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A New LIFE
Most people think that basically
they are a good person. After all,
they have never
killed anyone, they have never robbed a bank, and
they have never
beaten anyone up. In fact, most people live lives
that they consider
are 'upright' and moral compared to everyone
else (especially
those that do the above really bad things). Many
have given to
charity, gone to church (at least on Easter and at
Christmas), and
done other 'good deeds'. But are these 'good
deeds' enough to
make you a 'good person'?
Let me ask you a
few questions. Since you are in the privacy of
your own room be
candid as you answer each question. You can
never become the
full person that you were meant to be without
honesty! After all,
you already know the answers, even if no one
else is aware of
the 'real you'. Ready? Here we go!
Have you ever told a lie?
Ever? In your whole
life? Think back over the times that you had
to cover your
wrongdoing. There were occasions when you had no
choice but to
'stretch the truth' a little. After all, it wasn't hurting
anyone, and it kept
you from embarrassment. How about the time
you told your mom
or dad that you didn't do it, when it reality you
were totally to
blame? And that 'little white lie' that we all tell
from time to time,
what about that? A lie is a lie friend. Now let
me ask you, when
you tell a 'lie' what does that make you? Yes,
that's right, a
LIAR!
Have you ever taken anything that
didn't belong to you?
Big or small, size
doesn't matter. Maybe it was a piece of candy
off the shelf that
your mom told you not to touch. Maybe just a
pencil or some
paperclips that you 'borrowed' from work. Of
course you never
put them back, did you? How about that time the
lady at the
checkout gave you back too much change and you
didn't say anything
about it? Or when you goof off at work, isn't
that stealing the
boss' time? Of course it is. So ok, everyone has
taken something
that didn't belong to them at one time or another.
But what does it
make you if you steal something? You got it! A
Thief!
Yahushua said that if we even look
at another person with
lust in our hearts,
that we have committed adultery in our
hearts. Have you
ever looked upon another person with lust?
Maybe it was a
magazine, or a billboard. Maybe you saw
something on TV
that really made you look twice. Or was it that
time at the beach,
or walking down the street? Somewhere, you
know in your heart
that it has happened.
Have you ever, in your whole life,
taken the Almighty
Creator's Precious
Name in vain?
If so then you are
a blasphemer! So let's stop for a minute and
look back at our
lives. Like most everyone else you have found, if
you are honest,
that you are a self confessed lying, stealing,
blasphemous,
adulterer. And that is only 4 of Yahweh's 10
commandments. I
think you see the point here that I am trying to
make.
Now let me ask you one final
question. When you stand before the
Creator of the
universe, and HE judges you by HIS
commandments, can
you say that you are innocent? Or will you
have to admit the
truth, and confess you are a sinner? Well of
course you will
have to be honest before HIM, so like everyone
else you will have
to admit to your sins and shortcomings. And
What do you think HIS response will
be? Well let me show you in
the next chapter
exactly what HE will respond to you.
Chapter 2 - The
Truth About Sin
We asked in the
previous chapter what Yahweh's response will be
when we stand
before HIM in judgement. Well friend, it brings me
no pleasure to tell
you this but here is HIS answer:
"And then HE
shall declare to you, 'I never knew you,
depart from ME, you
who work lawlessness!'
Matt 7:23
Your lawlessness will cause
you to be cast out of HIS presence,
and thrown into the
lake of fire.
And the devil, who
led them astray, was thrown into the
lake of fire and
sulphur where the beast and the false
prophet are. And
they shall be tortured day and night
forever and ever.
And I saw a great white throne and Him
who was sitting on
it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away,
and no place was found for them.
And I saw the dead,
small and great, standing before the
throne, and books
were opened. And another book was
opened, which is
the Book of Life. And the dead were
judged from what
was written in the books, according to
their works. And
the sea gave up the dead who were in it,
and death and the
grave gave up the dead who were in
them. And they were
judged, each one according to his
works. And the
death and the grave were thrown into the
lake of fire. This
is the second death. And if anyone was not
found written in
the Book of Life, he was thrown into the
lake of fire.
Rev 20:10-15
Not a pretty picture is it?
But that is the future of every person that
refuses to repent
of their sin and wickedness, and continue on in
the way that they
have been living - living a life of lawlessness. Is
there an answer to
this dilemma? Yes there is, and we will look at
it now.
Chapter 3 - The Way
Of Escape
That if you confess
with your mouth Yahushua as Master
and believe in your
heart that Yahweh has raised Him from
the dead, you shall
be saved. For with the heart one
believes unto
righteousness, and one confesses with the
mouth, and so is
saved. Because the Scripture says,
"Whoever puts
his trust in Him shall not be put to shame."
Rom 10:9-11
You see, there is a way to
escape the judgement of Yahweh and the
resulting penalty
of the 'Lake of Fire'. That way of escape is
'Belief' and
'Confession'. In this chapter I want to look at what
confession is and
all that it entails.
Before you can
confess something, you must believe that it is true.
And that is exactly
what we see here in this verse of Yahweh's
Word. We must
'believe' that Yahweh is the Almighty Creator,
that HIS Word is
truth, and that HE came to earth to save us from
our sin and
lawlessness. Now I didn't say that you have to
understand
everything about HIM - no one does! But you do
need to accept the
fact that 'HE IS' and that 'HE will reward
those that seek
HIM' with all of their heart (Hebrews 11:6). It's
not good enough to
'believe' it silently though. We must believe it
enough to 'confess'
it with our lips.
Some ministers have
said that 'confession' is simply saying a few
words (almost like
a magic formula) and then you will have what
you have
'confessed'. Is this the truth of the matter? If so, why
are there many that
have made a verbal confession, but are not
truly born again?
The word confession has a much deeper meaning
than that in this
Scripture context. In the Greek the word for
confession is:
Homologeo
From a compound of
the base of G3674 and G3056; to
assent, that is,
covenant, acknowledge: - con- (pro-) fess,
confession is made,
give thanks, promise.
The first thing that we should
notice is that the definition of the
word has a meaning
of 'covenant'. You see, friend, when you
confess Yahshua as
your Master you are making a covenant,
or contract with HIM!
Remember, there always two parts to a
contract. And
unless both parts are fulfilled, the covenant is null
and void. Yahweh
has made a covenant with us, and we have a
part to fulfil just
as HE does. And in that contract, the language has
to be understood by
both parties, they both must speak on the
same terms.
That brings up the
important issue of the meaning of the word
'homologeo'. It is
made up of two Greek words at least one of
which you are
probably familiar with. The word 'homo' means the
same, similar,
alike. We have incorporated words into the English
language using this
prefix such as homosapien, and homogenized.
The second part of
the word homologeo is 'logos' meaning
'word'. We have
also grafted this word into the English language
with such words as
logo and logogram. When we put these two
words together we
see that the full meaning of 'homologeo' is to
say the same thing
or speak the same Words that Yahweh speaks.
So in order to have
Eternal Life (to be Saved or Born Again) we
have to say the
same thing that Yahweh says in HIS Word. This is
only fair as HE is
the One that drew up the contract. In the next
chapter we are
going to look at what exactly this contract says, and
how we can agree
with the words of that contract. Let's go!
Chapter 4 -
Agreeing With The Contract of Yahweh
There are 5 main
clauses in Yahweh's contract with us. Let's take
a look at each of
them in order, and as we do, let's take a moment
to agree with HIM
in the contract.
#1 - All have sinned and fall short
of the esteem of Yahweh...
(Romans 3:23)
Remember back in
Chapter One we found out that every person
has lied, stolen,
committed adultery in their heart, blasphemed, and
sinned in many
other areas? You're not alone here. Everyone has
sinned. But at the
same time that doesn't let you off the hook
friend. You need to
agree with Yahweh that you have sinned, that
you are not as
'Just and Perfect and Righteous' as HE is. So let's
agree right now,
shall we?
Yahweh... I need to
admit to you that I am a sinner. There are
many things in my
life that I have done that I am ashamed of,
that fell far short
of your perfect will for me. I have lived a life of
lawlessness.
#2 - For the wages of sin is
death... (Romans 6:23)
We also discovered
that because of our lawlessness we deserve the
'Lake of Fire'. In
fact, without any intervention that is exactly
where we are
heading, to an eternal separation from Yahweh and
everlasting
destruction. So let's tell Yahweh that we understand
this part of HIS
contract, and that we are again in agreement.
Yahweh... I
understand that because of my sin I deserve to be
eternally separated
from you. I deserve the punishment for my
sin and
lawlessness, and honestly, I have no one to blame but
myself. I have
sinned so I deserve to die.
#3 - The gift of Yahweh is eternal
life through Yahushua
The MESSIAH our
Master
(Romans 6:23)
Here is some good
news! We don't deserve this part of the
contract, but it's
in there! Yahweh has made a way for us to live
forever in HIS
presence, and not have to pay the penalty for our
sins. Yahweh came
to earth in the form of a perfect man, and died
for our sins so
that we don't have to.
For he hath made
him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be
made the righteousness of Yahweh in him.
2Co 5:21
Friend, this is truly amazing. We can have eternal life
only
through HIS gift to
us. There is no other way. We cannot earn it
for then it
wouldn't be a gift. The only thing that we can do to
have everlasting
life is to receive the gift HE is giving us! Well
let's tell HIM that
we understand this and agree with this third part
of the contract.
Yahweh... I can
hardly believe that YOU are so precious that you
would give someone
as wicked as I am such a wonderful free gift.
I understand that I
can do nothing to earn this gift, that it is an
undeserved gift
from you. Wow! Thank you so much!
#4 - But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to
become the sons of
Yahweh, even to them that believe on
his Name: (John
1:12)
Well finding out
about this 'free gift' is certainly 'good news'. But
now what? Does just
everyone get this gift? The answer to that is
rather plain - No!
There are many that are despising the gift of
Yahweh and
forsaking HIS mercy and kindness toward them. I
hope that you are
not one of these people. So what do you need to
do?
If I was standing
in front of you and held out a check for $100.00
and said,
"Here is a gift for you my friend," what would you have
to do for that
money to be yours? You would only have to reach
out and take it! And
that is what this part of the contract says.
That if we will
'receive HIM' and 'accept HIS sacrifice' in place
of what we
deserved, we will be the sons of Yahweh. We will be
'born again'.
Yahushua said, "I stand at the door (of our heart),
and knocks: if any
man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will
come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with me.
(Revelation 3:20) Let's take a moment to agree with this part of
the contract and
thank HIM!
Yahweh... I
understand that this gift you have given cannot be
earned, and that
all I can do is receive it for myself. I can't
depend on something
that YOU have given to someone else, I
need this gift for
myself. Right now I receive the gift of Eternal
Life. I ask YOU
Yahushua to come into my heart, live there
with me. I thank
you for saving me from this very moment. I
thank YOU that I
can now call you 'Father' for from this
moment on I have
become a 'Son of Yahweh'. I thank you that I
have been 'Born
again'.
#5 - Whosoever believeth that
Yahushua is the MESSIAH
is born of Yahweh:
and every one that loveth him that begat
loveth him also
that is begotten of him. By this we know
that we love the
children of Yahweh, when we love Yahweh,
and keep his
commandments. For this is the love of Yahweh,
that we keep his commandments:
and his commandments
are not grievous.
For what so ever is born of Yahweh
overcometh the
world: and this is the victory that
overcometh the
world, even our faith. Who is he that
overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that
Yahshua is the Son
of Yahweh? If we receive the witness
of men, the witness
of Yahweh is greater: for this is the
witness of Yahweh
which he hath testified of his Son. He
that believeth on
the Son of Yahweh hath the witness in
himself: he that
believeth not Yahweh hath made him a liar;
because he
believeth not the record that Yahweh gave of his
Son. And this is
the record, that Yahweh hath given to us
eternal life, and
this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son
hath life; and he
that hath not the Son of Yahweh hath not
life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on
the Name of the Son
of Yahweh; that ye may know that ye
have eternal life,
and that ye may believe on the Name of
the Son of Yahweh.
1 John 5:1-5,9-13
There is one final
part of the contract that is left. And that is
something that
cannot be done in a moment, nor taught through a
few easy lessons.
This final part says that we are to overcome the
world, the flesh,
and the devil. The 'good news' is that we no
longer have to do
this on our own!
Yahushua has come
into our hearts as HE promised, and will
help us every step
of the way. But we need to show our love and
gratitude to HIM by
being obedient to what HE tells us. That's
what it means by we
are to 'keep HIS commandments'. We don't
keep them because
we can earn anything by our obedience, but
rather, we keep
them out of a heart of love for all that Yahweh has
done for us. So
let's tell HIM that we agree with this final part of
the contract, and
begin our New Life with HIM!
Father Yahweh... I
thank you that you have made me your child.
Now I need your
help to overcome the flesh, the world, and the
devil. I know that
you live in me and I ask you to help me to live
the life you want
me to live. I love you and want to please you
from this moment on
in everything that I do. In the Name
Yahushua...
HalleluYAH!
Begin by reading
HIS Word every day. Let HIM speak to you
through HIS Word.
Then pray that HE will help you be obedient
to HIS Word.
Finally apply The Word to every area of your life.
And remember that
you're not on your own anymore.
Yahushua lives in
you and will be there to help you every step
of the way!
Have you have made a decision
and commitment to
live for Yahweh from this day on. We love
you and will be
glad to help you in your 'New Life'. May Yahweh
continually bless
you as you 'Walk in HIS Word'.
Shalom
halom
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