Set Free In Jesus – What I Choose To Do

Set Free In Jesus – What I Choose To Do
(Selected extracts from: http://www.newchristian.org.uk)
1. I recognise that there is only one true and living God (Exodus 20: 2 and 3), who exists as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that He is worthy of all honour, praise and worship as Creator, Sustainer and Beginning and End of all things. (Revelation 4:11; 5:9 and 10; Isaiah 43: 1, 7, 21).

2. I recognise Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1, 14). I believe that He came to destroy the works of Satan (1 John3: 8), that He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public display of them, having triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15).

3. I believe that God has proved His love for me, because when I was still a sinner Christ died for me (Romans 5:8). I believe that he delivered me from the domain of darkness and transferred me to His Kingdom, and in Him I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13,14). I believe that I am now a child of God (1 John3: 1-3) and that I am seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:6). I believe that I was saved by the grace of God through faith, that it was a gift and not the result of any works on my part. (Ephesians 2:8).

4. I choose to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might (Ephesians 6:10). I put no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3), for the weapons of my warfare are not of the flesh (2 Corinthians 10:4). I put on the whole armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-17), and I resolve to stand firm in my faith and resist the evil one.

5. I believe that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18) and that He is the head over all rule and authority (Colossians 2:10). I announce to Satan that Jesus Christ is my Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3) and I reject any counterfeit gifts or works of Satan in my life. I believe that Satan and his demons are subject to me in Christ because I am a member of Christ’s body (Ephesians 1:19-23).

6. I believe that apart from Christ I can do nothing (John 15:5), so I declare my dependence on Him. I choose to abide in Christ in order to bear much fruit and to glorify the Lord (John 15:8). I believe that the truth will set me free (John 8:32) and that walking in the light is the only path of fellowship (1 John1: 7). Therefore, I stand against Satan’s deception by taking every thought captive in obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). I declare that the Bible is the only authoritative standard (2 Timothy 3: 15-17). I choose to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

7. I choose to present my body as an instrument of righteousness, a living and holy sacrifice, and I renew my mind by the living Word of God in order that I may prove that the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect (Romans 6:13; 12:1-2). I ask my heavenly Father to lead me into all truth (John 16:13), and to empower my life so that I may live above sin and not carry out the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). I crucify the flesh (Galatians 5:24) and choose to walk by the Spirit. I renounce all selfish goals and choose the ultimate goal of love (1 Timothy 1:5). I choose to obey the greatest commandment, to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul and mind, and to love my neighbour as myself (Matthew 22:37-39).

Original source URL:

http://www.newchristian.org.uk/setfree.html

Welcome to Holy Week 2010!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NIV)

In this holy week, we are confronted once again with the passion of Christ on the cross. Such immeasurable love is hard to comprehend. This act, of ultimate sacrifice defies conventional logic.

For God, so loved the world.

God loves … the world. All of it, His creation. Not just the good, or the hardworking, or the clean … God – loves – the world. This love is then manifested in action:

gave his one and only Son.

Do you believe Jesus is Christ? Do you accept Christ Jesus is the son of the most high God? This bible passage is clear on the pedigree of Christ.

whoever believes in him

God loves us, and desires to save us all, but He gives us the free choice to accept this salvation.

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Faith and salvation for eternal life. Eternal communion with God. To know that there is life beyond this life – that there is hope beyond this existence.

God so loved the world. That alone is more than many of us have done.

The Miracle of the Carpenter

The Miracle of the Carpenter
by Max Lucado

Loretto Chapel took five years to complete. Modeled after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, its delicate sanctuary contains an altar, a rose window, and a choir loft.

The choir loft is the reason for wonder.

Were you to stand in the newly built chapel in 1878, you might see the Sisters of Loretto looking forlornly at the balcony. Everything else was complete: the doors had been hung, the pews had been placed, the floor had been laid. Everything was finished. Even the choir loft. Except for one thing. No stairs.

The chapel was too small to accommodate a conventional stairway. The best builders and designers in the region shook their heads when consulted. “Impossible,” they murmured. There simply wasn’t enough room. A ladder would serve the purpose, but mar the ambiance.

The Sisters of Loretto, whose determination had led them from Kentucky to Santa Fe, now faced a challenge greater than their journey: a stairway that couldn’t be built.

What they had dreamed of and what they could do were separated by fifteen impossible feet.

So what did they do? The only thing they could do. They ascended the mountain. Not the high mountains near Santa Fe. No, they climbed even higher. They climbed the same mountain that Jesus climbed 1,800 years earlier in Bethsaida. They climbed the mountain of prayer.

As the story goes, the nuns prayed for nine days. On the last day of the novena, a Mexican carpenter with a beard and a wind-burned face appeared at the convent. He explained that he had heard they needed a stairway to a chapel loft. He thought he could help.

The mother superior had nothing to lose, so she gave him permission.

He went to work with crude tools, painstaking patience, and uncanny skill. For eight months he worked.

One morning the Sisters of Loretto entered the chapel to find their prayers had been answered. A masterpiece of carpentry spiraled from the floor to the loft. Two complete three-hundred-sixty-degree turns. Thirty-three steps held together with wooden pegs and no central support. The wood is said to be a variety of hard fir, one nonexistent in New Mexico!

When the sisters turned to thank the craftsman, he was gone. He was never seen again. He never asked for money. He never asked for praise. He was a simple carpenter who did what no one else could do so singers could enter a choir loft and sing.

See the stairway for yourself, if you like. Journey into the land of Enchantment. Step into this chapel of amazement and witness the fruit of prayer.

Or, if you prefer, talk to the Master Carpenter yourself. He has already performed one impossible feat in your world. He, like the Santa Fe carpenter, built a stairway no one else could build. He, like the nameless craftsman, used material from another place. He, like the visitor to Loretto, came to span the gap between where you are and where you long to be.

Each year of his life is a step. Thirty-three paces. Each step of the stair is an answered prayer. He built it so you can climb it.

And sing.

From In the Eye of the Storm
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1997) Max Lucado