My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)

The Light of God's Truth - "For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him will not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

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Jesus for Life

WHAT DOES IT MEAN

TO BELIEVE IN JESUS?

To really believe in Jesus is not as simple as saying

honestly that "I believe that Jesus lived, and died on the

cross and rose again from the dead and ascended into

heaven." And, "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God."

 

Belief here means much more than that.

 

Belief in Jesus means that we DO what we believe. We

turn around from living life 'our way' to placing our

complete trust in Jesus. Belief means that we trust Him

with our life, with our soul; that we trust Him to bring us

to eternal life. We come to recognise that 

He is our reason for being.

 

Belief in Jesus as our Saviour means that we no longer

want to live our lives in the same way that we used to live.

It means that we want to live our lives, to live in a way

which is pleasing to Him ! This change of heart is called

"repentance."

 

And why do we want to "repent"? Because, suddenly or

slowly, we have come to realise how offensive our lives

have been, and are, to God. 

God Who is so Pure and so Holy.

 

And then we hear and understand the great news that

Jesus died for OUR sins, He died to set us free from the

punishment which is so rightly ours. He died on the

cross, He who was without sin, died for our sins. He

came to earth to die, to make it possible for us to come

into a right relationship with God.

 

At last, we understand !

 

And when, at last, we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus

Christ, when we give our lives over to His control, we are

filled with the Holy Spirit, who marks us as belonging to

Jesus forever. And He, the Holy Spirit, lives in us and

helps us become more like Jesus, day by day.

 

We find that following this giving of ourselves, our all,

into His care, we grow to  

‘Love the Lord our God with all our heart 

and with all our soul and with all our mind’ 

and to ‘Love our neighbour as ourself’.  

(derived from Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:37-39)

 

For in the gospel

a righteousness from God is revealed,

a righteousness that is by faith

from first to last, just as it is written:

"The righteous will live by faith."

Romans 1:17 (NIV)

 

So do not throw away your confidence;

it will be richly rewarded.

You need to persevere

so that when you have done the will of God,

you will receive what he has promised.

For in just a very little while,

"He who is coming will come and will not delay.

But my righteous one will live by faith.

And if he shrinks back,

I will not be pleased with him."

But we are not of those who shrink back and are

destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

Hebrews 10:35-39 (NIV)

 

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into

Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

"The time has come," he said.

"The kingdom of God is near.

Repent and believe the good news!"

Mark 1:14-15 (NIV)

 

While a large crowd was gathering and people were

coming to Jesus from town after town, 

he told this parable: 

"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was

scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was

trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell

on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered

because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among

thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants.

Still other seed fell on good soil.

It came up and yielded a crop,

a hundred times more than was sown."

When he said this, he called out,

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He

said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the

kingdom of God has been given to you, but to

others I speak in parables, so that,

" 'though seeing, they may not see;

though hearing, they may not understand.'

"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the

word of God. Those along the path are the ones who

hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the

word from their hearts, so that they may not believe

and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who

receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they

have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of

 testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns

stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way

they are choked by life's worries, 

riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 

But the seed on good soil

stands for those with a noble and good heart, 

who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering

produce a crop.

Luke 8:4-15 (NIV)

 

From this time many of his disciples

turned back and no longer followed him.

"You do not want to leave too, do you?"

Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him,

"Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We believe and know that

you are the Holy One of God."

John 6:66-69 (NIV)

 

Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem.

It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area

walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The Jews

gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep

us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."

Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not

believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak

for me, but you do not believe because you are not my

sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and

they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall

never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than

all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.

I and the Father are one."

John 10:22-30 (NIV)

 

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -

and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -

not by works, so that no one can boast.

For we are God's workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:7-10 (NIV)

 

[Notice here, and elsewhere in the Bible, God shows us that

faith in Jesus' saving death produces (leads to) good works,

but that good works do not lead to faith in Jesus' saving death.

In fact, such good works lead to

faith in one's own righteousness!

We are not saved by our works;

the good works which we do are the fruit of our faith. ]

 

 

You adulterous people, don't you know that

friendship with the world is hatred toward God?

Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world

becomes an enemy of God.

Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the

spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?

But he gives us more grace.

That is why Scripture says:

"God opposes the proud but

gives grace to the humble."

Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts,

you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change

your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves before the Lord,

and he will lift you up.

James 4:4-10 (NIV)

 

Jesus declared,

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God

unless he is born again."

"How can a man be born when he is old?"

Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a

second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth,

no one can enter the kingdom of God unless

he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to

flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not

be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'

John 3:3-7 (NIV)

 

[Thomas had not been together with the other disciples

when Jesus had first appeared to them, after Jesus'

resurrection for the dead.]

 

So the other disciples told him,

"We have seen the Lord!"

But Thomas said: "Unless I see the nail marks in his

hands and put my finger where the nails were,

and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and

Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked,

Jesus came and stood among them and said,

"Peace be with you!"

Then he said to Thomas,

"Put your finger here; see my hands.

Reach out your hand and put it into my side.

Stop doubting and believe."

Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you

have believed; blessed are those who have not seen

and yet have believed."

John 20:25-29 (NIV)

 

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