Religion vs Reality

Original water color painting "Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone " copyright © 2006 Debbie Turner Chavers

 Religion is evidenced as men's traditions versus the reality of the Living Word of God effecting a real verifiable change in you. Salvation should bring about a change in you and your behaviour. Salvation is not just a few words said to please others or our self.

Christ accomplished our salvation on the cross through His shed blood and His obedience to God.
Jesus submitted to His Father's will. Our acceptance of the shed blood of Jesus Christ should bring about our own obedience to God's word as well.
The seed of our new birth has been planted in us and manifests itself in the light of God's word working in and through us.
How can we know that the love of God is at work within us, unless there is the manifested fruit of a changed heart by word as well as deed?
We have need to be hearers of His word as well as doers of His word.
I am addressing the day in day out change that should be evidenced in our over all daily behaviour.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Our walk with Christ should be evidenced by fruit, the evidence of a changed heart followed by our actions.

An example in nature.

As a seed grows, it expands out of its shell. In first grade my teacher had the class perform a science experiment to view a growth cycle.
We brought a seed from home, a bean seed. The seed was cocooned in a moist napkin until the shell was softened. Then we removed the seed and planted it in a small milk carton containing soil. Before it was planted we could see evidence of the new growth. There was a small green shoot emerging from the seed. Without moisture, no growth will happen. The Holy Spirit of God supplies the moisture needed for our growth through our application of God's word in our everyday life. The water of His word begins to soften our spiritual shell and prepares us for growth. As we apply ourselves to doing  His word, we become rooted and grounded in our faith.
Do not allow the cares of this life to uproot you. As a new creation in Christ Jesus you need to receive the needed moisture and the life giving warmth from the Son through the study and application of God's written Word, the bible.

~Debbie

Galatians 5:22-24 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Deuteronomy 30:6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

All of John 5 and Galatians 5 for your consideration.

Galatians 5: 19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

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copyright © 2011 Debbie Turner Chavers. All Rights Reserved.
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