Are you a believer? Are you a son of God?

[瑤翰 김요한]

  When a christian is tested, He says not to say that he is being tested by God.

After you refine me... (Job 23:10), don't speak like Job.

"When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone" (James 1:13).

God cannot be tempted, and He does not tempt.

However, in John 6, Philip was tested.

It was to find out how Philip spoke. (John 6:6)

However, He does not do temptation.

And though he permits temptation, he does not permit anything beyond your ability (1 Corinthians 10:13).

God cannot be tempted by the wicked, nor does he himself tempt anyone.

Because God's purpose is not in the fall of man, but in salvation.

However, He allows him to be tested in order to prove that He believes and obeys the Word through the test (Deuteronomy 8).

Paul strongly urges the Corinthian church to test and prove whether they are in the faith of receiving Christ as their Lord.

God said that not all of Abraham's descendants were saved heirs.

He gave the promise to those born of Isaac, the 12 tribes of Jacob.

Therefore, Abraham became the ancestor of believers (calling), and Isaac became the ancestor of sons of God (chosen).

Even if Abraham's descendants, believers, are like the stars in the sky and sand in the sea, only those who remain (sons of God) are saved.

When the Lord spoke of the five stages of becoming a son of God in Matthew 22, the first gateway was calling and choice.

In other words, through baptism to die and rose again with Christ, He tells us whether to put on the wedding garments of Christ (Galatians 3:27) and participate in the heavenly banquet or to be invited (Mt 22:1-14).

Therefore, we must not always forget that through the death and resurrection of Christ on the cross, we are clothed with the garment of righteousness through the baptism (baptism) in which we died with the Lord and rose again.

Jacob left empty-handed and returned to another name, Israel.

This is God's providence that enables us to overcome tribulation and obtain the crown of life.

Like Jacob's Jabbok River, David's Cave of Adullam (1 Sam. 22:1),

Like Joseph's prison in Egypt, there is a period of extreme suffering in which the Word is fulfilled.

Like the Lord's prayer in Gethsemane, like squeezing sesame oil, in order to be saved from the flesh, the Word is fulfilled through the trial of faith, that is, through patience, in which we offer weeping, tears, supplications, and wishes (Hebrews 5:7).

But when people fall into temptation, it is because of their own greed.

“But each one is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:14).

To be drawn by greed and enticed means to be led by greed.

So, if you want to save the life of your old self, you will surely fall into delusion.

Delusion is a bait, and if you follow the bait, you will be caught in a snare.

When the greed that grabs the bait is conceived, the desire takes its place in you.

"after lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:15).

After that, you give birth to sins in a row. When that sin is grown, it brings forth death.

Finally, sin becomes your master, and self disappears and sin reigns in you.

There is nothing to see in these people's eyes.

It continues to emit death. What was done little by little at first started growing bigger and mass-produced later.

This is the exact opposite situation of the crown of life.

That is why he tell you, my dear brothers, do not be deceived. (James 1:16)

All good gifts and perfect gifts are above.

The church is not a place to talk about the earth or people, but to tell the story of heaven.

There is a story that Newton wondered about the earth's gravity, saying, "Why doesn't the moon fall when the apple falls to the ground?"

The bottom line is that what is on the ground falls to the ground and what is in the sky does not fall to the ground.

“Every good gift and  perfect gift is from above, coming doen from the Father of heavenly lights,who does not change like shifting shadows ” (James 1:17).

Good and perfect gift does not come from the earth or from men.

That's why he says our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).

It descends from the Father of the heavens, where the gravitational pull of the earth does not reach.

Being the light of the starry heavens in Christ, it comes down from the Father of those lights.

However, every good and perfect gift does not come through teaching, but when we become one with Christ in the Holy Spirit, they come down to the Father and permeate us like dew.

Thus eternal life is to know God the Father and His Son (John 17:3)

To describe this eternal life, we use the word bedtime (yada).

Heavenly Father does not disappear like a mirage.

He is not the one who changes, and he is not the one who turns away leaving behind only his back.

God begot us out of his creation by his word of truth.

"He begot us by the word of truth according to his will, that we might be the firstfruits of his creatures" (James 1:18).

Lust, which is human nature, also gives birth to sin and death (James 1:15).

Now, for all people, giving birth is being done in both directions.

But God begotten us to be ‘a kind of firstfruits’ (Apo Arken).

In Christ, He gave birth to us as the sons of God who are firmly united with Him.

Think of Genesis 1:26-27, as a kind of firstfruits of creation.

God created great work according to his own will.

That work is the 'a kind of firstfruits' that was born through the word of truth.

Works like this are not the believer I say I believe.

Confessing that it was not I who died in Christ and became alive again, but God's grace

We always wash cleanly in the blood of Christ the robes of righteousness we have been put on according to the grace of the redemption of the cross of Christ (Rev 22:14).

Just as a silkworm gnaws on mulberry and vomits it out of its mouth to build its own cocoon.

Finely weave the weft and warp in acts of righteous the fine linen of the bride permitted by the Lord. (Revelation 19:8)

Also, these firstfruits approach God today in Christ according to 'the way, the truth, and the life' (John 14:7), and God bestows various good gifts through that path.

Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.

Translated by  Nancy Chung

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