Relational Bridges

  ABIDING IN GOD'S PRESENCE For those who belong to Jesus Christ, the Presence of the Lord is a holy given by the promise of the Lord, Himself. He has become life within us by His grace. That is the reality for all who belong to Jesus Christ by grace through faith. His Presence with us is His Life is in us. His Presence that never leaves or forsakes us.  That eternal reality can never be altered by our circumstances nor our emotional state. Romans 8:35-39 " Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?   (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)   No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor de...

 INFINITELY MORE Ephesians 3:20-21 " Now all glory to God, Who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.   Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." In the Gospel of John, many of His followers turned away because of the covenant commitment He required of those who would follow Him. That covenant declared that what was to happen to Jesus would also happen to them. We, too, must lay our lives down and choose the will and way of God's Kingdom over all else. Those in the crowd knew that in Jerusalem, the Jewish religious leaders were plotting and planning Jesus' destruction. To follow Jesus to that degree required denying self and the thrall of the world and its ways, even to the point of laying one's life down by refusing to deny the Lord and His salvation. Jesus turned to the 12 and asked, " Are you also going to leave?" ( John 6:67-...

  ROMANS 8:13   " For if you live according to the flesh, you will die;  but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the flesh,  you will live." You cannot sanctify sin. The residue left from the cutting away of your old sin-nature is called "the flesh" in the New Testament. It is that twisted ball of urges and impulses associated with your old way of living, thinking and acting.  The "flesh" does all it can to collude with old sin-habits to try and keep them as active as they were before you became a new creation in Christ Jesus. It's always to same old demonic lie, "You really need something more than what God has provided for your living fully." Colossians 2:11-15 " When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.   For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with Him you were raised to new life...