Can We Ask God Why And Get An Answer?

Why God Created Me?

Question : Brother, In your prayer time ask God why he has created me?

Answer : Greetings! Do not be discouraged....God created you to be His child, love Him and fellowship with Him (Gen 1:26-28; 1 John 1:3-4; 4:19). God shared His love in Christ Jesus so that you could understand what it costs to love us who are unworthy to receive it because of sin and the foolishness that follows us because of our own individual decisions and our forefather Adams decision to join in with Satan in rebellion to God through sin (Rom 5:12, 6; Eph 2:2, 5). God is the giver and we are the recipient of all the gifts He has bestowed on us (Matt 5:45; 8:32). If you know that you are saved, that is more than enough to be thankful for eternity ahead, and be praising God for all the eternal glories and honor that await us once we pass on from this life to the next. It is so indescribable that our human mind is so small to understand it (1 Cor 2:9; Rom 8:15), but God has promised to reveal our future to us through His Spirit within our heart so that we could get established in our faith, have great hope and live to get rooted in the love of God (1 Cor 1:10-12). But actually God is not just concerned about your eternity but He is also concerned about your present existence and would love to see you prosper (Matt 6:6-25-28). I believe that by worrying about your present existence you have not lived in faith to see the reality of God's love and experience the taste of living in relationship with Him (Psa 34:8).

I encourage you to look to the Lord and throw away your earthly ambition and pursuit of earthly excellence, riches and power which are all vanity and chasing after the wind which will bring much sorrow in your life as you had been experiencing (1 Tim 6:10; Eccl 1:14; 2:11; 5:10; James 3:13-18), but as you seek the Lord He will deliver you from all your fears, and as you keep seeking Him, your face will become radiant because of the goodness of the Lord felt in your soul, and also your face will never be ashamed for anything as long as you are in this world (Psa 34:4-5; 107:9). Your worries will then be overcome by faith and you will feel as light as a bird as you would have given all your anxiety and burdens by prayer to the Lord to carry, along with thankfulness in your heart for all His answers in advance and all His goodness shown to us this far and thus far revealed to us His care for us in Christ Jesus (1 Peter 5:6-7; Matt 11:28-30; Php 4:6-7).

If you are frustrated in life it is not because God has ceased to be good towards you, but rather you have failed in your schemes that you have tried to do, and in spite of all those things God still wants you to walk with Him, turn a new page and be prosperous in your spirit, soul, body, finance and social area of your life too ( Prov 26:2; Psa 35:27; 1 Thess 5:23-24). The Lord not only desires for your to prosper in all areas of your life, but if you serve Him with all your heart, He himself will work through you to faithfully cause all His goodness to come upon you and continue in it as long as you live on this earth for the Glory of God. So my humble suggestion is, rather than asking God why He created you, you find God's purpose by applying the above routes to prosper in life and then live satisfied for now and eternity ahead (Acts 13:36). You can ask God 'Why?' all your life and your may never get an answer, because all of God's answer has already been given in the Bible. But as you simply believe His Word and be led by His Spirit as His mature spiritual son (1 Thess 2:13; Rom 8:14), you will always not only have an answer for your existence but also a prosperous life of heaven within you to build your life on it and glorify God in all you do and live.

Much Blessings....

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Is Fighting Against Sin A Losing Battle And A Frustration That Cannot Be Avoided?

I Like The Sin I Do, But Then Feel Guilty, Repent To God, But Fall Again

Question : I struggle with a particular sin that seems to have a stronghold on me. I commit this particular sin because I like it. I know it is wrong but I do it anyway… because I like it. After I commit this sin I feel guilty and remorseful. I repent and ask God to forgive me only to go right back and do it again. It’s as if there are two of me warring against each other. It has become a vicious cycle. Sometimes it seems like I’m fighting a losing battle. I’m so frustrated!

Answer : We know that we all sin many times knowingly by our disobedient actions towards God and unknowingly in our thoughts (Rom 7:19; Psa 19:12; Lev 5:17-19). In Matt. 5:22,28 Jesus said our thoughts can be just as sinful as our actions spiritually. Then in Matt. 12:36, he said that even words that we speak are as serious as the actions we do to be judged for it equally to be justified or condemned by it on the day of judgment. Then the above shows that many sins that which we never even realize as sin we continue in it as though it is not that serious.

Then what can we do in such a state, I believe we can only discern our utter human depravity and ask ourselves, "Who can discern [my] errors?"...[Then ask God's help by saying to Him] "Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression." (Psalm 19:12-13). In other words, only God could help us overcome our willful sins that we do, and that which also takes a stronghold slowly and subtly in our lives. Only when God steps in to control that part of our lives, we can be blameless, innocent of great transgression and be free from that sin that rules over us.

If sin wasn’t pleasurable we’d have no trouble denying it. For each one of us we have trouble in different sinful areas. For some of us it is as basic as overeating, drinking too much and adoring ourselves with too much external things to be self occupied with it all the time and such...still for some others it is their preoccupation with their bank account, property, sports, leisure activities etc which are many times kept as idols that replace the desire for God...still for some others it is their uncontrollable tempers, or wrong friendship, or lusts [i.e. pornography, masturbation, etc...], or envy, or pride. But all of the above is sinful in the sight of God equally and none can justify one sin as better than the other (James 2:10), even though the soulish, physical, social, financial result or wages of it that we receive as a after effect for committing it in our lives might be different for each of these sins. Only if there is someone living as a hypocrite before God and men as the Pharisees were in the days of Jesus, they could deny they have problems similar to yours (Matt 23:26-28).

Even the mighty apostle Paul had this problem. “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:18-19). So we must not look to ourselves for the answer for our sin problems, the more we look to ourselves, the more we get entangled in to this sin-confess-sin cycle. But if we choose to thank God for the salvation that He has already given by forgiving our past, present and future sins all at once in Christ Jesus through His death on Calvary (Heb 10:12, 14), and then praise God that He has not only saved us from the penalty of sin but has also has saved us in to a life of peace and joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit who gives us all of it when we start to desire in our heart to please God by humbling ourselves as incapable of pleasing God by our own strength, but then glorify Him as the only capable person to help us overcome our addiction and weakness towards the allurement of sin through His strength, then God looks towards us and gives His grace to our humble heart to receive and see the victory over sin through Jesus Christ working within us (Rom 14:17; Jam 4:5, 10; 1 Peter 5:5-7; 2 Cor 10:17-18; Rom 7:25).

But nobody on Earth is perfect (1 John 1:8), so when you sin, confess and receive your forgiveness. As Jesus is the present Advocate with the Father who is the only one who is righteous enough to represent us as our substitute and give us relief from the guilt of sin and cleanses our heart from the trace of the remembrance of all unrighteousness through His precious blood (1 John 1:9; 2:1-2), we must approach God always trusting Jesus' favor on us. To God once we confess our sins, He is faithful and just enough to forget it as though it never happened at all (Psa 103:12). We as God's children should also learn to forget our mistakes, sins and failures as though it never happened at all once we have confessed it to God and instead praise God, thank God and love God for who He is and what we have become in Christ Jesus because of His goodness. This will surely break sin-confess-sin cycle to make it become sin-confess-forget and overcome cycle. Once we are not conscious of any sin and its power (Heb 2:15), we will have not fear but only faith towards God and His power to serve Him and glorify Him with a clean conscience in our daily walk with Him (Heb 9:14; 2:14, 16, 18).

Much Blessings.....

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A True Christian Lives In Repentance All The Days Of His Earthly Life

The Gift Of Repentance

By Abraham Israel

We know that in our Christian life, we cannot do anything eternally worthwhile without Jesus life and strength working in us to overcome the ugly evil trios of our self and sin, world and the evil one (John 15:5). The more we try to work our way with our own strength in our Christian life, the more we get frustrated and become unsatisfied with it.

So we must come to a mature understanding in our Christian life that repentance in itself is a gift from God to us personally. Repentance leads us to confess our sins and helps us be cleansed by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7, 9). Repentance is something that is not optional for a Christian but in the will of God it is His desire that all should repent and receive the heavenly abundant life to enjoy God's life on earth itself as He enjoys it in heaven (2 Peter 3:9; John 10:10). Repentance leads us to to more and more intimate fellowship with God but it does not qualify us for heaven because through the free gift of salvation once for all time Jesus has qualified us having sacrificed himself on behalf of our sins, and have made us perfect already in the sight of God (Heb 10:10, 14), He has qualified us to become partakers of God's nature as His dear children and thus made us already ready for heaven irrespective of our behavior which is in the process of getting transformed in to the image and character of Christ until our death which will fetch us a great eternal reward (2 Cor 3:18; 2 Peter 1:3-4; Eph 5:1).

In repentance we who have been perfected spiritually and positioned in Christ Jesus by God are being sanctified and transformed in to Christ's image which is the will of God for our lives on earth till we enter heaven to receive our reward of glorification for our maturity in Christ (Rom 8:29-30; 1 Cor 9:24-27). The first time repentance leads us to God in Christ Jesus to become a child of God and Kingdom citizens (Matt 3:2; 4:17), the other life time of repentance leads us to eternal reward in Christ Jesus (Mark 2:17). Martin Luther, the great reformer, wrote: "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ says repent, he means that the whole life of believers on earth should be a constant and perpetual repentance. Repentance and sorrow - i. e. true repentance - endure as long as a man is displeased with himself - that is, until he passes from this life into eternity. The desire of self-justification is the cause of all the distresses of the heart."

Repentance in itself is a gift from God and it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4). Repentance before salvation is telling God that I am bound to hell as a sinner, I need the Savior Jesus to save me from it. Repentance after salvation is telling to God that even though I am bound to heaven, still sin, world and the devil trips me away from fellowshipping with You and move me away from enjoying Your presence, help me by cleansing me through confessing to You that I have sinned when I sin and make me realize that I need your righteousness in Christ Jesus without which I become useless spiritually and might walk displeasing to You.

Walking with a heart of repentance makes a Christian keep himself away from deception of the evil one who makes the deceived to do his will (2 Tim 2:24-26). Only God can grant us repentance seeing our desperation and our love for Him through having a sincere desire to do His will through obeying His Word and His Spirit. Sin hardens a Christians heart and moves him in to deception if he does not choose to confess to God about it as soon as possible, so it is better to exhort, remind and empower one another daily to look to God and confess our sins for continued fellowship with Him and to live a fruitful Christian life of victory and eternal reward (Heb 3:13-15). When ever a Christian chooses to sin willfully and fall away in to the deception of the enemy of our soul Satan, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance as they are crucifying for themselves again our Lord Jesus Christ and are putting to open shame His great name before heaven and earth (Heb 10:26-31; 6:6-8). Things which are impossible with men to repent back are only possible with God to perhaps give repentance to those rebellious saints who sin, so that they might be able to continue to be enlightened to walk again with Him in His light, truth and life (Luke 18:24-27; 2 Tim 2:24-26).   

May we come to realize the following if we are true Christians by acknowledging the following points as yes and amen (2 Cor 13:5-6):

A Christian no longer loves sin as he once did (1 John 2:15-17).

A Christian no longer brags about his sin as he once did (2 Peter 1:8-9).

A Christian no longer plans to sin as he once did (1 John 3:9).

A Christian no longer fondly remembers his sin as he once did (1 Cor 4:3-4).

A Christian never fully enjoys his sin as he once did (John 16:7-8).

A Christian no longer is comfortable in habitual sin as he once was (1 John 3:7-8).

May we loudly say a BIG AMEN to all of the above and glorify God!

As we as a Christian learn to abide in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, we do not sin intentionally and habitually by enjoying it but rather fall sometimes but immediately return back to God with repentance to become fruitful again to glorify God and inherit the eternal reward that God has in store for us (John 15:5; 1 John 3:6). As a follower of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, may we value the gift of repentance that God has given to us individually and not allow unconfessed sin perpetually to grieve our heavenly Father God's heart, but rather run to the father like the prodigal son to confess to Him our faults and sins to return back to the beautiful fellowship of His Presence as soon as possible (Luke 15:18-24).

"The Christian no longer loves sin; it is the object of his sternest horror: he no longer regards it as a mere trifle, plays with it, or talks of it with unconcern . . . Sin is dejected in the Christian's heart, though it is not ejected. Sin may enter the heart, and fight for dominion, but it cannot sit upon the throne." — C. H. Spurgeon

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Is Easter And Christmas Eastern Or Western?

Can Christians From Hindu Background Celebrate Diwali As Festival Of Light Of Jesus?
 

Question : Thanks for taking time, Bro. Abraham, to write and explain. I am not sure if you watched these two videos [i.e. Truth Or Tradition -Should Christians Celebrate Christmas And Easter? : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Z3NTbSsbc, Easter and "good" Friday : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnoX-TOxQWk], in the first video he specifically talks about the goddess austra/easter, and bunnies and eggs that are so much a part of North American Church today. The person in the second video talked about Two Sabbaths!!! One the passover and one regular so if Jesus died on Wednesday, 3 pm, 3 days and 3 nights would be sometime Saturday after 3 pm? Yes, we are not told what day Jesus was born or die but we do know that he was born, and that he died for our sins. Yes, we are to celebrate every day both his birth, death and resurrection, at the same why? WHY choose the European Pagan religions that the early church leaders chose to integrate to almost call it a western religion? By no means I see Easter bunnies and Easter eggs and Easter the goddess that pagans celebrate in the Bible, or in the middle east or in India for that matter!! Why fit Christmas and Resurrection into these western religions? So it would be OK to celebrate Diwali as well since Hindu converted Christians want to celebrate Diwali and want to call it a festival of lights? It's a thought to ponder on! I know many Hindu converted Christians who are trying to argue their points forward saying the same thing that why do you have pagan religions as a part of Christian religion? Why not eastern religions?? Any thoughts on this?

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name! Yes I have watched your video where that person explains how the modern North American Church is holding all the pagan tradition which has come from Europe. He makes a case why he will not celebrate the Easter, but I would say that as a believer in Christ that is his personal choice. God given enough freedom to accommodate our cultural tradition and positively carry on the symbolic meaning of it if it doesn't stand against our belief. That is why one of the greatest apostle of all time who is Paul says, "19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; 20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; 22 to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 23 Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you." (1 Cor 9:19-23).

In other words, we can only bring the gospel to people as we understand people's various cultural tradition and blend with it to give out the message of the gospel without changing or diluting the gospel message to accommodate them. To relate to someone we become like them in their tradition, but to impart the precious message of the gospel we have to live and demonstrate the power of it before people. So this is what the great apostle Paul did to various cultures around the world to make them receive the gospel so that they could be saved spiritually for eternity ahead. So who knows, just like that to reach out to the European people of that time, some of the apostolic messengers would have tried to relate with people of that time and their tradition to share the message of the Gospel, but then as time went on, with the gospel those traditions also would have continued in the Western Religion of Christianity which started in Europe and spread through out both North and South Americas. These traditions are neither against the gospel nor it supports the gospel and has no spiritual power or value in it. So wisely it is better for us to relate with people for the sake of spreading the good news of the Kingdom of God rather than trying to debate with people to tell them which tradition is right or which is wrong. We have got the power of the gospel to do the work in all parts of the world (1 Cor 2:4; 4:20), and so tradition can either be thrown out if it possibly starts to affect the spiritual power like it did for the first century Jews or leave it aside if it doesn't mess with spiritual things so that we can choose to concentrate on spreading the message of Jesus Christ and keep it as the prime objective of our lives as did the apostle Paul (Mark 7:5-9, 13).

For example, Pagan tradition like caste cannot be accommodated in the Christian faith because those will bring a division in the Body of Christ, and God has called us to unity and not division (1 Cor 12:27; Eph 4:3, 4-6; Php 2:3; Rom 12:18; Jude 1:3). Caste is demonic because it divides people based on their work they do, and also keeps a demonic god for each of those division that patronize a particular god as their deity. The problem with those people who come from eastern tradition in to Christianity are those who had been involved in Idol worship mostly and their conscience are weak. So when they are encouraged to celebrate Diwali saying that 'Jesus is the light of the world' and that He has defeated Satan like in the Hindu festival of Diwali which signifies the victory of light over darkness (John 8:12; Col 2:15), the pathetic result of it will be just like as said by Paul that some of those whose conscience are weak might get tripped over by their past feeling of false faith from which Jesus has freed them, it will make them again get entangled in those darkness to keep them under the clutches of Satan's superstitious curses from which they have already been freed (1 Cor 10:29; Rom 14:14-15). So happy is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves is the scale that we must use whether to encourage people to celebrate Diwali as a festival of light of Jesus personally in their lives or not. Since Hindu converted Christians who want to celebrate Diwali and want to call it a festival of lights might be weak in their faith (Rom 14:22), it is better to think twice and be led by the Spirit of God to let them freely rejoice, relate and celebrate to make friends with their other relatives and friends who are from the Hindu background so that they can draw them to faith in Christ or else they will be drawn by the same superstitious darkness again to get entangled themselves in it. So we do not know in details of all those people's faith, because they vary person to person according to their spiritual growth (Rom 12:3). But I believe there are people who have got matured in their Christian faith even though they are coming from eastern traditions and Hindu background, such people God will freely use them to relate back to their roots to celebrate Diwali and also convey the message of Jesus to other friends and relatives who are still in darkness and be a great blessing in making them be led to Christ for eternal salvation.

I believe the European Pagan religions which the early church leaders chose to integrate with Christian festivals was done to keep the people of God engaged to focus on the message of Jesus Christ and not to be carried away with others, they wanted to relate to people and draw them to Christ and it almost came to a point where it has been called as a western religion. If these traditions keeps Christ away from the celebration, then the intention for which the early Church leaders kept it along with Pagan religion celebration day will not be fulfilled but rather it will start to do disservice to the Church of Jesus Christ. So no matter what celebration we do, Christ should be the center of it. If these traditions makes the power of the Word of God as void, then I believe it is better to throw away those things personally in our lives according to the conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-8). But again I think tradition in itself is not sin unless it starts to distract the real reason for celebration of all Christian festivals.

Christmas and Resurrection is neither western or eastern in its content, but it is the very life blood of the message of the Gospel that makes each believers to stand on the truth which has been passed to us from the apostles (1 Cor 15:14; Matt 1:21). If Christ has not been born through a woman (Matt 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35), he would not have been born as human. If He would not have been born as human, he could not have died for our sins to make God forgive us (Heb 2:14). If Jesus did not die for us He could not rise as a God-Man to be a mediator for all humanity to bring favor of God to all who follow Him (1 Tim 2:5). The Apostles’ Creed was written at least 150 years after the apostles had all died to keep the focus right where the apostles emphasized and to keep the pure doctrine of the apostles alive and well within the Church, it says like the following, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen." In the above apostles creed we come to see that the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus has been emphasized for confession to keep the doctrine pure and for all the believers to keep their faith grounded in the most important things which they are to concentrate (1 Cor 15:1-4). So both Christmas and Easter echoes this main message to be remembered and confessed for the believers and celebrate the content of it. So in spite of not knowing the exact time of Jesus' birth and to some extent knowing the day of resurrection based on Jewish passover, we come to understand that the message that vibrates within the context of both the festivals are so important for the faith of believers to be nurtured and grown and rooted deep.

God has clearly told that we are in the world and not of the world (John 17:11, 16), which clearly conveys to us that we should not be conformed to the world's way of living but be transformed by the renewing of our minds through the Word of God to become a blessing to others within the good, acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom 12:2). So to relate to others we can always use traditions of people and reach them with the love and message of the Gospel of Christ for whom Jesus has died (1 Cor 9:20). But at the same time if we think that the tradition will start to weaken our faith and walk of power with God by nullifying the Word sown within us (Mark 7:13-14), then wisely by the guidance of God's wisdom from the Holy Spirit as mature sons and daughters of God we should avoid such traditions in celebration but keep it focused on Christ and along with that concentrate on our spiritual walk with God so that God can use us to be channel of His mighty blessing some day in our future to others around us.

Thanks and Blessings.....

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Is It True That The Wild Ox Anointing Of God Is More Apostolic And Prophetic In Its Operation?

Is The Wild Ox Anointing For All Believers?

Question : Is the wild ox anointing for prophets? Or is it apostolic? Or for both? Or for anyone? I believe I have this and am just being called back into serving God, and am trying to re-establish into the five-fold. Read your blog and it was so right on and helped me see so much better. Thank you!

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!! OX ANOINTING is nothing but God arising out of His strength from within you to destroy your enemies that are oppressing you in the spirit realm. Prophets and apostles usually because they hold themselves in the spirit realm by "praying with the spirit" nearly all the time as much as possible (1 Cor 14:15, 18), they are so much used to this naturally that by manifesting spiritually the impulsive OX Anointing of God, they completely destroys the stronghold of Satan and his demonic minions directly, completely and effortlessly (Jer 51:20), and this anointing over their lives makes them lethal weapon of God against all the demonic enemies of God (Isa 49:2-3).

The deeper truth of an OX ANOINTING is described within the verses of this beautiful Chapter of Psalm 92. Psalm 92:9-11 says, "v9 For behold, Your enemies, O Lord, For behold, Your enemies shall perish; All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. v10 But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. v11 My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies; My ears hear my desire on the wicked Who rise up against me." The key phrase that reveals the ox anointing of God is "But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil (Psa 92:10)," which reveals that God suddenly releases a "Fresh Oil" of great strength and authority equal to that of an wild ox whenever we are in a situation where we come face to face with the potential enemies of God who are Satan and his cohorts.

God can use anybody in the five-fold ministry office with the anointing of an ox as much as they hold themselves up in the spirit realm and make way for God to arise as much as possible in them to deal with His and their enemies (Eph 4:11; Psa 68:1), but it does not end there as God wants all the believers to be priestly-kings on behalf of Him, so we know according to the measure of faith that the believers have acquired by hearing the voice and Word of God (Rom 10:17), they will be able to operate similarly in this Ox Anointing in the spirit realm against all the demonic enemies of God (Rev 5:10; 1 John 5:4; Rom 12:3, 6-8).

The bottom line is that all those believers who are zealous for God and His ways will always experience some measure of this Ox Anointing to some extent that makes them also lethal against the enemies of God to a large extent. Praise the Lord for the OX anointing that you are experiencing, if you keep praying always in the spirit and hold yourself up in the spirit realm, God could easily use you to be a lethal weapon in His hands by making available His Ox Anointing and make you operate in this gifted blessedness of heavenly awesome Ox Anointing on earth for His Glory (Prov 14:4).

Much Blessings....

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Can Believers Just Live Condemnation-Free Or Reign Over Sin To Claim Eternal Reward?

Are The Believers Still Sinners Or Saints?

Question : People say "I am a sinner saved by grace". Jesus said " Go and sin no more". On our best day the Bible says our righteousness is as filthy rags. Therefore it is good to know that in spite of our sin, Christ died on the cross. And his blood has washed our sins away. So we do not have to live in condemnation. Forgiveness means that we too too have to forgive ourselves. What is your take on that?

Answer : Greetings! We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus as Paul has clearly conveyed, and that to me conveys a clear message that says that we are as righteous as God is in Christ Jesus and that is the reason as a new creation we can call our God in heaven as 'Abba Father' (2 Cor 5:21, 17; John 5:18). So not only we have forgiveness of our past, present and future sins once and for all time in Christ Jesus with no condemnation, but we have also been perfected in Christ Jesus already so that in liberty we can choose to live that righteous lifestyle moment by moment by the power of the Holy Spirit which is called as reigning through righteousness to eternal life on earth by grace as God reigns in heaven (Eph 4:32; Rom 8:1; Heb 10:10, 14; Rom 5:21). Grace not only helps us in our weaknesses but it empowers us to reign through in this life for the Glory of God! We can't be a saved sinners, we can only be a 'saints who sin' because of our fleshly weaknesses but return back to the perfect righteousness of Christ by repenting and looking back to our position and high standing of God's call to walk worthily and prove the power of God before heaven and earth for God's glory (1 Cor 1:2; 1 John 2:1-2, 9; Eph 4:1). I believe that a believer in Christ Jesus cannot continue in a besetting sin indefinitely because the seed of God who is the Holy Spirit is in him and he remains in Him inter-penetratingly as One, so the Holy Spirit will convict the world in him of his sin and righteousness of Christ at the same time to return back to the calling of a saint, so that he could either judge himself or get chastised by the Lord to repent back through it (1 John 3:9; 1 Cor 6:17; John 16:7--11; 1 Cor 11:31-32). So Christ had died on the Cross for our sins and not in spite of it (1 Cor 15:2-3), and washed away our sins by shedding His precious sinless blood on behalf of us on the Cross, so that not only we do not have to live in condemnation and sin cycle by overcoming fear by faith (Rom 6:23; John 8:34, 32, 36; Heb 2:14-15; 2 Tim 1:7; 1 John 5:4), but we can choose to reign over sin and be free from the tyranny of sin by the empowerment of God's grace through our Lord Jesus Christ in our lives for the Glory of God (Rom 6:11-14; 5:17; Titus 2:11-15; 3:8). WE ARE NOT SINNERS SAVED BY GRACE, BUT WE ARE SAINTS WHO ARE SAVED BY GRACE BUT DO SIN BECAUSE OF OUR WEAKNESSES, AT THE SAME TIME BY OUR CHOICE TO APPROPRIATE MORE GRACE ARE LIFTED UP AGAIN BY HIS ALL EMPOWERING GRACE WHICH REPOSITIONS OUR STANDING IN CHRIST JESUS AND MAKES US REIGN OVER SIN.

Rightly did the mighty man of God Brother Leonard Ravenhill say, "You know, people say that today. "Oh, I am just a saved sinner." That is like saying you are a married bachelor. That is like saying you are an honest thief, or a pure harlot. You can't be a saved sinner. You are either saved or you are a sinner. He came. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall save his people from their sins." He saves us from sins that we have committed and from committing a thousand more that would meet us at the judgment." Yes Praise the Lord! We have been saved completely from our past, present and future sins of all kind by our Lord Jesus once and for all to be made perfect before God on the Cross to become saints, so that now as Jesus has risen, and our faith is firmly placed in our living reigning Christ at God's right hand which has given us great hope about our present victorious life over sin of all kind for our future life, reward, honor and glory that has freed us from all our sins (1 Cor 15:17, 14, 19). Now we are at liberty to fulfill God's will with gratitude for what the Lord has done freely for us (2 Cor 3:8, 17-18; Rom 8:32). All the good work we do now in our Christian life in the name of our Lord can only either bring us reward or because of our wrong motives might have lose of eternal reward (1 Cor 3:12-15; 2 Cor 5:9-11). Believers are all scheduled to appear before the judgment seat of Christ not for condemnation because in Christ each one of us have already passed from condemnation to life eternal in Christ Jesus (John 3:18; 5:24), but apart from sin for salvation reward we must appear before the terror and awe of the Lord which judges our motives of sin by the Word of God to reward us righteously with honor and glory positions to reign in heaven with God for eternity ahead (Heb 9:27-28; 4:12-13; John 12:48). IF EVER WE CAN EARN TREASURE FOR ETERNITY AHEAD, IT IS NOW AS WE LIVE FOR GOD PLEASING HIM IN ALL THINGS OR NEVER EVER WILL WE AGAIN GET A CHANCE TO REDEEM IT! LOVE GOD AND LIVE FOR HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART, ALL YOUR SOUL, ALL YOUR STRENGTH AND ALL YOUR MIND AND REPLICATE THAT LOVE OF GOD TOWARDS ALL HUMANS WHOM GOD BRINGS YOUR WAY IN YOUR LIFE AS YOUR NEIGHBORS (Luke 10:27).

Thanks and Blessings...

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Should Christians Celebrate Easter?

 

Should We Call It Easter Or Resurrection Day?

Question : Greetings in our Savior Lord Jesus' precious name! I have this question. A good believer Brother put these videos and I watched them both. We as a family, few years ago learned that Easter is a pagan holiday and not actual Resurrection day. So we do not wish anyone Easter but only Happy Resurrection day. But the second video says that Jesus did not die on Friday but on Wednesday and rose on Sabbath Day! May you prayerfully unearth the truth for me? I hope you do not mind me sending you these two videos that shows some truth! We must dig for truth and not go by what is world wide accepted or has been emerged from many centuries practices of tradition. I want to follow the truth! Thanks! One video is 5 min and the other is 8 min!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Z3NTbSsbc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnoX-TOxQWk

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus name! I believe that we can celebrate of the resurrection joy of Jesus, if possible all the 365 days in a year because all of these days are created by God for us to rejoice and celebrate, that is why the Psalmist says, "This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psa 118:24). Apostle Paul agrees with the above Bible verse to say, "4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" (Php 4:4).

Love, not command, is what motivates many Christians to celebrate Easter. I encourage all those who celebrate Easter to make Christ the center of their celebration. The decision to observe Easter, and how to observe it, is a personal matter in the New Testament. There is no clear yes or no from either Jesus or the apostles in regard to celebration of any festivals. According to the apostles, baptism in water and the Lord’s Supper are the only sacraments of the church. Baptism in water is a declaration to the world that a believer has died with Christ and they have been raised with Him to walk in the newness of life (Matthew 28:19; Acts 10:47-48; Romans 6:4). The celebration of the Lord’s Supper by eating of the bread and drinking of the cup is a remembrance of Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:24-30).

Here is what apostle Paul says regarding celebration of any kind for the Christians, "11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. 16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." (Col 2:11-17). In other words Paul was saying that it is not legalism of keeping the law and festivals like in the Old Testament that matters to God (Psa 81:3), but relationship with living Christ that matters the most in the New Testament era (John 15:1-8). Because all the celebration we can do is just the shadow of the things that have happened or the things to come, but the reality of our spiritual experience is not in experiencing joy and ecstasy because of neither tradition nor the festivals that we choose to celebrate, but in reality of connecting to God through our Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship and intimacy through the Word of God and the Spirit of God (1 John 1:3; 2 Cor 13:13-14).

Jack Kelley a Bible teacher of the website gracethrufaith.com explains by saying, "Jesus said, “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:40). But there’s no way to fit 3 days and 3 nights between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:31 all identify Preparation Day as the day of the Lord’ s death, while Matt. 27:62 says the day after the crucifixion was the day after Preparation Day. So all four Gospels agree; Jesus died on Preparation day, the 14th of their month Nisan, which is Passover. As evening began the day, He ate the ritual meal with His disciples in the Upper Room, and then was arrested, tried, convicted, and put to death; all on Passover. So just like the Lord had commanded in Exodus 12, our Passover Lamb was selected on the 10th, inspected on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, and executed on the 14th of Nisan.

Therefore Passover, the 14th, was a Thursday. The Feast of Unleavened bread began on Friday the 15th, Saturday the 16th was the weekly Sabbath, and Resurrection Morning was also a Sunday, the 17th, when the Feast of First Fruits was celebrated. From Thursday to Sunday there are three days and three nights. The Hebrew day changes at sunset, which means that night precedes day.

In a gist, Jesus had to die on Passover to fulfill the prophecy. Early that Thursday morning the Jewish leadership had gotten permission to crucify Him. (Matt. 27:1-26). By 9.00 AM He was hanging on the Cross, by 3.00 PM he died and was buried before sundown brought the Feast of Unleavened Bread which was a holy day of non-activity for the Jews. Thursday was day one and after sundown was Friday. Friday the 15th, night one, and the special Sabbath John mentioned began (John 19:31). At sunrise it was Friday morning, and day two began. The next sundown brought Saturday night the 16th, night two, and the regular Sabbath began. As of sunrise it was Saturday day, the beginning of day three. At sundown on Saturday it became Sunday night the 17th, night three, and sometime before sunrise Jesus rose from the tomb. Three days and three nights. When the women arrived at sunrise to anoint His body early in the morning, He was already gone (Matt 28:1-8).[Note : So in the week Jesus died two Sabbaths that permitted no work were observed back to back: The Feast of Unleavened Bread on Friday the 15th, and the regular weekly Sabbath on Saturday the 16th. Luke 24:1 tells us they were going to anoint His body for burial because the two consecutive Sabbaths had prevented them from doing so earlier (Luke 23:55-56).]"

So Sunday morning was the resurrection morning in which the tomb of Jesus was empty because He has risen just as He said He will. The two disciples who met the Lord on the road to Emmaus that Sunday (the day the Lord’s resurrection was discovered) help us to confirm that the resurrection day was the third day after the crucifixion of Jesus (Luke 24:13-35). “Since” is roughly equivalent to “after”, Thursday was the day He died and after that the day one was Friday, day two was Saturday and the day three was Sunday in which these disciples who met the Lord were going towards a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13, 18-20, 21). If Jesus had died on Wednesday and rose on Sabbath Day [i.e. Sunday] these disciples on the way to Emmaus would have told, 'this is the fourth day after Crucifixion of Jesus has happened.' So that logic would not fit and create chaos as it is wrong to calculate like that, and it would create more confusion than solve the mystery of three days and three nights prophecy of Jesus.

Now that "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." (1 Cor 5:7), we are supposed to look to what Jesus did for us rather than when He did and what hour and second he fulfilled it intricately. Clearly the apostle Paul emphasizes the spiritual aspect of Jesus forever defeating Satan and all His demonic cohorts who are our enemies, and therefore has forever forgiven all of our sins once and for all time by nailing it to the Cross and wiped of the handwriting of the requirement of the law which was against us. By His death Jesus has appeased God's justice fully, and thus we have become justified before God through the resurrection of Jesus (Col 2:11-17; 1 Cor 15:3-4, 14, 17). Justification is both a past where God declared us "guiltless" and a future event where we will be rewarded for our sacrificial work, by God giving us a glorious eternal body of honor (Romans 4:25; 5:19). Those who obey the law are justified in the past, but now those who live by faith are justified and honored (Romans 2:13; Romans 3:25-26; Heb 10:38). Christ died for our justification of present reality and future reality of what is to come has been guaranteed by the resurrection of the Lord on Sunday morning, which actually clearly shows us that we will one day be resurrected and live with God just like Jesus which is our future hope and comfort (1 Cor 15:12-19, 49, 51-52, 57-58; 1 Thess 4:14-18; 1 John 3:2-3).

According to Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, Easter or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So according to me, you can call Easter Sunday as the 'Happy Resurrection Day' because that would be a specific wish of reminding people of the truth of what Jesus has done for us by coming alive. Also it would remind us that Jesus is no more dead, but He is alive and well at the right hand of God making intercession for each one of us to succeed as His disciples on earth and inherit great eternal reward from God for eternity ahead (Rom 8:34). At the same time it is not a sin to call it as Easter too, because that would indicate that Jesus the Son of God has risen like a sun in the east on Sunday which is Easter morning symbolically. The world is full of spiritual darkness ruled by Satan and his cohorts, but Jesus as a Morning star has risen in the hearts of all the believing saints as well as He rose physically alive from death to live forever and ever on behalf of ever one of us who believe him as the last human Adam and the second man of the new creation of God which actually means that He is the image of the invisible God and the first born over all creation (2 Peter 1:16-21; 2 Cor 4:4; 1 Cor 15:45-47; Col 1:15). As Jesus is described in the Scripture by Luke as "the rising sun" (Luke 1:78) and He is also called the "bright Morning Star" in Scripture by John the apostolic revelator (Revelation 22:16), we know that Easter truly belongs to none other than Jesus rightfully no matter how much tradition of pagans the world tries to mix and change the meaning of it. So whom we worship is one God through our one risen Lord Jesus, though there are many so called gods the world worships around us it doesn't matter and it can never affect our true worship as we worship God in our spirit and in His truth spiritually beyond time, space and limitation of any human kind (1 Cor 8:6; John 4:24). As we have seen above that the sun symbolically and spiritually represented by the apostles as Jesus, also the sun is universally worshiped as a god by pagan cultures, but God has used such symbol in spite of all such thing in Scripture to symbolize an aspect of Jesus’ glory because God conveys to us all that the fulness of all the earth and the glory of it belong to Him and Him alone who created it (Psa 24:1). So rather than not celebrating Easter based on our small understanding, let us do it all for the glory of God focusing on what Jesus has done for us to make a spiritual and a eternal difference in our lives and circle of friends. We are blessed because of Jesus and so we shall celebrate the resurrection day for Jesus! Hurrah!!! Jesus is alive and well....so are we in this earth fulfilling God's purpose for our lives!!! Happy Easter Resurrection Day!!!

Much Blessings....

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