BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

SALVATION PRAYER If you do not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, simply pray the following prayer in faith, and Jesus will be your Lord! Heavenly Father, I come to You in the Name of Jesus. Your Word says, “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” and “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:9). You said my salvation would be the result of Your Holy Spirit giving me new birth by coming to live in me (John 3:5-6, 15-16; Romans 8:9-11) and that if I would ask, You would fill me with Your Spirit and give me the ability to speak with other tongues (Luke 11:13; Acts 2:4). I take You at Your Word. I confess that Jesus is Lord. And I believe in my heart that You raised Him from the dead. Thank You for coming into my heart, for giving me Your Holy Spirit as You have promised, and for being Lord over my life. Amen. CONNECT WITH US If you have just prayed this prayer, please let us know of your decision. We have a Free Gift to help you begin your new life in Jesus! kcm.org/salvation PRAYER IS OUR PRIORITY. +1-817-852-6000 7 days a week es Hablamos Español [image of:] Nohemi R., prayer minister * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * article from p. 27 continues * * * But you know what else I love about grace? I love that, as Titus 2 says: “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared…teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (verses 11-13). I’m not sure we talk enough these days about that aspect of grace. But we should because all the aspects of grace work together. For the divine favor of God to operate in our lives, the grace of God that teaches us to deny ungodliness must also be in operation. For us to experience the grace that enables us to be BLESSED and a BLESSING, we must embrace the grace that empowers us to live in holiness as well. Nothing Scary About It I realize the word holiness scares some believers, but it really shouldn’t because for us there’s nothing scary about it. It doesn’t represent some impossibly high standard that we can’t achieve. The word holy just means “separated to God, taken out from the rest of the world and set apart for Him.” Holiness simply refers to conduct befitting that separation. You were made holy when you were born again, so for you, living in holiness is normal. It’s just walking out what God has already done in you. It’s acting on the outside like who you are on the inside. It’s taking dominion over your flesh, yielding to your inner man, and living in tune with the Holy Spirit. Many believers don’t realize this, but one of the Holy Spirit’s primary missions is to lead us to “mortify” the sinful tendencies of our flesh and live holy lives. He constantly helps us to do that because He understands (even if we sometimes don’t) how important it is. “For if ye live after the flesh,” Romans 8:13-14 says, “ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” In your Christian life, every time you got into trouble by giving in to your flesh, you had to override the leading of the Holy Spirit to do so. Every time you messed up and got into sin you had to ignore His still, small voice, because He was talking to you and telling you not to do it the whole time. He wasn’t just talking either. He was also making available to you the power you needed to do what He was saying. But for some reason, you didn’t choose to use it. Either because of spiritual immaturity or because you just wanted to do things your own way, you chose instead to sin. We’ve all done that at times, and because we’re all still growing and maturing spiritually, we’ll do it again from time to time. When we do, thank God, we can repent and receive the Lord’s forgiveness. It’s always there for us no matter what we’ve done. Even so, we don’t want to become flippant about it. We don’t want to start thinking that sin is no big deal, or that we can persist in it willfully and there won’t be any price to pay. That’s just not true. Sin is a destroyer. The Bible says so, and I’ve seen it proven out time and again. I remember one ministry I visited many years ago. It was doing quite well at the time I was there, but during my visit I became concerned about it. Although I didn’t see anything going on that was blatantly sinful, a casual attitude toward holiness had crept in among the leaders. They seemed to be taking on the spirit of the world. After I got home, I realized those leaders didn’t have anyone around them who could alert them to the problem. They’d surrounded themselves with paid staff who said only what they wanted to hear. It was a dangerous situation, as it would be for any of us, as believers. We all need people around us who will speak truth into our lives. We all need Christian friends and mentors who love us enough to tell us when they see us slipping back in our relationship with the Lord. When everyone around us agrees with us, we can overestimate ourselves. We can become legends in our own minds and think that we’re no longer subject to the commands in the Bible. That we’re so special we won’t be negatively affected by sin. 28 : BVOV

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