Keep His Commands???

Titus 3:4-7

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Here, we are following up on yesterday's message with more biblical evidence of God's great love for us. Also, I guess I'm reiterating what I said yesterday about it not being about works. Don't get me wrong, good works are paramount in the Christian faith (see James 2:14-26), but they have nothing to do with your salvation. It's my adoration of Christ that compels me to do good to others as He has commanded me to. See, He said that those who love Him, would keep His commands. And if you want to be technical about it, which commands did Jesus say were the most important?

Matthew 22:34-37

Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

And by the way, both of those that Jesus quoted were from the Old Testament. We keep His word, because we love Him. He is merciful and saved us when we didn't deserve it. How then can we be hateful and unforgiving with those who've wronged us? We were grafted in to the vine, to the family of God. Not so much adopted as some may view it, but we were transformed, given a new birth, and a new birthright as children of God through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. We inherited generational diseases from our natural families........IE diabetes, heart disease, and other inherited afflictions. But now that we are born again, we have a NEW inheritance. Don't expect to get cancer just because your father or grandfather had it! That family curse is BROKEN by the blood of Jesus. Speak that out loud even if you are by yourself, and break that curse over your life. You don't have to receive that sickness or disease because through Jesus you have new blood flowing through your veins. He has given you a spiritual and physical blood transfusion. All things are passed away, behold, all things have become new! Right? Believe it, receive it, and speak it. Don't speak negatively about what you may inherit from relatives from the past. Speak positively about what you have received in Christ.......through His shed blood. Don't we read in

Isaiah 53:5

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

There are 39 major types of disease (not sure where I heard that, can't confirm positively) that exist in man. Jesus was struck 39 times by the cat of nine tails. Coincidence? I think not. (But even if there aren't 39 types of disease in man, that doesn't do away with the word of God.) We believe Jesus paid for our salvation, and that's great, but let's also believe for the other things He paid for. If the waiter at the restaurant you were eating at came up to you and said that someone paid your bill......would you then get up and go to pay the bill? No, of course not. In fact, you would tell the cashier, "I was willing to pay the bill, but the waiter told me it had already been paid for." You wouldn't pay it again. So why do we try to pay for what Jesus already paid for? Hehehehe. It sounds kind of silly when you put it into perspective like that. Now I'm not telling you not to go to the doctor, and not to take medicine you're currently taking. God uses that too. But when you KNOW that you've been healed, go to your doctor and let him/her check you out, and VERIFY that you've been healed. Don't let a preacher or a fellow Christian tell you to not take your medicine. Let the Dr tell you that when he confirms your healing. God can, and does still heal people. Even when Jesus healed people He told them to show themselves to the priests. They were the physical and spiritual doctors of His day. Oh my.......I've done it again.....another long post. Hehehe. Hey, get a preacher going, and look out. Have a great day and God bless. :-) James