Nathan, a bond-letter by the Spirit of grace, in Jesus Christ, to those in all nations online of the same kind of faith as mine, just as the apostle Peter testified, and the apostle Paul wrote _^(NASB): ^{2 Cor 3:2} You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people, ³ revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. ⁴ Such is the confidence we have toward God through Christ.

comMON GROUND

Alright look, don’t get it twisted! I’m just another average “joe” (human being) using the available recourses by the grace of God provided me to preach and teach The Word of God. So don’t be thinking any crazy thoughts like, “Yo, Nathan is trying to make himself out to be an apostle”; no, no, no, that couldn’t be further from the truth—so “scratch” that nonsense out yuh mind! We’re in the 21^st century, not the 1^st century—alright!

Listen, as you already know, I’m just as unworthy as the next person telling you about the good news, the testimony of God through the revelation of Jesus Christ—the Son of God—by reason of God our Father choosing Jesus to be His only Begotten Son as the Word of God in the flesh and blood of Jesus the Nazarene. And so grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord.

Bear with me, I’m still a young man who just happens to feel old, but the fact of the matter is, milk. That’s right, MILK! Just as the bond-servant Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, teaches in his 1^st letter: ¹ Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, ² and like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, ³ if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

I was once one way, a way of disobedience; that way is described as malicious, deceitful, hypocritical, lustful, and prideful. I’m positive the list can go into the direction of Hell, but thanks be to God for supplying faith in His Son, Jesus, for what you are now reading as a result of my repentance from that way of death, to life eternal. Now I write to share my cup of faith, that you might believe.

Pure milk is my choice sustenance as it symbolizes The Word of God I believe in, and is at work every day in my soul, like the meaning of providence; Jesus Christ is the true source of my spiritual growth in respect to salvation. However, it’s come to my attention just how much milk I need while handling what the writer of Hebrews’ describes as “meat“. Therefore, I needed a place that was quiet and empty, a place like the moon.

I can see the Earth off in the distance, and beyond Earth is a combination of darkness and light, Hell and Heaven. The question posed by time was one of visions and dreams, throughout my stay in flesh and blood, “Where will you be, by where you are now?”

PERSEVERANCE

So… I thought to myself in respect to the grace of God present with me, “Why not mimic my role models of the faith and write letters as a testimony to my process of progress—and or quite possibly, regress, if unrepentant—in my endeavor to live in obedience to the knowledge of the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit and glory of God through faith?”

After all, the Scriptures are the compass in every man and woman’ soul to Christ our Lord, Jesus; we with eagerness, yet with patience, wait with anticipation, the day of our salvation. Therefore, it’s by the Spirit of grace through the body and blood of Jesus Christ we find ourselves in a new covenant that proclaims repentance unto salvation.

Our common ground is established by grace in the knowledge of the truth through Jesus Christ our Lord, having been born of a descendant of David according to flesh, was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness. Jesus is the Son of Man at the right hand of God as the living Word of God that mediates between God and mankind according to the Scriptures, and no one can come to the meaning of salvation but through Him.

For the longest time I thought that I was saved from my sin by simply believing in Jesus, having ‘prayed the prayer’ that would seal me for all eternity, but there was a problem’! I not only grew up within a church that taught once saved always saved by Jesus coming into my heart, but that that idea was encouraged even though sin kept on being practiced, which posed in me another question tilling away at my soul, “Where is the disciplinary action to correct my sin if I’m truly saved?” So I continued in that idea of being “saved” until realizing the truth; I wasn’t saved, but ignorant and deceived.

So now we’ve arrived at a place of cultivation for repentance that leads to life! You remember that parable… well …let me just bring it—^{Luke 13:6} And He [Jesus] began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. ⁷ And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Look! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ ⁸ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, leave it alone for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; ⁹ and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”

COMPASS TO CHRIST

The parable teaches that there is no partiality with God, and unless all come to repentance, we will all likewise perish, having been cut down. And how we repent is not by some little prayer we pray thinking it was the prayer that saved us so we can continue in our sin, no, but believing in the truth that Jesus equips us with the spiritual capacity through faith by the Holy Spirit to endure discipline of which causes our repentance. When repentance is exercised in faith, the fruit is obedience by a changed mind.

To believe in Jesus means to deny ourselves even to the point of death by reason of righteousness revealed in the behavior of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So it’s not that we keep on sinning after we believe in the good news of God by the revelation of Jesus Christ, but that we acknowledge how we are presently choosing to be separated from the power given us to repent—condemned by our own nature and desire of sin demanding the experience of lust in this world.

Remember, it’s by way of reminder; the letters of the bondservants and apostles stir up our sincere mind by way of reminder. While we are believing in Jesus we have our way of escape from temptation through the experience of discipline in the Holy Spirit to resist the nature of our flesh that desires sin, and by putting to death the desire of our nature to sin through enduring discipline, obedience then is our result by the Spirit manifesting righteousness in our behavior.

Thank you Lord our God for the mercy bestowed upon us by supplying the forgiveness of sin through belief in Jesus Christ, and healing us to a right mind by the gift of the Holy Spirit. I pray we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.