"Andrew Biddinger" - The prayer for my life is...God (IN HIS Majesty) will be glorified, His will is accomplished, His Kingdom regenerated in my life, His Church brought to maturity, and that His name (Jesus Christ)
and His Salvation would be preached among every nation.
Do these goals sound weird for an eighteen-year-old American teenager? Well, yes that is very true, but these goals were not always my heart's cry.
Who am I? A huge nobody. I am a nobody that is LOVED by THE Creator and Sustainer of the entire world, Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior! I was born in Vallejo, California, and we moved to Michigan when I was two. I now have lived here for about seventeen years with my wonderful family, (Which I am the fourth of nine siblings).
Let me tell you about my Jesus. As a young boy, I grew up in a good Christian home. I professed Christ as my Savior and was baptized at an early age. We went to church every Sunday where I would proudly wear my suit and tie with a slick hair style, (a comb-over). Everybody would comment on how sharp I looked, and what a fine godly you man I had become. I could debate my theology with the finest of men.
I was a fake, a total fake. In my secret life I was trapped. Trapped in deceit, lust, pride, and anger. The devil had established great strong holds in my life.
The Bible says that the Holiness of God is so beyond our comprehension. God is so holy that he cannot look upon any sin.
"[God] Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity..." "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
(Habakuk 1:13), (Isaiah 59:2)
The Justice of God is Pure. He must punish evil, because He is (or loves) holiness. Just like a judge must punish a murderer, because he protects and loves life. I love babies, and so I must hate the murdering of those babies.
"For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright." "But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness." "God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready."
(Psalms 11:7), (Isaiah 5:16), (Psalms 7:11-12)
We are all unrighteous. There isn't anyone of us that hasn't horribly sinned against God, we have all broken His perfect commands.
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."
(Romans 3:23), (Isaiah 64:6), (Galatians 3:10), (Romans 5:12), (Revelation 21:8)
Are you a liar? Do you struggle with lust or anger? Then you are a sinner like me. You have broken God's commands. God MUST horribly punish your and my sin.
While still maintaining His holiness and justice, the Bible tells us that God is love and in love He has responded to the plight of man.
Motivated by his love for us...
"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
(1 John 4:8-10), (Romans 3:23-26)
God looked you and said he/she is worth it. I love them, he said, and I will take their punishment. Jesus Christ paid the price for our sin. He became our sin, and took upon Himself the wrath of God the Father. God horribly punished Jesus Christ in our place. He was murdered in our place. After God's wrath was satisfied Jesus rose from the dead (because He is God) and lives forevermore!
"But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."
(Romans 4:24-35)
What Our Response Should Be (Repentance)
Repentance begins with a recognition and confession that what God says about us is true - we have sinned.
"For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest."
(Psalms 51:3-4)
A genuine recognition for our sinfulness and guilt will also lead to genuine sorrow, shame and even hatred for what we have done.
"For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I." "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
(Romans 7:15), (Romans 7:24)
Apparent sincerity of confession alone is never definite evidence of genuine repentance. It must be accompanied by a turning away from sin.
"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil." "...therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."
(Isaiah 1:16), (Matthew 3:10)
Faith is needed, but what is Faith?
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." "And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform."
(Hebrews 11:1), (Romans 4:21)
Faith is Based on the Promises of God
"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." "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved..."
(John 3:16), (Acts 16:31)
Believe! Has God done a work in you that you want to throw your sinful body upon Jesus Christ and cry out, "LORD SAVE ME! I BELIEVE!"
Jesus Christ brought me out of a life of sin. He freed my soul. I have become a NEW person. I now have a desire to be righteous and seek THE Living, Loving, Breathing, Wonderful, Awesome, and All Powerful GOD, my Father, all because of His love. Jesus is the End of everything.
Example of a Believer
"...worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." (Philippians 3:3)
The Basis of Genuine Assurance
True conversion: A true christian is a new creation and will live a life that reflects God's radical work of re-creation in his/her life.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"
(2 Corinthians 5:17), (Matthew 7:16)
Assurance is based upon self-examination in the light of Scripture.
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"
(2 Corinthians 13:5)
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."
(1 John 5:13)
Test of Biblical Assurance
1 John 1:5-7 (Walking in the Light), 1 John 1:8-10 (Confession of Sin), 1 John 2:3-4 (Obedience), 1 John 2:9-11 (Love for the Brethren), 1 John 2:15-17 (Hatred for the World), 1 John 2:24-25 (Perseverance in Doctrine), 1 John 3:10 (Righteousness), 1 John 4:13 (Spirit's Testimony), Hebrews 12:5-8 (Discipline).
Please visit the Talk For Your Life web site for more info.
(A special thanks to HeartCry Missionary Society and Granted Ministries for the Scriptures references.)
