Let Us Draw Near to God

 

Heb. 10:22

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

It is not possible to draw near to God when sin is in the heart. There is a gap that separates us from having fellowship with God. As sinners, we live in darkness and God is light. There is no fellowship for those who live in darkness with the light. To have fellowship is to have communion, and a person who dwells in darkness is living a life of sin, and sin is enmity against God. It is not subject to God and is not able to draw near to Him. But Jesus bridged the gap, taking our sins and nailing them to the cross with His blood provided a way for us to draw near. Before we can draw near to God, we must confess our sins. If we humble ourselves before God, He is faithful to take our sins and cast them in the sea of forgiveness, not to be remembered against us anymore. God will hear the prayers of a sinner that repents of their sins and has a heart that is broken, and is sorry for their sinful ways. It is only with a clean heart and pure motives that we can begin to draw near to God. It is God’s will that we live in the light. As we walk in His light, we start to draw near to His desires for our lives. Let us put aside the sin that easily besets us and pray with a pure heart to live in the light of God’s presence.

Reward Evil With Good

 Prov 25:21,22

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat,  and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

It should be the goal of every Christian to befriend everyone that they meet. It is not our goal to make enemies, but it is inevitable that there will be people who will consider you their enemy. Their heart is darkened with sin and the carnal nature is an enemy of God. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4) Taking a stand against the sin of this present day is not a popular position. You will have enemies that will make you out to be evil and incentive. The action we take as Christian is critical to the work of the Kingdom of Christ. The teaching of Christ makes it clear that we are not to retaliate with animosity and hatred, yet we are not to compromise the teaching of God’s Word. The principle of “Turn the other cheek” is demonstrated in the words of Solomon. Return evil with good, do good to all men regardless how they may treat you. Let your life reflect Christ in such a way that their hearts are convicted with guilt of their deeds and believe God that they will come to know the truth and repent of their wicked ways. God rewards the faithful who not only are faithful to keep God’s word, but to demonstrate the love of God to a world who is blinded by the darkness of our day, and needs Jesus. Let us return evil with good.

Thrrough the Blood

 Ephesian 2:13
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
We all were born in sin and are far off from knowing Christ. All our human efforts to draw close to God are made impossible because of the enmity of sin in our hearts toward God. There is nothing we can do to break down the wall of partition that separates us from God. He is holy, we are unholy, He is just, we are unjust, He is righteous, we are unrighteous. We are all unclean things, what righteousness we have are as filthy rags. It is all because of God’s amazing grace that we can draw close to Him. Christ, who came to earth, gave His life on the cross, paid our debt of sin when He made the supreme sacrifice for sin shedding His blood. Redeemed by the blood of the lamb, He removed the middle wall of partition and gave us access to the throne of God. Through the atoning blood of Christ we have been set free from the bondage of sin. We now have fellowship with the Father, His Spirit ever makes intercession for us, and through His blood we have been born again and are made new creatures in Christ.

The Gift of God

Eph. 2:8,9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:..Not of works, lest any man should boast.

As good and kind as we try to be, it is not the key that unlocks the door to eternal life. By no fault of our own, we are all born in sin. The fall of Adam and Eve place the curse of sin on all humanity. At birth, lays within us an enmity against God that refuses to submit to the will of God. But God has also put in each of us a desire to know Him. The struggle between good and evil is the conflict of ages. The victory over evil cannot be achieved by doing or being good. Sin must be removed, sin must be cast out, sin must be destroyed. All our goodness and righteousness is but filthy rags, it will never be able to make us clean and fit. God so loved humanity, that He sent us a gift, His only Son, Jesus Christ to earth. His life paved the pathway giving us an example how to live good and righteous, but that example was not enough. The gift of God was to provide a way to remove sin. The propitiation was made, Christ died on the cross and shed His blood for our sin. By this grace are we now able to come boldly into God’s presence. This gift of God is only obtained through faith in believing that Jesus died for our sins and through His blood we are made clean. It is this grace that gives us the earnest desire to do good works and to live a life that is pleasing to Him. Doing what is right and good is product of our faith. Faith ceases to exist when our deeds become evil. It is the lost of faith that separates us from God, manifested by our works. No amount of works will save us without believe and accepting Jesus as our propitiation for sin.

Enmity To God

Gen.3:15 “ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.”- 

Sin and Satan are oppose to anything that is holy and right. Satan will do everything he can to destroy that which is good and wholesome. Living a holy life for God is incongruent with the carnal heart. It is in opposition to the will of God, and is not compatible to a Holy Spirit filled life. God sent His son in the form of a man to be the Seed that would bruise and defeat the plan of Satan. Satan thought he had destroyed the Seed when Jesus was nailed to the cross and put to death, but it was His death that crushed the head of Satan and provided a way for mankind to be saved from the destruction of sin and Satan. In order to live in harmony to the will of God, sin must be eliminated from our hearts. Yes, we were all born in sin and from birth are sinners, but the Seed of the women, Jesus dealt the death blow to sin, making it possible for us to live a life without sin. Not by our own righteousness, but by the grace of God that changes our life. We were once sinners, but now we have been redeemed, no longer sinners, but children of the most high God. Once (past tense) we were sinners, but now we have been set free from the bondage of sin. Our hearts are no longer in enmity to God, but made holy and subject to the will of God.