Dynomite!
DAILY REMINDER #10 - "God has empowered me to live the Christian life"
Acts 1:8 says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you..."
If I've heard it once, I've heard it a THOUSAND times..."being a Christian is really hard." Not only do I agree with that statement, I would take it a step further...it is IMPOSSIBLE to be a true biblical Christian in our own strength. In fact, I can't think of anything tougher or a task more daunting! Believe me, I'm an expert on the subject...I tried to do it for 20 years of my life. You talk about feeling unworthy, guilty, ashamed and hypocritical!
It was like being asked to climb Mt. Everest but not given any climbing gear...not even a rope! Jesus commands us to "go and sin no more", "love your enemies", "forgive everyone" and "don't even look at a woman/man to lust after them" so on and so forth. After failing several billion times, I was ready to give up. This Christian thing was too steep a mountain for me to climb, and I certainly didn't have any gear.
What I realized is that even Jesus' own disciples, the men who had walked, talked, lived with and performed miracles with Jesus, were ill-equipped to live this life too. He told them in Acts 1:4 to stay put and to not go about on their crusades and try to be a reflection of Jesus, even though they were the obvious choice to do so. He said "wait" until you receive the Promise of the Father...The Holy Spirit. He then said that when they received this Promise, they would receive POWER. That was exactly the gear I needed...power!
This word "power" in the greek is the word "dunamis" which is where we get our word DYNOMITE. It literally means "strength, power and ability. Moral power and excellence of soul. Power for performing miracles." I had never heard this before, but man I knew I needed it!
I received the Holy Spirit 11 years ago, and I can honestly say that was the biggest difference in my life. Before, I had back-slidden several hundreds of times. But since then, I have continued to serve God with all of my heart. I no longer am dependent on my own strength to get me through, but on His strength. His power or DYNOMITE is living inside of me, and has helped me to realize that, apart from Him, I can do nothing. But with Him, nothing is impossible!
Acts 1:8 says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you..."
If I've heard it once, I've heard it a THOUSAND times..."being a Christian is really hard." Not only do I agree with that statement, I would take it a step further...it is IMPOSSIBLE to be a true biblical Christian in our own strength. In fact, I can't think of anything tougher or a task more daunting! Believe me, I'm an expert on the subject...I tried to do it for 20 years of my life. You talk about feeling unworthy, guilty, ashamed and hypocritical!
It was like being asked to climb Mt. Everest but not given any climbing gear...not even a rope! Jesus commands us to "go and sin no more", "love your enemies", "forgive everyone" and "don't even look at a woman/man to lust after them" so on and so forth. After failing several billion times, I was ready to give up. This Christian thing was too steep a mountain for me to climb, and I certainly didn't have any gear.
What I realized is that even Jesus' own disciples, the men who had walked, talked, lived with and performed miracles with Jesus, were ill-equipped to live this life too. He told them in Acts 1:4 to stay put and to not go about on their crusades and try to be a reflection of Jesus, even though they were the obvious choice to do so. He said "wait" until you receive the Promise of the Father...The Holy Spirit. He then said that when they received this Promise, they would receive POWER. That was exactly the gear I needed...power!
This word "power" in the greek is the word "dunamis" which is where we get our word DYNOMITE. It literally means "strength, power and ability. Moral power and excellence of soul. Power for performing miracles." I had never heard this before, but man I knew I needed it!
I received the Holy Spirit 11 years ago, and I can honestly say that was the biggest difference in my life. Before, I had back-slidden several hundreds of times. But since then, I have continued to serve God with all of my heart. I no longer am dependent on my own strength to get me through, but on His strength. His power or DYNOMITE is living inside of me, and has helped me to realize that, apart from Him, I can do nothing. But with Him, nothing is impossible!
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