Today we have handed out a booklet “Have you heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?”  While we aren’t called to memorize this booklet, it is fruitful to understand and know what it says.  We cannot avoid the world and the context of living day-to-day.  So as we live each day, we are to live putting our faith in the fact that God is on his throne and reigns over all.  It is through this relationship with God that he works through us.  The image that is given to us is that God is the potter and we are the clay.  If we put our lives in His hands, he will shape us to his will.

Law #1

God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.

– God’s love

– God’s plan

Law #2

Man is sinful and separated from God.  Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life.

We often think that sin is this awful terrible thing that people do.  We only think of the awful acts of man, but sin is closer to each of us.  Sin is that which separates us from God.

– Man is sinful

: 23 – Man is separated

Law #3

Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin.  Through Him, you can know and experience God’s love and plan your life.

Jesus closes the separation between us and God created by our sin.  It doesn’t matter what you have done, or where you have been, Jesus’ grace covers it all. Jesus didn’t die for nothing.

– He died in our place

– He rose from the dead

– He is the only way to God

Law #4

We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

– We must receive Christ

– We receive Christ through faith

– When we receive Christ, we experience a new birth

– We receive Christ through personal invitation

 

The rest of the booklet describes the result of keeping the four spiritual laws by heart.  If you have not accepted the gift of grace, you can call out to God now and Christ will come into your life.

Lord Jesus, I need you.  Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.  I open the door of my life and receive you as my Savior and Lord.  Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life..  Take control of the throne of my life.  Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

Once we accept the gift of grace, we are called to not stand still.  But instead we are to work for a lifetime of Christian growth.  We can keep this at the front of our minds using the acronym GROWTH.

  • Go to God in prayer daily.  ()
  • Read God’s Word daily () begin with the Gospel of John
  • Obey God moment by moment ()
  • Witness for Christ by your life and words. (; )
  • Trust God for every detail of your life ()
  • Holy Spirit – allow Him to control and empower your daily life and witness (; )

The final message from the booklet is to have fellowship in a good church.  We want to walk with you in this life journey with God. We are to not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together.” ()  And great joy is found in joining together in worship and prayer together.

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (ESV)

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (ESV)

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ESV)

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (ESV)

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. (ESV)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (ESV)

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, (ESV)

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. (ESV)

3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (ESV)

20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (ESV)

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (ESV)

11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (ESV)

21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (ESV)

19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (ESV)

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (ESV)

casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (ESV)

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (ESV)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (ESV)

25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (ESV)