It’s been a busy week for everyone, I’m sure, with the start of school. As for our family, my youngest child, Joanie, her husband, Kurt, and kindergartener, Asher—the Glennons—just moved in three doors down. We are thankful they are here, and they are loving Decatur. I want to express our gratitude to all the staff at Newton County Elementary School, especially Asher’s teachers and our school nurse and principal, for all their help concerning Asher.
When you are sick, coughing while trying to talk, you can’t go to someone’s house and interview them for an article. It’s easier to write about people after scribbling a lot of notes about them, but, when I can’t do that, other subjects bounce around in prayer from my mind to my heart and back.
The verse that stayed in my attention is II Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.” Life is short, and everything in life is serious. We act upon our beliefs, which may or may not be based on fact. We all know that advertisements, on television, social media, etc., are not wholly true, yet we act many times as though they are. We are attracted to the “glittering” which may or may not be “gold. We convince ourselves we have enough in the bank, though many times we come up short after our purchases.
Beginning with dinosaur books for toddlers, the predictable words on even the first page are “millions of years ago,” though there is absolutely no scientific proof for the idea that this world has been here that long. There are, however, many proofs to the contrary, and the Holy Bible, which has been proven true throughout the ages, has been used to count the actual number of years since Adam was created. At any rate, true science is based on observation, and there is no way that can occur regarding creation. However, there are ways to discern the truth, and many sources of that truth are available.
People are told, if we just get rid of gun ownership by citizens, we can stop crime, though that has long been proven false in other countries that did so. People can always acquire guns illegally to do their crimes. And as we all know, in most cases, more guns on the premises where mass shootings occurred could have saved lives.
Because of sinful “pleasure” and its undesired consequences, many swallowed the idea that the baby in the womb was just a blob of tissue that could be painlessly removed and forgotten. Advances in medical knowledge, and the experiences of many whose lives were tragically altered, have proven that abortion is just another type of infanticide, or even genocide, which, for some reason, has been a part of human experience for millennia.
There is a labyrinth of lies, from the A of abortion all the way through to the Q of queer and beyond. As Paul had to have the scales of pharisaical training and upbringing removed from his eyes, “liberals” today, who believe they are being kind and loving, who have swallowed all kinds of lies, must have the scales removed from their eyes. They think they are “helping” women retain their “rights” and those of the LGBTQ+ community, who march in “pride parades,” demanding civil rights, based on their immoral behaviors, equal to those rights having been granted to people born with characteristics such as skin color (See H.R.5). These lies have even caused laws to be passed, making it illegal to counsel people who actually desire help in leaving that lifestyle! If this sounds unloving, it is not. I have homosexuals in my own family, whom I love dearly. I just want them to change their lifestyle.
“The father of lies” (John 8:44), Satan has long convinced many that they can opt out of being saved by the blood of Jesus, by grace through faith. They are deceived into believing they will be happily having an eternal party in hell with their friends, dominated by a benevolent red-suited landlord. Upon leaving this world, they may find they should have “examined” what they had laughingly joked about more closely!
The apostle Paul exhorted the Corinthians to examine and test themselves, to discover whether they, in fact, were “saved,” or born again into the Kingdom of God. Why should there be any doubt? We all see others who we know believe they are safely in the fold, to be caught up to Heaven in the end, yet who live as though the Word of God has no claim on their behaviors or beliefs. We know that, having applied the scripture to ourselves, we should all humbly seek God to determine whether we are truly “in the faith.”
There are several biblical tests. Jesus Himself gave a definition of “eternal life,” which, until recent years, I always thought just meant “everlasting life,” granted by believing on Jesus (John 3:16). In John 17:3, He states, in His priestly prayer to His Father in Heaven, “And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Eternal life begins at the moment of genuine, heartfelt conversion, when a person, drawn by the Holy Spirit, in faith believes in Jesus, repents of their sins, and takes Him to be their Savior and Lord. At that point, the individual is “born again” into the Kingdom of God, their name having been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
But a person must not only have the righteousness of Christ “imputed” to him, he must also grow in that position, to become “conformed to the image of His Son.” Another “test” we can use is to ask ourselves these questions:
“Is Christ, the Anointed One, in me, making His presence known to me?”
“Do I have a desire to please Him in all I say and do, taking time to read and meditate on
His Word and to commune with Him alone?”
“Did I really have a ‘conversion experience,’ or just a mental assent to belief?”
“Am I a disciple of Christ, an heir of God and a joint-heir with His Son?”
“Do my actions reflect what I have claimed to possess?”
Jesus redeemed us with His own blood at Calvary, and we can know we are safely positioned in His Kingdom, with all its rights and privileges and promises.
There is “security” for the believer, but we must be diligent to believe and rest on these promises, such as I John 4:4, “…greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” He also promised He would never leave the believer or forsake him/her.
I thank God that, as I heard a woman say on radio yesterday, He is love, therefore, he can never do anything unloving concerning me. Also, His word says He will perfect that which concerns me! (Psalm 138:8) Seek Him, for all the truth!
Live for Jesus! He is coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
