With a Sincere Heart

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit to a virgin woman, was born as a human baby to his mother Mary. He was and is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And he is our creator God, the giver of both physical life and spiritual life. When he lived on this earth he was both fully God and fully man, but without sin, for he was conceived of the Spirit and not of man, and thus he was not born with a sin nature as we are, and although tempted, he never sinned.

While he lived on the earth he preached repentance for forgiveness of sins, and to repent is to have a change of heart and mind, resulting in a change of thought, attitude, and behavior in line with the will of God for our lives. And he taught that to come after him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow him in walks of obedience to him and to his commands, in surrender to his will. For if we hold on to our lives of living in sin, and we do not obey him, in practice, we will lose them for eternity.

Jesus Christ, when he lived on the earth, although loved and admired by a few, was hated particularly by many of the religious leaders within the temple and the synagogues. They hated his temporary popularity among the people, and feared losing their own positions of power. They opposed him for calling himself God, and they didn’t like his messages, especially the ones where he confronted them about their own sinful and hypocritical practices. So they had him put to death on a cross, hoping that would end it all.

But Jesus became our sacrificial lamb on that cross to take away the sins of the world, and he rose from the dead. And at this point he did away with the Old Covenant, and he brought in the New Covenant, which now included the Gentiles, by faith in Jesus Christ. We who believe in Jesus are the Israel of God, God’s chosen people, his holy nation. But the New Covenant teaches we must die with Christ to sin, and we must be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, and we must obey our Lord and his commandments, living holy lives, pleasing to God, or we do not have eternal life with God.

[Isaiah 53:1-12; Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 17:25; John 1:1-36; John 6:35-58; John 8:24,58; John 10:27-33; John 20:28-29; Romans 5:8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 9:5; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8-9; Hebrews 2:14-15; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Peter 1:1]

So, if we hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful, this has to agree with the gospel message taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles, in full biblical context. So this means that we are those who continue in our walks of faith in surrender to the will of God in obedience to his commands, in practice, and that sin is no longer what we practice. Righteous living is now what we practice, but we are still works of God in the process of being made to be like Jesus.

And then, as the body of Christ, his church (we the people of God are the church), we are to be those who are stimulating (inspiring, motivating) one another to (agape) love (preferring what God prefers) and to the good works that God has for us to do, as his followers. And we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, which can be on any day of the week, at any time of day, with any group of followers of Christ, in any appropriate location, but for the purpose to be ENCOURAGING ONE ANOTHER.

In other words, this is not about going to a building called “church” once a week, sitting as mostly spectators, singing some preplanned songs, listening to a preplanned sermon (usually by only one man), and then going home “from church” until the next week, while we live our lives largely for ourselves and for what we want. Not forsaking the assembling is us, as followers of Christ, gathering together with other followers of Christ for our mutual and spiritual edification so that we walk in obedience to our Lord.

[Acts 2:14-18,42-47; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

The Spirit Calling

An Original Work / November 12, 2019
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Hear the Spirit calling.
He’ll keep you from falling.
Tenderly He’s calling,
“Come and follow Him.”

Walk with Jesus daily.
Don’t give in to lazy.
Folks may call you crazy.
Fellowship with Him.

Follow where He leads you.
Eat what Jesus feeds you.
His love will renew you
If you follow Him.

Do what Jesus tells you.
Don’t let your faith fail you.
His love will avail you
If you walk with Him.

Jesus, Lord and Savior,
Reigneth now forever.
He gave us His favor
So we’d live with Him.

Turning now from our sin,
Holy Spirit live-in.
Holiness we walk in,
Purified by Him.


With a Sincere Heart
An Original Work / September 24, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love