A FISHERMAN
AND
A FISHER OF MEN
Joel and Ted were great friends for a least ten years , now. Even though things had changed drastically over the last few months, they still cared about each other and both loved taking a few hours on a beautiful day to go fishing at a nearby lake. It was gorgeous here, clean water surrounded by rich forests, all different kinds of wildlife on the shores and chances are, one would see very few other people. If you did, they were of the same mindset that you were. They were also at peace because you couldn’t help but feel the magnitude of God’s country.
Joel had received Christ a few months ago and many of the things that they had in common didn’t seem to be there anymore. At first Ted thought that Joel had lost his mind, the stress had got to him. He thought for sure, that this was a frenzied passing phase brought on by the influence of others. They had both gone to church most of their lives and their faith was ‘a given‘. Come on, after all they were already Christian, right? Why this? Why now?
Out in the middle of this peaceful lake of glass with only a light breeze to keep you cool enough with the warmth of the sun, Ted said. “Hey, let’s eat the lunch that we packed.” Joel grabbed the cooler and pulled two giant loaded subs and a bag of nacho chips, a couple apples and two beers.” Ted instantly asked. ” Hey! Are you going to drink the beer?”
“ Yea. Why not?” replied Joel.
“ Well, I thought that you didn’t do that anymore.” stated Ted almost in a way that seemed like a challenge.
” I am not going to get drunk. Christ drank wine and considered it important enough to change water to into it at his friend’s wedding. I enjoy beer as a beverage. God’s gift of creativity comes out in the food and drink that we make for ourselves. If that wasn’t important to Him, why would we be able to taste and find pleasure in what we taste and why would we have such and endless variety and abundance of every type of food and flavor and texture?”
“ True Christians can enjoy all of this planet, just in a different way. We can have a wonderful time in a club. We can love to dance, love the music, and even have a drink, if we want. BUT, we are not to choose or let ourselves get drunk. WE are not to play the evil hurtful games that are being played. Vying for the partner for your sex-ercise after the club closes. We are not to cash in on the nuclear warfare fired with the couples that claim to love each other. ‘More men want me than women want you’ and so on. Just adding poison to their lives that will build up and destroy them without God in the mix.”
“Don’t you think it is a good opportunity to show the people of the world, the ones that don’t know Christ, that dance and music are gifts of our, OUR Lord? Just like flavor and taste and food?”
“So, yes, I am going to enjoy this beer with this giant sub , in this beautiful place celebrating a beautiful friendship on this beautiful day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice, rejoice and be glad. I just had to throw that in.” Joel finished talking a took a swig of beer.
Ted said, “ I just have a rough time understanding all of the changes that you’ve been through.”
Joel thought for a moment before he spoke, “Well, you knew me before, right? I drank every night. Beer, wine, other stuff in an attempt to hide from my life, my own evil, my own choices and the pain all of this was causing others, especially my wife and kids. I was worthless to God in that state and destructive to the people that loved me. You can’t grow spiritually even if you drink for these reasons even in your own home, the Bible says, doctors say it too. You can’t process the information of the day even in your sleep, your dreaming process and you don’t grow. You can’t filter out the good from the bad and grow wise or rich in faith. You are the walking brain dead by choice, not by injury.”
“As usual in life, one thing led to another and there seemed to be no reason for morals and Christian concepts, so I started sleeping around. It makes me sick to think about it now, but I was destroying the woman that loved me. Every day, one way or another, I was destroying her. But I still thought that I was a good dad. How insane is that? You cannot hurt the mother of your children without hurting your children!”
“Thank God the gift of love that God gave her for her husband was unconditional.
“Her husband , however, just happened to be one of the biggest of losers and that happened to be me. She was miserable and not living life to the fullest because of this extraordinary pain and I tell you, her pain was my kids pain. Even though she was strong in faith and didn’t burden the kids, the pain was there ,l was the silent killer of happiness. I was so evil it makes me sick to think about it.”
“I was not an alcoholic, I was just immoral. Do you know my kids were saving money from their paper route to buy a new refrigerator just so I wouldn’t always throw fits that my beer wasn’t cold enough? How sick is that?”
“‘Wow, I had no idea this was going on. No idea at all.” said Ted quietly almost to himself.
” Of course you didn’t. If I was hiding from my own evil how could I ever show it to anyone else? I was a great guy! Remember? Even serial killers come across to everyone as a ‘great guy’. It is the ultimate disguise. After all, how could I let anyone know that I was such a bottom feeder that I was destroying such a beautiful, loving Christian daughter of God, my wife. My Irish uncle called it being a ‘street angel- house devil‘. No doubt!”
“Then on top of this, I went through the house yelling and demanding respect. Respect for what? My actions, my evil , the pain I caused? I threatened to kick my own wife and kids out of the house, their home! On the streets and I thought that I deserved respect why? Because I was born? Because I was a man ? Because I made money? Because I was older? Now I know that I don’t want my kids to respect evil no matter who it comes from. But I do want them to respect all human life as God’s creation and everyone’s right, God given right, to choose His path ..or not. I want them to be respectful people and not let anyone’s evil pull them into their gutter.”
.. “In order to do this and show others God’s truth, I have to be willing to witness all of my evil and suffering that I caused others to anyone and everyone that will listen. Even though I am a different man now, I can’t go around acting like I am ‘all that’ and never was a low life. People can relate to the mistakes of others and see that if God can offer this miracle in this man’s life, I know he can do this for me too.”
“Believe me, I’ve gone from a bloated, egotistical pig of a person to God’s humble servant and I am millions of times better and happier for it..Even though my past makes me want to puke my guts out, I have to face it and face my own personal-brand of evil. God cleanses and heals completely, make no mistake about that. So t am different now that I have accepted Christ. We’d give more credit to a soldier that saved another soldier from fire than we do our Savior that did all of what he did for each and every one of us as a person.”
“I have been blinded by the dark muck of my own gutter and couldn’t find my own way out. I didn’t look up, it was all about me. Now, thanks to Christ, I can see the light. the Truth has set me free to live the life God intended and set me up to hope to qualify for next one, with Him. I think ,feel, say and do everything differently now.”
“ It’s like a child when he finally learns to tie a shoe. He won’t go back to struggling to figure it out every time he puts his shoes on. Now he knows. All of those struggles that I had with the world are gone. Those ways repulse me like eating my own vomit. Now I have my God given nature and I gotta tell you, it’s wonderful. I pray every night for God to fill me with everything that He wants me to think, feel, say and do. I want to be His.”
Joel continued, ” I want you to know that almost every time that you said “See ya later.,, at work thinking that I was working overtime, I wasn’t. I was heading out to see other women. My wife, Sara, thought that I was working overtime too. She knew that she could leave a message on my cell phone, but that I couldn’t answer it when she called- I told her that the office was shut down so there was no reason to call that number either. How convenient was that? She never saw my paychecks because they were automatically deposited so she never saw that there was no increase in my pay. She handed me her paycheck and trusted me with the family finances. Still I complained all of the time that we didn’t have enough money, The truth was we didn’t have enough money for what I wanted to do with it. I wasn’t making money and spending quite a bit in bars drinking with other women”.
“ Then I’d complain about grocery costs and all other basic needs. I made life miserable and the ultimate kicker was, Sara was making more money than me, she just never knew it. I watched and thought that it was great that she asked for very little for herself. She just wanted me to be happy. She prayed for anything in God’s Way just to make me happy and pull our family out this hell. The hell of my self- imposed misery And me, all I could think of was how she was interfering with my life. The life that I really wanted to live. When I looked in the mirror, I never looked into my eyes to see my soul. All I saw was a middle aged man that used to be buff and now had a gut and was running out of time to have fun, to really live. So I lied. I lied a lot.”
“Wow” Ted said, ” you lied to me too, all of this time.”
Joel got loud and said. “Ted, get a grip! As much as I love you, I vowed to become one with Sara. I vowed this to her and to God. So if I am willing to destroy her and my vows, how could the “boys club” be more important than that? Even though most men are convinced that the good life is about getting everything that you want and getting away with everything that you can, I didn’t want to blow my cover as a wonderful guy. And you know what? No matter what, God knows every thought , desire and actions. We can hide nothing from Him, even if we are fooling His children. Men are wrong, dead Wrong.”
“ You know how we look at other cultures that have convinced their men to kill themselves while doing the evil act of killing others? All in the hope of giant sex fest with virgins when they leave? We think this is stupid and evil, but yet we are the same. We just haven’t graduated to their level yet.”
“ We’ve been told that we are more stupid than the animals. Animals have sex. The female goes into heat and the strongest male jumps her the keep their species going, God’s plan. Then God, with all His love, gave His children the right and the privilege to have a soul sharing intimate relationship with the one other person that, one we have promised to love as much as ourselves and God. Then we throw it away like trash. The world has convinced us that we men are so stupid and worthless that we are controlled not even by primal urges to survive, but brainless, heartless acts of sex. They have written us off my friend, as too stupid to try to invest in. I’m here to tell you that everyone has the same body parts, its what’s inside that counts. We are definitely responsible for who and what we are inside, our soul…our own choices.”
“Even if we don’t do these things we think it must be okay because so very many men are. We laugh at the stories told in the “boys club.” We may even cheer them on. How many us fantasize that we were doing these same things? Do you know that by doing that, that we are just wishing that we were separated from God?”
“ We’ve done a great job of convincing women to be as stupid as we are and the ones that aren’t convinced become victims of our lies. Ted, I pray my sons are never like I was and your daughter never falls victim to a man like me, my old self. God, it makes me so sick to think about this.”
Ted sat there quiet. He was overwhelmed by the lies and the fact that this friend that he cared so much about, he never really knew. He was numb right now and would have to digest everything slowly.
“Now I am going to tell you about Lisa. Lisa lives in Concorde or at least, I think she still does. I had a relationship with her for almost a year. A wonderful Christian daughter of God. Being a Christian she loved me. God’s true gift. You would expect nothing less from a true Christian. Of course, I had lied and told her that I was divorced and that my wife had left me high and dry and that I was a wonderful Christian father of two young sons. Then one day, as God would have it, a member of her church was doing business with my brother’s friend and asked if he knew me since we lived in the same town. After finding out the truth, this man went back to the council of his church and shared the news that I was married and they met with Lisa to tell her.. She was devastated and resigned as youth director of her church, a position that she had held for over ten years.”
“She told me in a letter that if she could not recognize evil in her own life that she was worthless leading young people on God’s path. She knew after healing and growing rich in her faith and wisdom from this experience, that she would be there to do God’s work again. She would be better than ever if she gave God complete authority over her healing process and she was committed to doing just that. She also wrote she forgave me of everything because she would not separate from God by harboring resentment toward me. She would pray for me that someday I would truly be God’s and not the ‘great pretender’ anymore. But I won, I got what I wanted, or so I thought,”
Ted spoke up. “Sara has filed for divorce. You guys have been going at that for almost a year and a half. You always claimed it was her problem and that you were the good guy, but did she know this? Good Lord, man! You said that it was her faith that was not real!”
“ You see, it even makes you want to puke. I lied about her faith to look like I was the good one. I set out to destroy my wife that loves me unconditionally. I tried to destroy a beautiful Christian lady in another town. I encouraged women to have meaningless, Godless relationships. I told them that, that was the way to go ‘ just a friend to have sex with’ and they way everyone could get what they wanted out of the situation. Thank God that I didn’t die during this time. God would have had nothing to do with a male whore in heaven. I sold my soul for money, greed, sex and fake power, all while pretending to be His, Mr. Wonderful, to be God’s.”
“God forgives” said Ted.
“ Yes absolutely, if we mean it when we ask. We’ll show we really mean it by vowing to never do these things again. People use the ‘forgiveness card’ as a get out of jail free option. They think that they can repeatedly do whatever they want and God will forgive. That isn’t the Way He tells us it works. We have to repent. Repent means turning away from sin. Hating our old self but in a healed and strong Way with the new life that Christ has given us. Don’t you see? We are screwing ourselves out of eternity with God by believing all of this crap that we have contributed to, what the world has turned into.”
” You don’t seem healed to me.” said Ted a little defiantly.
” Oh yes I am. Never underestimate God! What you see is my old life making sick with disgust and remorse. I never want to lose that feeling. I never want to be even a little bit tempted to go back. I never want to give anyone the slightest hint that it is okay to live that way.”
“The best I can do for God is expose my old self for all the putrid dirt that it was so they can see the magnitude of the change in my life, the miracle of Christ. Everyone will know that it is available for them. No matter what a mess we’ve made of our life, God will fix it when we are born again. I pray for the opportunity to make amends in any way that I can. I pray for the privilege to do His work without any false pride of my old self,”
“You know Jim at work, young Jim, from our church?” Ted nodded. “Well, he came to me one day and asked me to help him and his wife, they were having a real rough way to go with their marriage. I thought this is great! Yet one more chance to prove how wonderful that I really am! So one of the nights that I said I was working late I went over to their house instead. I filled them chock full of myself not God, not God’s Love and wisdom, not God’s answers, me. I didn’t even take a Bible because I didn’t know scripture and besides, I thought it didn’t really relate to the way things are today. It was an evil ego party, all about me.”
“Of course, that very night I went home and rubbed it in Sara’s face that I was the one chosen by God to do this. I was the one that qualified. So it must be all the problems that we were having were on her and her fake faith. She later told me that she prayed for that couple all night. She knew that there was as much to learn about God’s Way by seeing ‘what not to do, how not to be’ as how to follow.”
“ Soon after that, I was exposed for who I really was and Tom and Mike from church came over representing the church board to point out that I was to never do that again. Leading people down a path of destruction was not the Christian Way. They went on to tell me that the really good thing that came out of it is that Jim has vowed to God never to be the lost, confused, conceited person that he saw that night in me.”
“ I pray that my kids, well everybody, learn from all of my wrongs and never try to condone my actions from my life, my old life. I don’t want them to feel guilt about loving me. Their love for their father was a gift to them from God. They were not wrong to accept that. I was the evil one. We are supposed to love our enemies and I was theirs. I want them to follow the path of God and not make excuses for the things that I have done. I don’t want them to ever try to validate my wrongs by accepting this same filth in their own lives, by thinking it’s okay to do anything that I did. I want them to see the miracle of Christ in my life an understand its truth by knowing how terrible that I was before.”
“I want them to grow rich in faith more than I ever was at a young age. You know , I realized during this time that Christ was only 33 years old when he was crucified. If I had been alive during his time on Earth, I wouldn’t have listened to him at all as my old self. When anyone used to challenge my decisions, my faith, I used to laugh out loud at them. I would tell them that when they have accomplished as much as I have and are as old as I am, then they could talk to me.”
“Christ didn’t make a lot of money. Christ wasn’t very old. Christ wasn’t winning favor with the ‘ important’ people of the world, they wanted him dead and I would have been evil and felt important enough to be one of them.”
“Now that I know these things of Christ are gifts, our age in Earth years doesn’t matter and definitely money and stuff don’t either.”
Ted took a deep sigh and said, ” I think I’m jealous of this faith that you have.”
..DON’T EVER, EVER, EVER GO THERE! DON’T YOU SEE? THAT IS THE FUEL THAT FED My FIRE!”, shouted Joel. “ I was jealous of my wife. Her faith, her love and her peace and grace were so deep and pure that I was burning with envy. Surely I had been a good enough man to have accomplished this too? So in my mind it had to be fake, it couldn’t be real. So if I could destroy these things in her by destroying her, I could prove to her that she was no better off than I was. I couldn’t accept the fact that these were gifts because if they were, why didn’t God love me enough to give them to me? IF HE DIDN,T GIVE THEM TO ME, THEY MUST NOT BE REAL!”
“Since I couldn’t break Sara, I went after Lisa. I really thought these things would come to me if I was with the right woman, another Christian woman. So when that didn’t work, I set out to destroy her too. All the while using other women as ‘sex buddies’ to prove my point.”
” But Sara broke, she filed for divorce.” stated Ted.
” That is not a break. Yes, she was devastated, but she was right. God’s people have the gift of true love. They are willing to take the risk of being annihilated by the one they love because they know it is right to love. It is God’s way, His greatest gift, our greatest aim and God heals. She prayed for me 24/7 for a year and a half that I would accept Christ and be lifted out of my own hell. She even got me a study Bible and highlighted passages that she thought would help. Man, was I pissed. Like I needed that, me. I already had a handle on all that. Can you imagine a daughter of God giving me a Bible out of her heart and her unconditional love, and I was enraged. I thought I was way too good for that! How evil could I have been?”
“She also knew as God’s daughter that she didn’t need to be destroyed by evil and she didn’t want our kids to be around my influence and accept any part of it.” Joel choked back a huge sob.
“ I know God has forgiven me and changed my life, but man it hurts to know the pain and suffering that I have caused. I haven’t talked to you before now, because I really had to experience my own hell. One of the worst moments was when I talked to my elderly widowed mother and my sister. They never knew any of this. Can you imagine if they would have found out this crap before I had received Christ? At least when I spoke to them, their tears and sobs were a combination of pain disgust, joy and relief. IF ANYONE HEARS THIS WITNESS MAKE IT KNOWN, THAT IF I WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED CHRIST AS A YOUNG MAN, I WOULD NEVER HAVE PUT SO MANY OF GOD’S CHILDREN THROUGH THE PAIN AND THE HELL THAT I BROUGHT ON THEM. THAT IS WHY CHRIST DIED. So we can cut to the chase and be his.”
” Is Sarah still divorcing you?” inquired Ted.
“See. That’s just it. The real stuff that I never understood before. Sarah was born again at a very young age. She knows the miraculous transformation that occurs. It is what she has been praying for, for me. This is the miracle that she went into spiritual warfare for, for me. She finally has the Christian marriage directed by God, given by God and Christ centered that she always wanted. She knows that my old self is gone and celebrates the faith and the love we now share. Her forgiveness is complete and fear is non-existent. She knows that my faith, my life, my love are all God’s and this is the answer to both of our prayers. Any Christian that has been born again knows that the change is so complete that they celebrate faith forward this newest member of God’s team, me. You know, I wouldn’t eyen pray with her before. She asked, but the answer was no. Now we pray all of the time, thank God.”
” You said earlier that we are all causing the hell in this world, but I have not done the things that you have. How do you think that I added to this mess?” challenged Ted.
“ Men have got to see. 93 % of all crimes are committed by men. Almost all of the wars are started and fought by men. Without all of this, the world would be a much, much better place. Yet, most men and this includes the man that I was before ,secretly like it when all of these men are being slime-balls because it makes us look good. We compare ourselves to them and think that we are great. It eliminates our guilt when we think of our own evil and we keep doing more and more all the while thinking we are getting away with it.”
“Well, we aren’t fooling God because we are supposed to be more Christ-like everyday. So believing all of these lies blows our chance at eternity. We aren’t fooling most people because they just think that we are too stupid to know better. We aren’t worth it, let us rot. We have lowered the bar so much of our expectations out of our own faith and character that the ones on the bottom rung keep getting lower and lower. We don’t care about that either just as long as we look good and keep getting away with it.”
“ But it’s not just men, its women too.” objected Ted.
” Yes, but do you know many young girls that wouldn’t be the happiest ever if they were truly loved by a man? Faithful forever? Don’t you think that they gave up on us so they started to give up on themselves? They may be miserable but are we are to blame? Most tortured people are miserable. You know, I was so stupid I thought I was wonderful saying that I would lay down my life for my wife. Do you know how stupid that is? As Christians were supposed to lay down our life for anybody, anybody and I was bragging about something that was just showing how stupid and evil I was. Yes, men are the leaders alright. Leading everyone straight into hell, hell on earth anyway.”
” So how did it happen for you, being born again, I mean?” asked Ted.
“Well one day early this summer, actually it was the first really hot day, I was just getting home from work and got the mail on my way in. I was tired, hot , dirty, miserable and evil and started looking at my mail. I first opened a charge card bill that Sara didn’t even know that I had. Then I opened a letter from my attorney talking about the next court date for the divorce and another bill for $2000.00. Then I opened the letter from Lisa. The one where she had found out and forgave me and was praying for me, was healing and had resigned her position from her church. I remember thinking ‘ How could anyone have such bad luck. I didn’t deserve this.’ How stupid was that, when all of this mess, all of this hell was all my own doing.”
“ Then I went into the kitchen to get a beer. Well, they weren’t up front and center on ‘my’ shelf and that made me mad and , of course, they weren’t very cold. I blew, and I blew big time. My older son, Alan, he’s only thirteen, walked into that kitchen like a man and said, ‘ Look Dad, Brad and I are saving our paper route money for a new fridge. We know that you should be buying it for your family and not for your beer. We know that you should be buying it period. But, we are buying it just so you will leave us alone. Especially Mom, for God’s sake, just leave her alone. We know about all of your other women. It’s all over, now. You could have bought 20 refrigerators with the cash you’ve spent on your booze alone. Instead you are so eager to take our money like you’ve taken everything else from us. You have what you want out of life just leave us alone.”
” I heard Sara catch a sob and go back upstairs so the boys would not see. I grabbed my six pack and walked out the door. I drove up here. I parked almost where we parked today and went out and sat on the bank not far from the car. I said out loud, : “God why me? Why me?” like I was the victim.
Of course, I thought that I was because I thought God never loved me enough to give me the right stuff. The true faith, the deepest love. And I never even asked for it! So I asked.
“ What do want me to do? This is such a God forsaken mess, please…please take it over. I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore. I don’t want to hurt anymore. How did I get here, I’ve always gone to Church. I have always believed. Why didn’t I qualify to be yours? Why couldn’t I be a good person like those that I have hurt? Why wasn’t I allowed to be born again? Now would be a great time if you notice, if you are listening. You can have my life, if it is worth it to you. Just take it, please, God just take it.”
“ I was exhausted and lay down on my stomach with my face buried in my arms. At first, I felt numb and then I felt this peace start to come over me. It was kind of like that first few seconds, that feeling right before you are knocked out from anesthesia, but it lasted longer. Then out of nowhere, I started sobbing and shaking and I knew, I just knew. Soon the crying was from tears of joy. the ultimate happiness, a wonder that I had never felt before. I knew that I was healed and loved. I knew that anything I did was going to be God’s from here on out.”
“Yes, I’ll still make mistakes, but they will be honest ones not choices of evil. I see everything differently now. I am a peace with God’s plan for me. I only want to do what He wants from me. I am not afraid of death, I am looking forward to being home with Him. I have given up all fear except the fear of Him should I turn away from Him again. I don’t want to win at the games of this world, then I would be the biggest loser. I want to be His. I wrote letters to the women that I hurt and offer my prayers for them. I pray Lisa has the God given love with a godly man forever, what she thought she had with me based on my lies. I told my ‘sex friends’ that they deserved Christ, to walk in God’s path, true love and He is waiting. And I know, I know, if Christ did this for me, it is available to anyone, anytime, anywhere. I was alone without any influence of others and still Christ came to me, just me. He wants each and every one of us. He died for each and every one of’ us. All we have to do is ask and mean it.”
Joel had been looking out at the water at his fishing line while had been speaking. When he turned around, he saw the flow of tears from Ted and he was shaking, and he knew, he just knew, one more miracle had occurred. One more Christian was born again.
1Timothy 4;5
For everything that God made is good and we may eat it gladly if we are thankful for it, and we ask God to bless it, for it is made good by the Word of God in prayer.
MARK 7;20-23
And then he added,” It is the thought-life that pollutes. For from within, out of men’s hearts, comes evil thoughts of lust, theft murder adultery, wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy slander, pride and all other folly. All of these vile things come from within; they are what pollute you and make you unfit for God.” said Jesus Christ
James 3; 14
And by all means don’t brag about being wise and good if you are bitter and jealous and selfish that is the worst sort of lie. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly , unspiritual and inspired by the devil. For wherever there is jealousy or self- ambition there will be disorder and every other kind of evil.
1 Timothy 5;8
But anyone who won’t care for his own relatives when they need help, especially those living in his own family, has no right to say he is a Christian. Such a person is worse than heathen.
LUKE 11;52
” Woe to you experts in religion! For you hide the truth from people. You won’t accept it for yourselves and you prevent others from having the chance to believe it.” said Jesus Christ
LUKE 6;39
” What good is it for one blind man to lead another? He will fall into the ditch and pull the other down with him.” said Jesus Christ
1 Timothy 6; 3
Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage all to obey them. Some may deny these things, but they are sound, wholesome teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and the foundation for a godly life. Anyone who says anything different is proud and stupid.
Ephesians 2;9
Salvation is not a reward for any good that we have done so none of us take any credit for it. It is God Himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ago He planned that we should spend these lives helping others.
Ephesians 2;18
Now all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles may come to the Father with the Holy Spirit’s help because of what Christ has done for us.
James 5; 15- 16
And their prayer if offered in faith, will heal him, for the Lord will make him well; and if his sickness is caused by some sin, the Lord will forgive him. Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results.
Galatians 5;22
But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce the kind of fruit in us; love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control….
1 John 2; 14-17
And so I say to you fathers that know the eternal God, and to you young men who are strong, with God’s Word in your hearts, and have won your struggle against Satan; Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God; for all of these worldly things, these evil desires the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance- these are not from God.
Philippians 2;12-13
…And now that I am away you must be even more careful to do the good things that result from being saved, obeying God with deep reverence and shrinking back from all that might displease Him. For God is at work within you helping you to want to obey
and then helping you to do what he wants.
1 Timothy 1;5
What I am eager for all Christians there will be filled with love comes from pure hearts, and their minds will be clean and their faith strong.
2 Corinthians 5;13-14
…Whatever we do is certainly not for our own profit, but because Christ loves and controls us now. Since we believe that Christ died for all of us, we should also believe we have died to the old life we used to live. He died for all those who live- having received
eternal life from him- might live no longer for themselves, but to spend their lives pleasing Christ who died and rose again for them.
2 Timothy 4;5
Stand steady and don’t be afraid of suffering for our Lord. Bring others to Christ leave nothing undone that you ought to do.
Romans 12; 1-2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways really satisfy you.
1 John 3;16
We know what real love is from Christ’s example in dying for us. And so we also ought to lay down our lives for our Christian brothers.
1 Thessalonians 3;12
And may the Lord make your love grow and overflow to each other and everyone else, just as our love grows toward you.
Joel 2;21
Fear not, my people; be glad now and rejoice for he has done amazing things for You
MATTHEW 4; 19
Jesus called out, “Come along with me and I will show you how to fish for the souls of men!” and they left their nets at once and went with him. Said Jesus Christ
Since Faith, Hope and Love
are gifts.
The greatest of these is Love.
Since God fills His people with
Strength, Peace and Wisdom
overflowing abundance, anytime,
anywhere, to anyone
Know this;
We can never expect any person,
past….. present…. or future,
To be
a better person..& better Christian
Than each one of us,
the person in
the mirror chooses
TO BE.
MATTHEW 7;8
“Knock and the door shall be opened. Ask and you shall receive.”
SAID JESUS CHRIST
Christian Theories and Concepts 