If \u2018fire insurance\u2019 against going to hell was the only goal of salvation, Christ would take us home right after we confess and believe. God saves us and then He uses us for His divine purpose in this world. We may be familiar with the concept of \u201cblessed to be a blessing\u201d but do we take it seriously and commit ourselves to walking in it? The Great Commission Jesus gave to His first disciples did not expire with them. Living as children of light is not just for our own good; our lives should edify others. While companionship with fellow believers is legitimate and needful, the harvest lies beyond our comfort zone. Even if we never stand in a pulpit, every believer should be willing to share their faith with someone in darkness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dear Lord, For Further Study \u00a0<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cFor you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.\u201d ~Ephesians 5:8 If \u2018fire insurance\u2019 against going to hell was the only goal of salvation, Christ would take us home right after we confess and believe. God saves us and then He uses us for His divine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"blog","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"
<\/span><\/i>You have filled us with your light so that we can impact the darkness. We are your ambassadors. <\/span><\/i>You gave us your Spirit to be our teacher and guide. Our words and actions should demonstrate <\/span><\/i>to the lost<\/i><\/b>, your love and your desire to save them. Please deliver us from \u2018preaching to the choir\u2019 as the world perishes.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span>Matthew 5:14-16
<\/span>Ephesians 2:10
<\/span>Matthew 28:18-20
<\/span>Matthew 9:35-38
1 Peter 3:15
<\/span>2 Corinthians 5:20
<\/span>2 Corinthians 1:3-4<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bellaword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/newspaper.jpg\")
\n\n\u201cI am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel\u2014 <\/b> <\/b>which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God\u2019s curse!\u201d Galatians 1:6-7<\/b>\n\nThe Good News is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It\u2019s the truth that sets us free, from both the power and the wages of sin. Because the enemy is the author of lies, he distorts and perverts what God has said and done. False Gospels serve those who\u2019d rather embrace their sin, than repent of it. The theologies behind these fake gospels may use harmless sounding labels like inclusive <\/i>or progressive. <\/i>But anything that leads us to celebrate what God forbids, is not of God, and therefore has no power to redeem. So, we can choose to walk in truth by the Word\u2014or embrace our old nature by the counterfeit. One offers life\u2014the other offers death. But there is no middle ground.\n\nDear Lord, \n<\/i>Please keep us from deception. For in your perfect love, you are neither double-minded, nor swayed by popular opinion: You change not. No one can improve your word or your finished work. By your grace, we can take the narrow path, where our hunger for truth overrides the flesh. In Jesus\u2019 Name. Amen.<\/i>\n\nFor further study:\nMatthew 24:24 \/ 2 Corinthians 11:4\nLuke 17:22-23\n2 Timothy 4:3-4 \/ James 3:1\nMatthew 18:6-7\nGalatians 5:17 \/ Romans 7:18\nJohn 10:27 \/ John 10:4-5\nMatthew 7:13-14","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afterbirth","category-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1269"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1321,"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions\/1321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deborahjeankelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}