Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 207
Devotional Song: ... Go to this link … If you’re reading here with me, please use this link and hear a song sung by Brian Littrell, ... “I Surrender All”, declaring the route of surrender all Christians take when they decide – in faith – to make Christ their Lord and Savior.
Highlight Passage of the Day: John 16: 33 [In the context of verses 29-33] … [NLT] …
29 Then his disciples said, “At last you are speaking plainly and not figuratively. 30 Now we understand that you know everything, and there’s no need to question you. From this we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus asked, “Do you finally believe? 32 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
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Contextual Study involving today’s passage found in John, Chapter 14-16 … Go to this link …
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Reference Passage of the Day #1: 1st Corinthians 10: 13 [God never promised freedom from troubles. He only promised to help us overcome the troubles] … [NLT] …
13 But remember that the temptations [which can also be translated “tests, trials, troubles, or tribulations”] that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.
Reference Passage of the Day #2: Acts 1: 8 [God wants us to be HIS overcomers and He gives us the power to do so.] … [NLT] …
8 "... But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about Me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
My Journal for Today: If you were like I was and became a Christian later down the road of life (for me it was at age 39), did you notice how things go so much easier and all the trials of life just seemed to melt into the background and life was like a glorious slide into a gorgeous meadow of beautiful flowers?
NOT!!!
It didn’t work that way, did it? And maybe you, as I did, wondered if surrendering my all was really worth it. Yes, as Brian Littrell’s version of the old hymn renders from the link above, when we become a Christian, we do give it all in life to Jesus, our Lord and Savior; but when I did that, I just didn’t realize that things were going to get tougher … not easier, … as I imagined they would.
That was the message that Jesus was trying to warn His inner Disciples about when he led them up to a room in Jerusalem to share a final meal with them, … a Passover meal, which would take on new significance forever after the events which were about to transpire. Jesus knew that His closest followers were troubled and confused; but He also knew that they were going to face even bigger emotional and spiritual challenges ahead; and as our Lord closed that “upper room discourse,” as it’s called, He proclaimed in Whom and how they would become overcomers in the world of hurt they were going to face ahead of them [see the highlight verse above].
Besides hearing Brian Littrell’s song, I hope you take the time, as I did this morning, to use the link above and re-read and meditate on Jesus’ message to His disciples in that Upper Room. It is Christ’s truth, which is for you and me too. And we need to realize that the life of a surrendered, true-believing, Christian is not going to be a walk in the park or a stroll in a bed of roses.
As the Apostle Paul discovered after Jesus knocked him off his steed on the road to Damascus, becoming a Christian is a battle … every day! But Paul also discovered the truth of what he declared in 1st Corinthian 10: 13 … that we, as Christians, though we’re not promised a free pass away from troubles, we are promised – by a faithful God – that He will always be there to give us the way to be overcomers – like Christ – and to deal with the tests, trials, troubles, and temptations of life. Jesus even gave us that promise as He ascended into heaven (see Acts 1: 8 quoted above), telling us that He was going to send His Spirit to give us the power to be overcomes and to deal with life.
So, I pray that you and I are learning to become the OVERCOMERS whom Christ in reshaping us to be in His Name and for His glory.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, help me to be an overcomer, in Your Name, today. … Amen
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WHAT DID THE FIRST CHRISTIANS BELIEVE?
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST HAD ITS BEGINNING ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST 33 A.D.. WHAT BELIEFS AND ACTIONS DID THE THREE THOUSAND CONVERTS TO CHRIST HAVE IN COMMON? DID GOD APPROVE OF EVOLVING BELIEFS, DIFFERENT REQUIREMENTS FOR SALVATION? IF THAT WERE TRUE, THEN WOULD IT NOT BE FOUND IN THE NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES?
Acts 2:41 So then, those who received his word were baptized; and there were added about three thousand souls. Acts 2:47....And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
All three thousand believed the apostle Peter's message and were baptized in water. Then they were added to the Lord's church by the Lord Himself. The Lord did not add the unsaved to His church. They had to believe and be baptized in water prior to being added to the body of Christ.
1. Acts 2:22 Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know---
All three thousand believed Jesus was a miracle worker.
2. Acts 2:31-32 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. 32 This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
All three thousand believed in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
3. Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ---this Jesus whom you crucified."
All three thousand believed that Jesus was Lord and Christ.
4. Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
All three thousand repented in order to have sins forgiven. (repentance meant that they made the commitment to turn from their unbelief and sinful lifestyle and turn toward God).
All three thousand were baptized in water in order to have their sins forgiven.
All three thousand received the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit after they believed, repented, and were baptized in water.
5. Acts 2:40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"
All three thousand were saved after they believed Peter's message: They believed, repented, confessed, and were baptized in water. (Mark 16:16, John 3:16, Acts 3:19, Acts 2:38, Romans 10:9-10, Acts 8:35-38) THEN THEY WERE ADDED TO THE LORD'S CHURCH! (Acts 2:47)
WHAT THINGS DID PETER NOT PREACH AND WHAT THINGS DID THE THREE THOUSAND NOT BELIEVE.
1.Peter did not preach that men were saved by grace alone.
2.Peter did not preach that men were saved by faith only
3.Peter did not preach that God had selected a few to be saved and that all others would go to hell.
4. Peter did not preach that water baptism was not essential to salvation.
5. Peter did not preach that Jesus was just one of many Saviors.
6. Peter did not preach that once you were saved, that you could continue in a sinful lifestyle and still be saved.
7. Peter did not preach that God did not have the power to give us an inerrant translation of the Scriptures.
8. Peter did not preach that God would provide hundreds or thousands of different Christian denominations, and that they would teach different ways of being saved.
9. Peter did preach that you had to speak in tongues as evidence that you were saved.
AS BELIEVERS IN CHRIST, MEN SHOULD USE THE BIBLE AS THEIR GUIDE FOR SALVATION. Looking to man-made creed books, Bible commentaries, denominational statements of faith, and church catechisms, is looking in all the wrong places for the absolute truth!
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