6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Revelation 2:6-7ESV). Who are “the Nicolaitans?” They were false teachers, lovers of pleasure rather than God. They involved themselves in loose living and enticed the church with deceptive and empty words. Clement of Alexander wrote of them: ‘They abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats, leading a life of self-indulgence.’ Their teaching perverted grace and replaced liberty with license.” The empowering grace of the Holy Spirit within the child of God gives him freedom from sin rather than freedom to sin. God is patient and slow to an
…a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop…. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” And God will generously provide all you need (2 Corinthians 9:6-8 NLT). Jesus planted a seed. He died, His loved ones buried Him, but on the third day, He came alive. Look at what that one seed, His life, accomplished; thousands upon thousands of people have received new life in Him. He did not die in vain. He did not give a little part of Himself; He gave all of Himself so that you and I could know Him and be like Him. God, the Father, planted His only begotten son and reaped a family of sons for all generations to come. T
Whoever has will be given more, and they will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them (Matthew 13:12). As we celebrate the Passover Lamb that takes away the sins of the world we rejoice that our Redeemer lives. He lives today to save us to the uttermost. Jesus is never half-hearted in His love for us, desiring the fullness of God, to fill us. His precious blood buys us back from the devil and his plans to destroy us in this life as well as the life to come. We must take the cup of His blood and drink all of it rather than part of it. The Israelites had to leave Egypt, a place of slavery and yet a place they called home, for a strange land they did
And this blood shall be to you for a sign upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you (Ex. 12:13). If you want to change the way you act, you have to change the way you think. Real change comes from the inside out. What you focus on grows. Legalism is living by rules, which necessitates an emphasis on doing what is right rather than wrong. Your need to be right is so strong that you fail to put your trust in Jesus who makes you righteous. True faith in Jesus’ life giving sacrifice, the shedding of His blood, is the only way to make sinners right in the sight of God. You can either center your attention on everything you are doing right, as well as wrong, o
