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KEEP ON GROWING
ABrethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.@ ( Philippians 3: 13-14) You have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, and confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. You have repented from your old ways, and been converted. But that my friend, is only the beginning of your wonderful new life in Christ. God rarely will take you to heavenly places the moment you confess and accept Him as Lord of your life. He has a work for you to do here on earth, and you cannot stop here at the process of conversion, you must keep on growing. When you were converted from your old way into your new life in Christ, it=s like hatching out of an egg. Long before you were born, even before your conception, Almighty God had >you= in mind. He had a distinct purpose for you to fulfill on earth and all through eternity. But guess what? You will never find that purpose unless you continue to GROW!!! Simply being hatched is not enough. You need to fly like an eagle. Growth is assimilated by multiplication. When you have learned what the Word of God has to say about the course and direction of your life, you must incorporate that spiritual substance into your consciousness. The law of growth stems from >beholding.= Our body is the temple of the Living God. It is divine expression of who God is. We must behold it as such in order to grow. If we behold it as anything less than divine, we allow error, sin, and discord to set in. But if we behold ourselves free from these things, then we are free to keep manifesting full freedom in God, in other words, growing. That=s why I believe the above scripture; A Brethren I count not myself to have not apprehended, but this one thing I do, I forget the things that are behind me, and press toward the mark of the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus. The more we decrease, the more God will increase. But that process starts in your own mind, and it depends on what you are beholding. I am a living witness as the Bible says in Galatians 6:9; that if I don=t be weary in my well doing, in due season I will reap if I faint not. That=s growing. Our conversion effort of being born again was just an event. It was the experience of moving from darkness into light, from death to life. But my Salvation (hallelujah), is the process by which I move and grow in God. It is the process of beholding the things of God, so that I may become like God. Remember the bible tells us that he thought it not robbery to be equal with Him. But I realize in this day, since folks have not got the beholding process down, their growth process has become stagnated, and they are STUCK!!! A lot of times it=s because of our unwillingness and disobedience to want to go any further. We=re not willing to put our faith in God and take the risks. We=ve become comfortable in our way, and God forbid if we allow anything to come along and disturb that! But I tell you today Saints, that anything that is really worth having has a price attached to it. People who are ready and willing don=t mind paying the price, because they have already established the divine ideas of God, and those ideas have embedded in consciousness. They see the reward, and not the price!!! And I tell you, that these are the ones whom God uses in special and anointed ways to shape the existence of this world!! In Philippians 2:3, Paul told his friends at Philippi Ato continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.@ Our School of Wisdom lesson for the last Sunday in the month gave reference to that scripture. Quoting from our lesson it states: Work has meant being on a Board of Elders, teaching Sunday School, cleaning the church, tithing, and volunteering time, as a way of working out your salvation with fear and trembling that otherwise their salvation may be in jeopardy. This is merely mans way, but this scripture refers to a higher way and of higher thinking. I believe this scripture was referring to entering the Kingdom of God, not because you come to church every Sunday, and do a few good deeds here and there, but a daily process of growth; whereby you grow in grace and are conformed to the image of God. He was saying that your growth demands cooperation with God. In fact, he said you had at to work at it, then God who works in you through the Holy Ghost, will make it happen. Paul goes on to warn the church at Philippi in Philippians 3rd chapter, against stopping along the way in their Christian walk with God. He told them there were more and more things that they had yet to experience in God. In others words, A YOU MUST KEEP ON GROWING.@ There is danger if you don=t grow. Read. I Corinthians 9:24-27) The essence of the scripture says this: In a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets first prize. So we have to run the race to win. In order to win, we must deny ourselves many things that would keep us from doing our best. An athlete does it to win a medal or a silver cup, but we do it for an eternal reward that never disappears. So we have to run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. We have to fight to win. Don=t shadow box or play around. Like an athlete, you must punish that body, treat it roughly, training it to do what it should, not what it wants to. Paul goes on to say that after enlisting others for the race, that he himself might be declared unfit and ordered to stand aside. So it was important that he be doing that same thing he was instructing others to do. Paul took this thing seriously, just as we should. He knew that if he stopped growing, and stopped moving forward toward the prize, we could easily fall back into our old life, with its old ways. So that should be a major focus of ours. Just because we don=t want to slip, just because we don=t want to go back into a life of sin, just because we don=t want to error in our way, WE SHOULD KEEP ON GROWING!!!!! Here are a few things we can do daily to accomplish that end: G GO to God in prayer daily. (John 15:7) R - READ Gods Word daily. (Acts 17:11) O - OBEY God moment by moment (John 14:21) W WITNESS for Christ by YOUR Life and Words (Matt. 4:19) T - TRUST God for every detail of your life. (I Peter 5:7)
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HOLY SPIRIT Allow God
o control and empower your life daily As we prepare to celebrate our upcoming holiday (Founder=s Day - January 20th) in Triumph The Church And Kingdom Of God In Christ, I pray for you, divine blessings of life and living, as you allow the sweet spirit of the Holy Ghost to sanction you with love and peace. Let us not forget that as we KNOW GOD, we GROW in GOD, and thus SHOW GOD even more in our lives. What a beautiful manifestation it is when GOD shows up in you! GOD BLESS AS YOU CONTINUE TO GROW, AND ALWAYS REMEMBER Life Is Right!!!!!
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