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Jesus spoke of the joy that erupts in heaven when a sinner repents and comes to believe in the good news. We might imagine they have something like a birthday party to celebrate the new birth, but in reality it’s the rejoicing that accompanies a wedding. It’s a celebration of a new life wedded in union with Christ.

Many of us are looking forward to the wedding banquet yet to come, but Jesus is returning for his bride, not his fiancée. You are already married to him. Your union with Christ is not a future event but a present reality that began the moment you first said “Yes” to Jesus.

Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches,” and from that most wonderful affirmation of our union, confused preachers have drawn terrifying lessons about being cut off and thrown into the fire. Whoa. Slow down. That’s like fretting about divorce in the middle of your honeymoon. Relax. Jesus doesn’t believe in divorce. In fact he hates it. You’re stuck with him for good. What God has joined together, let no man separate.

Look at those words again: “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5). Your union with Christ is not a far-off event but an accomplished fact. You are already in Christ. Since there is no part of the branch that is not also part of the vine, anyone who touches you touches Jesus. When you place your hands on the sick, you are placing his hands on the sick. When you open your mouth to speak the good news, you are speaking his words with his mouth.

One-flesh team

I have been married for some time so I don’t find this strange at all. I am accustomed to thinking in terms of a one-flesh team. I remind Camilla about this every time the parent-teacher interviews come up at school. “But honey, we don’t need to both go, for if you are there then we are there. We’re a one-flesh team.” And she usually responds by giving me a sideways glance.
I jest to make an important point. Our one-flesh union is an earthly picture of the spiritual union all believers have with Jesus:

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:20)

He is in you and you are in him. Wherever you go, he goes. When you go to the parent-teacher interview, the Lord of the Universe goes with you.

“Wait a second, Paul. How can Jesus be here with us if he’s up there with the Father?” That’s a good question. How can Jesus be in two places at once? How can he be present within every believer at the same time?
Before Jesus returned to heaven, he said to the disciples:

“It is for your good that I go away” (John 16:7). Jesus said the Comforter would come after he left and we would be better off with him than we were with Jesus being physically present. He was saying, “I have been with you, and that has been good, but soon I will be in you, and that will be even better.”

The Holy Spirit is the answer to the question, “How can Jesus leave us and be with us at the same time?” Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with Jesus. And since he who has the Son also has the Father, to be filled with Jesus is to be filled with the Father as well. He who has the Spirit also has the Son and the Father. They are an inseparable team (Rom 8:9, Col 2:9, and John 14:20).

Right after promising the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans.” An orphan is a fatherless child. Jesus was saying you won’t be that person. “My Father and I will come to you and make our home with you” (see John 14:23). You have not been filled with one-third of God but all of him; Father, Son, and Spirit.

The gospel of union

Perhaps you originally came to Christ on account of some need. It may have been a need for healing, forgiveness, or simply to get a ticket in to heaven. Whatever your need, God is faithful and generous. Receive from the abundant provision of his grace and be blessed. But then brace yourself for a blessed shock. The Giver is greater than his gifts. The Blesser is infinitely lovelier than his blessings.

The gospel is not an advertising brochure for the treasures of the kingdom. The gospel is the thrilling revelation that the Lover of your soul desires to share his life in wedded union with you forever. For those who believe it, the gospel is the joyful declaration that right now and forever more, you are in perfect union with him. Your days of restless wandering are over, for in Christ you have already found your eternal rest. In Christ, you are already home.

https://escapetoreality.org/2015/11/19/married-to-jesus/

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Akdegreat:
With an honest aim of understanding the nature of God and his wonder displayed in nature, I had set out on a quest for 'truth'. As a very inquisitive person, a sound background in scientific methods further fueled my already curious and inquisitive nature beyond normal.

As a kid, I asked several questions;
"Since God created everything that exist, what if God never existed, and hence nothing whatsoever exists? I often tried to picture a dark and void space remaining that way for all of eternity!! Whenever I did, I got lost in my wild imaginations"
"How did God come to be? Who created him?"
"What if God never created life? How would the earth be then? I often repeated same imaginations again but this time with planets, asteroids and other heavenly bodies. Of course I got lost again, severally"
"What if I was never born? So I would never have experienced the beauty of life? Scary!"
"Why did Lucifer ruin the Paradise? For Christ sakes we all would have been there now. Why didn't God even kill Lucifer at once earlier to prevent it? He knew the future!"

I grew up into a devote Christian with different questions;
"With the so many religions on earth could we possibly be worshipping the same God in different ways?"
"If the God I worship in the bible is the one true God and creator of the universe, would he destroy non-christians in hell simply because they worshipped him wrongly?"
"Would God really condemn a devote Christian to hell after years of righteous living simply because he erred one time and dies without repentance? Would he now allow a person who has done heinous things into paradise simply because he finally accepts the salvation story in the end?". I had many more questions that bothered my mind but I'd stop there.

These questions didn't matter so much as I still upheld the Bible as truth and lived by its doctrines. On a second thought they must have sown the seed of doubt in my mind; a seed that came to germinate later on.
A lot of things happened during my undergraduate study that shook my belief but for the sake of brevity, I'd mention a few..
I held the opinion that "compared to clerics, scientists better understood the awesomeness and magnificence of God". Come to think of it this way, with every scientific discovery, scientists reveal God's wonder in nature while clerics keep 'recycling' doctrines written in our ancient Holy Bible. The beautiful works of God in nature were unreconcilable with the barbarisms attributed to him in the bible. When some Bible claims corroborate with scientific findings we're good, but when 'outrageous' claims are found in the Bible, we are convinced that they're metaphorical with deeper meaning. Gradually, it became obvious that science had more credence compared to religion. My religiosity reduced drastically as well as my total trust in the bible as ultimate truth. Not sure anymore, I wondered if there's a creator (God) or not. I mean, 'the Bible must have so poorly described God' I thought.

Aside from bible, I sought knowledge of God from various books on religion, spirituality and nature. I read the Qur'an and it bored me. I came across "Earth's Chronicles, The 12th Planet, and other controversial books by Zecharia Sitchin. They were indeed controversial, and I asked myself 'how did he know all those things?' The works of Thomas Paine is worthy of mention. I agreed with him largely, especially his 'Age of Reason'. I discussed my thoughts with another 'thinker' (I choose not to mention his name) and he introduced me to the 'Sumerian Texts', the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' among other amazing books. Wow! What have I been doing. They shared similarities with the Bible so I couldn't help but wonder and ask more questions. 'Did I believe in a big lie all these while?' ...

Nawa oo... my brother it is well with you. Since you feel that God doesn't exist, good luck to you. Whatever makes you sleep well at night.

If you are waiting for God to appear to you to prove His existence, that means you go tay my broda. We are in the age of Grace where BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO BELIEVE WITHOUT SEEING. Bringing human logic to the things of the Supernatural can never make sense. Years back some of those questions you asked up there used to cross my mind and the more i think about it concerning WHO CREATED GOD AND OTHER STUFF, it seems i want to run mad cos i can't fathom it. That's what makes us human, we are limited in our intelligence. God's ways are higher than ours. I am a very curious person by nature and i study alot cos i want to research things. But when it comes to the things of God, i choose to believe what the Scripture says.
And the Bible is God-breathed.

I can never imagine rejecting Christ, how will my life turn out to be? You will have to kill me first for me to reject Christ. I am not saying this as a boast but i am telling you this cos God is real, Christ is alive and He is sitted at the right hand of God now in Heaven. Christ is love, i don't know how my life might have turned out now if not for Him. I haven't seen God but i feel His presence & divine protection and also because am a believer, Christ lives in me. I am not perfect oo, am still human prone to mistakes but i rest in the perfection of Christ. Everything i am today is because of Christ.

Whenever i remember the Cross, i always see God's perfect love for humanity. The Word of God is living and active and that's why i make it a point of duty to feed on the word daily. I don't do this out of obligation or anything but because it always gives me strength to withstand the challenges of this fallen world. It also makes me to know more about God and His love.

We are in a fallen world and so many tragedies you see in today's world are not God's will, but its as a result of the fall of Adam in the garden of Eden. But Christ is coming soonest to fix this fallen world.

My broda, i don't judge you neither am i condemning you, but Salvation is of the Lord and Christ Jesus is the way. Letting Him into your life will give you Shalom peace.

evening...

noted

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jiggaz:
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jiggaz:
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morning

Some Christians understand their union with the Lord but only half way. “Sure, God is with us, but sometimes he isn’t. He comes and he goes.” It’s true that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon certain people at certain times, but that was then and this is now.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit abides with us and makes his home with us (John 14:16–17). By home he means home . You are not a motel room for the Lord. You are a walking, talking, living, breathing temple of the Holy Spirit. He is not going anywhere.

“Are you saying that the Holy Spirit is with me even when I sin?” Yes! Christ’s love for you and his union with you is stronger than any sin.

Under the old covenant, sinning was your fast track to disunion. If you sinned you risked being cut off from the people of God.

Jesus said if your hand or eye causes you to sin, get rid of it (Matthew 5:29–30). Why did Jesus preach self-amputation to those born under the law? Because under that covenant it made sense to talk about removing those parts of the body that might contaminate the whole. Thank the Lord the old covenant is gone! We are not under law but grace, and this is good news for the members of the body of Christ.
When we sin, Jesus does not cut us off; we remain members of his body. This totally changes the way we look at sin.

Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! (1 Corinthians 6:15b)

Under the old covenant we were restrained from sin through mortal terror but in the new we are restrained by love. Look again at Paul’s warning about prostitutes. Behind the warning—don’t do it—there is a surprising and reassuring affirmation of union. Paul is saying it is possible, though not advisable, to unite the members of Christ’s body with prostitutes.

Do you see it? Earthly marriages may break and fail, but your union with Christ is unbreakable. Sin cannot break it. Addiction cannot break it. The stupidest decisions you might ever make cannot break it.

This should not be taken as a challenge to see what you can get away with but as a stunning declaration of Christ’s absolute commitment to love you and stick with you no matter what . This is what changes us—not the weak influence of the rule, but the relentless and determined passion of his love.

The love of God is the greatest force in the universe. Sin wilts before it. When you encounter the undaunted and unending love of Christ, it changes you. You no longer want to sin. The passing pleasures of this world lose their appeal because you have found a love that is truer and better by far.

https://escapetoreality.org/2016/01/07/your-unbreakable-union-with-christ/

jiggaz:
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