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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: Regeneration Perfected
In our first set of exercises, we began stretching our spiritual muscles as we learned some of the basic principles of Salvation, such as… What it is and why we need it; How to obtain it through the New Birth; That it’s God’s destiny for everyone but that only those who “elect” to have it will receive it; and, Once it is received, it can never be lost or stolen. We also learned that Salvation is the process by which God redeems lost sinners—those who have been in bondage to the world, the flesh, and the devil since their births; buying their freedom for them through the substitutionary death of…
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Salvation: How Do We Get It?
Now that we have a better idea of what Salvation is and why we need it, let’s stretch our spiritual muscles a little further as we learn how to appropriate this wonderful gift for ourselves, through something called the New Birth. Although some may consider the “head” knowledge of Salvation we gained in our previous workout session to be sufficient, that mere intellectual knowledge will prove to be woefully inadequate in providing us with the foundation we will need for our upcoming exercises in practical Christianity. For the purposes of this program, then, we can gain an experiential knowledge of Salvation (if it hasn’t been done already) through an active participation in each of the…
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Now…On to the Welcome Center of the Word
Well…we have made it across the border! Having received the gift of God’s glorious Salvation as the result of the New Birth, we have left behind the spiritual bondage and death so characteristic of the dark, barren land of the natural life, and are now entering the vibrant, verdant, and fruit–filled land of the Spirit—a land simply exploding with light and liberty! I hope you have already noticed the change in the atmosphere. Something else to take notice of as you eagerly survey this brand-new landscape, is that the land through which we are now traveling is one that is filled with peaks and valleys: majestic peaks, blanketed…
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Next Stop…the New Birth!
Now that everyone is back on board the train, it’s time for us to leave the Salvation Station; the place where we were introduced to God’s wonderful plan for saving sinners from death and destruction while, at the same time, adopting them as His very own children–in the process, giving them a hope in this life as well as a glorious future in the next. What we didn’t learn here, though, is just how we can appropriate this salvation that God has so graciously provided for us. With that as our immediate goal, let’s make our way to the next stop on our tour, the New Birth Station; where we will not…
