The first day of this blog!
My intention is to ask for your comments as often as you wish, that pertain to your personal walk with Jesus. Each of us differ in a million ways, but the One abiding commonality is that we all serve the One true glorious Savior Jesus the Messiah!
I am of the opinion, that Jesus' parables were not just one time sermons, or views for the moment. I believe they were the Operation Manual for daily living!
Many days of the month I have found myself living in one Parable or the other. I further believe that we may live in them each day! So, take some time and study the parables of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and get to know them. I'll bet that you will see like I have. that our Lord has mapped out our responses to life's challenges, and has shown us the way. Don't be discouraged when we see clearly in hind sight! We can learn from these scriptures how to recognize some problems before they are entrenched in our lives!
Please comment as often as you wish, day or night and I will respond in fellowship as soon as I can! I'll be checking frequently, and anticipating learning from your experiences as well!
Also, feel free to email any confidential correspondence, and prayer requests. You may post what you would like others to be involved with!
I'm looking forward to our lives together!
thanks
I am the vine... you are the branches...
About Me
- Neal C. Gibbs III
- I am a born-again, radically saved, Spirit filled Bible believing Christian!
One of my first experiences with Neal was giving him a Bible. It wasn't just any Bible, it was a birthday present from my parents with my name embossed on the cover in gold with gold pages. I had a bible that I had read so much that the cover literally came off of it. I gave it to a college guy that did leather work to put a new cover on it and six months later still no Bible. My parents knew how much I was going to Bible studies and always using theirs that they gave me the new Bible. Sure enough the day after my birthday the leather guy finished and I got my old standby Bible back. What to do with two Bibles? Well of course - give it to someone that needs one. Neal was a newby Christian just starting to take some baby steps and he didn't have one, so what else would a teenage Jesus Freak do? Give him the new Bible. My parents didn't understand but there wasn't much to argue about since it was giving to someone that needed it. They must have thought these Jesus Freak people sure are weird. Not to worry, my folks and I laugh about it now. I still have the leather crafted Bible. Neal - I hope you gave the Bible to someone else and kept it going?
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those Christians with a WOW testimony. I was not indoctrinated into any religion as a child. My family was full of atheists and agnostics. Still is. But God's working on my father..the atheist. My reason for sharing this is because it's so much easier to come to Jesus Christ and accept him if you haven't had any prior input/bias. I came to Christ when I was 23 years old, in a good ole Southern Baptist Church. I had had some fame and glitz in my life, but I had also had a lot of pain. I had tried everything else in the world, so I figured..why not Jesus? If it doesn't work or if it isn't what they say it or He is...I'll just walk away and try something else. I never had to walk away, because with JESUS, I found all and every answer, and continue to in my 28 year walk.
ReplyDeleteI don't put labels on other people and I don't expect everyone to think like I do. And in that God has mightily used me for his good purpose in saving others.
Remember how God says that he will take what was meant for evil and turn it to good and for his Glory?
In my late teens and early twenties, I became a Pet of the Year for Penthouse Magazine. This one event has infiltrated by life to this day. And not in the way you think. God has so turned THAT around and used me to testify about him to people in all walks of life, but especially what Christians would call the worst sorts. Because I've been there. Because I understand their hurts and sins and why they have them.
When you commit your life to Christ, and allow Jesus and the Holy Spirit to reside in you, everything changes...for the better...for YOU.
Nothing is too hard for God. Nothing you have done is beyond God's repair. All have fallen short of the Kingdom of Heaven, but Jesus the Great Healer and Restorer will take what was meant for evil in YOUR life, turn it on it's head, and show you things you never could have believed, about the world around you and yourself. He will take you from the ashes of your lives, to riches in His Kingdom. Hidden riches, he has waiting just for you...yes YOU.
Look at me. Nothing is beyond repair. Nothing cannot be fixed through Jesus/God/The Holy Spirit.
I had faith like a little child when I came to Jesus. And that is all it takes from you. Ask Him, and you too can have life. Eternal life...
God Bless ~ Lee
WOW!... and then speechless... thanks Lee...
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan for the kind comments! What a way to kick off this blog! And yes, I shared the Bible with a friend that needed one when they were saved, and when they returned it after quite a while, I was able to give it to the next newbie! Then... when they wanted to give it back after obtaining their own, I said just to give it away like I did. I was later told of several redistributions of the same Bible, and finally lost track! I know someone is still being blessed by it!
ReplyDeleteWow, Dan and Neal, that's quite the story about the peripatetic Bible! I believe I saw your leather crafted Bible, Dan; it rings a bell! I have my own Bible story: when my father was setting off on a work-related trip to Russia in 1976, he wanted to take a Bible or two, but did not know whether they would end up getting confiscated. I gave him my RSV, gold-edged pages, name embossed on the front, which my Presbyterian church had given me in 3rd grade. After all those years, the RSV had fallen out of favor among us Jesus People types as we were all reading NASB versions. So I told him sure, he could take my childhood Bible, still in great shape. Well, he ended up giving it to his Russian interpreter who was very curious about it. She set out to read the whole thing, in fact! After a couple of weeks or more, she told him that it had gotten much more interesting as soon as she got to the New Testament!!! Imagine; she read the whole thing cover to cover! And my father told her she could keep it. I always liked to think of a Russian woman reading the Bible with my name on it, remembering my soft-hearted father, perhaps . . . and hopefully hearing some of God's love through the pages. "My word will not return to me void," he says.
ReplyDeleteWow! these stories are fabulous. Thank you Neal for the opportunity to share these stories. I love the parables. They are a rich and multi-layered material for thinking, loving and learning to live like Christ.
ReplyDeleteLee, You do have a WOW story. I grew up in the faith and while you are right it is easy to come to Jesus as a child but, as I grew older I have seen that there are a completely different set of pitfalls to deal with on the journey.
I love the bible stories. What a beautiful tribute to the enduring power of the Word.