Note: Each time I share with those who visit my blog, I always encourage you, that if you don't know Jesus, you can---right now--right this minute--wherever you are. All you have to do is call upon the name of Jesus. The bible tells us in Romans 10:
8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
All you have to do, is call upon the name Jesus, as it tells us in v. 13:
For whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
I want to begin by sharing what it was like when I was in my
elementary school years. I can remember almost every first day of school from
the 1st to the 6th grade. I’m going to give my age up because we didn’t have
kindergarten when I started school. That
first day, walking into the classroom, I would come in, find my seat and sit
down. I would be excited, anxious, but
full of enthusiasm; I would be nervous, I would be timid. I wanted to know what
the teacher was like. I wanted to please my teacher; I wanted her to like me so
I would have a good year. I wanted to
know what she wanted me to do. If she would say to another student, “Johnny, I
liked what you did there”. I wanted to see what Johnny did so I could do the
same and make my teacher happy.
My friend shared the following message on a Livestream Broadcast and the Lord directed her to transcribe and edit it and she has given me permission to share it here. If you are recently born again, Kathie shares some beginning instructions for the new believer. And for those who have been at this walk for awhile, I encourage you to read on; they are words by the Spirit and they will minister life and faith.
God Bless,
-Kathryn
God Bless,
-Kathryn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the New Christian; Where Do I Begin? (by Kathie Davidson)
Years later, I became a school teacher myself and I
remembered very vividly those first days of class. So on my first day of class when my students would
come in and we would meet for the first time, I would welcome them to my room
and say to them, “You know what? I’m going to show you exactly what I would
like you to do and exactly the way I like things done”. Have you ever been in a classroom with a
teacher that you just didn’t know what she wanted, and the only way you found
out was to do the wrong thing, and she would get upset with you, and then you
would feel so small? I have had those
days, and I didn’t want my students to feel that way. So that first day I would say things such as,
“Okay, this is how I would like you to sit in your seats”, and I would sit at
one of their desks and demonstrate. I would go on, “This is how I would like
our desks to be”. “This is how I would
like you to line up at the door.” “This is how I would like us to walk down the
hall.” “This is the way I would like you
to get my attention if you need help.” All the things that I thought of that they might
want to know, I told them that first day and demonstrated it so there were no
surprises–and you know what? My students loved me for it. And you know what
they did? They did the things that I asked
them because they wanted to please me, they wanted me to like them, they wanted
a good year. You know what? I had 6
years I taught here in Texas and I loved every one of my students, every one of
them. I loved them enough to show them what was required so they would be
successful.
Well, you have a Heavenly Father that loves you. What if you
are just now born again and you are brand new in Jesus? Do you know you can be 96 years old and be a
young baby Christian? I know what it is
like when you come into this and say, “Now what? I’m born again and now what do I do?” I have been there and I remember it vividly so
I’m going to do the same thing that I did for my students and show you a couple
of things that I know will please your Heavenly Father and His son Jesus that
you are now serving.
But before I begin I want to share with you and remind you
that when you were born again you received the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, as 1
Corinthians 6:17 states,
But he that is joined
unto the Lord is one spirit.
His Spirit is now in you and what is so wonderful about that
is that you now are never
alone. Jesus said in Hebrews 13:5 and 6;
(5)… I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. (6) So
that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man
shall do unto me.
So as I share these things remember Jesus will lead you and
help you as you become a child of God.
Without Faith it is
Impossible to Please Him
I want us to begin with Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 (I will
be using the King James Bible),
But
without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Do you hear that new Christian? That without faith, it is impossible to please Him. So now we know that one of the first things
you have to do is to go after faith because faith pleases the Father. Do you see as you read this verse and
consider what it states, that what you wear is not what pleases the Father. How
you act is not what pleases the Father, saying the right words is not what
pleases the Father. Going to the right places is not what pleases the Father. What
pleases the Father? Faith pleases
the Father. We will return to the rest of this passage later, but now I want to
go to Romans 10 because you may be thinking, “Okay I need to have faith. How do
I do that?” Thank God the answer is in
the bible!
Go to Romans chapter 10 and read verse 17.
So then faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Notice it states that faith comes by hearing; not seeing,
not reading. So we have to hear the word of God to build our faith.
You know what is nice about this chapter? It tells you exactly the kind of words that
you need be hearing. Let’s go up to
verse 13, same chapter (10).
For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.
That is what you did and that is how you were born again. Now let’s go on…
14 How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they
preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
What is being taught here? What is being preached? The gospel of peace. Continue…
16 But they have not
all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias
saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
What are we talking about here? We are talking about the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who hath believed our report?” So what is that word that we
need to hear? It is the gospel.
How do you please the Father? You please the Father with
faith.
How do you get faith?
You get faith by hearing the gospel.
So then, what is the gospel?
Let’s turn to I Corinthians 15.
I’m going to lay it out as clear as I can just like I did for my
students when I was a teacher.
I Corinthians 15:1
Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
Paul is getting ready to declare what the gospel is. We want
to know because that is what we have to hear so we can have faith.
2 By which also
ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have
believed in vain.
3 For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day
according to the scriptures:
There is your gospel! That Jesus died, according to the
scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again according to the
scriptures. This is what we need to hear so we can build our faith.
All right, now we know faith pleases God and faith comes by
hearing the gospel; the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. So how do you hear that gospel?
You take the Bible and you read where the gospel is written
about and you read it out loud so that you can hear it, and you read it over
and over and over so it gets into your heart.
Where is the gospel written, what do you read aloud? It is written in the Psalms, it is written in
Isaiah 52 and 53. It is written
throughout the New Testament.
Those are the things you read, and you read them out loud,
and you read them again and again and again and again. You read them as much as you can. What does it say then will happen? Faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. Faith comes and what does
faith do? It pleases your Heavenly Father. It is wonderful for the Father to be pleased
with you.
He is a Rewarder for
Them that Diligently Seek Him
All right, let’s go back to Hebrews 11:6 and we are going to
continue on with that verse.
But without faith it
is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him.
You have to have faith because it is impossible to please
him otherwise. But now look at the rest
of this verse:
“…For he that cometh
to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that
diligently seek Him”.
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Well, we want to please the Father who we are
now serving and Jesus his Son. Here it
states that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Well who doesn’t
want to be rewarded by God? So now we know we have to seek Him. How do we do that? How do we seek the Father? Let’s go to Psalm 22, verse 26.
The meek shall eat and
be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord
that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
How do you seek the Father? You praise Him. Another verse that goes right along with this
one, Psalm 100:4,
Enter into his gates
with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and
bless his name.
You thank Him. You give thanks and praise to the Father for
what He has done for you, for the things that He has given you and for what
Jesus did for you with his death, burial and resurrection.
You have a Father in heaven that loves you so much that He
sent his Son to die for you. He wants
you to come to him; that is His desire, that is why he sent Jesus. And the Father has a Son that loves you
enough that he willingly laid down his life for you and went to the cross. It was that sacrifice of Jesus that reconciled
you (restored you, brought you back) to the Father and himself.
If a Man Loves Me He Will Keep My Word
I’ve got one more area for us to look at. I want us to go to John 14 and I’m going to
begin in verse 23;
Jesus
answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my
Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
If a man loves Jesus he will keep ‘my word’. Notice Jesus
said his word. You may not even be
familiar with the bible or what Jesus’ words are. In many bibles the words of Jesus are written
in red and they are found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Let’s go on. Jesus said, “… if a man loves me, he will keep
my word”. Look what happens when you
keep Jesus’ word. Your Heavenly Father
will love you and not only that, both the Father and Jesus will make their
abode with you, they will dwell with you.
Now with that let us take a look at James 1:22
But be ye doers of the
word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
How do you “keep” the word? How do you “do” the word? You follow its instructions. The word states
bless those that curse you, so you bless your enemy (Matthew 5:44). The word says give and it shall be given, so you
give (Luke 6:38). The word states give thanks in everything, so you give thanks
(1 Thessalonians 5:18). The word says to
believe the gospel, so you believe (rely on, trust in) the gospel. Whatever the word of God directs you to do,
you do. We must carry out the word, not
just hear it, not just memorize it for Bible Baseball like we did when we were
children.
Let me give you a simple example of being a “doer” of the
word. In the book of Luke Jesus states in chapter 6;
27 But I say unto
you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
28 Bless them
that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
Years back when I was first beginning to walk in this word I
was working in a grocery store as a sign maker. I was responsible for hand lettering
all the paper signage in the store. That included the big posters on the walls down
to the little signs on the shelves. I
had a manager in the meat department that I had to work with that was very
gruff, vile, and had a foul mouth. He would use language that was not easy to
hear, and he didn’t like me at all.
I would visit each department every time I was there and
ask, “Do you need any signs made for your specials this week?” When I would get to his department he would reply
by calling me all sorts of names. I
would endure the scathing and then most of the time he would say, “No, I don’t
have any signs for you today.” But one particular day, I came down to him and
asked, “Do you have any signs you would like for me to do for you today?” He
let out a whole string of words of what he thought I was and then he said, “I
have two signs for you to do”. I took
down the information I needed. I left
the counter, turned to go and I was reminded of the verse, “Bless them that
curse you.” So I decided to do just that.
I started blessing him. I had to walk through the store and
up the stairs to my office. I said, “Father, I bless this man, I bless him, I
bless him”. All the way up the stairs, “Father, I just bless this man. Father,
I bless him, I pray for him.” I went up
and did his signs. I made the signs extra
nice for him, for it said “do good to them which hate you” I kept blessing him
and took the two signs down to him. But when I got to his department he wasn’t
there. There was another person in his place.
I asked her where the manager was. She replied, “Kathie, you are never
going to believe this. Right after you left, a customer walked up to his
department. He called her a name, and she went and got the store manager. The
manager came back here, fired him on the spot, and he is gone. The store manager kicked him out of the
store.”
That is being a doer of the word. I obeyed the word and the
Lord removed that manager from troubling me.
Summary
So now, how do we begin?
- 1. We know nothing pleases the Father but faith (Hebrews 11:6). It is impossible to please the Father without it.
So to get faith what do we do? We read the word of God out loud where the
gospel is ministered (Romans 10:17). That is the word we want to read. The
gospel is that Jesus died, he was buried and he rose again (I Corinthians
15:3,4).
Where can we find the gospel in the bible to read it out
loud so we can build our faith? It’s in the book of the Psalms, it’s in Isaiah
52 and 53, and it is throughout that New Testament.
- 2. We also found the bible states that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So we want to seek the Father (Hebrews
11:6). How do we seek Him? We praise him.
We bless Him (Psalm 100:4). We
thank Him (Psalm 22:26).
- 3. The bible also states if a man loves Jesus, he will keep His words (John 14:23).
This is enough to get you started. With these words of instruction and many
others that God will lead you into, you are on your way to becoming a child of
God, as it states in John 1:12;
But
as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Remember this; you are not alone in this walk. Jesus is in
you, he will lead you, and as he said, I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee (Hebrews
13:5).
God Bless,
Kathie Davidson
Kathie Davidson
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