Good morning. We read the
love chapter yesterday. Then Paul says to pursue love, yet desire earnestly
spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. The love of chapter 13
doesn't just happen on its own. We have to pursue it. It takes a lot of effort
to achieve the kind of love demonstrated in chapter 13. We are going to skip
most of chapter 14, especially the part where women are to keep silent in the
churches. The gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and in
which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word
which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. That does not sound like
greasy grace to me. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised the
third day. He appeared to a number of different people some who remained and
some who had fallen asleep. Like Paul, by the grace of God we are what we are.
Some had been preaching that Christ had not been raised from the dead. He could
be referring to those who were into the beginnings of Gnosticism. They believed
that Christ became the Son of God when the Holy Spirit came upon Him, and that
the Holy Spirit left Him on the cross. Only the man Jesus died on the cross,
and therefore was not raised from the dead. Only the spiritual part of us
mattered; not the physical – which was evil in itself. And if Christ has not
been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. But we know
that Christ was raised from the dead. If we have hoped in Christ in this life
only, we are of all men most to be pitied. Christ is the first fruits of those
who are asleep. If He was raised from the dead, then we can be sure that we
will be raised from the dead. Father thank You that You raised Christ from the
dead, and that You will raise us from the dead one day. Continue to bless the
reader and meet all of his/her needs. Bless his/her children and grandchildren
too.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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