Can you and I detect hypocrisy? Can we know when a false gospel is creeping into our thinking? How easy is it for you and I to be duped? For me, I do not want to be gullible guy who falls for propaganda and gaslighting. I’m learning that integrity and authenticity are based on the solid foundation of Scripture and dependence on our Triune God. It’s easy to slide into a self sufficient independent, developing a superior and entitled mindset. This slippery slope rises pride and arrogance, hardening the heart. We are constantly being reminded that we cannot follow Christ as a lone ranger. We need each other.
“Stop trying to protect, to rescue, to judge, to manage the lives around you . . . remember that the lives of others are not your business. They are their business. They are God’s business . . . even your own life is not your business. It also is God’s business. Leave it to God. It is an astonishing thought. It can become a life-transforming thought . . . unclench the fists of your spirit and take it easy . . . What deadens us most to God’s presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continuously engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought. I suspect that there is nothing more crucial to true spiritual comfort . . . than being able from time to time to stop that chatter.” - Frederick Buechner, Telling Secrets
“We are saved by faith (Eph. 2:8–9), and “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). In the miracle of the new birth, the Holy Spirit imparts new life—God’s life—to a believing sinner, and as a result the individual is born into the family of God.
Just as physical children bear the nature of their parents, so God’s spiritual children bear His nature. The divine “seed” is in them. A Christian has an old nature from his physical birth and a new nature from his spiritual birth. The New Testament contrasts these two natures and gives them various names: - Excerpt, Be Real (1 John) by Warren W. Wiersbe
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