"You did not choose ME but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the FATHER in MY name, HE may give to you." John 15:16
Dear Friends
All that the believer has must come from CHRIST, but it comes solely through the channel of the Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the HOLY SPIRIT, so also no good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious actions, apart from the sanctifying operation of the same SPIRIT.-Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Nov. 21
When I was a little girl and teenager growing up in the United Methodist church, we used to sing the song, "I have decided to follow JESUS, I have decided to follow JESUS, I have decided to follow JESUS, no turning back, no turning back" When I was around 8 years old, I remember stirrings in my heart during our church services that yearned for something more in my life that just a church service but I didn't know exactly what that yearning was at that time. I now realize, even at that tender age, GOD had put a hole in my heart, that only HE could fill, so that I would yearn for HIM. When I was about 10 years old, our neighbors invited us to their Vacation Bible School, and at the pastor's urging at the end of the little sermon he gave, I went up the aisle to "accept JESUS" as my LORD and SAVIOR. When I was 12, I was "confirmed" in the Methodist church. Several of my friends and I went through a "doctrine class" for several weeks." At the end of that time, we all went up to the altar and got "confirmed"...and to be honest I'm not sure what that means. I know there was no change in my life at that point. During my teenage years there were various crusades around our area, and I made the rounds at those too, going up at the altar calls, trying to make sure I was "in CHRIST." It wasn't until many years later when GOD really did save me, and change me, and give me a new heart, that I have come to realize that I wasn't "a new creature" in CHRIST until I was almost 20 years old. As I shared last week, nothing was changed the next day after all these times of "deciding to follow JESUS" until GOD chose me, at HIS appointed time, to become HIS child. That appointed time was at the age of 19, at a Youth Revival at Central Baptist Church in Decatur, Al. The "call" that I responded to, was not even for salvation...it was a challenge to "marry only a CHRISTian, date only a CHRISTian, and save my body for marriage." That was what I thought I was responding to, when JESUS CHRIST changed me forever. I remember as the preacher invited anyone who wanted to do that to come down front and make it public. I was grasping to the back of the pew in front of me. I wanted to do that, make these commitments to honor CHRIST in my body, dating life and future marriage, although I had already failed miserably at the first two commitments, but I was still wrestling.in my pew. Finally, the HOLY SPIRIT took me up front, just me and HIM, and that's when CHRIST gave me a new heart, gave me HIS HOLY SPIRIT, a new direction, a new place to spend eternity, and cleansed me from all my sins through HIS blood that HE shed for me on the cross. I knew all those answers since I was old enough to know about JESUS since our parents were faithful to raise us in church, but I didn't know HIM personally until then. I felt so cleansed and pure, and a joy that I had never, ever known before. This was the beginning of a new journey for me, the journey "to the TOP," and the HOLY SPIRIT immediately began teaching me through helping me understand GOD's WORD like i never had before, and bringing people into my life to help me learn and grow as a CHRISTian. Without HIS help to progress in this journey, daily, I would turn around and could do nothing.
I wrote last week about "Clingman's Dome," and how the LORD sent me a helper, to assist me to the "Top of Old Smoky." A dear friend from here, that "happened" to be walking up the ramp, as I was coming down after making it halfway and turning around, assisted me to the "Top of Old Smoky." I have been thinking so much about the HOLY SPIRIT's help in my life to help me on my journey "to the Top," including how HE brings us to CHRIST, as I shared above, and how HE helps us once we are "in CHRIST." Last week, I shared a few ways the HOLY SPIRIT helps us and now it seems that each time I read my Bible HE shows me more and more ways that HE helps me.
Holy Spirit Draws us to CHRIST
The reason I started out with that song and that testimony of me "deciding to follow JESUS," over and over as a child, and young person, is because it's become very clear to me, the older I get as a CHRISTian, that I've come to realize, I didn't "decide to follow JESUS," on this journey "to the Top." HE chose me, and the HOLY SPIRIT drew me to HIM. "No one can come to ME, unless the FATHER who sent ME draws him," JESUS says, in John 6:44. "Blessed be the GOD and FATHER our LORD JESUS CHRIST, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in CHRIST, just as HE chose us in HIM before the foundation of the world..." says Paul in Ephesians 1:3,4. JESUS said to his disciples in John 15 :16, "You did not choose me, I chose you...to go and bear fruit..."
HOLY SPIRIT Bears Fruit
Bearing fruit is another way the HOLY SPIRIT helps us in our lives. Galatians 5:22-23 says "The fruit of the SPIRIT is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Do you know how we can know that the HOLY SPIRIT is truly living inside of us? By examining the fruit that our lives bear through HIS SPIRIT...Is my life characterized by love...joy...peace...patience...kindness...goodness...faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? I can tell you, I stumble in these different areas daily...but the HOLY SPIRIT is ever producing this fruit, in increasing amounts in the lives of true children of GOD. Through the HOLY SPIRIT in us, and the gifts HE gives us, HE uses us to encourage and help others along their journey "to the top," by discipling, encouraging, and helping those CHRIST brings into our lives.
HOLY Spirit Bears Witness We are Children of GOD
Last week I shared with you one of the amazing things about the Spirit is how when you can meet a stranger, and feel like you know that person and have a common bond with them within minutes because you both have the HOLY SPIRIT living inside you...."The Spirit HIMSELF bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of GOD, and if children heirs -heirs of GOD and joint heirs with CHRIST." Romans 8:16,17. As I read in the Springs in the Valley this week, I am reminded as heirs of GOD, the privilege that is ours as HIS son's and daughter's to come and ask of HIM, our dear "Abba, FATHER..." which literally means..."Daddy, Daddy." "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will have give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?...If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly FATHER give the HOLY SPIRIT to them that ask HIM? Luke 11:11-13. I mentioned last week that the HOLY SPIRIT helps us pray when we don't know what we ought to pray...Romans 8:26, "...The SPIRIT himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."
JESUS uses HIS HOLY SPIRIT to convict us of our sins, and helps us to forgive those who sin against us. "And when HE (the HOLY SPIRIT) has come, HE will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness and judgment." John 16:8. I know that I was convicted by the HOLY SPIRIT of my sins much before CHRIST invaded my life and changed me...and thankfully, as HIS child on the road "to the Top," HIS HOLY SPIRIT inside me continues to convict me of my sin daily. I am convicted by the HOLY SPIRIT that as a young CHRISTian, I was more sensitive to sin in some areas than I am now. Neglecting GOD's Word will make us callous to sin that we once were very sensitive to and makes it easy for bitterness to creep into our lives. The HOLY SPIRIT helps keep our hearts tender, as we obey CHRIST's Word. He gives us the strength to forgive others when they have sinned against us, the way CHRIST forgives us when we sin against HIM. Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your FATHER will not forgive your sins." Psalm 119:9 says, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to YOUR Word." John MacArthur shares in his One Year Bible that the Holy Spirit purifies our lives by means of the WORD of GOD and is a picture of the New Covenant, "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD," I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their GOD and they shall be MY people,"Jeremiah 31:33. "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." Ezekiel 25-27. If you have ever been confused what the New Covenant is like I was until recently...that's it in the above passages. It is CHRIST giving us a new heart, in exchange for our heart's of stone, and putting HIS SPIRIT in us and causing us to walk in HIS statutes. HE is our GOD and we are HIS people, the sheep of HIS pasture...hum, does that sound like, "I have decided to follow JESUS?" IT is so comforting to me to know "GOD has set HIS love on us and HE chooses us. In Deut. 7:7, it states," The LORD did not set HIS love upon you and choose you, because you were more in number than any other people...but because the LORD loves you." What a wonderful assurance to know this for ourselves and bask in HIS love for us.
These passages give me peace that when I have been obedient and shared CHRIST with someone, it's not up to me for them to come to know CHRIST, that is the role of the HOLY SPIRIT. Only HE can draw them, and choose them, and give them a new heart. I can pray with them the "sinner's prayer," a jillion times, but unless the HOLY SPIRIT is drawing them, they aren't going to be "reborn" when they finish praying. I can give them a false sense of security that they are "reborn", when really they aren't. My role is to be obedient and tell others about JESUS...and invite them to CHRIST. But if HE has not prepared the soil of their hearts to receive HIM at that time, that frees me up to love them and sometimes this involves a great cost to us. Paul who knew the price of bringing others to CHRIST when he said, " I will very gladly spend and be expended for your souls," 2 Cor 12:15. What price I am willing to pay for others to come to know CHRIST? JESUS paid the ultimate price for me and calls me to "follow in HIS steps." He calls us to pray for them, and accept them right where they are walking and patiently "wait on the LORD" to work in their life as HE has been patient with me in my life.
In last week's email, I shared it wouldn't matter if I "chickened out," and didn't make it "to the Top of Old Smoky," which I didn't without Bebe's help. But it does matter, very much, if in this life of faith, this journey to "Heaven," if I grieve the HOLY SPIRIT and turn around, becoming involved in sin, or loose faith, and discourage those around me...it matters tremendously. Earlier this week, in our family devotions, we read of how our faith in CHRIST will influence future generations. John MacArthur shared how he was blessed with a wonderful CHRISTian heritage, and he shared examples from the Bible of Abraham. Though Sarah became impatient and Abraham disobeyed GOD, Abraham believed that GOD would keep HIS promise and GOD honored Abraham's faith by giving him Isaac and descendants too numerous to count. John MacArthur shared that one man's faith, Abraham's, literally changed the world and that the faith we use today will influence others tomorrow. He encouraged me, that even despite our failures, GOD, "is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us," Ephesians 3:20. And that power, is the HOLY SPIRIT. I was convicted by HIM of some areas that I used to be more diligent in guard my heart and how I grieve the HOLY SPIRIT, and quench the HOLY SPIRIT, when I ignore HIS promptings and willfully sin. Eph. 4:30 says, "Do not grieve (to give or cause sorrow) the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption," and I Thes. 5:19 says, "Do not quench the Holy Spirit." I have also been convicted this week of some areas of my life that I used to be more zealous for serving CHRIST. As the years have gone by, I have become "sleepy," in some areas like those guys in Pilgrim's Progress that laid down by the side of the road and went to sleep on their journey to heaven. The HOLY SPIRIT warns me to "wake up," and GOD uses HIS HOLY SPIRIT in me, and in you, to encourage us, and keep pressing on. Last week's email was convicting to me, and continues to be, as I desire to get back that "FIRST LOVE" for CHRIST that I used to have...when telling folks that I met about JESUS was foremost in my mind, instead of on the backburner, when leaving a tract at a restaurant or wherever we might be was a way of life for me, instead of forgetting about leaving them at all.
Sometimes, it's easy for us to become discouraged on our journey "to the Top," and forget that the HOLY SPIRIT is helping us. CHRIST loves us so much and has sent HIS HOLY SPIRIT to help us...If you think you're not doing a great job at witnessing just read what GOD used to lead my friend, Michelle Pavlik, to CHRIST many years ago.
I talked with a friend, earlier this week, and her zeal to share CHRIST, through the power of the HOLY SPIRIT, is so very evident. Michelle teaches drama through our homeschool covering at church, and as we visited at our pastor's daughter's bridal shower, Tuesday night, she was bubbling over telling me about their recent play and how CHRIST was shared through it. Michelle and her husband, mother, sister, and friend, that she and her husband witnessed to many years ago and came to know CHRIST, all attend our church. As she and I talked she said, "We waste so much time talking about things that don't matter, and we never know if that person that GOD brought across our paths may not live the next few moments." As she shared her testimony with me,(and she gave me permission to share it with you) she told me how she and her husband were raised Catholic, and didn't know that CHRIST had died on the cross to save them for their sins...they didn't know they were in danger of burning in hell forever for their sins. One night she and her husband took their two young daughter's to see a movie, "The Omen." She said she thought the movie was about animals. The HOLY SPIRIT used a scene from that movie, where the priest read a passage from Revelation which started her on a frantic search..."and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life"...she had to know how to get her name in that book. Only the HOLY SPIRIT could put that desire in her that intense. She went home and found her Mother's huge Bible and read 22 chapters in it searching how to get her name in the Lamb's Book of Life. When she did learn more about what CHRIST had done for her to give her eternal life, at a Bible study her brother was having (she had never been invited because they just thought she was too "bad" and it was useless to invite her), her heart was gripped with conviction. She went home and accepted CHRIST in her bedroom, and her husband did the same thing in another room. Now I don't recommend using "The Omen," for a witnessing tool:), but the point is, GOD can use what HE will to save someone...and HE used HIS WORD, through the HOLY SPIRT, in that movie to start her searching for HIM.
Isn't it amazing how GOD can take a movie like that, and use it for good (HIS WORD in it) to bring not only her and her husband to CHRIST, but their family members, and their kids, grandkids, and all the tons of other folks they have had the opportunity to share CHRIST and HIS redeeming love with through the years. "In this the love of GOD was made manifest among us, that GOD sent HIS only Son into the world, so that we might live through HIM. In this is love, not that we have loved GOD but that HE loved us and sent HIS SON to be the propitiation for our sins...So we have come to know and to believe the love that GOD has for us. GOD is love." ! John 4:9,10,16. My friend was telling me that at the time she and her husband were saved, they were working in a bar in Chicago. She would be telling people in the bar they were going to hell if they didn't accept CHRIST, and serving them drinks:). Isn't GOD so gracious and good to us... to use us as baby CHRISTians, wherever we are...HE doesn't clean us up before HE saves us...HE loves us "Just as I Am." They were so on fire for CHRIST, and still are, they witnessed on the streets up there, they had a ministry to priests and nuns telling them that they were going to hell if they didn't accept JESUS CHRIST as their LORD and SAVIOR. Their family, who used to didn't want to be around them for her bad mouth before she was saved, now didn't want to be around them because at their Italian Catholic gatherings, all she wanted to talk about was JESUS, and witness to them! When JESUS gets a hold of you and changes you, look out....a true believer cannot not share CHRIST with others. Nowadays, Michelle, and her husband conduct Bible studies in their home on Sat. night, she encourages and disciples women in their upward journey in CHRIST, just as the JESUS commanded us too in Matthew 28:19-20, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the FATHER and of the SON and of the HOLY SPIRIT, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." She told me about a website that teaches us how to effectively share CHRIST with those the LORD brings into our lives that Kirk Cameron narrates and John MacArthur endorses, called www.thewayofthemaster.com.
This Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful for each one of you and the way the HOLY SPIRIT loves me through you and uses you in so many different ways to bear fruit for HIM. I am thankful for the gift of HIS dear HOLY SPIRIT, to help each one of us in so many ways in our upward "journey to the Top." As I think about what it cost my FATHER to give us this GIFT through the death of HIS SON, on Calvary, I am humbled, and cannot take it all in. "How Deep the FATHER's Love for Us,"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjD0lv8hx5o, is a beautiful song that shares how much our FATHER loves us and what it costs HIM to give us this GIFT of HIS HOLY SPIRIT and the gift of forgiveness for our sins. I cannot begin to comprehend the depth of HIS love for me and you. But I know this, I will praise HIM and thank HIM, through the gift of HIS HOLY SPIRIT, for HIS forgiveness for my sins, and HIS wonderful love to me, as long as I have life and breath. Happy Thanksgiving!
With all HIS love,
mitzi
How Deep the FATHER's LOVE for Us by Stuart Townsend
How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory
Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
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