stands up under temptation, for when he has stood

the test and been approved, he will receive the crown

of life which God has promised to those who love Him.

(James 1.12).

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

for significance and expressed a calling upon God, especially in

times of stress. Anyone who ponders the specter of death also

wonders about life beyond death and the awareness of even

resurrection.

The reason men, women and children call upon God is because He

has placed a desire deep in us for Him. He desires us. We are His

masterpiece.

We call on Him because He has already answered us before we call.

He has heard us before we were fashioned. He has provided rest for

our sighing, peace in our weariness and comfort as we cry.

He is the Master of Life and Resurrection. In fact Jesus Christ IS THE

RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. The answer to our question and the

goal of our quest.

“I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.

Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit He cuts away

and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that

continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer

and more excellent fruit.

You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word

which I have given you (My teachings).

Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. (Live in Me and I will live

in you). Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding

in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit

unless you abide in Me.

I am the Vine. You are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in

him bears much fruit. However, apart from Me ( cut off from vital

union with Me) you can do nothing.

If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a (broken-off)

branch and withers. Such branches are gathered up and thrown into

the fire, and they are burned.

I you live in Me ( abide vitally united to Me) and My words remain

in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will and

it shall be done for you.

When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and

glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers

of Mine.

I have loved you, (just) as the Father has loved Me.

Abide in My love.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love and live

on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and

live on in His love.

I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you,

and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure, complete

and overflowing.

This is My commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.

No one has greater love than to lay down (give up) his own life or his

friends.

You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command

you to do.

I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know

what his master is doing (working out).

But I have called you My friends, because I have made known to

you everything that I have heard from My Father.

You have not chosen Me, but i have chosen you and I have

appointed you that you might go and bear fruit and keep on

bearing and that your fruit may be lasting, so that whatever you

ask the Father in My Name, He may give it to you.

This is what I command you: that you love one another.”

(John 15.1-17).

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOR YOUR ABIDING LOVE

FOR US AND FOR GRANTING US THE LOVE SO WE CAN LOVE ONE

ANOTHER! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOR THE FRUIT WE BEAR!

THANK YOU FOR LAYING DOWN YOUR LIFE FOR US AND FOR

CALLING US YOUR FRIENDS!

“Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life for even an

upright man, though perhaps for a noble, lovable and generous benefactor

someone might even dare to die.

But God shows and clearly proves His (own) love for us by the fact that

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Therefore, since we are now justified by Christ’s blood, how much more,

(certain is it that) we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and

wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the

death of His Son, it is much more certain, now that we are reconciled,

that we shall be saved ( daily delivered from sin’s dominion)

through His (resurrection) Life.

Not only so, but we also rejoice and exultingly glory in God (in His

love and perfection) through our Lord Jesus Christ. through Whom

we have now received and enjoy our reconciliation.”

(Romans 5.7-11).

Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross of Calvary to grant us

salvation and eternal Life. He took on human misery and sin to

give us the greatest future. He helps us daily through His Presence.

He sustains, guides and comforts us through the Holy Spirit.

God demonstrates the greatest love, His perfect love for us in that

while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Now, much more

having been justified by His blood we shall be saved from sin’s dominion

and from God’s wrath. WE ARE ETERNALLY THANKFUL LORD JESUS!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE! THANK YOU FOR ETERNAL LIFE!

THANK YOU FOR OUR RECONCILIATION! WE REJOICE IN YOUR

GOODNESS AND KINDNESS! WE EXULTINGLY GLORY IN YOUR

AMAZING LOVE AND PERFECTION AS WE ENJOY OUR REDEMPTION!

HALEELUJAH! WE PRAISE YOU LORD FOREVERMORE!

Led by the Spirit, we understand that we are now sons of God.

This is our new identity when we are in communion with Jesus the Christ.

We know He became one of us and did not count equality with

God something to hold on and grasp to, but He emptied Himself

of His divine privileges and prerogatives. This is known as Kenosis.

He came to identify with humanity as a human, as a servant and

experienced the death on the cross by being identified as a criminal.

When we embrace Him as our Lord and Savior we take on His identity

and are in union with Him. We then have His thought pattern and our like

minded with Jesus Christ:

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who. though He was in the form of God, did not regard

equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied

Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became

obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross.

Therefore God has also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name

that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee

should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every

tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord , to the glory of God

the Father.

(Philippians 2;5-11).

His mind is present in the born-again Spirit-filled Christians.

This is the identity of the reborn sons of God. Because Christ

in you is the only hope of glory. Jesus Christ gives you His life,

so the life you live should be lived to glorify Him and serve Him.

He has redeemed us from sin and death and given us eternal life.

As St. Paul declares: I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,

but the life that I live is the life of Christ Jesus the Eternal Son of God

Who gave His life for me. Since the Holy Spirit Who raised Jesus Christ

dwells in you, the same Spirit will quicken your mortal body.

The Holy Spirit gives you life and freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord

is there is freedom. The Holy Spirit is the Helper, the Advocate, the

Comforter and the Spirit of adoption of wisdom and revelation.

You can have freedom from fear.

“You have not received the Spirit of bondage again unto fear; but you

have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

This is because the love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the

Holy Spirit and we know He is our Daddy. God is love and He is perfect.

Perfect love casts out fear. Fear has torment, but God’s divine love

dispels fear. This has tremendous implications of immense potential.

The vanity and futility of thought, worry, anxiety simply vanish.

The emptiness and desperation of dissatisfaction disappear.

The bondage to the mere physical with its impotence is  now gone.

Gone are the limitations of time, space, physicality with the preoccupations

of mortality and transitory, frustrating experience, illusory existence

of unregenerate material life.

Because Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine and we are recreated

in His Spiritual image we now are full-fledged sons of God. No longer

strangers or aliens, no longer subjects or slaves, no longer clinging to

the fanaticism of yesteryear, the dogmas of modernism, the crutch of

postmodernism. You are truly free. As the son or daughter of God you

receive the fullness of the blessedness and favor of God to His glory.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but the Spirit of power, love and a

sound mind.

This is the Spirit of Sonship freely given through our Lord and Savior

Jesus the Christ. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are

children of God.

” Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether

they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus

has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess

Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which

you have heard that is coming; and now it is already in the world.

Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the

One Who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are

from the world; and therefore what they say is from the world, and the world

listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and

whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the

spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

(I.John 4;1-6).

“Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not

confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is

the deceiver and the antichrist! Be on your guard, so that you do

not lose what we have worked for, but may receive a full reward.

Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes

beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has

both the Father and the Son. Do not receive into the house or

welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching;

for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person.”

(II. John 7-11).

POINTS FOR MEDITATION AND PRAISE

1) Our freedom from spiritual and intellectual error is totally dependent

on abiding in Jesus the Christ Who as our Lord and Savior is the Way, the

Truth and the Life. He backs up all His assertions with the Holy Spirit, the

spirit of wisdom and revelation.

2) The Holy Spirit leads you into all truth. He guides us in the new creation.

He transforms us from glory to glory. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard,

neither has entered into the human mind the things God has prepared for us.

God reveals these to us by His Spirit.

Prepare for the adventure of eternity. The most  intellectually and

spiritually rewarding new life, the Life! Life in the Light!

HALLELUJAH! WE THANK YOU AND PRAISE YOU LORD JESUS FOREVER!

The Truth of God, the Eternal Word, LOGOS entered into His own creation to

reconcile the fallen and broken creation to Himself as Jesus the Christ.

He is born of the Virgin Mary as very God and very Man to fulfill the Father’s

will by defeating the Devil, sin and death. In doing this He ushered in the

Kingdom of God where righteousness reigns. The Kingdom is righteousness,

peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

In the Kingdom the New Creation and the New World is based on the New

and Everlasting Covenant through His Body and His Blood. Since Jesus

Christ is very God and very Man, both Creator and Creation, He reconciled

Mankind to God, bringing the two together in union, in  Communion by His

Body and His Blood.

This reconciliation took place on the Cross at Calvary. This is how He

transformed Humanity, Nature and History.

He broke the dominion of darkness.

He brought us Light and Life.

He accomplished our reconciliation. 

He granted us salvation.

He won the victory over Satan, sin and death.

He redeemed us  and brought about our adoption as sons

of the Living God.

He restored His own creation.

He revealed Himself to us.

He fulfilled His mission, so that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled

in us , who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

As we are united to Him at baptism and identify with His death, we

demonstrate our death, so we no longer walk after the flesh, but after

the Spirit in the Newness of Life.

This is how we are translated from the dominion of darkness to the

Kingdom of God’s dear Son.

The condemnation of sin in the flesh is the revelation of God’s righteousness.

This starts your New Life, Life in the Spirit.

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,

appeal  to and beg you to walk worthy

of the divine calling to which you have

been called (with behavior that is a

credit to the summons to God’s service.

(Ephesians 4.1).

POINTS FOR PRAISE

AND MEDITATION

1) St. Paul considers himself the prisoner

of the Lord. This is not to indicate lack

of freedom. On the contrary our freedom

is God’s freedom. We enter into God’s

freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is

there is freedom.

2)This in essence is the summons to

joy and freedom.

3)St. Paul is set in His course for His life

thoroughly committed to God’s way.

4) God’s way of life is His lifestyle, to

live a life worthy of the divine calling to

which we have been called, to His glory,

not seeking our own, but seeking His way

of life.

HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS!

For when you were slaves of sin,

you were free in regard to righteousness.

What fruit did you have then in the things

of which you are now ashamed?

For the end of those things is death.

But now having been set free from sin,

and having become slaves of God, you

have your fruit to holiness, and the end,

everlasting life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the

gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus

our Lord.

( lower nature, sensuality) will

from the flesh reap decay and

destruction, but he who sows

to the Spirit will from the Spirit

reap eternal life.

And let us not lose heart and

grow weary in acting nobly,

doing right, for in due time

and the appointed season

we shall reap, if we do not

loosen our resolve.

So then, as occasion and

opportunity open up to us,

let us do good to all people

( not only being useful to them,

but also doing what is for their

spiritual good and advantage).

Be mindful to be a blessing,

especially to those of the household

of faith ( those who belong to God’s

family with you, the believers).

(Galatians 6.8-10).

let us also walk by the Spirit.

If by the Holy Spirit we have

our life in God, let us go forward

walking in line, our conduct

controlled by the Spirit.

( Galatians 5.25).

we were reconciled to God

through the death of His Son,

it is much more certain, now

that we are reconciled,

that we shall be rescued

(daily delivered from

sin’s dominion) through

His life.

AMEN! AND AMEN!