Hello......Amen 'mjrhealth'.........That's what so many misunderstand....By judging yourself, you declare yourself to be unworthy...Which in turn means that you are in unbelief about being declared righteous by The Lord.
If you judge others, you declare yourself a partner of the devil, the accuser.
Our Father did so very much ( not to mention all that Jesus had to go through) to put sin away, so it had no power any longer, to separate us from Him, so that death/grave would no longer have a right to us...Why are we having such a difficult time accepting and receiving this glorious, free gift ???
Because of our pride !!!!!!!! We want to do it, we want to be approved of, we want the pat on the back..we want to contribute, we want to repay God..Whatever the reason, we must stop this nonsense.
We cannot save ourselves, it has nothing to do with whether we behave or not, we simply just cannot do it.....We can improve our behavior, we can give all we own to the poor, we can go to every church in the land, we can prophesy or practice miracles, BUT not one of those things can save us.
You tell me.....How can any human being take a portion of Gods life and insert it into his/her own spirit, to make that spirit alive?????????
Sorry, just not possible. However He can !!!
It is in your acceptance that you cannot do this , that you DO need Jesus to do it for you ( that is being humble ), and then letting His finished work bring His life into you, which makes salvation possible....He's already done every single thing that needed to be done, to get mankind saved....The only thing He cannot do for you, is to accept it on your behalf.......LOVE GAVE YOU FREE WILL, SO YOU CHOOSE..............LIFE OR DEATH??????
Oh and just one last thing......The bible is not the word of God....Jesus is THE WORD OF GOD, which became flesh and dwelt among us...Learn to hear Him...When you get it from Him, you can be certain that it is the absolute truth, not some mixture of truth, opinion and outright lies.
I do understand that it is difficult for some, to realize that they can hear and be heard by The Lord.... I certainly didn't know, had no idea in the world, but praise be to His Holy Name, He showed me....So you must ask yourselves........What is it that you believe???? Do you believe in Him, like some believe in Santa, does it seem like some fairytale to you, or do you believe that He really, truly came back from the dead, never to die again, that His sheep hear His voice, and that He is the author and the finisher of your faith.
We must stop being so stubborn and contrary and just let Him get on with the wonderful work He is doing within us....We must take the same stand Mary did when she said :" LET IT BE UNTO ME AS YOU HAVE SAID.'
just let Him love you into submission, don't try to serve Him through your fear...... It won't work.
In His Love Pia
