Thank you for joining us for the Wednesdays In The Word Bible Study! We are still studying the basics from the Hebrews 6 list of the doctrines of basic Christian Faith: Repentance From Dead Works, Faith In God, Doctrine of Baptisms, Laying On Of Hands, Resurrection From The Dead and Eternal Judgement.
The WITW Review
We covered two weeks ago, Repentance From Dead Works. Last week we studied my little F.A.I.T.H. acronymn. Starting with the F standing for Father God gives each of us a measure of faith. The A stood for Accessing the Kingdom and the things of God by faith. The I in my FAITH acronym stood for Identity In Christ. We discussed learning about who we are in Christ. The T stood for Transforming our thinking by renewing our minds with the Word of God, daily. The H stood for the gift of the Holy Spirit thats available for us to receive by faith. And this week, we are still in the ‘Faith In God’ topic but we discuss five wonderful gifts, God gave us to receive by faith:
5 Wonderful Gifts From God To Receive By Faith
The kingdom of God is like a wealthy man that left his descendants great wealth in a bank. He wrote the family name of the descendants in a book and embedded the account number and key or passcode in the same book. It was discovered that all of the descendants had been notified but way too many were living as if they didn’t have a wealthy inheritance reserved for them in this rich store or bank as we call it today. I’ll come back to this story at the end of the teaching…
The Bible writer of Romans tells us ‘faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.’ That writer also tells us in chapter eleven verse twenty-nine, “God’s gifts and calling are with repentence. Meaning he doesn’t change His mind. Nor does He retract anything, they are irrevocable.
In the live study, I briefly tell you about Varn and our secret of sneaking to the South side of Dallas to eat a little fried chicken every now and then. We loved our church family and pastors. At that time, we were all eating healthy and trying different diets to change our eating lifestyle. But every four months or so, Varn and me too, would derail and as I said, sneak to the south side and partake of a guilty pleasure of eating fried chicken. (chuckle)
We would have been mortified if our friends knew. Anyway, one day we snuck (is that a word?) by and there was a sign that read, ‘Closed After 50 Years’ We did a double take. But it was true. My point in this earth things will change, often unexpectedly. But our Father God does not.
Here are five of those gifts, he will never change his mind about:
- Gift of Salvation. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8
- Gift of Eternal Life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
- Gift of Grace. Grace is considered the umerited favor and blessing of God. …of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me (us) according to the working of His power. Ephesians 3:7 and also, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. -Ephesians 4:7-8
- Gift of Holy Spirit. Peter said them, ‘Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Gift of Righteousness. The simple definition for righteousness is ‘right standing with God.’ For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17
Let me close with the end of that story I started about what the Kingdom of God is like. What if you received word that the wealthy man you heard about was your relative. Yes! I mean you find out you are one of the descendants that’s eligible to receive the stored up wealth, a good portion. Your name was found written in the book, you have an account number and passcode embedded in the book safe from thieves and non-relatives. Three months has gone by and then seven months.
Now it’s almost a year, you still haven’t gone by the bank and used your credentials to access your wealth. People are beginning to say, you must not believe it. Friend, so it is with the kingdom of God. We are direct relatives (spiritual descendants) of Abraham and eligible for the blessing of the Lord through Jesus Christ. The account number is Isaiah 33:6 and the passcode is ‘reverence for the Lord’. And it’s important to note, the currency is faith. You are a sure foundation for every circumstance and a rich store (bank) of salvation, wisdom and knowledge, the fear (reverence) of the Lord is the key to this treasure.
Prayer: I receive the gift of righteousness (right-standing) with God through my Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you Father for this wonderful gift. Amen.
Confession Statement: I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 2 Cor. 5:21
END OF BLOG
Earma Brown, 12 book Christian Author and Co-Founding Pastor at Grace Covenant Church
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