02.11.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:14 am by Administrator

The entry point for you and I to become God’s children is through death of the old life and birth of the new life.  The old life dies and is buried through baptism.  The new life rise up from burial as the resurrected Christ.  That is how Christ lives in us.  Our bodies have been offered as a living sacrifice.  We no longer have reign over our bodies but it is Christ who reigns in me.  You must think about this, because it is not taught to you at the beginning.  And we go on living our lives any way we want to never relinquishing our rights to our bodies or our lives.  And that is why we fail over and over again at living the Christian life.  That is why it is a struggle to be like Christ, because we are trying to do it ourselves.  “For I have been crucified with Christ and I longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  Gal 2:20

02.03.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:09 am by Administrator

I will continue to answer my own questions then and you can read along.  All of us must experience a new birth, through dying to ourselves.  Baptism is our water birth, or our burial.  It is being buried with Christ, so that a new man or woman will arise out of that death with new life in Christ.  Just as John preached and baptized, including Jesus, we too must experience a baptism or burial of our own lives.  Not just being put under the water but a death that requires us to bury that “old man” and begin as a child again our spirit life with a purpose and work to be done for our new Father.  Is that too much?  May God help you to see what this issue of being born again means for us.  Water burial and rising into a new life is only the beginning, not the culmination.

01.28.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:49 am by Administrator

“Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can ENTER the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”  John 3:5  Does this have anything to do with what we have been talking about?  This is what Jesus told Nicodemus when he asked Jesus “How can a man be born when is he old?”  This is supposed a chance for some of you to respond and consider your own experience.  What say you?

01.26.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:49 am by Administrator

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he CANNOT be my disciple.  And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me CANNOT be my disciple.”  Luke 14:26-27  What does this mean to you?  Is it not a dying to yourself and all you are to be made into something new, who you were meant to be?  Why are you still trusting yourself and not releasing your life into the hands of your only Saviour?  This is the entry point for all who long to be God’s children and to gain access to the Father.  There is no other way in.

01.25.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 11:41 am by Administrator

I really want some feedback on this point before I move on.  Tell me what you experienced in your own life.

01.22.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:26 am by Administrator

To be born again is to begin life again in God’s provision and on His conditions.   The life we were living is gone, crucified with Christ.   That life is doomed to failure and death.  The new life is the only way to the Father and the hope He offers us in Christ.  When I became a Christian many years ago I was not told that God did not need my skill or wisdom.  He didn’t need my education or compassion.  He needed to make me into His child, as Jesus made the disciples into His men.  We begin by surrendering all we are and offering our lives to Him (Rom12:1-2) as a sacrifice.  We cannot then collect our lives back for our purposes.  We must learn from Him (Jn11:28-29) how to live a new life for His glory and His kingdom.  I was only asked to raise my hand and walk to the front.  No one said it would cost me everything to follow Him.  I learned that later after many years of struggling to live for Christ in my own strength.  How about you?  How did it start for you?

01.18.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:44 pm by Administrator

So not much action from you guys reading.  Only one brave soul with a comment.  The question I asked was what does it look like for you and I if we die or are “crucified with Christ”?  Jesus told Nicodemus that a man must be born again.  So in dying we must also start anew.  So it is dropping our life to pick up a new life we have in Christ.  All that we are and long to be must be forfeited in order to receive the new man we can become.  To persist in your own identity and life is to miss out on the man or woman Christ will “make” you into.  He spoke to the disciples and said “Follow me and I will MAKE you fishers of men” and they left everything and followed Him.   (Mk1:17; Mt 4:19-20)  Who we are when we meet Christ is not who we are meant to be as we become God’s children.  And surrender and dying to all you are is the correct and only way into access to our Father.  What say you?

01.14.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:48 am by Administrator

The new man or new birth takes place at the cross.  For each of us to gain access to our Father and inheritance in Christ, we must follow Jesus to the cross.  (Rom 6:3-4; Gal 2:20)  Our being born again comes through faith in what Christ did and in believing, following Him to our own death in order that we might have a new life in Him.  What does this look like for you and me?  How do we die now with Christ?  And how are we born anew?  I’m longing to hear more from you.

01.12.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:17 am by Administrator

Thanks for the two comments posted about being born again.  When we started this discussion we were dealing with the issue of our inheritance.  And we said that we have God and so much more as our inheritance as His children, but first we must gain access to Him.  This led us down this road of discussing the new birth.  We did not really look at the issue of our need for new birth.  And you are right in saying we must establish that need.  If a man does not see his need for a Savior he will never understand what is needed in our new birth.  So do we back up to see who we are in Adam before we can move into who can become in Christ?  I believe a man knows his own wickedness.  It is apparent in his inability to do what is right all the time. (Rom 7:7-25)  The struggle for us is understanding, by God’s grace, who we can become in Christ, and how we enter into the new man we are called to be. (2Cor 5:17-19) Tell me which way to go with this discussion.

01.07.10

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:04 pm by Administrator

In John 3 we see Jesus discussing with Nicodemus that a man must be born again in order for us to see the Kingdom of God. For you and I to enter into God’s Kingdom and family we must be born again.  Our first birth, from our mothers, was inadequate and therefore who we are by birth is inadequate.  A new man or woman must be born in order for us to enter God’s family.  And the new man or woman we are to become is not something we know already.  It is a point of genesis for our new lives in a new family.  How are we born again Nicodemus asks?  What say you? All we are to become hinges on the correct understanding of what this is for our lives.

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