.gif)
Weekly Reminder...
The Weekly Reminder is an informative tool to help people who read it consider what the man of God has said. This weekend’s articles are based on what was heard on February 28 & March 1, 2009 in the Westbury assembly.written by Br. Samuel Philogene
“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).
We come to a place as the day of the Lord is approaching we need to be closer to God, to get deeper into His word. Last weekend God once again was using Br. Antoine to help us understand how important it is to have the scriptures not only written on pages inside the Bible but having them fulfilled in our daily lives. We know the scriptures very well but when it comes time to apply them that is where we always fail. We have been called to be a good ground receiving the word of God and bringing fruits unto perfection (Matthew 13:23). Br. Antoine quoted the lives of several of our ancestors and was showing us how those servants received the word and had them fulfilled in their lives. Jesus, our great example, came just to fulfill the word of the Father. For Jesus the will of God didn’t consist in words written on paper but in word applied, that’s why Jesus always said, “I am coming into this world to do not My will but to accomplish the will of my Father who sent me ( John 5:30, John 12:49).
In the first days of His ministry Jesus went to the temple reading the book of Isaiah and after reading the prophesy Jesus told them, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:17-21). That is what we have been called to do, not only read the words in the Bible, carry the Bible with us where ever we go but having the scriptures fulfilled in our lives. Once again at the cross before He died Jesus confirmed that all that was written concerning Him in the prophets was fulfilled; He said, “It is finished.” and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost (John 19:30, Luc 24:44). When are we going to reach the point where after reading a scripture we can sincerely say today this scripture is fulfilled in my life; this is what the Gospel is all about. We have to start living the word, carrying them in our heart so we could be a living bible, a living epistle where the world can read the scriptures in our lives (2 Corinthians 3:3).
We saw how Abraham fulfilled the scriptures in his life. Now by reading Abraham’s life we can know what it means to have faith in God, what is the result of being obedient to God. We don’t need any other scripture but the life of this dear servant, our father of faith; he taught us about faith, obedience, trusting in God, we can find all this in his life and that is why God testified for Abraham by calling him His friend. “The scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God” (James 2: 23). We really need God’s help to accomplish this task, when we can have the word of God fulfilled in our lives so the world will not need to open the bible to know about sanctification, righteousness or any of the fruit of the Spirit but just by our lifestyle as the church of Jesus Christ they might know what is the will of God for every human being. We know all those scriptures asking us to be holy, sanctified from the world, so let us have those scriptures fulfilled and the world will see the difference.
We have a lot of examples in the bible like Job, another great servant; his life can teach us how to be faithful unto God even when things are going very bad, never give up once again the scriptures are being fulfilled (Job 1:21). We saw in Hebrews where the bible relates about many saints of God in times past that had the word fulfilled. We saw Abraham once again believed and obeyed God and went out not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). Moses also is one of them who chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God (Hebrews 11:24), here he fulfilled the scripture saying that we should be able to leave everything, mother, father, wife, child, land (Matthew 19:29), to follow Christ, so Moses could say this scripture is fulfilled.
Today, brothers and sisters it is not a question of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Job, they are gone and their lives have testified for them as living epistles. But now it is our time to live the Gospel, to transfer the word from the book to our lives so the world might see and learn from us. Let us pray and make the necessary efforts to be able to fulfill each word, each message for this is how we will grow unto salvation.
| top | next |
written by Br. Samuel Damus
We learned last weekend that we ought to believe in God. Our belief should not be only on the fact that He exists because even the Devil believes in God (James 2:19) but our belief should go further than that. The scriptures say, "for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). If our belief is only based on the knowledge of His existence then we all are saved. "There is no judgment awaiting those who trust Him. But those who do not trust Him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God” (verse 18). There is a trust in Jesus that must follow our belief in His words with action.
James asks, “What’s the use of saying you have faith if you don't prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can't save anyone” (James 2:14). Jesus said He loved us and proved it by giving His life for us. He said that “the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends” (John 15:13). Jesus believed this and His belief was proven when He died on the cross at Calvary. Not only did He manifest His love by His actions but He also fulfilled prophesy, the scriptures, and the will of God. He proved to us that He was truly our Friend. Jesus wants us to love Him and be His friend also. We can prove to Him that we love Him and that we are His friend if we obey Him and keep His commandments (John 15:14; 1 John 2:3-5). Just as Christ fulfilled the scriptures by proving His faith by His action so can we.
“He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing what is right” (Titus 2:14). This scripture tells us that if we believe that Christ died for us then there is a work that we must do to prove it. His death must have us “totally committed to doing what is right” because our faith is shown by our works (James 2:26). We pattern ourselves after Christ and live a life as an example unto our brother and sisters, children and elders, the godly and the ungodly because we believe in Christ Jesus. “For we are God's masterpiece; He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:9-10).
We are God’s children if we believe in His Son. We must fully believe in His death, resurrection and His return for His saints that have purified themselves by keeping the word of God (Ephesians 5:26-27). “All who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). Just as Abraham proved his faith to God in trusting Him (James 2:21-23) our faith must also in good deeds. Let fulfill every word of the scriptures for even Christ said, “Heaven and earth will disappear, but My words will remain forever” (Mark 13:31).
| previous | top |