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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
No sane parent has ever said, "I wish my children would misbehave," and there's never been a self-help book entitled How to Live an Unhappy Life. We all want blessings, happiness, and fulfillment, ...
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Bruce Lyon
Why is following Christ so difficult? It's difficult because we do battle against the desires of the flesh, the desire of the eyes and the pride of possessions, the same things that confronted Eve when tempted by the Adversary. We have the law of sin working in our bodies because we are of the federal head of the whole human race, Adam. We also fight against wicked spirits in high places - the heavenly realm. Now if one is in the anointed one of God, Jesus who by his death defeated the powers of the Adversary and those under him then we can walk free from the law of sin that keeps one in bondage; and with the new creation life he has given us walk in the spirit overcoming the saw of sin in us. It is a daily, hourly battle that will not be over until we are resurrected, but it is a battle worth winning in the anointed one Jesus. Our hope IF we hold fast to his message and his commands to love one another and all men/women is to co-inherit with him this world which will be completely renewed by him and u s; and to co-rule over all the nations that live over into the coming new age with the lord Messiah Jesus the King of Israel and the King of kings and Lord of lords of all the nations. We need to walk through this wilderness as Israel did of old but instead of the unbelief that impeded them; we need to walk in the faith of Jesus and of Abraham, so that what our God and Father has begun in us, He will cause to bear fruit and come to have a glorious life as glorified men/woman immortal in the soon coming new age! In Jesus we have truth, light, love, the way, new age life, wisdom, power of the spirit of truth - his spirit working in us, to help along the way and a high priest who ever acts as our advocate before the thone of his God and our God his Father and our Father. Rejoice, the battle is ours, IF we remain in him to the end. Put on the whole armor of God and pray unceasingly, rejoicing and praising the name of Yehovah! These are the sacrifice our God and our Father love to receive. Halil Yah - Praise God all the day long! Rejoice our salvation draws near!
Grant Abbott
I will make the bold statement that the Christian Life doesn’t have to be difficult at all. When we choose to do life God’s way, using all of God’s resources, it will be easy. As Jesus said, “take my yoke upon you … for my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:29,30). But when we choose to live life Our way, it will always be difficult and challenging because we will be fighting against the culture of this world (the lies and deceptions that Satan uses to enslave us), and the desires of our flesh (the lusts of our eyes and heart, and the pride of life}. Look at these bold statements God has made about the Christian Life: “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) Excerpts from Ephesians 1:3-23 • God gave us every spiritual blessing in Christ • God chose us to be holy and blameless in his sight • God predestined us to be His adopted children • God has freely given us his glorious grace and has lavished on us his redemption from slavery to sin and forgiveness of ALL our sins • God has given us all wisdom and understanding to know the mystery of His will • God works out everything in our lives in conformity with the purpose of His will • God expects our lives to result in the praise of his glory • God has given us the Holy Spirit, who is a seal and deposit guaranteeing our inheritance • God gives us wisdom and revelation so that we will know him better • God enlightens the eyes of our hearts so that we know: a) the hope He has called us to, b) the riches of our glorious inheritance, c) His incomparably great power • God’s power available to us is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at His right hand in heaven • God fills us with the fullness of Christ in every way The key to living a Christian life that is not a difficult struggle lies in “whom we will obey”. Will we obey what the world tells us to do? Will we obey what our pride and flesh tells us to do? Will we obey what God tells us to do? And this is what God has told us: “And this is His command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love each other as he commanded us” (1 John 3:23). We struggle and fail to live up to God’s expectations for our lives because we don’t really believe the bible, the Word of God. We have not immersed our minds with everything that God has said to guide and direct us. As a result, we don’t have God’s wisdom, understanding and revelation to know and obey God’s will every day. We need to renew our minds and the way we think every day. We also struggle and fail because we “love the world” and “love ourselves”. This leaves no room to love other people. We need to open our eyes to the needs of people around us and then ask God how he wants us to meet those needs. When the focus of our lives is on loving and caring for other people, our minds are not attracted by the ways of this world, we crucify the desires of our flesh and we learn to walk in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:24,25).
James Kraft
The Christian life is not difficult, it is impossible. But, we have this. Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Someone once said the best way to live the Christian life, is to leave yourself alone and let the Spirit do the work. It says He has begun a good work in us. And He will perform it. Jesus does it, because we can't. We are to walk by faith. The same faith that saved us will keep us to the end. When we trusted Jesus as our savior, we were given eternal life and sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption of our soul/spirit. Ephesians 1:13 and 4:30. Now Jesus is our Sabbath rest. Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Our old nature or flesh is still very much with us, but we also have our new nature that we rest in. We all have a problem in the flesh, but that keeps us humble. The will and commandment for the Christians is, First John 3:23 And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment. We should live the golden rule. Do unto others as we would have them do to us. Love overcomes a multitude of sins. John 3:17 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. There are days when it just seems we can do nothing right. That is to show us how weak we are in the flesh and have to rely on the Spirit. It has a purpose to keep us from pride and self righteousness which we all have to a degree. If we say we have no pride, we just confessed that we do. First John 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. But we can rejoice in the Lord no matter what state we are in because of His amazing grace. Romans 11:6 We know we are going to heaven because of what He did for us, and that He will continue the work in us even when we can not see it. Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self control, against such their is no law. Notice love is listed first. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.
Kathy Akers
My opinion as to why it's hard to be a Christian is due to walking the narrow path is because Christ giving His life in the most painful, demeaning, & humility for us to have a relationship with God. Everything we go through in this life isn't even comparable to what He has done for us. I'm a Christian & I've been living in daily chronic pain for over 20 years. My God gives me the strength to get to every day, I know that if it wasn't for His grace, I know without a doubt that I would've committed suicide many years before, my point is that all the trials & troubles in this life are for us to be more dependent, obey, & grow stronger in our relationship with Him. He will make good out of everything whether it's painful, grief, or sorrow. It will be worth it after all. Praise His holy Name. I pray this will help anyone who reads this & get a blessing as much as did writing this.
James Fehr
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8 NLT) 1 Peter 5:8 is why I believe it's hard to live a Christ-like life. I like to compare our earthly family to our Heavenly Fathers family. One of the worst things you can do to parents is to harm their children or get them to turn against them. In the beginning, Lucifer lived in heaven with our Heavenly Father but he got thrown out of heaven along with a third of the angels. The only way he can get back at God is to try and lead His creation, mankind astray. And he was successful right from the beginning with Adam and Eve. Along with being born into sin, the devil goes around seeking whom he may devour. We must always be on guard which we as humans often fail and that's why it seems to be so difficult. Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:27 - 11:28 NLT)
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