A blood donor saved my life so now what do I do

Jesus Christ through His shed blood saved us from eternal damnation and Hell’s condemnation. But now what? Many stop right here and live very careless lives in regards to their new found identity. We are very joyful upon our salvation, but many times easily forget the price of our redemption and how to maintain this gift in our daily walk till we meet the Lord either through death or in rapture of the Church. As you all know many times our outlook on our Christian life after our salvation is very casual. The first century Church and our Church fathers did not see their salvation the same way. Remember Mary Magdalena how she was anxious to follow her Master, Teacher unto His grave? She could not live without her Lord and Savior. Yes she went beyond the grave to seek Him. Him who said I shall be with you to the end. He who also said I have come not to abolish but to fulfill the law.

What does all this mean to you and me now?

When we begin to carefully look into our faith walk after our initial salvation we could see one thing more than ever and that to me is how to maintain our posture before God and men in regards to blameless holiness. The law of  commandments the New Testament says was totally against us with its ordinances and now Jesus says He is here to fulfill it on our behalf and taken the written code that was against us and make it a guide for our salvation by grace. What does He mean by this? Jesus said if we neglect to keep all that is written in the commandments of the Law of Moses we would be guilty of the whole thing. However Jesus by dying on the cross He took the curse of the law upon Himself to free us from its curse. Now what we need to do is to live a life of obedience and of abiding in Him. By abiding in Him the most important part of our faith walk is accomplished. The woman, Mary of Magdalena was searching for this very thing.

To her life without Him meant no life at all. She was an x- prostitute and a woman bond by seven demons and she could not think about her life without Him. This was the most important thing now in her life that she needed to see where they had placed Him. To live without Christ after we are saved through Him is meaningless and this begins our onward journey in Him. The title of our message is “A blood donor saved my life, what do I do now?” Paul the Apostle said he was committed to a life of living for his Master and Lord and that in His presence on daily basis. Here is where we can go digging a little deeper I mean in this life being lived right before our Lord. In mentioning the ten commandments of God few moments ago we said that they were against us to condemn us or to show us our utter helplessness, but in grace they are our guidelines we said. Guidance in what means? How are they to guide us now?

These are the law of the commandments and what they require of us.

First they talk about our responsibilities between us and God.

1.-You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make for yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 3. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

4. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.

8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord

You’re God in it you shall do no work; you nor your son daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Pay a careful attention Church to all four of these commandments describes our relationship to Him, but as we look to the rest of the commandments they begin to direct our attention to our relationship with men and here is where the title of our message takes it course. Now fasten your seat belts and follow me.  5.-Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you. 6.-You shall not kill. 7. – Thou shall not commit adultery. 8.-You shall not steal. 9. – You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s. Now Here as I said were the rest of the commandments that had to do with our relationship to our fellow men. It is here that we need to take heed that Jesus the God who became man had to come and to fulfill all its requirements for us, so that through Him we could live a life after our salvation pleasing to our God in all His ways. Here is where Apostle Paul in His defense before Felix mentions the great mystery of the resurrection of the dead, and then in verse 16 of Acts chapter 24 mentions his goal in living out the Christian life on this earth. In this great verse of the scripture Apostle Paul speaks of what would make us or break us at the resurrection of dead and that is exactly what Jesus came to give us victory over by fulfilling the commandments of God. Here is what Apostle Paul said in the defense of the resurrection of the dead of whom Christ was the first fruit of them all.

This is what Paul said. “I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense towards God and men”. Wow, here is the greatest declaration of Apostle Paul in regards to be participant of the first resurrection I believe. Here is where the just would come back and live with Christ one thousand years, and the unjust would spend that in the place of utter darkness, where gnashing of teeth is present. A place of ongoing or eternal condemnation. Yes here is where the greatest mystery of our spiritual warfare is hidden. It is in striving to keep a clear conscience before both God and men. Satan our spiritual adversary is about this one thing when we are saved. He is looking to see how he could place a stumbling block of an offense in our hearts. This is where the greatest struggle is after our salvation and also this is where we too need to strive the most. This why Jesus says in several places “Whoever endures to the end would be saved”. You know many think it is their achievements in their Christian lives and even in their ministry that would bring them to the final salvation, but to all our surprise it is none of them. The scripture speaks about the ten commandments in the New Covenant in a whole different way and its heart is “ Justice, mercy and faith” the Bible says in keeping them we have fought our fight against its greatest enemy and that is being offended, first with men and then ultimately towards God. Look at Psalm 51 and let us take a deep lesson from it. In Psalm 51 verse 4 David speaks an unshakable truth. “Against You, You only, have I sinned, that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge”. Do you notice? Why against God and Him alone did David sin when he took Uriah’s wife and killed Him? Because we are made in the image and the likeness of God, therefore when we Sin against men we sin ultimately against God, and this is why to render a clear conscience before God and men are the key to our final salvation. The enemy is looking to offend us and if he succeeds in doing that with men eventually he will have his way with us and God too. In Matthew 24^th chapter Jesus reminds us about the offenses that would come, but then He says however “Whoever endures to the end shall be saved”. What is this endurance by which we could possess or keep our souls safe by not allowing offenses to take root and cause bitterness. Remember Saul’s daughter who was offended at King David’s transparent dancing before the Lord that cost her marriage and her to remain barren the rest of her life. This is what Paul I believe was saying to Felix the governor when he spoke of maintaining a clear conscience before God and men, so our Christian life would not end in barrens in respect to our final destination.

Look at it from the inception of it all. Cain killing his own sibling Abel. The root of it I trust was an offense towards the good his brother did and it ended in bitterness towards God Himself. Yes Cain became a vagabond the rest of his life, which to me is the significance of utterly being separated from God. Jesus warned John the Baptist in regards to the danger of being offended at God. Yes John did not really doubt Christ’s identity, but he was very close to be offended because he was left in the prison to die. Sometimes we expect God to show us or to give us the measure of our own estimated reward on earth and if not attuned , we too can be offended at Him. In Revelation chapter 13 there is a very profound hidden mystery about the last day’s warfare within the community of believers. Here Satan is working very intently to bring offenses between the brethren and the word says those endure through patience would be saved. ( Rev. 13:10”  I personally have gone through this one many times.