Psalm 10:4

"In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;'in all his thoughts there is no room for God." -Psalm 10:4

      Pride is one sin that everyone struggles with. I look at pride thinking I'm better than other people, and I also look at it like I'm good enough to make it to God's kingdom, but we are not. We have to constantly remind ourselves through the Holy Spirit that it is the shed blood on the cross and the defeated death that were are able to have life. The Psalmist is saying the wicked man is stuck in his pride; if your stuck is pride you can't see the wrong you are doing because you think you are right all the time, and you are human so you are not right all the time. Pride doesn't seek God; it's a great sin not to seek God. Pride doesn't even believe God is there. When will we put down our pride? If you live a life which is prideful you are ignoring God. But! This is a great but. But when we repent and return to Jesus, then our thoughts will return to the Lord. 

Death No Longer

When Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, it was a traditional Jewish ceremonial washing in order to "to fulfill all righteousness." Christ had not sinned, making him righteous, the need of the washing was not needed because he was without sin. Christ baptism was to "purify the water" so others may be saved. 

When we baptize today we repeat the same saying since the beginning of the Church in Acts, "I now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit so you may receive the gift of eternal life." 

Luke 3:21,22 

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a (God's)voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

In this verse you have Jesus the Son, dove the Holy Spirit, and the voice as God; this is the only place in scripture where the Trinity is together. How amazing is it that we can look at our baptism as the coming together of the Father, Spirit, and Son.

We are baptized into Christ as well as his death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life (Romans 6:4). We know from Christ being raised from the dead he will never die again; death has no dominion or power over him (Romans 6:9). By our baptism sin will have no dominion over us (Romans 6:14). Be rescued from death to life to righteousness.

Through Christ's baptism and resurrection, we may have death no longer.

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Why was Christ baptized if he was without sin? 

Last: Rain Rain

HEART

 Your Heart

A big theme in the bible is the heart, it appears over 900 times in the bible, so it is very important. 

Everything comes out of the heart. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Luke 6:45). Your words, actions, thoughts, and motives are a reflection of your heart. For example, girls love clothes, they buy it, wear it, talk about it, and even brag about it (you can love Jesus, and still have a passion for clothes); By knowing what people do and say, you know what is in their hearts.

As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart (Prov. 27:19).

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it (Prov. 4:23).

A person thinks their own ways are right (Proverbs 21:2). Why? Because we are prideful, we constantly try to justify our sin, we will even go to scripture and try to find a verse that justifies our sin. That’s why Romans 12:3 says, “We should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, but with sober judgment.” When you take a sober look at our heart you will find that we all have fallen short of the Glory of God and no one is righteous. There is a way we can have our heart transformed by God.

God will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; He will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). In context, God promised to restore Israel not only physically, but spiritually. He wants the same for us, no matter how impure you are you can receive a new heart from God, and be a new creation, with new desires (2 Corinthians 5:17). Having a new heart you will receive a new spirit, and God will dwell in you.

With A New Heart You 

Become a new creation

Everyone has or is an old creation. When we were an old creation we were in constant rebellion against God, set apart from him because of sin. When Christ makes us a new creation, we turn completely around and go towards him.

Have new desires

Whatever we do comes from our desires. 

Romans 3:10-12 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

All of our desires before Christ are not good, not even one. With a new desire we are able to do good through Christ.

And the verse that summarizes the life we have through Christ.

Ephesians 2:3-10

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

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Our heart was broken, God fixed it, He created new desires for us through Jesus.

Thanks for reading. Contact me Email, Follow on Twitter @JonSAdams. Your welcome to comment.

Spiritual Growth

No where in the bible does is say "Spiritual Growth." Why did Christians come up with this concept? Before I go any further let's break down the words.

Spiritual- of, relating to, or reflecting the human spirit

Growth - the process of developing or maturing

So we can say that Spiritual Growth is the human spirit in the process of maturing. So the question today is, "How can we become Spiritually Mature?"

God's will for everyone is to become Spiritually Mature.

1. Age does not make you Spiritually Mature

Luke 2:52

52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

1 Timothy 4:12

12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

Yes, to grow in your relationship with Christ takes time, some are faster then others. Like Paul, he was one day a person that hated Christians, and in a few days he was preaching. You see in the verse above with Jesus, that it took time, but as he grew in stature he grew in wisdom.

Some young people are afraid to step up and set the example for the older. This includes me, I feel like that everyone that is older, is wiser then me, and most are. We need to get back to thinking about our relationship with God instead of comparing our relationship with everyone else's. Everybody's relationship is different.

2. Appearance doesn't make you Spiritually Mature

You know how some people just look Spiritually Mature? Now I am guilty of judging people's faith from the outside. It true, sometimes you can notice people body language.   Body language is the action of there faith. You can say there deeds. Now there is the other body language, it's the language you notice when people talk, like there hand motions, and facial expressions.

Now appearance has nothing to do with Spiritually Mature but your faith and deeds do.

3. Faith and Deeds make you Spiritually Mature

James 2:17

17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

You may never grow spiritually without having action/deeds. I am not saying it is impossible. From experience it is impossible, for my relationship with God. It may be different with you. I look at it this way. How i love God is by my Actions. Praying for God to open doors to be a Action-Christian. This will improve your prayer life.

James 2:22

22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.

The person they are talking about is Abraham and his son Isaac. Abraham was instructed by God to sacrifice his son. So Abraham took(action) his son to sacrifice him, then right as he is about to, God stops him. This shows how Abraham's faith and action were working together. What he did made his faith complete with God making him Spiritually Mature.

Another blog about how I grow more spiritual mature click the link Getting Back to Basics

Thank you for reading!! If you have any questions or comments, or you want to give me a topic or a verse to write about. Contact me: jman1424@gmail.com or on Facebook, Twitter @JonSAdams, by phone/text: (770) 533-2582