A little More About my Beliefs and Convictions

Hey Ya'll,

I was just reading over an  This Birthday Post from almost 3 years ago from when I was 19 and had just graduated from homeschool high school and I was not sure where the Lord wanted me that new year in regards to education. I see now that I said some things in that post I have not kept up with doing on this blog. I want to start putting the music I am studying in the side bar each week. So I will try and do that when I get a chance. But I also noticed something very alarming from this post.

I thought I had just been saved 2 years prior to my 19th b-day. I just wanted to clear up for my own good and for my readers that I believe in justification and sanctification. I do not believe that I was not saved when I was 7 years old and I was baptized. I believe that right there in that moment when I heard the pastor ask anyone to come forward who wanted to except Christ as their Savior, when I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life He was then the Lord of my life. I was no longer a child of the world, but Gods child fully redeemed by Christs blood. I believe you can only be saved from your sin by Christ having died on the cross and you believing that He endured the penalty for your sin and now has become alive again and lives. Then the fruit of accepting Him as your Savior is wanting to live by listening to His Spirit more and more which is sanctification. 

I will just give a little definition in my own words for sanctification and justification. I am not a person with many degrees or a doctorates in the Bible, but this is what I believe these two words mean. Please do add in your two cents or if I am wrong in my definition please do chime in! :) I mean that. This blog is a place for us all to grow in our understanding of God, so yeah. :) But please do so kindly and in a Christ like manner.

I believe Justification is when we are saved by Christ, that moment we realize our sin is so big that we cannot save ourselves and God says to us I have saved you from your sin by the blood of my beloved Son who was killed and rose again for your sins. And you accept that Christ has done what you or anyone else could not do by enduring the pain of the cross to make up pure and unstained from sin. Of course we still have these sinful bodies, we will not be given new bodies till we go to be with the Lord, but that's when sanctification comes in for each saved Believer in Christ.

Then I believe after we are saved/justified we are being made more and more like Christ for as long as we are alive on this earth. The process of Sanctification is the process of our old selves, our sinful nature becoming less and less prominent and God encompassing us so that we are more and more like Him and long more and more for Him and to do His commandments and follow His leading and not our own wisdom. When we are justified/saved we are given the Helper, who is the Holy Spirit to help us listen to God and therefore become more and more like Christ.

I have been very encouraged by passages like John 14. In these verses Jesus says,“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you."
-John 14:15-17 ESV

So yes I believe that we are living under a Tri-God, one that is made up of three distinct persons, The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. So yes I believe that every Christian who is saved by faith in Jesus Christ has the Comforter, helper, who is the Holy Spirit, and the Father and the Son also are watching over us.

So if this is a shocker to you that I believe in these truths from the Bible don't be surprised. :) These doctrines of sanctification and justification and the trinity are precious to me and I believe important for every believer to understand. I pray the Lord would speak and not me in this post.

God bless you all and if you have any thoughts on this please comment. Maybe the Lord has taught you this about your own testimony as well? You can also email me too at ra.stricker@gmail.com.

Blessings,
Rebecca Ann