Christian Fellowship Community Group
A safe place for Christians who Love Jesus Christ to meet and ask for prayer and share scriptures from the bible. We value the posting of Christian music, poems, stories and also personal testimonies. Please let us know your needs, concerns and have some fun getting to know each other. We treat each other with respect.
The wisdom of the fathers
ABOUT BEING PREPARED
We live in a serious and significant time: we are waiting for the return of our King, and everyone has probably the desire to be prepared in order not to be left be when behind when He appears. But in what way can we prepare ourselves?
"If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules", says Paul. How grave is this exhortation. There was a point in the time in the history of the people of God, in the Old Testament, that reminds us in some aspects of our present situation. It is the time of the conquest of Caanan by the people of Israel under Joshua.
What is this land of Caanan? Dear friend, this Canaan, that was destined for us before the foundation of the world, is basically nothing else but Jesus Christ Himself; it is the fullness of all He has purchased for us through His Cross, His death, His Tomb, His resurrection and ascension. It is the complete redemption in Christ. Therein rest the unsearchable depths and immeasurable glories that only God can reveal to us.
Dear people of God, your King not only died for forgiveness of sins but through His death He brought to end the first creation, the world of sin and sickness of the first Adam.
As the Son of man, Jesus, who by His birth became a scion of Adam, by being buried in the Tomb, drowned - so to speak - the whole first creation (in God's eyes) - and this includes you and me. This is the only salvation in existence from the 'self'. There is no other. All other counsel and other methods are in error, rob the Saviour of His honour and make the power of the Word of the Cross and the Tomb ineffective.
If we decide to follow Him, we must be willing to be buried completely, not only in part. Only who loses his whole life, will preserve it for eternity.
On this point there is still little insight in the Church. One got used to the notion that we only have to deal with partial changes in our being; but the Word of God says that we have become 'new creatures': "The old has gone, ALL things have become new." (2.Cor. 5.18) We are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ.
Birth is the appearance of a completely new being that did not exist before and which bears the imprint of its origin. Jesus, also, was completely changed when He rose from the tomb." What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit."
(by Margarethe von Brasch)
ABOUT BEING PREPARED
We live in a serious and significant time: we are waiting for the return of our King, and everyone has probably the desire to be prepared in order not to be left be when behind when He appears. But in what way can we prepare ourselves?
"If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules", says Paul. How grave is this exhortation. There was a point in the time in the history of the people of God, in the Old Testament, that reminds us in some aspects of our present situation. It is the time of the conquest of Caanan by the people of Israel under Joshua.
What is this land of Caanan? Dear friend, this Canaan, that was destined for us before the foundation of the world, is basically nothing else but Jesus Christ Himself; it is the fullness of all He has purchased for us through His Cross, His death, His Tomb, His resurrection and ascension. It is the complete redemption in Christ. Therein rest the unsearchable depths and immeasurable glories that only God can reveal to us.
Dear people of God, your King not only died for forgiveness of sins but through His death He brought to end the first creation, the world of sin and sickness of the first Adam.
As the Son of man, Jesus, who by His birth became a scion of Adam, by being buried in the Tomb, drowned - so to speak - the whole first creation (in God's eyes) - and this includes you and me. This is the only salvation in existence from the 'self'. There is no other. All other counsel and other methods are in error, rob the Saviour of His honour and make the power of the Word of the Cross and the Tomb ineffective.
If we decide to follow Him, we must be willing to be buried completely, not only in part. Only who loses his whole life, will preserve it for eternity.
On this point there is still little insight in the Church. One got used to the notion that we only have to deal with partial changes in our being; but the Word of God says that we have become 'new creatures': "The old has gone, ALL things have become new." (2.Cor. 5.18) We are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ.
Birth is the appearance of a completely new being that did not exist before and which bears the imprint of its origin. Jesus, also, was completely changed when He rose from the tomb." What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit."
(by Margarethe von Brasch)
I grew up in the faith of the Catholic Church, which was very shallow. As a child I knew Jesus just superficially as a friend and had no idea what it meant to accept Him as Lord and Saviour. Even so, after a near fatal car-accident, when I was just eight years old, I promised gratefully my life to Him, thinking I would become a Catholic priest. I was reminded of this promise, when I made a decision for the Lord when I was nineteen years old. I had lost every bit of faith in my teens and was drifting along aimlessly, trying to improve myself through transcendental meditation, when I met a young group of evangelical Christians who led me to Christ. In the beginning my heart remained pretty cold and although I began reading the Bible, praying and attending Church, I was still embarrassed to confess freely to my mother that I had become a Christian. This changed drastically three weeks later, when sitting under a Good Friday sermon my eyes were suddenly opened to the love of the Lord. I had already known that He had died for me in general, but now it hit me personally. I saw that despite my cowardice to witness freely to Him, I saw Him on the cross to die for me personally. My heart caught on fire with the love for Jesus and on that day everyone I met had to hear of the living reality of the resurrected Lord Jesus. There is a difference between knowing and knowing. We can know with our intellect the Gospel-truth and not be touched by it in the heart. Although through many ups-and-downs of my faith being tested, I have been experiencing the fulfilment of the Lord's promise:" But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth...He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you." (John 16)
TRUE LOVE: Does it exist?
I am kind of a hermit who is waiting for the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ. My faith is nondenominational and is
aptly summed up in the hymn: Blessed assurance, Jesus is
mine, oh what a foretaste of glory divine, heir of
salvation, purchase of God, born of the Spirit, washed in
His blood. Perfect submission, all is at rest, I, in my
saviour, am happy and blessed, watching and waiting, looking
above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love.. I have
been walking with the Lord for 43 years now and after many
ups and downs of my faith being tested, the blessings in
this song have become more than empty words for me, but a
daily, living reality. The Gospel of Christ has proven to be
the transforming power of God for salvation in my life. I
have discovered that our natural, mere human love is just a
dim shadow of God's love, which is everlasting. While our
love is always self-centred, His love is always totally
selfless. Jeremiah 17 says: The heart is deceitful above all
things and beyond cure. Therefore God wants to give us a new
heart as Ezekiel 36 promises: I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your
heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh... and I will
make you a people that follow my laws...Most Christians
don't believe in the possibility of becoming perfect on
earth, as the father in heaven is perfect, and thereby
dilute the Gospel and rob it of its transforming power. Even
if it is impossible with men, it is possible with God. God's
answer to the world celebrating the glory of human love is
Isaiah 40: All men are like grass and all their glory like
the flowers in the field... the grass withers, the flowers
fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever. True love
that satisfies our innermost being is only found in God
Himself who loved us so much that He did not spare His only
Son on the cross, but gave us, with His resurrection,
eternal life and the power to lead a holy life.