The Benefits of Receiving God's Gift

 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16

Sign on the old oak tree along the gravel road at my grandparents' farm in the 1960s

I was listening to Andrew Farley's video entitled "What are the benefits of Jesus right now?"  and began thinking about my life in Christ.  

I received God's gift of salvation when I was eight but did not learn about the Holy Spirit until I was 28.  Up until that time I thought it was totally up to me to be "good."  This took the form of perfectionism so (I thought) I wouldn't make any mistakes.  I think this started when I was nine because we started moving then.  I lived in 10 different towns/neighborhoods over the next nine years.  Being shy and unsure of myself I waited for people to make friends with me.  I remember vividly that I saw each move was a chance to start over, be something I was not, so that I could attract friends, because who I was wasn't working.  I did not give up this way of being even after I married and left home when I was 18.  The next 10 years I continued with my self-improvement attempts, hoping the people I wanted to get close to would notice and like to be with me.  No matter how hard I tried to change my personality I kept failing.   

In 1978 my dad gave me a Living New Testament which was the Bible in everyday language.  I could finally understand what I was reading.  This is how I learned about the Holy Spirit.  That it was He who would change me if I would just not quench His spirit in me.  Then one day I read a book about the history of the Religious Society of Friends, otherwise known as Quakers.  I developed a hunger and thirst to know God personally in the way they did in the 1600s.  My first Sunday at a silent Quaker meeting I was quietly praying to God about something important to me.  The only time they speak in a Quaker meeting for worship is when someone is led to stand and share what the Holy Spirit has put on their heart to say.  I was astonished when an older gentleman stood up and spoke directly to what I was praying about!  Those next two years I had several encounters of being aware that I was in God's presence.  I had experiences I could not rationally explain.  Then we moved out of the area and started attending a Methodist church.  Eventually, I felt we had to leave.  We moved on to Christian Missionary & Alliance, then Brethren, then Grace Brethren, then a non-denominational  church.  With each denomination I read all I could about the founders of that denomination.  What they all had in common was they were ignited and led by the Holy Spirit.  However, by the 20th century their followers had all bought into "works religion."  That is to say, they'd become organizations that had lost their heart and purpose that their founder had possessed. 

After 20 years of trying to find "my people" I stopped attending church.  "My people" were not there.  I once again began to search diligently and was led to write my daily devotional, Freedom in Christ, in 2003.  It was my attempt to figure out why I did not feel free even though I believed in and trusted Jesus Christ.  Being a Christian was supposed to be joyful!  In my devotional I quoted the writers I'd been reading each morning, then wrote a response to what I'd read.  At the end a scripture would pop into my mind, and I'd go in search of it using a concordance.  I did this every day for 365 days.  By the end of the year......well, you can read about it for yourself HERE.

By 2011 I discovered blogs and decided to post Freedom in Christ on-line.  Then in 2012 I started this blog, Another Perfect Day.   This led to my starting Morning Musings, and various other blogs throughout the following years, all of which were a place for me express the creativity that God had put in me when He created me.  All these blogs are listed in the sidebar of Morning Musings.

As for the title of this post, I'm finally getting to the part about the benefits of receiving Jesus as my Savior when I was a young child.  Even though I thought it was up to me to be good, looking back now I can see how the Holy Spirit had been with me all along even before I was aware of Him.  Because I was so young when I received Him, I did not realize I was a "new creature".  Along the way He's kept me from stepping into holes I wouldn't have been able to climb out of.  And the holes I did fall into eventually strengthened me as I climbed out of them.  I can truthfully say that the problems/hardships I've experienced have been due to my own stubbornness to let go and let God, who is in me, guide my way.  

I've been listening to Andrew Farley for a couple years now.  He has cleared up so many misunderstandings of scripture, not only for me but for the Church.  I'd say what has been key for me is realizing that the New Covenant does not start at the beginning of the New Testament.  Jesus, while he was on Earth, was speaking to Old Covenant people and ways.  It wasn't until Jesus died to pay for our sins against God and was resurrected that the New Covenant began.  All scripture before that point needs to be understood in that light.  The Ten Commandments no longer apply for Christians.  This goes for the Sermon on the Mount as well because no one hearing His words had received the Holy Spirit yet.  

There is, INDEED, Freedom in Christ, and this freedom can be found by accepting God's free gift of His Son who will give you a new heart in which He resides so that God's peace and love will always be with you.  All you need do from then on is to NOT FORGET THAT.  

..........Later.  I had to put writing this post aside so I could attend my friend's book signing at our the bookstore in town.  While there I perused the very small shelf of Christian books and came across their only copy of Diana Butler Bass's book, "Freeing Jesus" (published in 2021).  The timing of finding this book was no accident!  The author (I've only read the introduction so far) writes about how people are leaving the church in droves.  As she looked at the research of why they were leaving, she wanted to write this book because she felt "few people grasp the significance of the 'Jesus Christ of experience'."  She continues, "I worry that people are stuck, not knowing how to talk about Jesus without sounding dogmatic, narrow, or pietistic.  Christians often seem inauthentic when we mimic creeds even we do not understand, using words drawn from theologians long gone instead of our own."  She goes on to invite us "into your own memory and experience."  The rest of the book is about how she has experienced Jesus in her life....as:  Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence.  Over the next several months I will take up her challenge and report back to you here.

Father,  the cares of the world have such a pull on us, on me.  Help me find a way to not forget this, so that I can turn away from the world and toward You instead.  Thank you for providing Ms. Bass's book to help me remember all the ways in which I have experienced You in the life You have given me.

Link to Scripture:  Titus 3:5

Take Action:  Listen to Andrew Farley's list of benefits for having Jesus live in you.....