the coming judgment because "perfect love casts out fear". And Jesus Christ is perfect love. John reminds us again that if we love God we will love our brothers and sisters in Christ. As many times as John repeats this it must be awful important.
So many folks today say they love God but they don't want to be involved in the local church which is the Body of Christ. I have a real hard time with this. How can a person say they love God and yet not
love His Body. One of the first signs I had when I put Jesus first in my life was a love for the body of Christ. A love that I didn't have prior to that. And still yet today God has put a love in my heart for people that the world just don't understand. Often I am asked "why do you care"? I often answer its a God thing and that it is. If you are ever going to be what God wants you to be you must get over this hurdle and stay connected to a body of believers. Not just for what you can get but for what you can give. The church will be the ones you spend eternity with. Why would you want to go to heaven to spend eternity with Gods people when you can't seem to stand a couple of hours a week down here with them.
Examine your heart cause something ain't right!! If you are in this position you need to cry out to God in prayer and ask Him to give you a willing heart, to give you a brand new start. To create in you a love that is real...to give you a willing heart. And keep crying out to HIM until something inside of you changes.
Chapter 5 begins GOD IS LIFE.
Making God first in your life means that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and have made Him Lord of your life. You are thus living a Life of Love which God enables you to do. We love God so we carry out His commands all day every day. And His commands are not burdensome...they are not a heavy load. What commands am I referring too? Not the OT commandments but the NT commands. To love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to Love your neighbor as yourself...thus the world will know that we are from God, His children and be drawn to Him. Because we love God we love to do his will.
I've explained this to others like this. When I was a child and even now...I love to please my earthly parents. Why? Because I love them. I don't want to disappoint them. Thats the way it is with my heavenly Father...I obey Him because I love Him and don't want to disappoint Him. And it really is a JOY to serve and follow Jesus. I am able to overcome the world because of my faith in Christ. What does this mean. It means that I can rise above the temptations of the world. It means I can choose to respond to the situations in life that God allows in a way that pleases Him. Why? Because I know that He will give me the ability to do what He has called me to do. God will never call you to do something that He cannot equip you to do.
This power from God comes to all those who put their faith in Jesus. John makes it very clear in verses ll and 12 that if you have the Son you have eternal life and if you do not have the Son you do not have ethernal life. So you see that God is LIFE, not just LIFE here on earth but ETERNAL LIFE. John concludeds this book by saying that He wrote this letter so that we can KNOW we have eternal life and with that knowledge comes special privileges. One of them being the confidence that when we come to God in prayer that He hears our prayers and we have whatever we ask of Him if it is His will.
John proceeds to tell us some of the things we should pray for....He says that we should pray for each other....he refers to a sin that leads to death. What is that sin? It could be many things. In the Bible there are accounts of folks that committed a sin and were killed instantly for it. You see God doesn't take sin lightly and neither should we. John reminds us again, that anyone who is "born again" should not continue to live a lifestyle of sin. John also reminds us that those that are "born again" are kept safe by God and Satan cannot touch us. John ends this book by reminding Gods children to keep themselves from "idols". An idol is anything that you put between you and God.
We live in a world where there are so many "idols". A 21st century idol could be money, sex, drugs, alcohol, anything that you are addicted to that you know isn't God's will for you. It could be a person, your husband or your children or your job or your home. It could even be your ministry. I must constantly examine my heart and let God speak to me about such things. Then as His Holy Spirit teaches and leads me I must be willing to let them go and "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness" knowing that everything else will take care of itself.
Its my prayer that the Holy Spirit has spoke to you as you have read these lessons. Its my prayer that if you are not in a right relationship to God through Christ that you will consider taking the steps to do so.
It is also my prayer that you will live a life worthy of the calling that you have received. It is my prayer that you will continue to grow in your love relationship with God...for no one no where will ever love you like HE does. It is also my prayer that if you are not part of a church family that you will start looking for the right church for you. Its out there...ya just gotta find it...and I bet you won't have to look
very far.
WE are told in John 10:10 That Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full. The abundant life....are you living the life God desires you to live?
Remember that GOD is LIGHT...GOD IS LOVE...and GOD IS LIFE...now what more could a girl want?
Joyfully serving Jesus
Robin
* We have begun our study of "Experiencing God" in our Oaks class that meets on Tuesday evenings at 7PM at Media Church in Oxford. All women all ages and stages are welcome to join us. If you have any questions contact me at robinmartin3@hotmail.com.
John is telling us in Chapter 3 how much God loves us and that we ARE His children. Take comfort in that...we are children of the only true God...we are HIS and HE loves us so very very much.
He continues to repeat the importance of living a life worthy of the name of Jesus. The importance of
obeying God's word and loving one another in the body of Christ. John goes as far as to say if you choose to live in sin after accepting Christ then you are not a child of God. He also says that if you do not love those in the body of Christ that you are not a child of God. What does it mean to love your brother or sister in Christ? We need to have concern for them and help them whenever we can. John ends chaper 3 by telling us that we will know that Jesus lives in us by the Spirit that he gave us.
In Chapter 4 John begins by telling us to test the Spirits to see if they are from God. John is recognizing that not all spirits are God sent and we should not believe all of them. John says that any spirit that says that Jesus did not come in the flesh is not from God. You cannot have God w/o acknowledging that Jesus came as a baby through the virgin birth. Anyone who does not acknowledge Jesus is anti-christ which means against Christ and a false spirit is at work. John continues to tell us that we have nothing to fear from them because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and God's Spirit is greater than the other spirits in the world. False teachers will have a following....the world...they follow the false teaching of evil spirits because often they will tell them exactly what they want to hear. But we are from God and those that listen to us know the true God in whom is the Spirit of Truth.
Remember that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all and God is Love and whoever lives in love has been born of God and when we live in love we can have confidence on judgment day that we are His. We will not live in fear of the coming judgment because "perfect love casts out fear". And Jesus Christ is perfect love. John reminds us again that if we love God we will love our brothers and sisters in Christ. As many times as John repeats this it must be awful important.
So many folks today say they love God but they don't want to be involved in the local church which is the Body of Christ. I have a real hard time with this. How can a person say they love God and yet not
love His Body. One of the first signs I had when I put Jesus first in my life was a love for the body of Christ. A love that I didn't have prior to that. And still yet today God has put a love in my heart for people that the world just don't understand. Often I am asked "why do you care"? I often answer its a God thing and that it is. If you are ever going to be what God wants you to be you must get over this hurdle and stay connected to a body of believers. Not just for what you can get but for what you can give. The church will be the ones you spend eternity with. Why would you want to go to heaven to spend eternity with Gods people when you can't seem to stand a couple of hours a week down here with them.
Examine your heart cause something ain't right!! If you are in this position you need to cry out to God in prayer and ask Him to give you a willing heart, to give you a brand new start. To create in you a love that is real...to give you a willing heart. And keep crying out to HIM until something inside of you changes.
Chapter 5 begins GOD IS LIFE.
Making God first in your life means that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and have made Him Lord of your life. You are thus living a Life of Love which God enables you to do. We love God so we carry out His commands all day every day. And His commands are not burdensome...they are not a heavy load. What commands am I referring too? Not the OT commandments but the NT commands. To love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to Love your neighbor as yourself...thus the world will know that we are from God, His children and be drawn to Him. Because we love God we love to do his will.
I've explained this to others like this. When I was a child and even now...I love to please my earthly parents. Why? Because I love them. I don't want to disappoint them. Thats the way it is with my heavenly Father...I obey Him because I love Him and don't want to disappoint Him. And it really is a JOY to serve and follow Jesus. I am able to overcome the world because of my faith in Christ. What does this mean. It means that I can rise above the temptations of the world. It means I can choose to respond to the situations in life that God allows in a way that pleases Him. Why? Because I know that He will give me the ability to do what He has called me to do. God will never call you to do something that He cannot equip you to do.
This power from God comes to all those who put their faith in Jesus. John makes it very clear in verses ll and 12 that if you have the Son you have eternal life and if you do not have the Son you do not have ethernal life. So you see that God is LIFE, not just LIFE here on earth but ETERNAL LIFE. John concludeds this book by saying that He wrote this letter so that we can KNOW we have eternal life and with that knowledge comes special privileges. One of them being the confidence that when we come to God in prayer that He hears our prayers and we have whatever we ask of Him if it is His will.
John proceeds to tell us some of the things we should pray for....He says that we should pray for each other....he refers to a sin that leads to death. What is that sin? It could be many things. In the Bible there are accounts of folks that committed a sin and were killed instantly for it. You see God doesn't take sin lightly and neither should we. John reminds us again, that anyone who is "born again" should not continue to live a lifestyle of sin. John also reminds us that those that are "born again" are kept safe by God and Satan cannot touch us. John ends this book by reminding Gods children to keep themselves from "idols". An idol is anything that you put between you and God.
We live in a world where there are so many "idols". A 21st century idol could be money, sex, drugs, alcohol, anything that you are addicted to that you know isn't God's will for you. It could be a person, your husband or your children or your job or your home. It could even be your ministry. I must constantly examine my heart and let God speak to me about such things. Then as His Holy Spirit teaches and leads me I must be willing to let them go and "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness" knowing that everything else will take care of itself.
Its my prayer that the Holy Spirit has spoke to you as you have read these lessons. Its my prayer that if you are not in a right relationship to God through Christ that you will consider taking the steps to do so.
It is also my prayer that you will live a life worthy of the calling that you have received. It is my prayer that you will continue to grow in your love relationship with God...for no one no where will ever love you like HE does. It is also my prayer that if you are not part of a church family that you will start looking for the right church for you. Its out there...ya just gotta find it...and I bet you won't have to look
very far.
WE are told in John 10:10 That Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the full. The abundant life....are you living the life God desires you to live?
Remember that GOD is LIGHT...GOD IS LOVE...and GOD IS LIFE...now what more could a girl want?
Joyfully serving Jesus
Robin
* We have begun our study of "Experiencing God" in our Oaks class that meets on Tuesday evenings at 7PM at Media Church in Oxford. All women all ages and stages are welcome to join us. If you have any questions contact me at robinmartin3@hotmail.com.
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