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I've quite often sought to retreat into that extremely peaceful and quiet place that God has reserved for all Christians. It is a spiritual place of the mind and body, giving solace and comfort to weary souls. There is a place, which no one knows of the location or extents, and it is there for all Christians by which to renew their spirit, and it is built and made by God. He made a place in your mind that you can go to, in which to meditate on the words of Jesus Christ, read the Bible, and pray, or just to commune with the Holy Spirit and let spiritual thoughts reach up to God. All these actions communicate pure ideas. They are symbolic thoughts and emotions that you may not even have the ability to form words for. It is a refreshing field of green pastures that the sheep all are familiar with, and they know the voice of him who calls. Jesus said that his sheep hear his voice and follow him.
John 10:27
John 10:27
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:”
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/John-10-27/
This place of the renewing of the spirit is not without some entrance or admission price. Jesus Christ paid the price for us with his blood, but we still are not able to enter into our peace without some cleansing of the soul. We have to accept his gift with a humble heart and a willing spirit. As we actually enter into this realm of a Spiritual life, we are refined as silver and eventually all the dross is purged out.
Christ’s Refining Fire of Reformation and Your Spiritual Life
Christ’s Refining Fire of Reformation and Your Spiritual Life
Whether you know it or not, Jesus Christ is baptizing you with fire. He is purging out of your conscience, the old sins that kept you from reaching God's presence. The trials that a Christian will undergo are not a consuming fire but a refining fire. God is gracious and merciful to us, even if we are not completely purged of all our sins immediately, but he will leave us in the fire until all of our sin is gone. The faster you give up your sins willingly and completely, the easier it is to come to God in communion and go in and out, finding peaceful green pastures.
Philippians 4:7
Philippians 4:7
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Philippians-4-7/
Matthew 3:11
Matthew 3:11
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:”
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-3-11/
Eventually, we must repent of all our sins that keep us separated from God. There are so many sins that keep the silver from being purified, that keep your conscience from being cleansed, that you will always be burning in the fire if you don't give them up willingly. God always loves his Christians and fights for them, even when they turn against him and seek to honor other gods. If your business would suffer, because you don't want to offend Muslims or those of other religions by claiming and showing your Christianity, standing up for Christians that are being persecuted, this hurts God. If you are adulterous or abominably immoral, this hurts God. If you don't want to defend the unborn and stand up for the right to life, this hurts God. If you abide by a hospital's practice of euthanasia, the killing of older adults simply because they've had a stroke, this also hurts God. Murderous sins always find us out, and our sins of omission, the things we haven't done and should have, are just like the most grievous of sins and also bear the label of dross in the silver that still needs to be burned out and taken to God in prayer and confession.
Malachi 3:2 - 3:3
Malachi 3:2 - 3:3
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Malachi-3-2_3-3/
Jesus Christ loves us regardless of our past sins. No matter what we have done, whether it was like Paul, the former Saul, who was a murderer and pulled Christians out of their houses, causing them to be put to death, or like Stephen, who was killed for his witness by a vengeful consenting Saul. We as Christians are all able to go in and out, finding green pasture and a quiet peaceful place to commune with God. The love of God, it is a peace that passes all understanding. He leaves us in the fire, the burning of our conscience, until all the dross is purged out of the silver and we are pure and sinless, no matter how long it takes.
Acts 22:20
Acts 22:20
“And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.”
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Acts-22-20/
"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Isaiah-57-15/
"The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Psalms-34-18/
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Psalms-51-17/
All of us are sinful, even when we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal savior and have come to know God through his Son, as a loving and gracious God. He seeks not our destruction but to manifest his Holy Spirit within us and to make us completely clean and sin free, no matter how long it takes. The most grievous of sins is not to know him and not to claim that he is who he said he was. Be the Christian you know that you should be and want to be. Practice Christianity in your daily life, your business, and at home with friends and family.
May 21, 2019
Cliff Rhodes Christian Ministry
The Stoning of St. Stephen - an early painting by the artist, Rembrandt van Rijn
The Stoning of St. Stephen - an early painting by the artist, Rembrandt van Rijn
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