Infants In Christ.
Our authority is in
the promise of the Word of our God, and not on our emotions.
Therefore, do not depend any longer on your emotions. A Christian
lives by faith (trust) and in trusting our God and His Word. A
diagram of a train illustrates the relationship between the {fact} =
God and His Word being the engine. {Faith} = our trust in God and his
Word is the first wagon after the engine. Emotions follow after this
as the other wagons in the train which are pulled by the engine and a
result of it pulling the wagons in progress. A Result of our faith
into action. The engine runs with a wagon or no wagon attached, but
the wagons without an engine, will not move on its own. Likewise in
our Christian life, we should not depend on our feelings and
emotions, and yes put our trust in the Word of our God and His
faithfulness.
As quoted above:
"We know also that the Son of God
has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who
is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ.
He is the true God and eternal life". The
Bible also tells us that God is love. In 1 Jn. 4:16 we read: "And
so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever
lives in love lives in God, and God in him".
We know the love and
believe in the love God has for us. Once we know and believe, we no
longer have excuses for not walking in the love. Therefore, after
having the knowledge of the love of God, and believing yet not
walking in it, in this case we become responsible for not
corresponding to the love of our God. We only value what we are, when
we have to find out that apart from God we are nothing. God allows us
to go through experiences where we are forced to give up everything,
and lose everything, so that God can give us everything back in
double portion. God does this so that we can become aware of the fact
that He is the source of all the blessings in our lives. God is there
to give us life, and life in abundance as Jesus said. Job was an
honest and God fearing man. But, one day Satan came to God and asked
permission to take Job's blessings away, to try him.
Having read many
times the book of Job, I realized that God had a high purpose to
allow satan to do that. You see, when Satan has a plan, God is
already there ahead of him with a much greater plan yet. The devil
always acts as if he is more cunning and wise than his Creator. But,
he is only Gods´ creation and not someone or something that can
compare himself in action with his Creator. According to the word of
our God, all angels were created by God, and were created to minister
to those who will inherit salvation. "Are
not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will
inherit salvation?” - Hb. 1:14. In
the beginning Satan was an archangel named Lucifer, but he fell from
heaven; Jesus mentions this in the New Testament. "He
replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" -
Lk. 10:18.
Satan wanted to have
the power to destroy Job, for him to be destroyed, that he would
curse against God and therefore it would be easy to take Job to hell.
This, in summary was his plan. What Satan did not know at that time,
is that when God allows us to be tempted; is because God has already
a greater plan established. One purpose to be lived is the security
that our Creator gives us that no one can rupture. When God allows
the devil to take something from you, he gives something of double
value to you. I believe this is the lesson, which God teaches us in
the Book of Job. 'If the devil wants to take something from you, let
him, I, God guarantee something even better for you.'
A purpose to be
lived under the protection of our Eternal Father is to walk in "Gods’
Love". God shows us that He is in full control; we will
experience the fact that God is guarding us fully from all the
schemes of the enemy. Love guards us from everything and keeps us
integrate as we walk and live in it. Adam and Eve were in an
atmosphere in which they were completely protected if they would have
remained in obedience to Love. As long as they were walking in the
light of God and in obedience to him, nothing could harm them. The
Bible tells us of many lives where the devil used people and
circumstances to prejudice them, and harm the cause for which God had
called them. I remember the life of Joseph, David, Daniel, Jeremiah
and many others, in the experience of each of them "God is Love"
was manifest and vindicated.
Meaning of Vindicate
= v.t. Claim, demand the return of, to recover. / Claim legally
require recognition. / Defender justify (in writing).
God allowed the
devil to do everything that he did, for this way God triumphed in
their life. My question is: "What was the purpose to be lived by
them"? Oh glory, the evidence of God's character always
manifests itself through His Love. God only cannot operate when the
human being decides to go after a solution in which he does not ask
God to take action. God is our defender, and God takes care of His
children. When I think of how God guards and defends His children, my
thoughts are lead to the passage which tells us that we are engraved
in the palms of His hands. “See, I have engraved you on the palms
of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Isaiah 49:16 - NIV.
To be in God and God
in us is a much higher purpose to be lived in than what we can
imagine or describe. Mine and your life is not only about: “so and
so lived so many years and did this and that and that other act”.
If it were so, we could be like animals and would not be any
different. But, God in His Unconditional Love For Us; wants us to
live in Him, and for this we were created. But, for this it is
necessary to be in "God is Love" and without sin, because
sin separates us from our God.
An experience I had
with my own daughters was the fact which will clarify what we
described above. I used to buy cans of soda. Every day they took to
school, to drink during recess, to drink it with their lunch. The
fact was that I had bought the exact amount for them to take every
day to school, I did not have enough money to buy more than that;
extra cans for drinking at home... They liked it very much, and also
wanted to drink it at home. I told them: "Do not drink at home
because than there will not be enough for school". While I was
at work they would go to the fridge and they took a can and opened
the lid just a little bit. This was enough for the fizz to come out
of the can, as well as to sip it empty, and put the can back into the
fridge; it still seemed to be closed. But the seal was broken, and
the pop can was empty!! Now there was only air in the little pop
cans.
As long as one does
not open the tin can you can roll it on the floor, throw it up in the
air and the drink will not come out neither will the fizz within it
be released. We can throw up in the air any ware, but the soda does
not leave the tin while it is sealed. Once we break the seal, the
fizz comes out completely, and the air enters and the soda inside
will be stale. So is our life, as long as we do not open the door to
sin, our life remains integrate; meaning being whole; complete, one
who has a model of behavior, in the Love that has created us. Sin is
crouching at your door, in other words, it lies at the door of our
hearts, and whoever will let it in, will not have dominion over it.
"If you do what is right, will you
not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching
at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" -
Gn. 4:7.
My daughters
believed that if I did not see that they had opened the tin can, it
was acceptable what they did. This is how satan seduces the human
being to do what is not good, and sin crouches at your hearts door;
desiring to have you. But, we must master it, as the Word of God
says. God was teaching and disciplining Cain, but he preferred not to
hear and he allowed a greater sin to master him. You can read the
story in this chapter of Genesis 4, he went and committed the first
murder of the land. In summary the Human Being perceives and manages
to live in the love of God when it lives according to the guidelines
of “God is Love” that created and established him to live
therein.
God loves and He
wants each of us, that was created in his image and likeness may
reflect this same LOVE to his neighbour. The Apostle Paul tells us in
his letter: "When I was a child, I
talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me” -1 Co. 13:11.
Childhood symbolizes
also the season of innocence, the season of purity in our heart.
Purity is another extraordinary quality in a person's life. Pure
means absence of sin. When the heart of "human being" is
pure, it is because the thoughts of his heart were not contaminated
with the desire to consciously choose something incorrect; that is,
but you must master the thoughts in your heart. Spiritual childhood
is a time where God leads us, as a shepherd cares for his sheep and
takes them to the quiet waters. God cares for us, and leads us on our
journey. Living in innocence or purity is something incredible,
innocence is absence of guilt. The dictionary describes innocence as:
"Meaning of
Innocence sf Condition of the one that does not practices evil
conscientiously, to live in innocence.
/ Absence of guilt:
the innocence of an accused.
/ Simplicity,
purity: abusing the innocence of someone.
/ Innocent people,
protect the innocent.
"Absence of
guilt, purity = we will discuss these two concepts. Guiltiness
according to the same dictionary tells us that the status of guilty,
or culpable. Before Adam and Eve eating the fruit that was said, "You
shall not eat," they were in a status of absence of culpability.
No guilt and no accuser as well.
We have several
phases in our spiritual life as a human being. We have the phase of
innocence, maturity, adulthood and the perfect man in Christ. In the
phase of innocence in our life with God we are totally protected. God
leads us in His love and God guides us how to stay protected and keep
this purity. God reconciles us through the Blood of the Lamb. When
we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior of our life, this is the age of
learning, namely early childhood in our spiritual life with God in
Christ. Paul writes to the Corinthians: "Brothers,
I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in
Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready
for it. Indeed, you are still not ready"- 1 Co. 3:1.
Shortly after
receiving God in our lives we still are used to think of it as we
thought before. Paul explains this to the Church of Corinth, because
there is still jealousy, strife and other feelings between the
brothers, feelings which do not come from a life with God. This is a
reaction in the flesh, when we act upon the impulse of our carnal
nature. Paul tries to teach them to walk in the Spirit and not in the
emotions of their temperament. In the previous chapter Paul explains
true wisdom, the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
What he wanted to
clarify to these new Christians is; now that you have the God of the
universe within yourself and He knows the "wisdom of this
century that no powerful men has known, for if they had known, they
would never have crucified the Lord of Glory, but as it is written,
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the
heart of human being the things which God has prepared for those that
love him”. 1 Co.2 :8-9 (check ref in the Bible).
And he goes on
saying in verse 10: “these are the
things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all
things, even the deep things of God”.
Think about it this way, we may come to the conclusion that
therefore, in this case I will never be able to be wise, because how
can I have the thoughts of God and His work in me, and have all this
understanding in me. The answer is through Jesus; when we receive Him
as Lord and Savior of our lives. It is Jesus who works all this in us
through the Holy Spirit's presence with whom we have been sealed.
In the Lord's Service
I greet you in His Love
Antonina Penner.
Missionary
Masters inTheology..
ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4
Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher
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