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Dear Christian Believers,
Greetings and God bless you in the powerful name of Jesus Christ.
On the day of Pentecost, right after the great out pouring of the holy spirit, Peter stood up with the 11 other apostles and he preached the first sermon of the Christian Church, and it is recorded in Acts 2:14-40. It was a very confronting sermon to those who had not only rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, but supported him being crucified. However, there was a positive response by many that heard Peter speak, because about 3000 of them still had the heart and desire to believe GOD and wanted to do HIS will
Acts 37-38
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles. Men and brethren, WHAT SHALL WE DO? [they were cut in their hearts by the truth that Peter had preached - They wanted to know How can we (who were so wrong) get right with GOD.
38 Then Peter said unto them, REPENT, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of Holy Ghost (pneuma hagion - holy spirit).
"‘Repent” means ... “to Change your mind and purpose.” It means to accept Jesus as Lord of your life, and believe that GOD raised him from the dead. When you are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, it is not a water emersion - but it is an emersion of internal fulfillment - every part of your being has Christ in it You are “Baptized in” with everything Christ is, He is completely in you. When you are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ you are sanctified, “separated out from the unsaved” - you are no longer a stranger or foreigner, but a fellowcitzen with the saints in the household of GOD as declared in Ephesians 2:19. You now have a new identity, because you are now identified with Christ. You have been baptized with him - You have been crucified with him and died with him - you have been risen with him and ascended with him - therefore when you identity yourself with him, you reckon the old man dead. You are a new creature in Christ as it declares in II Corinthians 5:17, “a new creation.”
In Acts 2:4 it says about 3000 souls were added to the Church, they believed the Word of GOD that Peter spoke They were made Whole - Righteous - Sanctified - Redeemed - Saved from death and given Eternal Life - they were made Heirs of GOD and Joint-heirs with Christ and they were at Peace with GOD. All of this happened to them that day because they heard the Word of GOD, the gospel concerning Jesus Christ, and they made a Decision a Choice, to Believe and take action on the direction given from GOD’S Word. Their response to the truth Peter preached was, “WHAT SHALL WE DO?” Once you have responded, YES, to Jesus Christ, “What Shall I Do?” should be tm normal response. After you’ve become a born again Christian you will have basically 3 choices concerning What Shall I Do?
- Choose to not live and function in your new identity and just follow after the old man of the flesh.
- Choose to renew your mind to the scriptures and follow after the new spiritual nature of the Christ in you, and learn to walk by the sp of GOD to become all you can be in Christ, Or
- Try to do what most Christians do, ride or walk on some imaginary GRAY LINE between Choices 1 and 2.
GOD speaks clearly to “Gray-liners” and their choice in;
Revelation 3:15-16
I know thy works, that thou are neither cold or hot, I would that you were cold or hot.
16
So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will spit thee out of my mouth.
We need to be decisive Christians when it comes to choosing the life we live, Quit trying to live a balancing act between the world and the Word of GOD. Let’s answer the question, What Shall I Do? by living our new identity in Christ Jesus.
John
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