“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my
word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into
judgment, but has passed from death to
life.”
John 5:24
There were four among the dead and now they are all among the living! Here are their stories:
“Jesus answered him,
‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born again he cannot see the
kingdom of God.’” John 3:3
“That
made me very happy, I have never heard that you must be born again”…. “I thought that when I was baptized that my
sins were washed away.” said Diamondra last Tuesday as we studied the Bible
together.
I
reminded myself that this is why we are here, to share the truth of God’s Word
with those who have never heard or in Diamondra’s case had been led to believe
that baptism is what saves you or through good works that we do. That was exactly the kind of encouragement
that I needed that day.
This past Monday, I met with Diamondra, her husband and her youngest
brother and we studied about Jesus being the only way to heaven and that
salvation was not from baptism, good works, taking communion, being a member of
a church, but that is a gift from God only.
At the end of our lesson, we had already discussed what a person must do
to receive God’s gift of eternal life and then we talked about the way to do
that. I asked them to remember what we
had learned before about being born again and how there are many people that
say they believe in Jesus with their mouth, but they have not had their heart
changed by Him. Then I asked them each
individually if they were ready to make that decision to follow him, letting
them know that there was no pressure if they were not ready. After they each told me they were ready, I
listened to the sweetest prayers in Malagasy coming from glad & sincere
hearts, surrendering their lives over to the Lord and Savior!!! Truly, I saw that day what many of the
apostles saw back in Bible times where she & her household were saved! All praise be to our beloved & almighty
Savior!!!
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| Please pray for Jonathan, Diamondra, & Erik (Diamondra's husband) as they begin this new faith journey; pray that they will share what they have learned with others |
“For by grace you have been
saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not
a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
The statement from our Bible study read, “Jesus said that those people
who have done enough good will get eternal life according to John 6:47, true or
false?” Almost instinctively, my friend
and house helper, Zo replied that this statement was true. So I had her return to the verse and read it
again, but when it still wasn’t clear.
We reread all the verses from that lesson and I politely asked her after
she read each one, where does it say that we must have good works to receive
eternal life? After searching a long
time, she continued to come up empty and seemed quite baffled. At this point, it was hard to understand that
she truly understood what God requires of us for salvation, (according to
Ephesians 2:8-9) but I knew that I must let the Holy Spirit show her.
Today, we were studying the wide and the narrow roads. After looking at a depiction of those two
roads and the people that go on those roads, she identified herself as a person
who trusts in her church (for her salvation).
Then I pointed out that there is only one kind of person that goes by
the narrow road according to John 3:6-7 and that is the person that has been
born again (which we had already studied what that meant from John 3 in a
previous lesson). At the end, I reminded
her that she identified with the person on the wide road leading to eternal
separation from God and I asked her if she was ready to be born again and she
said that she was. I was so amazed
because I had been praying that if she was not a true believer that God would
show her and now it was clear that she understood where she was and where she
wanted to be!!
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| Please pray for Zo to mature in her walk with Him and for her to have courage to teach others; also pray for her family for those that don't follow Jesus |
It is imperative that we understand our true condition
before we can accept what comes after but God (in the Bible).
Ephesians 2:1-9 reads:
And
you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in
which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience-
3 among
whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires
of the body and
the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
5 even
when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by
grace you have been saved-
7 so
that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For
by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it
is the gift of God,
9 not a result of
works, so that no one may boast.
You see, we were the walking dead and enemies of the cross, but God lavished us with His mercy and
loved us in spite of our hideous zombie-like state. He gave us new life, with a new name, He
said, “You shall no longer be called a child of wrath (Satan), but you shall
become a child of God.” He exchanged our
filthy ragged, sin-stained clothes with clothes of righteousness. He gave us a new home, we are no longer
condemned to hell but we are redeemed to live eternally with Him in the land of
the forever living (the beginning of real life).
There is no better encouragement then knowing that God allowed you to
usher someone (or some people) into the presence of Jesus to receive his
salvation that only He can give. We know
that it is through your faithful prayers that we are able to do the things we
do and for that we thank you so much—you really do play a VITAL role in our ministry!!
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