The Peace 2 U

“ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and    to cleanse from all  unrighteousness “.                                             - 1 John 1 : 9                    

                  Many greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord Christ  Jesus.
                 What about our lives as Christians today ?  Are we leading a true Christian life or not ?  then what are we ? Think for a while !
               We can’t be true Christians by attending the church regularly and participating in Holy Communion or by preaching the Word of God or by praying loud. We just have to identify ourselves in Jesus Christ. Can we ?
             Having sinful thoughts and doing evil things is human nature and tendency. We knowingly ignore the commandments of God, just we are not conscious of the Satan’s influence upon us. So that we remain with our sins. It is His will to save us from our sins and deliver us from evil. For this we should have “Christ “ in us. Is it easy  to have Him in ? Can Jesus stay in an unclean place ?  Because we are just like white washed tombs , which appear beautiful outwardly and full of bones and uncleanness in-side with bad odors. Is it possible to invite Jesus Christ into us ? Will He stay with us ?
               How can we invite Jesus into our lives ?  We can just know by the following words :
1.    Confession
2.    Determination
3.    Endurance.
 1.CONFESSION
A)    Confession of Sins before Christ.
We have to confess our sins  before Christ, because it is the first step to reach Christ.
                   For some Christians it has become a customary  practice and tradition, who have attended to church to wash away their sins through their prayers of repentance, giving with many tears and confessing their sins loudly. They want to approve their faith by exposing acts (this outward displays).  But this will not help any one to reach Christ.
                Our confession should be true and we should know that our sins are the root cause of troubles and tribulations. God, the Father would forgive our sins if we ‘repent’ sincerely.

 A)    Confession of Faith in Christ
 We should believe that God, the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Triune  God. And Christ, the Son, who came to this world in flesh, shouldered our sins by being baptized, and crucified on the cross and shed His blood as the ransom for the sins of the entire world and on the third day He rose from dead. His crucifixion gave us the remission of sins and life to those who believe in Him. We should have to believe and confess that Christ is our Savior and Lord.
2.DETERMINATION
                     In the first instance we should give up our sins and sinful life. We should determine to give up our sinful life , forever once for all. Without repentance we cannot give up our sins and sinful acts. We should know that the Satan has driven us away from reaching God by encouraging desires and temptations.
                  Secondly we should determine to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior truly. Many of us are for namesake, but not accepted Christ as our Lord. If we want to accept Christ , we should give up many worldly things. We should believe in the gospel of water and spirit and in the blood of Christ. We should have to understand the baptism of Christ, by that how the sins of the entire mankind was shouldered on Jesus Christ and the of Christ shed as the ransom for the redemption. We should have to understand  the words of  Christ clearly,  that one has to  born again of water and spirit to enter the kingdom of God. So that we should have to determine to accept Him as our Lord and Savior.
                 Finally we should determine to remain in faith. Our faith should be deligent and steadfast. When Peter started walking on the sea, he began to sink and cried “Lord save me”. Then Lord gave him His hand  and caught him and said “ O thou of little faith, wherefore didst  thou doubt?”. If we have little faith, which Peter had, we will sink in the ocean of sins and troubles. So that we should have strong and steadfast faith in  our Lord .We should  believe in the gospel of water and spirit. And in the blood of Christ, shed for the remission from our sins.
3. ENDURANCE:
                  By confessing our sins, and determining strongly to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, makes us to have a genuine ambition to do right things.
              “Let live without hypocrisy. Abhor what to is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, i honor giving preference to one another. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving thee Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulations, continuing in prayer, distributing to the need of the saints, given hospitality.”

                   By this verses, Paul, the Apostle too realized that goodness, knowledge, self control, patience and godliness are the part of our life and we should keep relationship with God. In the above verses, Paul expressed his experience  of love and mercy of God, which reflected on the man kind through him. In his troubles he depended upon God, the  father. God , the father comforted Paul through Christ Jesus. We should be the partakers in others troubles and tribulations. Then God, the Father will identify us in Christ. Which happened in Paul’s life. In our troubles we should have to praise Him first. Then He will grant us the power to bear and to overcome those troubles. He comforts us through Christ. Then we can get  that endurance. We should practice this by distributing them to others. With this endurance we can bear the troubles.With this endurance we will be the partakers of the love of God, the Father. And we can experience the brotherly love with each other. We have to pray for others. This prayers will bring us closer to God.  By serving Lord , we can rejoice in hope. We can attain the self control. By this self control we can be patient in troubles. .
                   By confessing our sins before Christ and confessing our faith in Christ, determining to accept Christ as our Savior and Lord, by being the partakers of the love of God, and distributing them to others, we can come nearer to God. We can establish the relationship with God by continual prayers.  We should keep ourselves in touch with God, the Father. We should have diligent faith to move in the direction of goodness and have genuine desire to do right things. For this  we should have brotherly love, be merciful, be true, be patient and be good.  We should have to learn to love our Lord first. His love will teach us to love others. Let us determine truly to accept Lord Christ as our Savior in this New Year.
                                                                                                                - Ravi Kumar Duvvuri.