For the Internet Church of Christ founded by Dr. Bob Benchoff: Main Site: click here.
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Born Again!
--Sermon by Dr. Bob Benchoff April 17, 2003
Baptism and the Holy Spirit.
You are a new creation when you are born again. Along with your baptism is your acceptance of Christ. It is as if you unlock and open the door to your heart, to your soul, so that the Holy Spirit of Christ may walk into your life without reservation or restriction.
You invite Christ into your home and allow free access to all parts thereof. You invite Christ into Christ's Temple, you, and you allow Christ to reign in your life. You give Christ all the keys and all power and authority and control.
You disclose all the passwords, all the encrypted secrets, and all the foundations of your purposes and intents. You were the center of your attention, then with baptism you made Christ the center of your attention and focus of your love as you understand that Christ is the source of love.
You understand with Christ you can love more: more people, more deeply, more ways.
In consideration of logic, when you choose to be baptised, or when you choose not to be baptised at a given time, this is the defining line: you are for Christ and baptized, or you are against Christ [anti-Christ].
To them that have, more will be given; to them that have not shall be taken even that which they seemed to have: so if you haven't already, choose baptism and let Christ be in you.
After baptism and working together with baptism, not as cause and effect, but as cause and cause, the Holy Spirit at the time of God's choosing enters your baptized life.
The Holy Spirit mingles with your spirit, communicating beyond our human comprehension, in subtle nuances too deep to discern.
With the Holy Spirit you are a new creature; born again!
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Christ is risen!
Instantly people are born again and physically overcome with bliss when the Holy Spirit enters their lives, in many cases. For others, the change is more gradual, as people are different and react differently to different stimuli.
But it's not so much about the bliss, as it is about work to reach-out to others to have them experience the marvelous bliss and more. More than bliss, the work of Christ needs to be accomplished in the lives of all people, just as done in Christ by Christ, as Christ showed us.
Christ conquered death and all other sin. Christ showed us how to be more through overcoming and conquering the limitations in our lives caused by sin.
Christ is risen, indeed.
At the time of this Sermon, this is known as the Holy Week, and today is the Passover before Easter. In Moses' day, Christians were oppressed so they were to mark their homes with the blood of lambs and then stay inside their homes that night as the Lord would pass over their city and not harm them, but those outside and those without the mark would be slaughtered, that the Christians would be enabled to be delivered safely to a new land and freedom.
If someone told you to put blood on your house, would you? This took a lot of faith for those many people that did that work.
The Lord did a lot of work in performing that service for his true believers: those born again of the spirit and of the flesh and of the blood. By the Word and the Hand of God, and by the Word and the Hand of Moses and True Believers in the one True God, the flesh and blood and spirit could agree and deliver freedom.
Beware, lest Satan sift you as chaff from wheat. So do you think the Holy Spirit of the Lord passed over somehow Satanically? Perish the thought. Logically, goodness and mercy dwelt in the Lord and the Lord's True Believers. So logically, impurity resided in the non-believers. A house divided by itself cannot stand: non-believers destroyed themselves.
Even as the Almighty is to terribly dreadful to comprehend, non-believers could not withstand against the Almighty in their lifeless cause.
Such is the Way of life and more abundant life. As the faithful rise, the non-faithful remain in their misery that can be so severe according to the sting of their sinful ways that they themselves perish.
Yet the sting of death has no hold on the faithful in Christ. Even the evidence of the Blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ showed this. Christ brought forth the Way for people to rise anew, as if in rebirth.
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New Jerusalem
Christ showed how the Holy Spirt and the baptized people and the blood agree.
Christ showed how the wine and the water and the blood agree.
Christ showed how the priorities and the logic and the Holy Works agree.
As your blood cells work in your life, you can work in Christ's good life. You can build a church and your church can be a candlestick and the graceful spirit of the people of your church can be the light of that candlestick, and you can let your light so shine as to light the way for others toward Christ that they too may be more motivated to go and do likewise.
You can sow or you can reap what others have sown and build on their works. If you are pure you can lead the seven churches and introduce them to a New Heaven and a better life in Christ; with a constant renewing of Spirit and refreshing of Soul.
New Jerusalem is of God of powerful works of authority. New Jerusalem is being prepared for the Bride of Heaven and you are invited to the wedding to serve the Creator in glory, honor, life and love.
Preparations are being made and they are made already: come. Enjoy the feast of righteous actions, renewed Spirit, and Holy Love.
Replenish your mind, expand your horizons, quench your thirst, and agree with the Father: come.
Your invitation is at hand, rise with the living, quicken your spirit: come.
For Jesus Christ, come.
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Update February 11, 2004:
ICCDBB mathematically proved God exists, click here to see the formula.
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To visit the Main Site of the Internet Church of Christ founded by Dr. Bob Benchoff, click here.
To visit the Second Page of Sermons of the Internet Church of Christ founded by Dr. Bob Benchoff, click here.
To visit the Third Page of Sermons of the Internet Church of Christ founded by Dr. Bob Benchoff, click here.