Helen

I believe that God guards us from falling by His Holy Spirit given to us to be our counsellor. He can lead us into all Truth. This is amazing to me. I did forget about God for many years. Then, one day, in the middle of meditation, (yes, new age) I began to think "If I'm going to meditate, I'll meditate on God, and walking in the Garden of Eden without any vine leaf. If God wants to say something, I'm going to hear it." His Holy Spirit was still active in me, despite those years. I began to pick up speed and soon was running toward Jesus again! This is what we are depending on when we pray for backsliders - that God's Spirit of Truth is still ministering to them, no matter where they have gone. I love Him for this constant watchfulness and love. Now I "religiously" keep my daily appointment with Jesus. I can draw closer to Him through the ministrations of this same Holy Spirit of Truth. We are God's masterpiece of creation in which He delighted. But this all came apart when Adam fell. God triumphed when Jesus defeated satan on the cross and made a way for us to become the children of God. He fathers us in the full sense of creation - with His love. Thus, as each sinner returns and begins to grow (be sanctified) He is excited by us, with us, and for us! Such is the humility of our great and mighty God! The more we prosper and become all that He created us to become (individually, as we each are unique), the more excited He is. God's exultant joy doesn't need explaining. It just is! God provided for me to be presented blameless through the cross of Jesus. His love called me through His glory and virtue (2 Peter 1:3). The blood of His Son blood cover(ed)s me. Through His Holy Spirit (as described above) He keeps me, and gives me a garment of righteousness to wear at the wedding feast of the Lamb. He manages the whole thing. All I have to do is be loved, (not reject it) and follow Him. This all works because God is Love. He created us and will love us to the very finish. Oh how I thank you Father! I have a little puppy dog who does all the wrong things, as do all puppy dogs. This does not at all reduce my love for him, my caring for him, my delight in him because I can see the future for us. However I do train him for my household, so that He can be an active and beloved participant. If it turned out that he was untrainable (fortunately this is not so with dogs) I'd have to let him go somewhere else. But seeing he co-operates with me, all is well and we will enjoy each other for many years to come. It is much the same with me (man) and God. Sometimes however man is untrainable and has to be removed. That is not the way God wants it, but that's how it is. God sticks by that, because He gave Adam dominion (authority to decide) and will not interfere with that unless asked to do so. But we can choose to ask God into our lives, and He does come, and He does provide everything we need to overcome and win our race. We have no excuse. We have an earthly and a Heavenly destiny. How wonderful is that!

Keeping myself in God's love is a magnificent program! To me it implicates the whole of ! Corinthians 13, which describes God's love toward us. I am the righteousness of God on earth, so I must reflect that perfect love of God - forgiveness, service, protection etc. wherever I am. (There are certainly flaws in the mirror, but not in the original!) To build the love relationship I'm constantly correcting myself, and trying to build godly relationships with many others around me. Those relationships require many different aspects of me. Jesus said "If you don't love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?" Me loving my brother is the way to go. I'm teaching several people to fear no man, and I'm trying very hard to learn that lesson myself. When I fear only God, that's when love has it's perfect expression.

I believe that God, understanding very well the creative gifts that He has put in us, wants us to operate in them. We are made in His image, imbued with creative gifts. To a major degree we create our own lives. What we sow is what we reap. When He gives us a gift He doesn't redeem it He will not take our choices back. He wants our choice to be Him on an ongoing basis, not a five minute wonder! If we did not build our own lives we'd be nothing but robots. I'm spending time each day in prayer and in scripture, with the idea of changing my life to align it with God's word. I'm at several church meetings per week and involved in education and Christian counselling. I'm also working with some local children on an informal basis. I'm constantly marvelling God's glory, (what He is doing in our midst) My prayer life always needs to be improved until I am unceasingly talking with God.

The Lamb deliberately set aside His glory, laid down His life, and allowed His blood to be poured out for the sins of the people from every nation - to bring God's people home from every part of the earth, to create a bride.

Jesus descended from King David as was promised to David, (Matthew 1)who was of the tribe of Judah, as was Jesus. Thus He is called the root of David. He is described as the lion who knows no predator, has no fear, and is called king of the beasts.

"Called by God" is the phrase that is exciting me at the moment. This speaks to me of God the Creator, from whom all things flow, who, when we got lost in sin, made a mighty plan for our salvation, (instead of wiping us out as in the days of Noah, or simply leaving us to our own devices - horrid thought!) He is the one who "so loved the world that He gave His ony begotten son, that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life". To be called by this mighty creator is an astounding event. Nothing else matters - nothing at all.

Each of these verses refer to a time when we will eat and drink with our Lord Jesus in Heaven. He is waiting for us there, in anticipation of His wedding - the wedding feast of the Lamb. There will be no tears there, for we will be whole, and in love with Him completely. However it will be a passover as there will only be those present who are covered in the Blood of the Lamb.

There must be a hundred reasons at least why these words about the covenant in blood should fill us with sorrow and joy. Sorrow comes from our need for repentance and to be forgiven, the state of our carnal nature having lost its righteous clothing (Adam and Eve worried about their nakedness), the distance we have come from God, the blindness of people who will not see who He is, the horrendous price of our redemption, the fact that we could do nothing of ourselves to reconcile with God, the separation of man from God, the suffering of Jesus. Joy comes from such things as the greatness of our redemption, the wonder of a God who loves us so much that He could give His only Son to die in our place for our sins, (for we indeed deserved death), the miracles of healing, the great joy of knowing God again (after the fall), the astonishment of His statement "these and greater things will you do...), the miracle of representing God on this earth, the miracles of going into all the world and seeing Him bring His people home, the miracle of changed lives, lives with hope in place of despair, expectation instead of grief. There is no end to the reasons we have for joy.

Considering the evidence that we are in the last days - (it is even mooted that identity chips in the hand and forehead are imminent), the effect of belief in Christ's return/judgement should be to galvanise us into action, to be entirely holy, to give ourselves no excuse, and to evangelise whoever comes across our path. Under-emphasis on Christ's return will cause complacency. This cannot be allowed

Our culture is post-Christian-pagan. In other words there was a rebellion against the Christian precepts of our parents of the fifties. The flower generation rebelled and did not teach their children what they had been taught about God on the grounds that it may inhibit them. They are now experimenting with all sorts of religions - including atheism - in order to satisfy the needs of theirs souls for some sort of answers. We have developed the "if it feels good do it" culture. Religion basically rationalises what we want to do, and are going to do anyway! Anything which includes concepts of self-control are anathema in our culture. The ideas of sin and repentance are not nice and definitely not embraced. Absolutes are said not to exist and each man is his own authority (little tin god) for how he wants to live. John the Baptist proclaimed the highway for Jesus, which is the highway of repentance. There is no other way to God, because we all have sinned and need to be forgiven and come under the Blood of Jesus. Repentance is always difficult for me when habits need to change. New habits don't come easily. They involve a time of disciplined action over a period of time until they are properly installed. By nature we tend to avoid such things. Yet learning and developing is an ongoing process until the day I go to be with my Father. Changing into the likeness of Jesus Christ is the door to the world of revival and miracles, joy and fruitfulness. We can never give up on it.

The coming of Christ is delayed because God is longsuffering and wants everyone to have the opportunity of repentance and salvation. This tells us that God has a great longing for all His children to be with Him, and that none should perish or be lost.

It is important for us to understand "to perish" because that is exactly what is going to happen. As Jesus fulfilled something like 135 scriptures prophesying His coming, so He will fulfil those scriptures prophesying His second coming, and the annihilation of the earth by fire. Our lives are in the context of this prophecy, and as Noah preached about the flood for something like 100 years until it happened, so we must preach about the second coming of Christ until it happens. Our society is so cynical that it seems difficult to demonstrate to them the truth of this prophecy. We usually major on things they can connect with - healing, and then maybe redemption from sin and being born again. This seems to remove the urgency of the gospel, and makes us less desperate to get it out to the world. This is a great question about judgement. I think we attend to the older generations when they come along with their questions, and pay particular attention to the young people. These are third generation (pagan) since the sixties rebellion, and mostly have not been pre-conditioned about "religion". We can tell them the whole truth in the context of the question they always ask - "why doesn't God prevent all the misery in the world". We can tell them that God gave dominion to man, and will not take it back because He has set that into being and will not undo His word which He sets above himself. He will only intervene in the affairs of men if asked to do so. However, Man will certainly have to answer for what they have done with the power God put in their hands. Many young people will understand this and know they are answerable for their sins. We can give them the right context for their lives and The Faith. We can teach on the stories of Dives and Lazarus and others that refer to eternity. They will see this as fair and just, and respond to it. They will bring their parents in where we can't. Young people have a great sense of justice. They like to see fair play in the general sense. They are more open to Truth than their "ancestors". They deserve to hear the whole gospel.

It's very important to remember and to go over the basic teachings, because people will come who put their own interpretation on scripture, and lead people off the true path of righteousness into some delusion of theirs. We have always to test everything by the scriptures to know it is correct. We remind others in home groups where we discuss life's events in the light of scripture, and in daily conversation, by including Jesus and Scripture in the conversation, always encouraging people to be obedient to the Lord and to His word.

Praise God, some churches are beginning to talk about Heaven and hell, eternity, and the consequences of sin, the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ which redeems us, and the need for constant spiritual development again. Some get offended and go away, and others get saved. Hallelujah! I think When churches are not very active in bringing new people into the Kingdom, and are preaching mostly to the converted, things get too comfortable. They are afraid to lose people (and money). In effect they are running on fear. But when churches are active in reaching out, they are constantly preaching the message of salvation from sin and degradation into Life eternal

When we flagrantly disobey (a commandment, a parent, a teacher) we are desensitising ourselves to whatever it is they (the Holy Spirit, parent , teacher) are trying to communicate to us. Then, having lost that sensitivity, we are driven by our own carnal desires until there is no way out. Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is the gift that Jesus paid so dearly for us to regain. That was the whole point of the Pentecost gift of the Spirit. We dare not lose that because in so doing we can die again as Adam did, and there is then no way back! The path back is repentance which means turning from the sin to the Lord. Sometimes deliverance is needed. We love the sinner by letting him know the dangerous path he is on (though not nagging about it) and refusing to validate him on this path (for instance the daughters and sons who want to bring their "partner" home to share a bed under our roof, drive them to the abortion clinic etc) but encouraging him to turn again to the Lord. We pray for him/her. We steer clear of the judgemental attitude by continuing to love them in as many ways as possible, even though they remain in sin. It is finally the Holy Spirit who can convict them. We must pray for this and leave it to Him.