Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Bad News and the Good News

          There's a lot of bad news in the world today, but thankfully, because of God's
     grace, there's a lot of good news too!



          THE BAD NEWS - "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
     in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler
     of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
    All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful
    nature and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature objects
    of wrath."   Ephesians 2:1-3


          THE GOOD NEWS - "But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in
     mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by
     grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him
     in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show
     the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
     For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it
     is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."   Ephesians 2:4-9


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          THE BAD NEWS - "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from
     the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their
     hearts."  Ephesians 4:18


          THE GOOD NEWS - "We know also that the Son of God has come and has given
     us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.  And we are in him, who is
     true - even in his Son Jesus Christ.  He is the true God and eternal life."  1 John 5:20


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          THE BAD NEWS - "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by
     the Spirit is life and peace;  the sinful mind is hostile to God.  It does not submit to
     God's law, nor can it do so.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."
     Romans 8:6-8


          THE GOOD NEWS - "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and
     has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the
     law with its commandments and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one
     new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of
     them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."  Ephesians 2:14-16


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          THE BAD NEWS - "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come
     from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them,
     because they are spiritually discerned."  1 Corinthians 2:14


          THE GOOD NEWS - "The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he
     himself is not subject to any man's judgment:  'For who has known the mind of the Lord
     that he may instruct him?'  But we have the mind of Christ."  1 Corinthians 2:15-16


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          THE BAD NEWS - "...but you do not believe because you are not my sheep." 
     John 10:26


          THE GOOD NEWS - "My sheep listen to my voice;  I know them, and they follow
     me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;  no one can snatch them out
     of my hand."   John 10:27-28


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          THE BAD NEWS - "For the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted
     and do not believe, nothing is pure.  In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
     The claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.  They are detestable, dis-
     obedient and unfit for doing anything good."  Titus 1:15-16


          THE GOOD NEWS - "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do
     good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Ephesians 2:10


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          THE BAD NEWS - "...but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because
     he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."  John 3:18b


          THE GOOD NEWS - "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in
     Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from
     the law of sin and death."  Romans 8:1-2


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          THE BAD NEWS - "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our
     righteous acts are like filthy rags;  we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our
     sins sweep us away."  Isaiah 64:6


          THE GOOD NEWS - "God made him who had no sin, to become sin for us, so that
     in him we might become the righteousness of God."  2 Corinthians 5:21


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          THE BAD NEWS - (Jesus said),"Why is my language not clear to you?  Because
     you are unable to hear what I say.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want
     to carry out your father's desire."
     He who belongs to God hears what God says.  The reason you do not hear is that you
     do not belong to God."  John 8:43-44a; 47


          THE GOOD NEWS - "I am the good shepherd;  I know my sheep and my sheep
     know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life
     for the sheep.  I have other sheep (Gentiles) that are not of this sheep pen.  I must bring
     them also.  They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one
     shepherd."  John 10:14-16


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          THE BAD NEWS - "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws
     him..."  John 6:44
          "He went on to say, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the
     Father has enabled him."  John 6:65


          THE GOOD NEWS - (Jesus said), 'All that the Father gives me will come to me, and
     whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not
     to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent
     me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
     For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have
     eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."  John 6:37-40


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          THE BAD NEWS - "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he
     was thrown into the lake of fire."  Revelation 20:15


          THE GOOD NEWS - "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud
     command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead
     in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up
     together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the
     Lord forever."  1 Thessalonians 4:16-17


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          Those who do not believe in Jesus stand condemned already, but those who do believe
     in Him will be saved!



    

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