WHAT IS YOUR TRUTH?

I want to encourage you to take what I am saying, very seriously.

If you truly humble yourself before God, confess and repent of your sins and accept His free gift of forgiveness by FAITH in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for your sins and their penalties and you have a desire to love Him and serve Him, read His Word, and pray to Him and have a personal relationship with Him, then your faith in TRUE.

Just saying some words when you were a child or adult because you thought it was “the thing to do,” doesn’t impress God! He requires a person to have a humble heart that confesses his/her sins directly to Him, wants to repent of those sins and does, and sees themselves as unworthy of forgiveness without Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. If you think you are worthy without Jesus, you have a pride problem.

FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD

James 2:14-17 says, “What good is it my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith, by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”

James 2:26 “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

Faith, without works/deeds, is indifference to what you claim you have done. Works cannot buy you salvation, but once you have salvation, works prove your faith.

If we have true faith, when we get to Heaven, we may not see some family or friends we were expecting to see there. That’s a depressing thought. That is why we need to make sure to pray for people’s true salvation, whether they claim it or not. Pray that Jesus will put them in a place where they are confronted with the Truth, personally, and the Holy Spirit can convict them.

If that is YOU, I pray for your TRUE salvation very soon! Don’t let pride get in the way!!!

SALVATION WITHOUT REPENTANCE IS NOT SAVING FAITH

Jesus said in Luke 5:32, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Jesus said in Luke 13:5, “…But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

You need to confess to God and repent of thinking that you do not need God in your life and that you yourself have been god.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

If you have true faith, that means God has placed His Holy Spirit inside of you to help you to grow in your faith and to make you more like Jesus.

It says in Galatians 5:16-17, “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”

Galatians 5:22-25 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

SUMMARY

True Faith shows itself by good works/deeds. True faith includes confession of sins directly to God and repentance of those sins. True faith exhibits the fruits of the Spirit. Are these things a part of your life?

Now, a new Christian’s faith will not exhibit all of these things immediately, because their faith needs to grow. The picture, below shows an attitude of humility.

Sharon