****Please read the scripture from the Bible first as this is God's Word****

We must live worthy of the Gospel. What do I mean by that? Our life styles should be in accordance to what we read from scripture which is the inspired word of God. If you have already professed faith in Jesus Christ, and accepted the fact that he died for your sins, and that his shed blood alone is the only way for you to receive salvation, then you are saved. If you are truly saved, your works will be defined by your true salvation. Some people say that works and salvation go hand in hand, and you can't have one with out the other. The bible says, your salvation will bring good works. James 2:18 says that your faith will be shown by your works, but it is faith alone that achieves salvation. Think about it, Jesus died, and paid the penalty for your sin, and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. If you say that your good works save you, then you are saying that Jesus died on the cross for nothing. 1 Corinthians 1:18 tells us that the story of the cross to those who perish is foolishness, but to those who are saved it is the power of God.

So are you living a lifestyle that reflects the Gospel? How do we achieve that?

If we read in Philippians 1:27, we see that we must stand fast. There are lots of churches that used to preach the about Jesus and salvation, and now they are more concerned with throwing rock concerts and recruiting certain individuals to their church. Why did these churches not continue in truth? Because they didn't stand fast to the true word of God. We have to be strong in our faith, we have to work our faith muscles out. How you ask? We have to pray many times a day, read our bibles daily, and most of all, we need to repent of our sin, this will restore our relationship with God. It is not easy, but we must live it, it is the faith that will give us the strength. God not only sent His Son to die on the tree and pay the debt of our sin, but then he sent us the Holy Ghost, so that we might be comforted and strengthened. We can walk with Him daily if we choose to, if we live a life style that puts God as first priority above all. We read on in verse 28, and Paul talks of a token or omen, the omen is the continual rejection of salvation by faith will lead to destruction of the church, and for those who have true salvation and are persecuted for it, it is a true sign of the genuineness of their salvation. In verse 29 we see that we must not only believe on Jesus, but we must also suffer for him. Being in suffering is a blessed place to be, because those who are suffering will always seek God for comfort and healing, those who are rich, wealthy and have perfect health, will believe they achieved that from living smart, and they won't seek the Lord and come to know him (Luke 16:19 - 31). We ought to suffer for the One who suffered for us. In verse 30 we see Paul speaking of the conflict we saw, referring to when Silas and Paul were thrown in prison for preaching the gospel of Jesus, and at midnight there was an earthquake and the guard asked Paul, "What must I do to be saved?", Paul replied "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." (Acts 16:24 - 31).

Finally in Philippians Chapter 2:12, Paul tells the church to revive by preaching the gospel and leading others to Christ, obey and submit to God with fear and trembling.

posted by Ben at 8:04 AM