Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.  For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.

 
 
 

Going to Jesus

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Thought for Today
Jun. 15

THE OLDEST RELIGION, PART ONE

The Spirit

Those who receive the baptism of the holy Ghost are involved in the oldest religion that exists. It was in God's heart before the creation of this universe, and His Son suffered and died to make it a reality in the hearts of men. Jesus told his followers that God's purpose for sending him was to make it possible for humans to have eternal life (Jn. 10:10). The holy Ghost is the life of God (Rom. 8:9) that Jesus came to purchase for us with his sacrificial death, and worship in the eternal Spirt of God is the oldest of all ways to worship God. It was God's great desire that people should worship Him as He is always worshiped in heaven, "in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:23), and Jesus made that possible when he ascended to the Father and offered himself to God for the sins of the world.

When someone receives the holy Ghost and begins to speak in tongues, it may well seem to be a new thing to those who have never been taught the mysterious ways of God. But what if they had been that Isaiah foretold of its coming (28:11-12)? or that Zephaniah said it would be given to God's people (Zeph. 3:9)? or that David prophesied of the faith that would make one speak (Ps.116:10)? Or that Hosea foretold of the coming day when one would hear the seed of God being sown (Hos. 2:21-23)? Or that the blood of Abel crying out against his murderer was a figure of the blood of Christ that cried out for his killers (Heb. 11:4)? Would they be surprised, and say that speaking in tongues is a new invention of man's imagination, if they had been taught that Jesus told an elder named Nicodemus (Jn. 3:7-8) and later, his own disciples (Jn. 15:26-27) that it would happen to them, and that the sound of that holy wind of God would be the sign that a person was truly born of the Spirit?

No, my dear reader, do not think that the baptism of the holy Ghost is just another new idea erupting from the frustrated spirit of man. It is the oldest religion, the original faith, that God had in mind from before the foundation of the world, and His holy prophets spoke of the Messiah who would bring about this new birth experience from the earliest times. All religions of earth have sprung up since creation, but the Spirit of God has always been there, withing God's body, waiting for the time when God would pour it out upon humble people and make them sons of God. "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son, crying 'Abba Father'" (Gal.4:6).

Has the Spirit cried out through you yet, signifying that God is now your Father, or have you chosen to join one of the many brands of religion that men have invented? Consider it, my friend. On the Day of Judgment, the only religion that will pass the inspection of the Creator is the one that He had in mind before He uttered the words, "Let there be light."

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