Jesus came to give you Life not legalism...

I want to speak of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. I wish to let others know Whom I have believed and Who has persuaded me to know that I have Eternal Life in Him. I will testify to the Living Jesus Christ of the Holy Scriptures. I will Glorify His Name over everything and everyone else. He ALONE is worthy. He ALONE is GOD!

I was lost...

Prior to my salvation in Christ, in the deep darkness of this world I was alone and without hope. I groped the walls of my heart trying to know what this life was about. Deep depression settled in when I was a young teenager. I knew I was guilty of many wrongs. The sins of my youth were consuming my conscience and eating me alive as I inwardly longed for forgiveness and cleansing. The Holy Spirit began His work. The Devil took his side and tried to keep me in despair and unbelief as he condemned me for all the sin in my conscience. As the law of sin and death gripped my soul, I had a desire to leave this world and all of its pain, I came very near to an actual suicide at the age of 16 when I overdosed on a drug. Fear of death kept me from completing this, and therefore my stomach was pumped before the drugs could take full affect. I was placed in an adolescent ward and told that I was chronically depressed. Of course, I knew this before any one else in the world, but now it was known by my attempt to take my life. You see, no one perceived that I was depressed, not even my family because I hid this well through my shyness.

This world's doctors tried everything and so did I. Self help books, therapies of different sorts, counseling, anti-depressant drugs. It now reminds me of the feeling I spoke of above regarding someone who would usurp the role of Christ with their own imitation. The thought of those days and months I spent trying to find help from this world not realizing I needed to be free from myself, my sin, my darkness. All they could do is compound and suppress the void this troubled and wretched soul knew.

A Light has dawned...

Released from the hospital after one year, they successfully suppressed the need of my soul to the point of numbness just enough to keep me from acting on suicide. Still alone and depressed and full of the shame of my past and present sins, I went on for a few months suffering in silence and darkness through the shyness of my soul. Once again, no one knew what was going on. I don't know how to explain very well the next chapter in my life as it happened at that time. It is best for me to speak of it in retrospect while interjecting some of my thoughts as they were happening at the time. The supernatural world, as I now understand it to the degree that I do, was becoming more and more known to me. Not that I knew then what was happening but activity was obvious to my soul. I knew something was happening that never happened to me before. This is where God's Word comes in. God's angels were sent to minister to me as He promises will occur to those who will inherit salvation (Heb 1:14). At the same time Satan was working hard to keep me from coming to know the Truth about my sin. He distracted me with many false spiritual things like ESP, telepathy and the like. But when the enemy comes in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

2 Tim 2:26
"Then they will come to their senses and escape from the Devil's trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants."

2 Cor 4:3-4
"If the Good News we preach is veiled from anyone, it is a sign that they are perishing. Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them. They don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God."

God did have mercy on me!

He shined the glorious Light of the Good News into my soul. His Light dawned on me. Conviction of sin was very present and yet condemnation was removed as I came to see that Jesus died for my sins. All of them! He first loved me even when I was yet a sinner. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever! It is conviction with God's Grace and Mercy that saves from the start. As Paul said to the Galatians, "Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by keeping the law? Of course not, for the Holy Spirit came upon you only after you believed the message you heard about Christ. Have you lost your senses? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? You have suffered so much for the Good News. Surely it was not in vain, was it? Are you now going to just throw it all away?
I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law of Moses? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ."

It is the same throughout our walk with Christ on this earth prior to Glory as it was the very first day you received Him as Savior and Lord.

My spirit cries with the Holy Spirit as I see others living in this condemnation of their sins. Christ was condemned for the sins prior to accepting His Grace as well as every sin you commit after receiving His Grace. He is Holy, Holy, Holy! PURE and without any sin at all. Except through Christ's imputed righteousness, NO ONE else can claim holiness like this but GOD, Jesus Christ Himself. If we have wandered from His Grace and yielded to sin or the law, then we must regain that precious and pure fellowship with Him through conviction leading to repentance. Not condemnation leading to legalistic control. There is a vast difference here and the Devil blurs the two together well in the minds of the naive. The Devil is "the accuser of the brethren". Christ is the Merciful High Priest and Forgiver of the brethren. You must see the difference or you may blindly follow the Devil, even as a Christian. I beg you to ask God to make this Truth clear to your soul. It will make the difference between life and death.

Rom 8:1-2
"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death."

And what is "the power of sin"?

1 Cor 15:56-57
" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

When you are born again you are always free from the power of sin:

Rom 6:7
"For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin."

There is no more sacrifice for sin needed. No works, no penance, NOTHING!

Heb 9:26
"If that had been necessary, he would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came once for all time, at the end of the age, to remove the power of sin forever by his sacrificial death for us."

Don't be fooled by "another Jesus", "another gospel" or anything trying to convince you to submit to man-made legalism to please a wrathful god. Christ completed the work of satisfying God's wrath for our sinfulness. No matter what contrary form it takes, it is not of Jesus Christ Who is FULL of Grace and Mercy for ALL of your SIN... PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE! Fear God alone, for His Great Mercy on you and this alone will truly and effectively draw you out of sin by conviction and preserve you from it. Not the power of sin or legalism which now has no more dominion over you. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ! Live this Good News for His Glory and you will know FREEDOM beyond your sweetest imagination and be a testimony to the Person, Character, and Glory of the Living God.

For He came to give you Life and Life more abundant! Don't waste it on an imitation. Live well in Christ's LIFE!