Happy Wednesday — we’re halfway there🙂. We were going to ask to have coffee with you this morning (but someone forgot to press “post” late last night), so maybe we could do lunch instead – to share some of our Sunday notes with you.

Have you ever noticed in walking or driving around your town that often we think we know these places so well, but it’s amazing how little we “see” as we wander or drive the streets? We don’t know the history and secrets inside many buildings we pass by every day. Who lived there? Who worked there? Who owned it? What stories happened inside its walls even before we were born? If it’s a much older building, maybe we wonder about all the people who walked its halls, their lives, and anything that remains of them or a trace left behind of what the building was like all those years ago.

As a resident of a town, we think we are familiar with all its buildings and places because we see them all the time, but there may be a lot more that we don’t know – than we do know.

How many times have we thought we knew scriptures so well because they were familiar and we have heard them our whole lives or read them hundreds of times . . . only to find ourselves later amazed at how little we actually “saw” of what was in that verse or chapter?

Keep a hunger to know more and more – even if you think you already know all about it. Sunday night, Brother Nobles was excited. We were excited. Are you excited?

Share this with a friend who needs a mid-week boost🌞.

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Not a One-Stop Shop

Salvation has never been one step.

It. Is. A. Process.

Truth Does Not Fight for Your Admiration; It Fights for Your Soul.

When we hear truth, it doesn’t sound like rhetoric or some guy spouting off things, but instead these things begin to ring in our ears as words that help bring us to salvation.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me. Not to him that tried. Not to him that said forgive me one time. No, you have to overcome this life. You have to put off the old man and put on the new man. You cannot put on the new man unless you first have a new birth.  

From the moment of your new birth, your salvation process starts.

When God Breathes Life Into a New Soul

Brother Nobles described a beautiful picture of a new birth. When a baby is born, the mother may hear the doctor announce its arrival and whether it is a boy or girl, but the mother is there waiting to hear the cry of her baby. She is waiting to hear evidence that it is alive. When someone is at the altar receiving the Holy Ghost, the church is listening to hear the sound of that soul coming to life.

The Other Woman

God uses a woman as a metaphor for His Bride and Church. All this comes as Brother Nobles began to tell us about a bondwoman waiting on the sidelines to claim that person who had a new birth (hi, Proverbs 7).

Draped in darkness, she lies in wait on every corner in the high places of the town ready with enticing words to seduce the young man. The false woman dangles shiny things in front of him such as, “We have a bus ministry, and you would be perfect for that job”. In the Body of Christ, we are not lying in wait nor trying to catch anyone. We are here with open arms to offer the truth and salvation.

Why Do We Need to Be Born Again?

Jesus did not think it robbery to be equal with God. It just meant in spirit. We shall be like Him when He appears because we will have the same spirit.

How can we ever be “like” Him if we are not from His seed?

We were not born of Him in our first birth. To be from His seed, we must be born again. We want to see His clear image — not looking through the lattice or through a glass, darkly. Seeing Him face-to-face means we see eye-to-eye with the same understanding.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” -I Corinthians 13:12

Traffic Laws We’re Shaking Our Heads About

Oregon. Apparently, you may pass on the right only if the vehicle you are passing is making or has signaled for a left turn. How would anyone know this if they are not from Oregon? We know because an Oregon trooper told Brother Nobles. (No, he did not get a ticket.) If you are not from there, you would not be aware of that law. His point in telling us about it?

Until you are part of the Kingdom, you cannot transgress against the laws, and only when you are born again do you become part of His Kingdom.

Walk Me Through It

Salvation is a process that can be a long and winding road.

(This graphic only represents a high-level overview of a picture of salvation. High-level meaning if you were very high up, your perspective looking down at something would only see the big picture, not details. There is so much to know about salvation, and it is impossible to learn everything from one diagram, one picture, one teaching, or one service – but it is worth your time to invest and learn as Proverbs 23 instructs us to “buy the truth and sell it not”.)

Keep Coming

Near the end, Brother Nobles thanked God for our understanding.

I know I said a lot, and it’s hard to get it all at one time, but grab what you can, and follow Brother Lynn’s advice, “Keep coming.” It takes time coming and getting these things that touch our minds. That is how I got what I have and all these men did. I kept listening. Many hours, days, and weeks that turned into years — I kept coming. I didn’t just come one night. I came to the services, the Bible studies. I put time into it. I was hungry for these things of God. And guess what? If you are hungry, God will feed you.

The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. -Proverbs 27:7

I Think I’ll Read It Again

If the minister stands up and talks about the goodness of God, but you sit there feeling like you’ve heard it a thousand times, and you’re thinking ‘what in the world’. Brother Nobles said he hopes those of us who have been around all these years were not sitting there thinking that we have already heard this message many times . . . because if we are hungry, we will receive something from it.

We hear these things time and time again, and every time I hear them, I gain just a little bit more from it. That’s why I enjoy going back through these things again to read them for myself, and if God would allow me to present them to His people, it thrills my soul to have eaten it again and then to watch other people as they are hearing these things, and they say, “Lord, I never knew that’s how it was!” Thank God for our eyes being enlightened.     

“I think I’ll read it again, and see how high I can fly;
I think I’ll read it again, and how my feet are gonna rise.”