[2nd file of 7] CHRISTIANS UNDER CONSTRUCTION "Please be patient, God isn't finished with me yet." Believers in Jesus could wear a big yellow sign, "Christian under construction." After being "born again", the Christian baby believer is responsible to FEED on the "milk of the Word" (see I Peter 2:2 and Hebrews 5:12-14) and to GROW as a Christian (see II Peter 3:18). God Himself is at work in the lives of Christians, at times providing "crisis experiences" of grace, but mostly providing a progressive ongoing growth through the everyday grind of life. The apostle Paul wrote to people he loved dearly, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6 NAS) The phrase "will perfect it" is given in other versions as "will bring it to completion" or "will keep on working" until that Day. Believers in Christ not only escape the well-deserved sentence of Hell by God's grace, but it is also entirely in the power of God's grace that we live our daily lives and grow as persons toward Christlike maturity. If you are already a believer in Jesus, and not committed to the ministry of another Bible-believing church, we invite you to come grow with us. If you are not yet a believer in Jesus, we urge you to put your trust in Him. We also invite you to read the little letter of Paul to the Philippians in the New Testament. Most folks could read it out loud in ten minutes. It is some of the most tender and personal material in the Bible, and it speaks of Paul's love for his friends and his faith in his Savior, even in the worst of circumstances. Read it for yourself. Come and visit us. We're confident! [Clyde Price SHOT05] CHURCH OF THE LIVING DEAD The apostle Paul made several startling statements in the same breath: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me." (Galatians 2:20 NAS) Paul visualized himself up on the cross with (or IN) Jesus Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ." He amplifies this thought in Romans 6. Paul considered himself, in a sense, to be a DEAD MAN. Paul visualized the Risen Christ as living in his own body, "and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." He amplifies this thought in Romans 8. The apostle states his motivation for turning his body over to Jesus the Son of God: He "loved me and delivered Himself up for me" as an atoning sacrifice for sin on the cross. For more detail on this, see Romans 3:19ff. This does not mean that Paul had condemned himself to the semi-life of a cosmic zombie. Jesus Christ said, "I came that they [My 'sheep', My people] might have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10) Paul's method of experiencing this abundant life on an ongoing, daily basis, he states simply, "and the life which I now live in the flesh, I LIVE BY FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD..." Paul writes here in intensely personal terms some deep and heavy spiritual truth. We invite you to read the letters to the Galatians and Romans to get a firmer understanding of what Paul is talking about. This principle of the "exchanged life" is one of the deepest concepts in the Bible. By faith, you give your life to Him, and He gives His LIFE to you. Can YOU say the same things Paul said? If not, you need to put your trust in Jesus. [Clyde Price SHOT06] MINIMUM DAILY REQUIREMENTS Do you eat a good diet? Do you take vitamins? Or do you exist on Twinkles and Freeters and onion dip? What do you feed your soul? Even if you are careful to consume only organically grown whole foods, the MDR for your spirit is prescribed by Jesus Christ: "But He answered and said, 'It is written, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."'" (Matthew 4:4 NAS) God has revealed Himself supremely in the Person of Jesus Christ. He has revealed Himself in words and language in a Book, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. In the quote above from Matthew, Jesus is quoting the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. The quotation applies primarily to people who are already in a faith-covenant with the true and living God. Whether you already have a faith- relationship with God or not, we challenge you to READ THE BIBLE, one "book" at a time, with a bookmark. Every page testifies one way or another to the reality of Jesus Christ. If nothing else, consider that the Bible has had tremendous literary and cultural impact through most of history over much of the world. Anyone who wants to be truly educated cannot afford to be unfamiliar with the Bible. Some people have even found saving faith in the bleak little book of Nahum. (If you believe the Bad News, you can FLEE! Sin must be judged; all sin not dealt with at the cross of Christ must be dealt with in the lake of fire. Judgment has been declared, the only way out of the "City of Destruction" is to flee in faith to the cross of Jesus Christ, where the fire of judgment has already fallen.) Most of the Bible is more enjoyable. It is a story of God seeking a people for Himself, and His love for His people. You can believe everything the Bible says about Jesus, and all God's promises are true. He is "as good as His Word." Put your trust in Jesus. [Clyde Price SHOT07] CHECK IT OUT IN THE BOOK Do you know preachers who get uptight and huffy if you ask them to back up what they're saying from Scripture? The book of Acts records, "Now these [Jews of Berea] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so." (Acts 17:ll NAS) Luke, the human author of Acts, considered that it was a NOBLE-minded trait for the Bereans to CHECK OUT the preaching of the apostle Paul carefully against the Scriptures. At this time, these could have been only what we call the Old Testament: the Law, the Prophets, and the Wisdom Writings of the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul was constantly "dialoging" with people, welcoming questions and answering them from the Scriptures and from his knowledge of the life and ministry of Jesus the Messiah. Paul could and did claim APOSTOLIC authority for his preaching, but Luke--and apparently also Paul--considered it COMMENDABLE that the Bereans wanted to base their faith on the Scriptures and not JUST on the assertions of a preacher. If you are presently under the influence of a preacher who preaches on his (or her) own authority, and refuses to be accountable to questions about their Scriptural views, we would frankly suggest that you GET OUT and find a Bible- believing church. This does not excuse any attitude of rebelliousness or criticism of a God-called Bible-believing pastor. But any true servant of God will rejoice when people search the Scriptures for themselves, and even ask questions. We certainly do. Even if we can't answer all your questions, we'd like to meet you and talk with you. We encourage you to read the Bible for yourself, daily, just like the Bereans. Begin in the Gospel of John. Find out what the Bible says about Jesus. Then BELIEVE it. [Clyde Price SHOT08] DOES MUSIC "TURN YOU ON"? Does music turn you on? Do you find melodies and lyrics flowing unbidden through your mind when your brain is "in neutral"? Have you ever caught yourself humming a beer commercial? Have you ever encountered a child who could sing/recite/mimic a large number of television commercials? God commands His people to saturate their thinking and talking with the words and principles of Scripture. One POTENT medium to convey God's words into our inmost being is the marriage of the Word with melody. The apostle Paul wrote, "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16 NAS) It would be much easier to make Scripture the "home base" of our thought-life if we Christians would frequently and consistently sing Scripture songs and songs based on the Truth to ourselves, our children and our brethren. And it wouldn't hurt anybody a bit if we were overheard by our non- Christian neighbors or co-workers. An entire book of the Bible is a collection of songs. The Book of Psalms in an inspired collection of Hebrew poetry written for singing that expresses every emotion of the human heart. The lyrics of many traditional and contemporary songs are either directly quoted or adapted from the Psalms. Many people always begin their devotional reading of Scripture in the Psalms, taking five a day and going through the entire book in a month. We encourage you to read the Book of Psalms for yourself. Somewhere along the line, be sure to read the New Testament. We recommend beginning with the Gospel of John or the Gospel of Matthew. It would probably be good to reduce the use of the Tube that hypnotizes our families with beer commercials punctuated by insipidity. If you turn off the Tube some night and can't think of anything better to do, try something really out-of-this- world: sing some choruses, read the Bible, and talk together with God. He will be glad to hear from you. [Clyde Price SHOT09] THE KING'S POWER-OF-ATTORNEY If somebody gave you a check for $1 million, would that make you happy? God has given to believers in Jesus Christ the privilege of calling upon Him, using the power-of-attorney name of Jesus Christ, to honor any and all of the promises He has made in Scripture. Even promises made under the Old Covenant are re- applied for New Covenant non-Israelite believers "in the name of Jesus" (see II Corinthians 1:20). The promises of God for the believer could be compared to an unlimited drawing account, or a pad of purchase orders for any legitimate area of need. Using the "power of attorney" of the name of the Son of God "limits" the supplicant to that which fits within God's intentions revealed in Scripture, but these are VERY generous. On the night He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus Christ told His closest friends on earth, "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full." (John 16:24 NAS) One purpose that God has in answering prayers is to give His children specific things to REJOICE about. These promises are not just for anybody. To become a "co-heir" with Jesus (Rom. 8:12-17), you must be BORN spiritually into God's family (John 1:12-13 & 3:1-19). To do this, you need to receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord. Then you can "go over the books" and begin to receive your inheritance. We encourage you to read the Gospel of John for yourself. You will find in it many exciting promises for believers. We expect you to have questions, and we would like to try to answer them. Come by and see us. [Clyde Price SHOT10] IF YOU BELIEVE... Some people treat God as if He were a vending machine. They approach Him when they want some THING, or maybe when they are in trouble and need bailing out. Other folks pray frequently, always ending their prayers with the tag-phrase, "if it be Thy will...", and it seems that these dear folks are never quite sure WHAT the will of God is. The Lord Jesus Christ made a statement, which should be pretty plain, but over-enthusiastic and not-too-careful preachers have really stretched this promise out of shape. He said, "And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive." (Matthew 21:22 NAS) This literal translation of "believing" could have been translated, "if you believe" or "if you have faith". The Big Question is this: What is it you are putting your faith IN? What are you believing? If you are believing sincerely something that's not true, your results are going to be defective. Your "faith" might produce SOMETHING, but sooner or later, your faith in anything other than the promises of God will be disappointed. Here is the key to this verse: You can BELIEVE the promises of God which He has made to His children. He cannot lie, and He has provided GOOD things in the Covenant He has made with those who put their trust in His Son Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. This doesn't justify wild or selfish or destructive petitions, and God is not obligated to answer those. But YOU CAN BELIEVE IT when God offers you forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Read all about it for yourself in the Gospel of John. He has already promised to give His LIFE to those who ask in faith. Ask Him right now. He is as good as His Word. Put your trust in Jesus. [Clyde Price SHOT11] DON'T EVEN PRAY ABOUT IT If someone deliberately deposited $1 million into your checking account, would you start writing checks on it? God has made many promises in Scripture for those in faith-covenant with Him through Jesus Christ. These promises, when rightly understood, can ALWAYS be considered to be God's will for the believer. Sometimes believers faced with a decision will say, "Well, let me pray about that." Some folks genuinely and sincerely are seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit; and others are using religious language as an excuse to put off action. God has given many commands about things to do and things to avoid. We can consider that concerning situations governed by these commands, we KNOW what God's will is. Some things are ALWAYS God's will, and some things-- especially deliberate sin--are NEVER God's will. We don't even have to "pray about it" to learn His will. God has given believers a tremendously strong promise in Scripture: "And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him." (I John 5:14-15 NAS) We Christians would profit by disciplining ourselves to a habit of basing every single request we make to God on known commandments and promises that we have found in His Word. He is not a God of fiat. He is the Covenant-keeping God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Christians are the children and servants of the true and living God. As servants, we need to pray and work for the furtherance and establishment of our Father's program on the earth, rather than asking God's endorsement on our own novel projects for our own purposes. He is not our servant. We are His. When we Christians learn to pray in line with the will of God--that is, in line with the Word of God--heaven and earth will be shaken by the powerful prayers of the saints. [Clyde Price SHOT12] NO FRIVOLOUS COMMANDS God never gave a frivolous command. We often hear quoted, "God is love!" (See I John 4:7-17.) God never gave a command that was not generated by the demands of holy, righteous love. If we don't understand or like a particular command, it is because we do not understand the nature of God's entirely pure love. The Lord Jesus said, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love Him, and will disclose Myself to Him." (John 14:21 NAS) Some scholars read into this a re-endorsement of all the non-ceremonial commandments of the Old Testament; others protest this and insist that this covers only the actual words of Christ. Since it only takes two or three hours to read all the words of Christ in the gospels (in a red-letter edition), we challenge you to read it for yourself. God was the same God in the Old Testament, and His nature has never changed. Taken at face value, THERE IS NO CONFLICT. The only commands the Lord Jesus ever gave were generated by His love for His people, and fully consistent with Love. Anyone who disobeys a command of Christ is not operating in love. Do you love Jesus? Don't answer too quickly. Look at the things He commanded, then evaluate how much you are obeying Him. The resulting score will tell you HOW MUCH you love the Lord Jesus. If you know that you DO NOT love the Lord Jesus, you are missing out on a friendship with the most exciting, interesting, and adorable Person in the universe. Experience the Love you've been missing out on. Put your trust in Jesus as your sin-bearing Savior and yield to Him as your risen and living Lord. [Clyde Price SHOT13] JOY COMMANDMENTS The word "commandment" has harsh connotations for a lot of folks. It seems to conjure visions of some stern, angry authority-figure who's looking for something to find fault with. However, the "commandments" in Scripture, and especially the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ, were given for a different purpose. The Lord Jesus said, "If you keep my commandments you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. ...These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." (John 15:10, 14 NAS) The commands of Christ revolve around unconditional love and complete trust. We are commanded to put our trust in God, and especially to put our trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Then we are commanded to love God completely and other people unselfishly. Note that trusting in Christ for salvation is not a politely offered option, it is a COMMAND. Disbelief or delay is disobedience. Obedience to these commands produces JOY. If you are jaded to "religious stuff" and these things we are discussing seem UNREAL, here's a nitty-gritty suggestion: Jesus claimed about the commands to love God and neighbor that "on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40) In other words, the Old Testament pictures in terms of human relationships what a genuine, holy, righteous love will do. With this in mind, we challenge you to read the book of Deuteronomy or the Gospel of Matthew or both, and write down your questions. Then come and see us. We'd like to talk with you, even before you're finished. We don't boast that we'll have every single answer, but we'd like to introduce you to The Answer. But you don't have to wait. Put your trust in Jesus. [Clyde Price SHOT14] [end of 2nd file of 7]