Living godly in Christ Jesus

1. Living godly in Christ Jesus

2. The following was written by Brigadier General E.P. Alexander following the War Between the States:

3. “When I first joined the Army of Northern Virginia in 1861, I found a connection of my family, Wilmer McLean, living on a fine farm through which ran Bull Run, with a nice farm-house about opposite center…

4. …of our line of battle along that stream. General Beauregard made his headquarters at his house during the first affair between the armies - the so-called battle of Blackburn's Ford…

5. …on July 18. The first hostile shot which I ever saw fired was aimed at this house, and about the third or fourth went through its kitchen, where servants were cooking dinner for the headquarters staff…

6. …I had not seen nor heard of McLean for years, when [April 10], the day after the surrender, I met him at Appomattox Court-house, and asked with some surprise what he was doing there…

7. …He replied, with much indignation: What are you doing here? These armies tore my place on Bull Run all to pieces, and kept running over it backward and forward until no man could live there…

8. …so I just sold out and came here, two hundred miles away, hoping I should never see a soldier again and now, just look at you! Not a fence-rail is left on the place, the last guns trampled down all my crops…

9. …and Lee surrenders to Grant in my house. McLean was so indignant that I felt bound to apologize for our coming back, and to throw all the blame for it upon the gentlemen on the other side.”

10. 2 Tim 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

11. John 17:13-17 “And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath…

12. John 17:13-17 …hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep…

13. John 17:13-17 …them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth”

14. John 17:18-19 “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”

15. John 17:24 “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”

16. Acts 5:41 “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”

17. Jam 1:2-3 “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience”

18. 1 Pet 1:6-9 “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious…

19. 1 Pet 1:6-9 …than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen…

20. 1 Pet 1:6-9 …ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls”

21. Rev 3:18-19 “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame…

22. Rev 3:18-19 …of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent”

23. How is your attitude in the face of the persecution that is brought on by your desire to live the Christian life?

24. Do you rejoice at such trials knowing that they are leading to you a greater level of maturity?

25. Do you shrink back and become lukewarm, refusing to take a stance for the Lord because of persecution?

26. How you react will determine your worth to the Lord.

27. Psa 101:3 “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes:”

28. One of the very significant differences between God and man is time.

29. Phil 3:6-11 “Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were…

30. Phil 3:6-11 …gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of…

31. Phil 3:6-11 …Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be…

32. Phil 3:6-11 …found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness

33. Phil 3:6-11 …which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made…

34. Phil 3:6-11 …conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

35. Many of man’s concerns are relevant to time.

36. God doesn’t share our concerns about time

37. 2 Pet 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”

38. Exod 3:13-14 “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent…

39. Exod 3:13-14 …me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said…

40. Exod 3:13-14 …Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you”

41. Since God created man in time, He instructed us how to live in it.

42. One is to learn from the past, but not dwell on it. The present is to be used as a passageway to the future.

43. ONLY A Christian can truly deal with the past and fully live in the present

44. Psa 25:7 “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD”

45. Rom 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”

46. Psa 119:161-163 “Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love”

47. Isa 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away”

48. Matt 12:36 “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment”

49. The future belongs to those who belong to God - a future that’s better.

50. 2 Cor 8:2 “How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality”