Avalon Chronicles #48: "Jesus as Savior"
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
King James Version Life Application Study Bible by Tyndale House 1988, 1989
This is the most important Avalon Chronicle I have written or will ever write. Several years ago a friend of my father, who died in 1984, took me to the east Fort Worth neighborhood where my father had lived. He told me he was at the service when my father went down the aisle to commit his life to Christ. I have read recountings of the exact day or circumstances when others accepted Jesus as personal Savior. For me it was not at any specific time that I can recall, however I have known Jesus as Savior and Lord for a very long time.
In our lives we spend an inordinate amount of time and energy "preparing" for some event or accomplishment for ourselves; exams, applications for college, interviews for jobs, advancement in careers, and, yes, especially for us guys, finding and courting the girl of our dreams for marriage.
However to my ceaseless, but understandable, amazement, I am not aware of many who demonstrably prepare themselves for the "afterlife," eternity, with very much aforethought or dedication.
Of all our preparations and achievements in life, ensuring we have eternal life and that we endure past the grave, is the most profound, compelling, rewarding, and yet simplest endeavor we can undertake. We may know Jesus as a child, through historical references, answered prayers, and in our soul (head knowledge, feelings, and supposed choice), but to truly "know" Him beyond outward manifestations and outward trappings such as church attendance, prayers when we need things, and "reading" our Bibles, requires something distinct and specific.
1. The Word in Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." This is a definite and prevalent condition for us all!
2. We can wipe clean the slate of our past sins. In I John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Recollection and addressing of sins will typically require a process of some quiet time on one's own in privacy to perform a personal audit. The time to accomplish an audit is variable depending on where one is or has been . Confess all sins of thought, word, and deed, known and unknown. God's forgiveness is real and lasting and may be accepted unconditionally.
3. The Word says most simply and succintly in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The footnote states, "The entire Gospel comes to a focus in this verse....God paid dearly with the life of his Son, the highest price he could pay. Jesus accepted our punishment, paid the price for our sins, and then offered us the new life he bought for us." Jesus was crucified horribly on a cross to save us all.
4. We are children in an earthly family and most of us appreciate that family and are loyal to it. Should we not be more diligent and loyal to become a member of a yet higher family, that of the family of God? In John 1:12 it is written, "But as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." I have derived a special power and membership by the decision to accept Jesus as personal Savior. It is a power as a minimum to help me each day to get through all the challenges and stumbling blocks in my path.
5. HERE IT IS! CONFESS YOUR FAITH!
I do not know what my father said at the altar, but I know I have followed and spoken this written in Romans 10:9, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
It is the easiest decision to make, easier than college preps, job interviews, and popping the question for marriage.The plan is outlined in the five steps above.
If not you, who? If not now, when?
THE CHOICE IS YOURS. TIME IS SHORT!
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Avalon Chronicles #47: "Jesus in One's Soul"
Avalon Chronicles #47: "Jesus in One's Soul"
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
Over the recent past years I have been privileged to be a guest speaker at Warrior Transition Battalions on military bases and at gatherings of deployed Navy reservists who have returned home from the combat areas. The chaplains and organizers have always been ill at ease for me to mention anything specific about my Christian faith. I began an approach wherein I would tell them, if they desired healing, appropriate the tenets and teachings of their own faith. However, I told them what worked for my own healing from my war traumas was my Christian faith. Well have I been aware that without describing my faith in Jesus, my presentations are without true meaning because all I have accomplished is to relate a story of resiliency. However, I have also been privileged with many personal opportunities to visit one on one with combat veterans with whom I have had no issue in expressing my personal faith story of belief in Jesus the Christ as my Savior and Lord.
The loss of my two legs below the knees on June 17, 1967 from a mortar shell landing inches away at Dak To Special Forces camp in Vietnam turned my world upside down and was life-changing to say the least. Our three worlds are body, soul, and spirit. Our soul is divided further in mind, emotions, and will. Thoughts enter our minds, cause emotions, and what follows are choices of actions with consequences, good or bad. As I have counselled my veterans I have become aware that their issues of Post Traumatic Stress are actually a compounding of their lives before, during, and after our combat where the real issue for that segment of our lives is combat operating stress.
Many of our combatants return home and never truly heal ever, not with the medications, alcohol, psychologists, psychiatrists, exercise, all different approaches offered, even church attendance all by itself. As a child I had the childhood faith in Jesus related in a previous message, learned of the historical Jesus in my teen years, experienced answers to some of my prayers, and believed in Jesus in my "head knowledge" as my Savior because I grasped the Crucifixion and Resurrection Upon my return from Vietnam I was prescribed the typical therapy for returning vets, psychiatry and medication, which I underwent for six years. In a church service in the mid-70s, I was introduced to a new level of "soulful knowledge" of Jesus. That is, that Jesus is truly a part of the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God needed to give us humans a real and specific example of how to live our lives. God also needed to set up a means by which the power of Satan, established in the Garden of Eden with man's original sin, could be broken. My understanding moved up emotionally and spiritually to "Lordship" level, a quantum jump. I had always believed that I had "accepted" Jesus as personal Savior, but candidly it was very superficial and not totally grasped as to the significance of this decision for Christ as it is termed.
I began to attend a couple's Bible Study, read my Bible more diligently, and began to get a handle on what truly believing in Jesus meant. I ask many vets where they are going when they die. Many say "I guess Heaven." I ask why and they say, "Because I have tried to be a good person." The essence of our faith is belief in Jesus, not good works and behavior, and belief in an eternal life upon death as God's gift. From those early days to now I know the essence of the value of having Jesus in our soul has many earthly benefits. Appropriation of the benefits of His passion, death, and resurrection are immeasurable. Thousands of books have been written on the Christian experience (to where it has almost become a "cottage" industry for some authors), but where I am is really very simple and relates to the healing and maturing to address our lives before, from, and after combat and life itself for non-combatants. When we truly accept Jesus (and my next blog will describe the personal way we "accept Jesus as Savior"), we learn some very basic techniques that I expound upon. As foundations we must confess with true repentance and sorrow for all our sins of thought, word, and deed, known and unknown, forgive all others who have wronged or hurt us, to include ourselves for our "stupids," and give up harbored bitterness and anger held throughout our lives. By these means we lay the groundwork in our lives to obtain healing of our hurts, disappointments, and bad choices. We recognize we need something only faith in Jesus can bring about to help us achieve true satisfaction and joy in a very troubled world.
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
Over the recent past years I have been privileged to be a guest speaker at Warrior Transition Battalions on military bases and at gatherings of deployed Navy reservists who have returned home from the combat areas. The chaplains and organizers have always been ill at ease for me to mention anything specific about my Christian faith. I began an approach wherein I would tell them, if they desired healing, appropriate the tenets and teachings of their own faith. However, I told them what worked for my own healing from my war traumas was my Christian faith. Well have I been aware that without describing my faith in Jesus, my presentations are without true meaning because all I have accomplished is to relate a story of resiliency. However, I have also been privileged with many personal opportunities to visit one on one with combat veterans with whom I have had no issue in expressing my personal faith story of belief in Jesus the Christ as my Savior and Lord.
The loss of my two legs below the knees on June 17, 1967 from a mortar shell landing inches away at Dak To Special Forces camp in Vietnam turned my world upside down and was life-changing to say the least. Our three worlds are body, soul, and spirit. Our soul is divided further in mind, emotions, and will. Thoughts enter our minds, cause emotions, and what follows are choices of actions with consequences, good or bad. As I have counselled my veterans I have become aware that their issues of Post Traumatic Stress are actually a compounding of their lives before, during, and after our combat where the real issue for that segment of our lives is combat operating stress.
Many of our combatants return home and never truly heal ever, not with the medications, alcohol, psychologists, psychiatrists, exercise, all different approaches offered, even church attendance all by itself. As a child I had the childhood faith in Jesus related in a previous message, learned of the historical Jesus in my teen years, experienced answers to some of my prayers, and believed in Jesus in my "head knowledge" as my Savior because I grasped the Crucifixion and Resurrection Upon my return from Vietnam I was prescribed the typical therapy for returning vets, psychiatry and medication, which I underwent for six years. In a church service in the mid-70s, I was introduced to a new level of "soulful knowledge" of Jesus. That is, that Jesus is truly a part of the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God needed to give us humans a real and specific example of how to live our lives. God also needed to set up a means by which the power of Satan, established in the Garden of Eden with man's original sin, could be broken. My understanding moved up emotionally and spiritually to "Lordship" level, a quantum jump. I had always believed that I had "accepted" Jesus as personal Savior, but candidly it was very superficial and not totally grasped as to the significance of this decision for Christ as it is termed.
I began to attend a couple's Bible Study, read my Bible more diligently, and began to get a handle on what truly believing in Jesus meant. I ask many vets where they are going when they die. Many say "I guess Heaven." I ask why and they say, "Because I have tried to be a good person." The essence of our faith is belief in Jesus, not good works and behavior, and belief in an eternal life upon death as God's gift. From those early days to now I know the essence of the value of having Jesus in our soul has many earthly benefits. Appropriation of the benefits of His passion, death, and resurrection are immeasurable. Thousands of books have been written on the Christian experience (to where it has almost become a "cottage" industry for some authors), but where I am is really very simple and relates to the healing and maturing to address our lives before, from, and after combat and life itself for non-combatants. When we truly accept Jesus (and my next blog will describe the personal way we "accept Jesus as Savior"), we learn some very basic techniques that I expound upon. As foundations we must confess with true repentance and sorrow for all our sins of thought, word, and deed, known and unknown, forgive all others who have wronged or hurt us, to include ourselves for our "stupids," and give up harbored bitterness and anger held throughout our lives. By these means we lay the groundwork in our lives to obtain healing of our hurts, disappointments, and bad choices. We recognize we need something only faith in Jesus can bring about to help us achieve true satisfaction and joy in a very troubled world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)