In His Words is a Family Devotional that explores all the words that Jesus spoke in the New Testament, beginning with Matthew. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 8 Nov 2005 09:26:00 -0600 Tue, 8 Nov 2005 09:26:00 -0600 In His Words - A Commentary on the Words of Jesus for Children   It’s Not Fair   Matthew 5:38-42   Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away   This is one of the hardest teachings of Jesus that I have ever encountered. The Israelites had always been told that if someone poked out their eye, they had to have their eye poked out. If someone caused them to loose a tooth, they would have to have their tooth pulled out. But Jesus tells us that if someone slaps our cheek, we should turn the other cheek and let him hit that one too. He says that if someone takes you to court and gets the shirt off your back, freely give him your jacket as well.   Also during that time in history, a Roman soldier could make anyone carry something for them for a mile. The person had to drop what they were doing and carry the soldier’s things for a mile before going back to their business. Jesus is saying, if he asks you to walk a mile, go an extra mile with him, though you don’t have to do it.   Jesus also says that if someone wants to have or to borrow something from you, give it to him.   It seems like this is asking a whole lot of people. Doesn’t it? Really, if you think about it. Jesus is asking us to quit thinking about ourselves at all. To give up your rights to your things.  But why would he ask us to do that?   Well, Jesus wants us to have our mind on Him and not be so focused on being treated fairly or right. People are so consumed with themselves. Many people focus on the things are not going their way: People are not treating them right. Life isn’t fair. People are doing unfair and wrong things to them and getting away with it.   Both adults and children do this. As a child, do you worry about having things just the way you want them? Do you get upset when someone takes something that belongs to you? Are you worried about keeping your possessions, your blessings? Are you looking out to make sure everything is fair and square? Did you get as much cake as your friend at the party? Did you get as many presents as your sister at Christmas? Children are often worried about whether their brother or sisters or friend have everything equal and the same. They worry about keeping their possessions for themselves and not allowing others to take and possibly ruin them. They are focused on themselves, their stuff and their rights.   What are rights? Rights are the privileges you deserve. You have the right to be treated fairly. You have the right to keep your possessions. You have the right to not be hurt and injured by others.  God wants you to give up your rights for Him. Let Him be the one who blesses you; don’t try to bless yourself by holding on to your rights.   Giving up our rights is a sacrifice. Have you heard the word sacrifice? It means to give up something that is precious and important to you. God wants you to give up your precious rights to have everything fair. And when you do, you will be blessed because you will be doing God’s will.   But really, you are not giving up your rights to the person who is trampling on your rights. You are giving up your rights to God. You are sacrificing your rights for Him. When you turn the other cheek, you don’t do it for that person, you do it for God. When you give up your jacket to the person who is unkindly taking your shirt, you do it for God. When you walk an extra mile to the person who unfairly asks you to walk the first mile, you are doing it for God. When you give up your things to the person who asks for them, you are not doing it for that person, you are doing it for God.   And you will be blessed, not because you made sure to hold onto your rights and blessings, but because you let go of your rights and trusted that God would bless you.   How can you put this into practice today? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/41923/ Tue, 8 Nov 2005 09:26:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/41923/ Parents, reread all the beatitutudes found in Matthew 5:1-12 again to your children before you begin todays lesson. Today, we are going to study another one of the beatitudes that Jesus taught us. Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.     This is a very important beatitudes, for it is an attitude that Jesus has.  God tells us that when we become a Christian, we will become more and more like Jesus. His goal is to slowly change our bad traits and habits and make us like His Son; each year, we are kinder, have better thoughts and love others more.   So, what does Jesus mean when He says, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth”?   Meekness is a word that many people don’t understand. Some people think to be meek is to be shy and afraid, or weak. But the word Jesus used was the Greek word praus. So, Jesus said “Blessed are the praus, for they shall inherit the earth.”   The word praus does not have anything to do with what we think of as meek today. You see, praus doesn’t mean how one feels about the world and mankind, it has to do with how one feels about God. This person accepts the things that God does in their life as good, even if they don’t seem like it at the time. For example, if things don’t go the way you had hoped - you don’t get what you thought you were going to get, or go where you thought you were going to go - if you are praus then you do not argue and fuss about it, you accept that this is God’s plan for you. You see, we can accept the things that happen to us, or even the things that people do, because we know that God is in control of everything. We must believe the truth that Jesus has our best in mind, all of the time. That is really trusting in Jesus. If we believe that, then we won’t worry when things don’t go our way, we can look up to Jesus and say, “Well, you know what’s best. You allowed that person to do that or that thing to happen, and I’m going to trust you that you have my best in mind.”   You know, Jesus had to face some very hard times in His life. The night before He was going to be killed on the cross, He asked God if He would change the circumstances so that He wouldn’t have to die, but then He said, “But, not MY will, but Your will be done.” Jesus wasn’t jumping for joy to be killed for our sins, but He was willing to accept the situation as God’s perfect plan and will for His life. In the end, after all the suffering and pain, God had something far better for Jesus – He was raised from the dead, given glory, and is now sitting next to God in Heaven, but He had to go through great suffering to get there. Sometimes that is the way it is in our lives, we have to go through hard times in order to get the blessings God has for us. So, we should always accept all situations, even hard ones where our feelings are hurt or what we had hoped for didn’t happen, as God’s plan for us because He has great things in store for us. This is being meek, or praus, before God.   In addition to this, being praus is also being bold and courageous to stand for truth. This is very different than what most people think of when they hear the word meek. But this is what Jesus meant when He spoke of the meek. If a meek person sees a true wrong occurring – someone hurting another, they will lovingly, but firmly take a stand against it. Meekness, as Jesus meant it, is not weak – it’s being strong in character, but gentle in the way you handle situations when standing up for what is right.    Jesus tells us that that people who are meek will inherit, or take over, the entire earth. Every Christian, those of us that God is making more and more like Jesus every day, will one day rule the entire earth. God wants meek rulers. God would like to make you meek in this way – a wise, gentle person that lovingly stands up for what is right, yet is able to accept the things that happen as God’s good plan for their lives.   Let’s pray today that God will begin to make us more like Jesus, meek before God.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/20111/ Thu, 25 Aug 2005 13:35:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/20111/ When I began homeschooling with four small children, I have to admit, our morning devotions were difficult and sporadic. It wasn't until I found Leading Little Ones to God, and devoted myself to training the children to sit still and listen that our quiet times took off. Soon after we began this special time each morning, I began to see fruit in their lives. The fruit was evident in the way the children spoke to one another, the way they spoke to me and in how well they did both in school and in completing other tasks. I realized that the fruit I was seeing was the result of the sowing into their hearts with God's Word each morning. It wasn't just the reading time that touched their hearts, it was the deeply spiritual discussions we had as we read from this little book of rich truths for young children. I never did the songs or any other of the activities in the book, we only did the reading - which often led us right into the Word of God where we parked for a long time. Years before I had worried that we would never have time for school if we spent so long in morning devotions. What a sad testimony to my mindset at the time. It was as if I believed in my heart of hearts that academics were going to offer my children the kind of life I wanted them to have, when in reality it is only the Word of God that can give to us anything of value. I was delighted to discover that the time we spent discussing the Lord and His Ways actually gave us more time for academics. It was as if the Lord multiplied our time. When a child's heart is attuned to the Lord, they are much more likely to finish the work set before them without grumbling, complaining and falling onto the floor in a heap, crawling under the table to bite their brothers leg - or whatever else they might do when the flesh has rule over their hearts. Unfortunantly, when Leading Little Ones to God was completed, I couldn't find another devotional that would take them to the next level. Most of the things I found were too elementary - written for children that didn't have a strong foundation in Biblical principals, were too legalistic - giving children more of a foundation in legalism and rules than in the grace and freedom from flesh that God offers us, or were not appropriate for homeschooled children, dealing with boyfriends and other subjects unrelated to our lives. So, I decided that each morning, I would write a devotion for us to do. From this was born In His Words. I am hoping that posting it as a blog will inspire me to continue the project even when life gets hectic and I have other book deadlines to finish. I also hope that this is something your family might enjoy as well. I will be posting chapters in the right hand column as I edit them. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/19721/ Fri, 26 Aug 2005 21:07:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/19721/ Parents: Read the beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12 to your children today.   Can you just imagine what life would be like without Jesus? How do people get through the hard times? How do they cope with disappointment and loneliness? How hard it must be for those people who don’t know how much God loves them; the world must be a very sad place for them. When Jesus began teaching people about God, he knew their hearts were troubled and sad. Many of their parents, children, friends and family had died of diseases. Life was hard. Jesus understood that their lives were difficult and filled with sorrow. He felt pity that they couldn’t yet find comfort in God. You see, Jesus had not yet died for their sins, and risen again to give them new life, bringing them peace with God. They were still separated from God because of their sin.   All those hurting people didn’t have the Holy Spirit to help them. When Jesus arose from the dead, the Kingdom of Heaven began! He was the first born in the kingdom, and every person that trusted in Jesus to take away their sin, would become children of the King in the Kingdom of Heaven. We would all be the brothers and sisters of Jesus, newborn children of God, the King. That is the reason we say that we are born again when we become Christians. We are born into God’s family.   On day, looking upon all the needy people gathered around him, Jesus began to teach them, telling them what it would be like once He had finished His work. He was explaining how it would be for them when He had risen from the dead, and sent the Holy Spirit to be their guide. He told them that if they had certain attitudes, they would be blessed. This part of Jesus’ teaching is called the beatitudes. It sounds a bit like “be attitudes.” In fact, many people teach that this is how we should be in our attitude. So that’s an easy way to remember that these are the beatitudes.    Here is what Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”   Let’s explore each of these beatitudes separately, as each has something very special to teach us. Over the next several days, you will study a few of these beatitudes, and my prayer is that you will experience a change in your attitude when you learn what Jesus has to say.   The first thing Jesus said was, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”     To be poor in spirit means to be humble of heart. Humility is an important thing in the Kingdom of God. For, we must not think too much of ourselves. We must not think that we are better than others. We must not want to put others down, talking badly about others. Pride is the opposite of humility. Thinking we are better than others is pride. If we see another child who acts wrongly, our heart should not think “I would never act like that.” Our heart should think, “It is sad that that child behaves badly. I should pray that God will change his heart and make him want to do well.” If we simply look at a badly behaved child and think he isn’t as good as we are, then we are allowing pride to replace humility in our hearts. For, we have no idea what happened to make the child so badly behaved. Perhaps his parents didn’t know how to train him. Perhaps they didn’t discipline him as they should have. Perhaps some sad things happened that made him feel so bad about him or herself that the child doesn’t think he could ever be good, and so doesn’t even try. Often people act badly when they think very little of themselves. They might act mean and ugly, and say hateful things, but really they do this because they feel so awful about themselves that they want to hurt others because they are hurting so badly inside. Only God knows exactly what happened to the child. But we should ask the Lord to give us compassion for others, just as Jesus had when he saw all the sad and lonely people around him.     Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are humble, or poor in spirit. Are you poor in spirit? If you are not, the Lord is able to change your heart and give you love and compassion for others. You have not because you ask not. Just ask God!   Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.  People usually mourn when someone or something dies. Today, we don’t see people die as often as they used to die. That is because the Lord has blessed our country with medicines that cure and heal us. We have been blessed with vaccines that keep us well and have stopped the spread of diseases that had once killed many children. However, even with all these medicines, people still die of old age and cancer. Families are also separated for others reasons. And this causes children and adults to be mournful. There are many hard things that happen in our lives that can cause us to mourn. But Jesus promises us that He will be our comfort. We can go to Him and find comfort when we are sad.   If you or someone you know is mourning the loss of a friend or family member, perhaps they died or just moved to another place, or you moved away, Jesus is the answer. You can always find comfort by asking the Lord. Ask Him to comfort you, and trust that He will. He will fill your heart with peace, and perhaps even bring a friend along that can make you feel better. Jesus knows exactly what someone who is mourning needs. If you ask of Him, He will provide it.   Pray right now that God would bring comfort to someone who is mourning. Pray also that you will have a humble heart and feel compassion for others. In the next chapter, we will explore three more of the beatitudes. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/19495/ Fri, 26 Aug 2005 08:48:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/19495/ Parents: Please read Matthew 4: 12 - 25     “As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.   What do you think it means to be fishers of men? Why would God want us to fish for men? Once we catch them, what will we do with them? Why is it important that we tell people about the Lord?   When Jesus says to be fishers of men, he means men, women and children. Do you realize that every single man, woman and child was made in the image of God? They are all special and important to God. Jesus wants us to tell everyone about Him because He created and loves every one of these people. Jesus wants you and I to let them know about what He did for them, so that they, too, can have the opportunity to receive eternal life. This is what it means to be fishers of men. It’s about going out into all the world to draw people to Jesus. It’s about being a missionary.   Would you like to be a missionary? We are all supposed to be missionaries. Some of us will be missionaries to our neighbors, some will be missionaries to those we work with or play with, and some of us will even be missionaries that are paid to go to places where people don’t know about God. But even if you are not called to be a paid missionary, you are still called to be a missionary to the people God puts in your life. You are called to be a fisher of men. How do you do that? Can you think of some ways?   One good way to bring people to Jesus is by your attitude. Peter tells us that we should always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us. So, that hope that we have- the belief that Jesus took away our sins, and we are loved and special to him, and that He is taking care of us– should be obvious and noticeable, to others. They should be able to see in our attitude that we have hope!   How can they see our hope? They can see it by our joyful hearts. When others are complaining and unhappy, fussing about this and that, instead of joining in, and going along with it, we should be peaceful, and happy. God tells us that it is His will for us to do everything with grumbling, complaining and arguing. So, we are never supposed to complain.   When things don’t go our way, or are very hard for us, we can show our hope in the Lord by being positive and smiling. We can think of something to be thankful about and look on the bright side of things. Others will see our joy and be amazed. Then others will wonder how we can be so happy when things are going so poorly. Then, we can tell them that it’s because we trust in Jesus.   Jesus said “I have spoken these things so that my joy may be in your and your joy may be complete.” God wants us to be joyful. The Bible says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. And this joy is a great way to draw people to Jesus. This is a great way to be fishers of men. That’s because everyone – EVERYONE - really wants to have joy and be happy; many people spend their whole lives buying new things, moving to new places, looking, looking, looking for a way to get happiness. When they see that you have found the secret to happiness, and you tell them it’s because you trust in God, their hearts will be drawn to Him. They will want what you have. They’ll begin to seek Him, to talk to Him, to pray. And the Bible says that when they draw near to God, He will draw near to them. How wonderful it is to know that just being joyful, and talking about God, is a way to be fishers of men! Doesn’t that bring you comfort and…joy?   Spend some time in prayer now, asking God to help you be always joyful, always thankful, and never complaining or grumbling, especially when things don’t go your way. Ask Him to make you a fisher of men with your good attitude. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/18793/ Wed, 24 Aug 2005 10:14:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/18793/ Parents: Read Matthew 4:1-4 with your children.   After Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit led him into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He didn’t eat anything for forty days or forty nights. When He was very hungry, the devil, knowing He was God, told him to turn a rock into bread. Jesus fought that temptation by saying to him, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God.”   It’s interesting that Jesus tells us that we do not live just on food, but on God’s Word. Do you know where God’s Word to us is? Yes, it’s in the Bible.  Jesus overcomes the temptation to do the wrong thing by repeating actual words that are written in the Bible. The wrong thing in this case for Jesus would be listening to the enemy and doing what he says to do. We can learn from Jesus’ example.   You see, Jesus believed the words in the Bible and He repeated what He knew to be true when He was faced with temptation. We can fight the temptation to the do the wrong thing by focusing our hearts on the truths found in the Bible.   But in order to be able to do this, we must first know what’s written in the Bible. Jesus is telling us that we can find the kind of wonderful life we hope to have if we follow and live out the truths that God speaks to us in His Word. Yet, many times, we don’t take the time to read the Bible. We don’t know what God tells us in His Word. Then, we miss out on many of the joys God has for us because we have neglected to read God’s Word. Jesus was about to resist temptation and live His life for God because He knew God’s Word. He wants you to have the same success; He wants you to have a rewarding life. He calls it an abundant life. You will find life if you focus on the Word of God.   If you are able to read, spend time every morning and every night reading the Bible, and really think about what you are reading. If you are not yet able to read, have your mother or father read the Bible to you each day and reflect on everything you hear in the Word. When we think about something a lot, we are contemplating on it, or reflecting on it. It is a good thing to reflect on God’s Word. It’s not a good thing to focus on the things we are tempted to do wrong.  Train your mind to think about God’s Word instead.   Find a Scripture that you would like to memorize and don’t just memorize it, think about each sentence and what it really means. If you do this each week, you will find it to be true that we don’t just live on food, but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God. You will be able to resist the temptation to do wrong because you have believed the Bible, just as Jesus did.   Psalms 16:11 speaks of God, saying “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/18791/ Wed, 24 Aug 2005 10:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/18791/ Parents: This verse deals with Jesus' words in Matthrew 3:15, the first recorded words he speaks in the New Testament. You read them to the children before the last lesson, but we review them again here.   The first time we hear Jesus speak in the New Testament is in the book of Matthew. This is what happened:  Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. But John tried to stop Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and yet You come to me?" Jesus answered him, "Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Himself to be baptized. After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove. There came a voice from heaven: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him! The first words of Jesus in the Bible are these words He spoke to John the Baptist. Of course those aren’t the first words Jesus ever spoke. But they are the first written words of Jesus to us. And what do they mean? Jesus said, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.”   This is a great place to begin our study because these words of Jesus tell us that Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness. This righteousness is the promises of God to send a savior to the world. You see, back in the Old Testament – the front of your Bible – after Adam sinned, God told Adam and Eve that He would send a savior. Adam had separated mankind from God, and God promised him that He would send someone to bring us back into a relationship with God. Adam took us away from God, but this savior would bring us back to God.  This savior would be born into the body of a woman – a great, great (many, many greats) grandchild of Adam. And the entire Old Testament is the story of how God works out that plan and promise to send someone to save us after Adam’s sin.     After Noah’s flood, God set apart a Holy people – the Jewish nation. To these people, God showed himself, and from these people, would be born His child, Jesus – the savior. Over and over again, God kept telling these people that there was coming a savior. In every book in the Bible, in every book of the Old Testament God repeats his promise.   He tells them about Jesus in promises, poems, and prophecies. Prophecies are truths spoken in words that are sometimes hard to understand. These prophecies tell of important things that the Savior will do and be. It tells what He will be like and many of the exact things He will do.   When Jesus came, he fulfilled all the promises and prophecies. Every single one. Mathematicians have found that it would be impossible for one man to have completed even half of the prophecies of the Old Testament. But Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, just as He said to John the Baptist.   Because of this, we can trust that God is faithful to always do what He says He will do. He has promised many things to you if you are a Christian. He will do them all. He promises never to leave you nor give up on you. He promises that if you confess your sins, He will forgive you and cleanse you from them. He has promised that if you ask Him for wisdom about anything, He will give it to you. He has promised that if you obey your parents it will go well with you and you will have a long life.  All God’s promises are for keeps. II Corinthians 1:20 says “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ.”     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/18783/ Wed, 24 Aug 2005 09:30:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/18783/ Parents: Begin by reading the first three chapters in the book of Matthew.   I’m sure you have heard many, many stories from the Bible. You’ve heard stories from the Old Testament, which is before Jesus was born – stories about Moses, David, Joshua and many others; and you’ve heard stories from the New Testament which was written after Jesus was born – stories about the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, and of Jesus Our Lord.   Jesus said many things that were written down in the New Testament. In this book, we will explore the things that Jesus said. We will study them, and try to understand them, because some of the things that Jesus said are hard to understand. They are hard sayings, as one person told Jesus’ disciples.   Many of the things Jesus said were instructions on how to live a holy and pure life, and warnings about living an impure or rebellious life. But remember that Jesus’ main job was to show people the way to Himself, so that they could be saved. Much of the teachings of Jesus tell us how to be perfect, but the reason Jesus taught this to the people was to show them what perfection was – what true holiness was – so that they would know they were sinners. These people would hear from Jesus how to be perfect, and know that they couldn’t be.   Do you know why Jesus wanted these people to know they were sinners that couldn’t be perfect? The reason is because in order to truly receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, to truly become a Christian, we must know we aren’t good enough to go to heaven on our own. Many people don’t realize that they really are sinners. They seem to be pretty good. They aren’t too mean to others; they try to help out when they can; they even do things they don’t want to do because it is the right thing to do. So they feel like they aren’t such bad people. But when Jesus shows us what it really means to be good, we see that we fall short, very short of that. Jesus goes past all the nice things you do, and gets down to the very heart of the matter: your heart. Is your heart as clean and good as your actions? Are all your thoughts holy and pure? In order to be good enough to go to heaven, you must be perfect. Only perfect, holy and pure people will get into heaven. After all, we know heaven is perfect. It’s a place with no more tears and sorrow. If imperfect people went to heaven, it wouldn’t be perfect anymore. Would it? If people were allowed into heaven who were sometimes unkind to their brothers or sisters or friends or parents, they would ruin heaven. For those people might hurt someone’s feelings in heaven; no one will ever hurt your feelings in heaven. No hurtful person will be in heaven.  It is very humbling to realize we aren’t good enough to get into heaven, isn’t it? It’s very humbling to realize that we would ruin heaven.   Once the people realize that they aren’t really perfect, they will see that they need someone to take their sins away, to cleanse them so that we can get into heaven. They will realize they need the forgiveness for their sins that Jesus offers. Jesus took upon his body all our sins, and was punished for all our sins, and died because of all our sins. And because Jesus took our sins on himself, we now stand before God as clean, holy, and pure, finally perfect so that we can enter heaven. That is why Jesus is called our Savoir; He saved us from the punishment of hell that we deserve, and made the way for us to go to heaven. He has given us salvation from hell, salvation from our sins. Salvation basically means to rescue. He rescued us, didn’t he?    And do you know why Jesus did this for us? If you said, because He loves us, you are right. God created us to actually be with Him, to spend time with Him, to enjoy Him forever and ever. The Bible says that God loved you even when you were still so far away from Him in your heart. And do you think that God, who loved you when you were not even a Christian, still loves you when you sin? Oh, yes! Your sin does not change the way God feels about you. He adores you no matter what you do. He delights in you because you are His very own child.   So now you understand partly why Jesus came to explain to the world how to be perfect. He explained it because He wanted to show the people that they weren’t perfect. But He also wanted to show the people the right way to live. There were so many things that Jesus came to tell us, and most of them are about the real you deep inside. It’s not about just doing good things that make you look like a good person, it’s about your heart: loving others, forgiving others, having mercy for others, praying for your enemies.   Does Jesus expect us to be perfect? No. He knows we will fail. But one thing we can be certain of is that every day of our Christian life, we become more and more like Jesus. We do this by confessing to God when we have failed, and asking Him to change our hearts, and enable us to conquer the sins and weaknesses that we have.   Do you realize that if you are a Christian, you have an amazing power within you? That is the power of the Holy Spirit. And it is with this very power that we are able to be and do all that Jesus tells us to be and do in the Bible. Without the Holy Spirit living within us, we are completely unable to walk and live as Jesus tells us to walk and live. The Holy Spirit speaks to your spirit, and gives you joy and peace, as well as warnings when something is wrong. The more you listen to the Leadership and whisperings of the Holy Spirit, the more like Jesus you will become.     Your sins are like dirty, filthy clothes. The Holy Spirit will point out the dirty clothes that you may be wearing, and didn’t even realize that you had on. And when we confess our sins and turn from them, God removes the dirty clothing and we are left wearing the sparkling white clothes He gave us when we first became a Christian. Sin is like putting dirty clothes on over our true beautiful clothes.  If you put on dirty, filthy clothes -- clothes that may have worms eating them -- would your mom love you less? No, she would love the child inside those clothes just the same. But she would be very concerned that you remove those filthy garments and put on clean ones. Living a holy life, as Jesus asked, is like wearing sparkling clean robes. Your sin –anger, unforgiveness, unkind words, bad attitudes, lies and deceptions or worse things -- does not make God love you less, he sees the beautiful you under those filthy sin garments. But He can’t stand to see those awful clothes. Do you know how we get those garments off? We confess that we are wearing them to Him, and ask Him to change our clothes from the worm infested sin garments to the sparkling clean righteous garments. As children of the King, those are the clothes we were given and are wearing under our sin garments!    As you read this book, the Lord may show you areas in your life where your heart isn’t perfectly clean. You are wearing some old rotten clothes; maybe it’s a mildewed glove, or a rotting diseased sock, or maybe it’s just a dirt stained t-shirt. Whatever it is, by His Spirit, the Lord will reveal these things to your heart. If He does, remember that He will help you every step of the way in removing that sin from your life. You only need to turn to Him for help through confession and prayer.   Confession is the key. The Christian life is often a life of continual confession. If the Lord has shown you something even now, confession is the way to remove it. Because remember that "when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOSNESS. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/18780/ Fri, 26 Aug 2005 09:28:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/InHisWords/18780/