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Service: Interrupted… by Devilish Design
For some time now, we have been engaged in a workout program designed to help us become stronger and more effective followers of Jesus Christ. Through this four-level series of increasingly difficult exercises, we are being challenged to grow in our knowledge and understanding of… Salvation; Sanctification; Service; and, Spiritual Warfare. Such knowledge is vital to our spiritual growth, for it is… Through the study of Salvation and Sanctification that we learn who God wants us to be; and, Through the study of Service and Spiritual Warfare that we learn what God wants us to do. As for who God wants us to be, to put it…
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Service: The Church as the Family of God
In our last exercise, Service: The Church as the Body of Christ, we were introduced to the concept that the Church, like the human body, is composed of three parts serving on three different levels, with each part being delegated a specific role to fulfill in its service for Christ. As… The corporate Body of Christ, the Church is to reach outward into the world; bringing the good news of Salvation to the lost in order to bring them into the Family of God; The corporate Soul of Christ, the Church is to reach inward to the members of the Family of God; loving and encouraging them while helping…
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Service: The Church as the Body of Christ
In our previous exercise, we began a new level of workout routines dealing with Service; and during the course of that introductory routine, we learned how, through our service for Christ, the good works which He began are still being done in the world today. Then, as we searched for a definition of the word, especially as it relates to us as believers, we discovered some of the Terms of Service which must be adhered to if any enduring work for Christ is to be accomplished. These are… Service must begin at the altar of worship, where we surrender our wills to God’s will; Service must be motivated by our love for…
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Service: Continuing the Work of Christ in the World
Now that we’re about halfway through our Workout Program, let’s pause briefly to review the progress we have made thus far. We started out this regimen with four exercises in Salvation—exercises through which we learned that… Salvation is obtained through the one-time spiritual event known as the New Birth; an act taking us from sin-enslaved and hell-bound sinners to forgiven and heaven-bound sons and daughters of God; While everyone has been Predestined, or pre-designed, by God to become one of His children, only those who elect to receive His offer of Salvation will do so; and, Once that decision is made and our spiritual adoption is finalized, our Salvation is forever…
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Sanctification: Restoring the Soul through Worship
So far, through our exercises in Sanctification, we have learned that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to restore our emotions through Prayer and our minds through the study and application of the Word of God—a ministry bringing our hearts into alignment with that of the Father and transforming our minds into ones more like Christ’s. But this only encompasses the restoration of two of the components of our souls—leaving the third one, our all-important and powerful wills, for the Spirit to deal with. And deal with them, He must; because unlike our emotions which are simply expressions of how we feel, and our minds which merely reveal…
