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04/20/2013 recording date. audio/video is 11 minutes takes a few minutes to load so be patient please. Or just read ahead. Also the following week it is air on utube on turtle30cshell channel. Just type in website name when you got to utube. Just As I Am by turtle Coming from turtle30cshell.com I am your host Christina Farris. Today I bring condolences to those families who lost their loved ones in the Bostonian Race bombing and to those injured. Also today remembering those who shaped and impacted our world like Prime Minister Thatcher and George Beverly Shay (Billy Graham musician), and Annette Mickey Mouse Club Musketeer, who went to do many great things in her life that impacted the world. Just As I Am a song used in all the Billy Graham Crusades that I watched growing up, not sure if it changed the last song. Yet a song that been used in churches over the years to bring people to the altar of a church. A song that impacted many Christian life every time they hear it, whether it be the song used to bring them to the altar or not to get saved. Yet a song to remind us we have to go to God just as we are. God sees everything anyway right. Basically one goes to the altar to get saved just as they are. Does not matter if it is the drunk on the street corner that finds Jesus, or the sinner in the fancy clothes in the pew. To meet Jesus before or after death, one has to come just as they are. By middle age or before, one begins to realize we all are pretty much the same. Yet we all have different experience that impact the way we deal with tragedy in our lives. Yet over the years one realizes we all make mistakes and errors, and no one is any different. Tuesday is Earth Day a day to clean up our world, but what good is it to clean up our world if we do not clean up our heart first. One of our scripture passages to day says. Proverbs 20:9 KJV (9) Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? In truth we can not clean up our own heart. Jesus does that for us when we turn to Him. There are Christians that backslide, just like the Jewish people of the Old Testament. If one can ever understand God mercy is great upon repentance. One good place to examine in the Bible is concerning David own transgression. A man righteous before God because of faith, who fell in the eyes of God when he took one of his own soldier’s wife to bed and she became pregnant. Then had the soldier killed, because he could not cover up his sin. Psalms 51:1-11 KJV (1) To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. (2) Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. (3) For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. (4) Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. (5) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. (6) Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. (7) Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (8) Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. (9) Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. (10) Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (11) Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. David began to repent and say make me clean. To wash Him to make Him whole. Yet Christ had not come at this time. Yet he was convicted by the Word of God spoken by the Prophet Nathan. God’s word has always had convicting power in human life. Jesus is the Word of God that came in the flesh. Yet God’s word has always had a convicting power over man’s soul. When Jesus came He came as promised of the word of God the Father to all man kind, that through His death and resurrection all people could be saved upon belief in His name as the only begotten Son of God perfect and full of grace. Jesus died for all man’s sins. He came to clean the hearts of the people of the world. In Old Testament Law Moses or the High Priest at the time would sprinkle people with blood and hyssop once a year at the annual sacrifice. This blood covering was a symbol of the blood covering for sin. The blood covering that would come through Christ Jesus. The first sacrifice being the animals whose life were given so Adam and Eve could have new coats because of their sin. This covering provide by God to protect them from the elements of this world. A world they were sent to because of their sin. A world in which we live in today, because of Adam and Eve’ s sin. First sin coming from first man who came from heaven. And the second man who is Jesus, who came from heaven. Second man coming from the spoken word of God in the flesh born of a virgin. A man full of perfection, a man without sin, who would pay the price of all mankind’s sin on earth so we can live with God for eternity. Yet to be able to live with God for eternity, one would have to believe in Jesus, God salvation plan. To believe in His name that He is the only begotten Son of God. Our first step to repentance is to recognize sin. Understanding that by obeying God does not save us, but having faith in God does. For Abraham was righteous because of faith, but the law of Moses came as prescription for good works, but the works alone could not save. It took faith in Christ Jesus, the word of God. Let me read this passage. Romans 10:4-13 KJV (4) For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (5) For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. (6) But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) (7) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) (8) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; (9) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (11) For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. (12) For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. (13) For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. When Christ He descended far Below the earth. The word of God dying not to return, No God forbid for Christ arose to ascend into heaven only to return for forty days, until He would go back to the Father, and then one day return in the flesh again. Christ Spirit by the Holy Spirit is renewed in every believer. That why mediating on the word and talking to Jesus every day is important. We need to know the Word of God to live by it. But we must believe the Word to be Saved. We must believe in Christ to be saved. Christ speaks to our hearts by the Holy Spirit who corrects our hearts. Though Christ keeps our hearts from sinning if we obey Him. Our desire is not to sin, but human instinct is to do as we please and not to always do what God would want us too. Tuesday is Earth Day a reminder of pollution to our ozone and litter in our streets. How we can globally make in impact by cleaning up our environment. Jesus made a global impact by cleaning up our lives upon belief in Him. Many have to know Jesus just as they are. When we look at pollution we have to accept it is a fact to make a change. No recognition that there is a problem we go about ignoring it. Just like sin. If we ignore the fact of our imperfection and can not come to God then we can not allow God to cleanse our hearts. We need God to clean our hearts, so He gave us the ability to come as we are in our filthy rags of sin, and confess them. Jesus paid the price for those sins. Giving us a covering through His shed blood on the cross for our sins. Where is your heart? Are you cleanse by Jesus or are you stained with sin. Stain with guilt, stain with imperfection, unwilling to maybe even admit it to someone or even to yourself. We must admit we are sinners to be saved. We must believe to be saved. See if we can’t admit the need for God saving grace because of our unworthiness to stand in his holiness, we sure will never understand the need for salvation. It like pollution. Until you admit there is pollution in your life, you can not ever see a need to fix the problem. Where are you today? Let’s fix the problem by praying this prayer. Dear Heavenly Father I know I am a sinner, not worthy to be in your presences, but I humbly bow to you, coming just as I am and ask you to cleanse me from all my sins. I believe Christ paid the price for my sins. And I receive that payment a price I myself could never pay. In Jesus precious name, Amen. If you prayed this prayer with me with all sincerity in your heart you are saved. Go and live for Jesus. |