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Gone Fishin'

~ …“Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men!”

Gone Fishin'

Tag Archives: grace

Let God

13 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Poetry

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Tags

"darkness", divorce, grace, hard times, joy, let go and let God, lethal force, perfected peace, prisoner of hope, seamless cope, setbacks, Shalom, Son’s purchase, spark, strength, submissive, unexpired lease, unwanted divorce, whole, wholeness, wrecking ball

Let God, Let God

 

May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it! ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, MSG

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. ~ Philippians 4:6-7, MSG

 

Letting go to let God
Make me whole—
Most annoying role
For abandoned soul
With bullet-like creases—
Worse than disease is,
Or wrecking-ball blow,
Is unwanted divorce;
Intensely lethal force.

Letting go to let God
Meant to be simple—
No puzzle, no riddle
No surprise, no wrinkle
In being prisoner of hope—
Rippleless seamless cope
Designed to be nimble;
Keeping in perfect peace,
Hope’s unexpired lease.

Letting go to let God
Set me free totally—
Makes Spirit’s lead poetry,
Profoundly and soberly
Unmerited Grace’s surplus—
Willed after Son’s purchase,
Most freely yet potently
Flared welcomed spark
Lit after world went dark.

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We Must Be Born Again

15 Thursday Jan 2009

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Faith and Wisdom

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Tags

born again, eternal life, faith, grace, Holy Spirit's mighty workings, Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, rebirth, regenerated, regeneration, salvation, second birth, water baptism

Have you ever wondered why Jesus the Christ concentrated more on the idea of being born again than He concentrated on the idea of salvation? Here’s why!

Concerning whether or not people need to be born again, Apostle Paul writes in Titus that God:

…saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:5-7, NIV).

Translation: regeneration is a must! Being born again is a must, because if we never experience our second birth (our spiritual rebirth/renewal/regeneration), we never will be truly saved! In essence, regeneration is the definitive prerequisite to salvation. That’s right! Being born again and being redeemed are not synonymous.

For sure, Jesus the Christ knew the difference between rebirth and salvation. In fact, during His earthly ministry, He didn’t explicitly teach about salvation because His primary focus was on the Kingdom of Heaven and how people must enter into this spiritual Kingdom. He taught that they must come through the ONE and only door/gate—that they must come through Him. Christ’s teaching on how people enter into the Kingdom of God confirms that there is ONLY one way (one path) that leads to living an eternal life with God.

This veiled reference to salvation aside, without a doubt Jesus the Christ explicitly taught that before people could come through Him (before they could be saved from an eternity spent in the Lake of Fire) they first MUST be born again! Repeatedly, Jesus the Christ made it clear that unregenerate sinners neither would see nor would they enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Certainly that is why Jesus the Christ insisted that people must be born again instead of preaching and teaching that people must be saved!

It is safe to say that He understood the difference between regeneration (rebirth) and salvation. Like God, Jesus the Christ knew that it virtually was impossible for sinners to be saved from the wrath of God without God’s intervention. Consequently, God uses His saving grace and His Holy Spirit’s power for the purpose of influencing every sinner’s necessary born-again experience.

Knowing that we would be utterly hopeless as long as we lived outside of a life in Christ is why God graciously intervenes in our lives and quickens our human spirits so that we can hear the Word of God and receive our measure of faith. God knows that it takes us being born again before we can proceed to the most crucial step in His redemption plan, which is responding to the Holy Spirit’s initial conviction. By God’s Grace, His Holy Spirit first convicts us about our need to be aware of our sin-guilt, to be accountable for our own sins, and to confess our awareness. For sure, it is our confessed awareness and accountability that will activate the Holy Spirit’s successive convictions: confessing our sins, repenting our sins (turning away from our sins and turning toward Jesus the Christ), and accepting Jesus the Christ as our Savior.

After we accept Jesus the Christ as our person Savior, we are reconciled and restored. Christ gives us His righteousness (He justifies us so that we will be in right standing with God); the Holy Spirit begins His practical sanctification process (He begins transforming us unto the image of Jesus the Christ); and our eternal life begins while we are still on Earth. But again, none of the Holy Spirit’s successive convictions that lead to our salvation can happen if we first didn’t have a genuine born-again experience!

The Apostle John says that “…to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan – this rebirth comes from God” (John 1:12-13, NLT). Once again, being born again is wholly, completely, and supremely because of God’s divine power (mighty workings of His Holy Spirit) and Grace. By God’s design, we are inactive receivers of our second birth! That is to say that there is nothing that we can do, say or think about that will influence our regeneration. Furthermore, if the Holy Spirit doesn’t rejuvenate our spiritually DEAD human spirits (spirits that are dead in sins and trespasses), we just would continue to deny our sinfulness and continue to deny our need for a Savior.

Since being born again of the Holy Spirit is something that humans cannot do under their own strength, might, and predilection, people need to know and understand that they are never considered to be regenerated just because they are fortunate enough to have been born (physically born) into a Christian family. Similarly, people need to know that they are not born again just because they make a decision to be saved, or make a commitment to the Lord, or choose to rededicate their lives, or walk down the aisles of the church and give their preacher their hand. Finally, people need to know that they are not born again just because they orally repent their sins and/or boldly profess to believe in Jesus the Christ. The spiritual truth is that people repent and believe because the Grace and Holy Spirit of God already have regenerated their dead human spirits, which is that quickening that eventually leads to believers’ spirits being put back in the right standing and relationship with Father and Creator God–they are presented to God just as if they had never sinned!

Unfortunately, because too many “churchy” people tend to think that regeneration (the rebirth) and salvation are the same, that water baptism is the second birth, that water baptism saves, or that people have something to do with their own rebirth, we have too many professed Christians in our modern-day churches who really never have been born again (people who never have received a regenerated spirit). The sad truth is that not until people study the Word of God for themselves until they know God’s Word inside and out, and not until pulpit ministers and other spiritual leaders teach the truth about the second birth, which is that being born again is solely of God, the numbers of people who neither will see nor enter into the Kingdom of Heaven will continue to be staggering!

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For the Potential Graduate: Why Not Experience New Life After Death In 2009?

10 Saturday Jan 2009

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Faith and Wisdom

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Tags

cycles, death, enslaved, eternal, grace, judgment, Lake of Fire, nature, phases, rebirth, resurrection, saved, supernatural, unregenerate, unsaved, wrath

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?“ (John 11:25-26, NLT; cf. John 3:16)

Nature and mankind have much in common, and God planned it that way. Indeed, nature not only depicts how this old Earth renews itself but also nature reflects how humans renew themselves through their natural nightly sleep and restoration, and daily waking patterns. Nature also mirrors the supernatural (spiritual life). For sure, humanity’s spiritual and physical deaths, new birth/second birth or resurrection, salvation, sanctification, and eternal life phases also can be seen through nature’s four seasons.

Although we don’t like to think about death, death is a fact of nature, which is why Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that we all are born to die at least once. Because of the first Adam’s disobedience, we all are born spiritually dead, which is why we all not only must face a physical death but also must experience a second death (i.e., an eternity in the Lake of Fire)!

But hold on; there is GOOD NEWS. The GOOD NEWS is that God promises us that He will give us new life after death. Once again, this resurrection promise is seen best in nature. Just as the Earth dies each Fall, sleeps throughout Winter, awakens in Spring, and ripens during Summer, we who have been born again and saved from the wrath of God yet to come upon this old Earth not only must die daily, but also we must face many dying, resting, blossoming, and maturing seasons in our own lives.

Let there be no doubt about it, the true Gospel of the Grace of God in Christ puts the cross of Christ before us and then commands us to undergo our own death, burial and resurrection—to die to our mortal flesh in order to be resurrected unto eternal life in Christ. God’s Holy Spirit also teaches us that unless we experience an abrupt end to everything we are by nature, unless we have the shackles of sin completely broken off of us, God cannot raise us up into our new life in Christ (cannot justify, sanctify, or glorify us).

Now, for those of us living today who have experienced the new birth/second birth and become those saved and sold out for Christ believers who die daily, God’s GOOD NEWS also is that we neither will face a physical death nor the second death! We instead will be caught up (raptured) to meet Christ in the air, and forever we will be with Him. This last GOOD NEWS is why our earnest prayer in 2009 is for the unregenerate, unsaved people to not risk falling asleep one more night without having experienced God’s new life after death (being born again, saved, justified, and sanctified).

We do not want anybody to die a physical death (don’t want anyone to never awake again to a brand new morning), if he or she hasn’t been born again and accepted Jesus the Christ as Lord and Savior, because Hebrews 9:27 not only tells us that humans are born to die at least once but also that humans will face God’s judgment that will come after their deaths! God’s final irrevocable judgment for the ones who died with their sinful natures still intact is a resurrection unto damnation—an eternity in the Lake of fire!

Time is running out for this old Earth, and for the people who live on it. God’s soon to come wrath (judgment) will usher in a dying season unlike none that mankind has ever seen before. For the unregenerate, unsaved people there very well could be no more chances to awaken, bloom, and ripen in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, now is the time to take God up on His new life after death promise and graduate from being a sinner enslaved by sin to a sinner saved by Grace!!!

Can you dig it!

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Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen

Sanctified Child

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