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PROGRAM outline is transcribed below.
This is based on a short article
Greetings everyone! Welcome to ComfortForToday.com, a broadcast named after the website of the same name, ComfortForToday.com. If you have a computer you can read some of the 400 short English articles there, some of which are translated into French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. You can also order the English in booklets of 30 articles each at a cost of $8 each, postpaid. Just write to Comfort Books, 27 Dominion Gardens Drive, Georgetown, Ontario Canada L7G 6B2.
Today's message is about the importance for Christians to guard their faith carefully. We need to learn and guard true Christianity, otherwise we will fall into the deception which surrounds us everywhere.
Several years ago, I wrote an article about this which I shall now read. ARTICLE 32:
We all remember our first attempt to ride a bicycle. It appeared to be so simple as we watched another ride, but when we started off, the first thing we did was fall. After repeated attempts, we discovered it was possible to find a perfect balance. We could not lean too far to the right nor too far to the left. We must be neither over-confident or under-confident.
The Christian life is a bit like learning to ride a bicycle. As we start out in great confidence, the first thing we do is fall. When this happens, we reason the cause, and as we pick ourselves up and try again, we have learned our first lesson. After repeated falls, we find that we are learning how to find a balance in the Christian life.
If we are manipulating our road through life successfully, love will be the key to keep us riding safely. We must love God, love others, and love ourselves as a forgiven child of God. The Bible says, "Perfect love drives out fear" (I John 4:18 NIV). Love then, is our greatest asset; fear is our greatest enemy.
The world is filled with fear. We fear pollution, wars, AIDS, the rise in crime--the list goes on and on. To overcome these fears, we must draw closer to Jesus so that we can accept His love and learn to love Him more. It is only as we learn to surrender our lives to the One who formed us in our mother's womb, and to trust Him completely, that fear begins to vanish.
Love comes from God; fear comes from Satan. To overcome fear then, we need to arrive at the point in our life where Jesus Christ reigns supreme. Negative thinking and negative speech invite fear. Complaining invites fear. As unbelievers tell us about their fears, our own fears are enhanced. We can even become fearful of falling into Satan's clutches. Again and again we need to remind ourselves that knowing God's perfect love for us, and loving Him in return casts out all fear.
Individual Christians and churches have difficulty putting Satan in his proper place. Many wish to ignore the dark world and teach only of the great Light, Jesus, who can dispel all darkness. This is the best approach, but it has one problem. By over-confidence in thinking that the dark world has no power over us, pride in our own strength can destroy us.
Jesus died at Calvary almost 2,000 years ago to overcome fear, sickness and death. We need to learn to be confident in this assurance. Yet as we enjoy the peace of this great victory, we must not become overly confident in our own ability to stay away from worldly values, fleshly temptations and the devil's power.
False doctrines and deceptions are everywhere today. The Apostle Paul said, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood...but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Eph.6:12 NIV).
As we learn to ride our spiritual bicycle in better balance, as we learn to stop at the traffic lights which are God's laws, we become expert riders not apt to have an accident. Fear will be banished as we learn to snuggle into the arms of our Creator where all is peace and rest. We will be overcomers!
That is the end of the article.
It is important then that we know what the Bible says, and that we attend a church who teaches what it says. Many are the new and strange doctrines springing up today which lead us off into New Age and false beliefs without our even being aware of it. All churches which preach what is clearly written in the Bible have basically the same statements of faith. Looking at some of these as well as the time-tested "Apostles' Creed" and the Nicene Creed, I have written a "Statement of Faith" for the website. I shall now read what I have written, omitting a great number of the scripture references which you can read on the website if you have a computer.
We believe in One God who has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, eternal and unchanging. He is called the "Godhead" (Rom.1:20), "elohim" a plural noun translated as "us" - "Let US make man in OUR image" (Gen.1.26), or "the trinity" a term coined by the Christian church. This triune nature of God is also revealed in the three articles which Moses placed inside the Ark of the Covenant (Heb.9:4):
The Ten Commandments, the moral code of FATHER GOD (Exod.20:1-17)
Manna, the spiritual Bread, the "Word" of God--JESUS CHRIST(John 1:1)
Rod of Aaron, the HOLY SPIRIT as God's chosen leader to show people the way to Jesus (John
16:13-14), indwell their hearts (John 3:5-7) and unite them (Eph.4:3-4).
Jesus lived on earth as the PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION OF GOD in creation (I Tim.3:16), and after His resurrection as the Holy Spirit, the INVISIBLE MANIFESTATION OF GOD in creation (II Cor.4:7). Therefore God is BOTH OUTSIDE CREATION (transcendent) and INSIDE CREATION (immanent), making Him a unique God. The liberal church sees God as only outside of themselves as Creator of the world, and New Age doctrines believe He exists only within themselves giving them power to act independently of God and to create a new world order.
The God of the Christian is more than either of these. He is BOTH outside and inside creation. More than Creator of the world, the Creator Himself can be born into any heart willing to receive Him through an act of God's Holy Spirit. It is an essential experience to becoming a Christian because the Bible says we cannot enter God's kingdom without it (John 3:5-7).
Those who have the resurrected Spirit of Jesus Christ within them (a born-again experience), may then also receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an enduement of power from heaven (Matt.3:11; Luke 24:49; John 7:38,39; 14:16,17,26; Acts 1:5-8). This baptism is accompanied by the same signs as on the day of Pentecost when Christ's followers spoke in other tongues, healed the sick, and cast out demons (Mk.16:17-18; Acts 2:4; 10:45-46; 19:6; I Cor.14:21,22). These signs and manifestations of God's power are still in His church today because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb.13:8), and His name is "Immanuel--God with us" (Isa.7:14; Matt.1:23).
We believe the removal of Christ's church (rapture) will precede His return to govern the earth, and that they are two distinct and separateevents:
"Rapture" simply means "snatching away." This happens in one instant, when the purified church or Bride of Christ, both living and dead, will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air (Jn.14:1-3; I Cor.15:51-52; I Thess.4:13-18), and after a time of "great tribulation" or "time of Jacob's trouble" (Isa.26:20-21; Jer.30:7; Dan.12:1: Matt 24:21,22,29; Mk.13:19; Rev.9 and 16) will return to help Jesus rule the world from Jerusalem for 1,000 years of peace (Rev.20:1-5). After the wicked are judged (Rev.20:11-15), there will be everlasting peace with no more pain, sickness or sorrow (Rev.21:1-5).
We need not fear the future; God has a great plan to deliver the world from evil. Today's troublesome "signs of the times" are merely a warning that the time of Christ's return is near (Matt.24:8), and we can therefore "lift up our heads" in this assurance (Luke 21:28).
We will now listen to Jeremy Sinnott of TACF sing an old hymn of the Christian church.
HYMN: "Holy, Holy, Holy from his CD "Dancing with the Father."