THIS PHOTO IS A VIEW OF THE STAIR LANDING IN OUR HOUSE.
First Installment

THIS PHOTO IS A VIEW OF MY COLLECTION FROM THE SIDE

Kurt Nunnenkamp said once, "Charles you do have an addiction, its preaching and teaching."

In sixteen years as pastor/teacher of First Baptist Church in Altoona, Kansas I taught a Sunday School Class, preached Sunday Morning, and Sunday Evening and then again on Wednesday Evening, and then Fundamental of the Christian Faith class during the week. Studying was an addition for sure.

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From 1994 to 1996

Since I didn't hunt, fish, the boys and I

collected sports cards.

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But I had a second addition, you might say, from 1996 to 2001 when I moved to Lexington Kentucky. I traded one addition for another in those years. From 2001 to presence, I just collect a lot of dust in Porstmouth Ohio.

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I really enjoy displaying my collection of paraphernalia. The photo above is a view from the top of the stairs in our house, looking down the stair landing. As you can see, both sides and the wall is filled with three ring binders of sports cards, display of Michael Jordon, Scottie Pippen, Mickey Mantle, and Dale Earnhart, and a display of NASCAR 1/24 cars.

On the back wall is a display of my son's. He is a Firefighter, and loves riding bikes.

You will note also display of pictures on the wall as well. (Hopefully)

What you are unable to see is 100,000 sports cards.

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BEING BORN AGAIN GIVES US A NEW NATURE AND OFF WITH THE OLD LIFE

part ten

My youngest son Kyle Whisnant

• Having been saved, means you have been given new life, and that life is Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life." John 6:63. So the work of the Holy Spirit in us is known as "regeneration". The Spirit is to impart new life to us by joining us to Christ.


• How does this happen? We made the connection by faith. John 20:31 "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." In other words faith connects us with Christ.

A NEW HUMAN NATURE

Now what happens in the NEW BIRTH?

• We are connected with Christ, we are united with Jesus by faith. Now this new birth is not an improvement of our old human nature. There is an extreme makeover, that is the old nature is torn down We are given a new human nature. The old nature is not made over. The now indwelling Holy Spirit is forming in you a new spiritual nature.
  
• For those born again by the spirit there has been a new spirit put within them. They have been given a new clean heart and a new spirit.

When we say that a new spirit, or a new heart, is given to us, we don’t mean that we cease to be the human being, the morally accountable self that we have always been. In other words we are still the same individual human being.

This is why there is to be this continuity of cleansing. The old human being was not obliterated, in the new birth, sorry to say. If that had been true, the whole idea of forgiveness and cleansing would be irrelevant. There would be nothing left over as it were from the past to forgive or cleanse.

From Romans 6:6 we are told that our old self was crucified, and that we have died with Christ in Colossians 3:3 and we are to reckon ourselves dead in Romans 6:11 and "put off the old self" in Ephesians 4:22. But all these things mean the same human being is not in view throughout life. It means that there was an old nature, an old character, or principle, or bent as it were, that needs to be done away with. Paul said I daily beat my body into subjection.

From the human standpoint we are still human, we are still fleshly, we still need to be forgiven and cleansed. Jeremiah 3:8 put it this way, "I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me."

In a sense we are still the person we have always been, and still daily need forgiven. I John 1:9 tells us that.

Yet forgiveness and cleansing is not enough. We need to be new. We need to be transformed. We need life. We need a new way of seeing and thinking and appraising. That is why Ezekiel says "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit, I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And here is the point, "And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." I call this, or John MacArthur does, "Lordship Salvation."

Ezekiel profoundly proclaims the doctrines of conversion and spiritual life. The heart of stone means the dead heart that was cold-hearted and unresponsive to spiritual reality. It’s true that before you got a new heart, you did have feeling. It could respond with passion and desire for a lot of things. But the heart was cold toward the spiritual truth and the wonderful ideas of Jesus Christ and the glory of God and the path of holiness. And that is what has to change if we are going to see the kingdom of Heaven.

So there is a conversion of the old heart, a new birth. God takes out the heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. That is, "flesh" means pliable and living and responsive and feeling, instead of being a lifeless rock.

In the New Birth, our dead, lifeless, dull, boredom with Christ is exchanged by a heart that feels in the spiritual sense the worth of Jesus Christ as Lord, and as God.

"I will put with you...." God puts a living, supernatural, spiritual life in our heart, and that new life, that new spirit, is the working of the Holy Spirit Himself giving form and character to our new heart. Praise the Lord.

Picture a person you know who was so hard toward Jesus Christ. His spirit was so dull, and really very untouchable in his heart toward anything you would say about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then one day it seemed it was as if he had a heart transplant. He now has a warm, touchable and agreeable mind toward what you have been trying to tell him about Jesus. The Holy Spirit pushes Himself up into it and gives spiritual, moral shape to it according to His own shape. The Holy Spirit within us, in our heart and mind takes on His character His spirit. Ephesians 4:23. Amen.

- - - - - - - - - garrulous \GAIR-uh-lus; GAIR-yuh-\, adjective:
1. Talking much, especially about commonplace or trivial things; talkative.2. Wordy.

This has been twelve pages typed from Corel WordPerfect, posted in ten parts. I know its been a little wordy but I hope not trivial in its content.

Proof Checked by Charity Sunday Evening March 2 2008

THE OLD GOSPEL TENT MEETINGS

The old gospel tent meetings were a part of my life as a child. My father was holding services in a tent years before I was born in 1947. Dad would go to cities and set up a tent and preach for a month or more, and from those who were saved, a church would be formed.

The old picture above is one of dad's tents. My brother and I would spend a lot of hours under these tents.

THE NEW BIRTH IS A SUPERNATURAL HAPPENING THAT HAPPENS TO US

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part nine

(click "labels" on Born Again for the total posts on this series)

Nicodemus knew Jesus was an authentic divine person, but that doesn’t save anyone. You can be amazed by all the Binny Hinn, you can have an old heart and be amazed by what you see happen in some of these signs and wonders. It’s possible to be lost and believe miracles are from God. The devil knew that. Jesus said to him, "Ye must still be born again."

The key is not saying you agree with what Jesus does, but by experiencing the supernatural reality in your own life. Can I say, the new birth, salvation, is not natural, but the supernatural. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The Spirit is not a part of this earthly world. What happens in the new birth doesn’t happen in the natural realm, but in the supernatural realm. God is God and He is the instantaneous cause of the new birth

• The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit must come upon you and transport new life into existence.

Here is the first point of the New Birth. There is a supernatural work by the Holy Spirit to bring spiritual life into being where it did not exist. As Jesus said in John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all."

You know Jesus is that life that the Holy Spirit gives. If God gives you spiritual life, that life is Jesus Christ the Lord. Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 6:35, "I am the bread of life." And Acts 20:31 "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name."

Therefore until there is a blending or union, connection with Jesus and a belief, a faith in Him there is no eternal life, no spiritual life. And it’s the Holy Spirt that brings us into indispensable relationship with Christ who is the way, the truth and the life.

• From our viewpoint, the way you and I experience this new life is that faith in Jesus Christ is inflamed in our hearts. Thus spiritual life and faith in Jesus Christ comes into being at the same time. This new life makes the faith possible, and since spiritual life always inflames faith and expresses itself in faith, there is no life without faith in Jesus. And from God’s side, we are united to Christ in the new birth. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. From our side, we experience this union by faith in Jesus.

A young lady said to me this week. "You say one needs to be elected unto salvation. What if I ask Jesus into my heart, and I am not elected?" Which I thought was a good question.

In John 3:6 Jesus said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The flesh, i.e. the person does have a kind of life. Every human person is living flesh. But at the same time every living person does have a spirit, but to be a living spirit, or to have spiritual life, Jesus said, we must be "born of the Spirit." When one is born of the flesh, he has fleshly life, when one is born again by the Spirit he has a second kind of life, one that becomes a spiritual life in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the new life that is put in us at salvation.

• Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6. "I am the bread of life." John 6:35. Then Acts 20:31 "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name."

Here is what happens at the time of the entrance of the New Birth, or eternal life, there is a relationship with Jesus and a belief in Jesus. But for now I want to say: The New Birth incorporates us to Christ in a living union (Romans 6) Christ is life. We were dead in the spiritual sense. Christ gave us life. John 15 Christ is the vine where life flows. We are the branches. Thus, at the New Birth there is a transcendental or supernatural creation, birth of a new spiritual life, and it is created through a joint connection with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit brings us into an essential attachment with Christ who is the way, the truth and the life.

Having been saved, means you have been given new life, and that life is Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life." John 6:63. So the work of the Holy Spirit in us is known as "regeneration". The Spirit is to impart new life to us by joining us to Christ.

How does this happen? We made the connection by faith. John 20:31 "These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." In other words faith connects us with Christ.

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Charles E. Whisnant, and proof read by Charity Whisnant. To be continued.

OUR GOD IS A WONDERFUL GOD AND SHEHPHERD OF OUR FAMILY


Charity took this picture March 10, 2008.
I like the back ground picture of a few years ago and note that black hair, all but gone today. But the kids have really grown up and are doing good.
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Psalms 63:6-8

OUR GOD IS A WONDERFUL LORD AND SHEPHERD

"When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My Soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me."

My soul follows close behind the Lord. In response to God's repeated invitation to "hold fast" to Him (Deut. 4:4, 10:20) the psalmist clings to God. Our ever unfailing commitment to our Saviour.

SIN IS CORRECTED BY THE NEW BIRTH

1 John 3:1-10

• See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

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You might ask: why would the Gov. of NY (a former attorney general) who knew the laws, and even set up a program that would stop money-laundering; and who also built a career out of prosecuting the very same crimes he is now brought into question about doing himself..

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He enforced a law that banks have a system to check any deposit that came into the bank. A ghost software that checks any deposit of any amount in any account. This software will red flag any account that warrants checking into. It was this very software that most likely caught Gov. Spitzer.

• Is it the statement: "Be sure your sins will fine you out." How many times over the years have we seen pastors/preachers/ministers preach what they are against and at the very time they are preaching they are engaged in the very activity.
  
  "Eliot Spitzer knew how to catch bad guys by following the money. As attorney general, he once broke up a call-girl ring and locked up 18 people on corruption, money-laundering and prostitution charges. But in the end, it appears that Spitzer may have been done in by the same behavior he built a career out of prosecuting. "In fact, it seems he was tripped up by some of the very financial accounting methods he used so successfully against multibillion-dollar Wall Street firms." AP reports.

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THIS LEADS ME TO OUR SERIES:

Our series we have been working on is: BEING BORN AGAIN: WHAT HAPPENS?

(February 26, 2008 last post)

As believers, those of us who have experienced the reality of the new birth, have to deal daily with our own sinfulness, as all of us try to live in the full assurance of our salvation. Daily we have to deal with the conflict between the reality of the new birth, on the one hand, and our ongoing sin, on the other hand. So how is it possible for a person who is not a born again believer even have a chance of not yielding to the very activity that he himself hates.

If anyone knows the laws of New York it is the former attorney general. He was married for twenty one years and had children. You ask, how can this happen to a successful man in politics?

It's called SIN.
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I don't like SIN. It's damage is worse on you than the damage from all the sun you are exposed to. It's worse on you than all the red meat you think you could eat. It's worse on you than artificial sweeteners. It's worse on you than all the beer you could drink. SIN is like a really bad germ that is air born and in born and in all the world, and in all people groups. No people group has more SIN in them then any other people group. There is no more SIN in Hollywood than in Portsmouth, Ohio.

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The issue before us is "NO ONE BORN OF GOD CONTINUES A PRACTICE OF SINNING." As to how long "continues" is, I can't say.


I WANT TO CONTINUE WITH THE LAST POST:
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If we do anything that is good, that pleases God, it is the result of the new birth, not a cause of the new birth. People think if we do more good than bad then we are good.
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Here is the hard part for people to understand. Salvation is taken out of our hands. It is not in our control. We are totally and absolutely dependent on Someone outside ourselves.
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So to even those who are saved, and have really been born again, it’s very unsettling and disturbing to hear that their salvation was not a result of anything they did, or desired, but it was all of God. If any one subject is so confronting to those whom I have taught, it’s this subject before us. The New Birth and or Lordship Salvation..
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You mean God has the absolute freedom to bring about the New Birth to whom He desires?
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And apart from Him all of us will remain spiritually dead in our self-centeredness and defiance
Our deadness to the spiritual reality is so deep that we cannot even detect or even desire the glory of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4:4.
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So the point becomes if we are going to be born again, it will pivot absolutely and finally on God.

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God’s decision to make us alive will not be a response to what we as spiritual corpses do, but what we do will be a response to His making us alive. That has certainly annoyed people quite badly and it’s very agitating to them. People have left our church when that is my position.
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So I might lose a few of the few readers of this blog. But it’s not my desire to bring about stress.
But pray as Ephesians 2:4-5 says

• "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved."
  

It’s my duty as a teacher of the Word of God, to lift up Christ in truth in this matter of His life-giving grace.

THAT IS THE INTRODUCTION TO THIS CHAIN OF POSTS
SO WHAT TAKES PLACE IN THE NEW BIRTH

FOOTNOTE

After hearing about the Gov. of NY, and the sinful mess, I wanted to address this issue. The news broke March 7, 2008 I believe.

After hearing about the tragic death of Eve Carson, the Sr. student from NC who was killed. Then the young lady at Auburn U who was killed. She was shot once in the head and died. She was eighteen years old My heart broke again. Eighteen-year-old Lauren A. Burk, of Marietta, Ga., was found with a single gunshot wound on Alabama Highway 147, and was transported to East Alabama Medical Center where she died. in March 2008.

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Why? Do People KILL Other People?

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The ANSWER is : SIN The Cure is the NEW BIRTH

NEW LINKS HAVE BEING ADDED TO GrowByLearning Blog.

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I have added come websites and blogs on the sidebar, scroll down past the subjects of my posts, past the list of this months posts, pasted the old posts, and finally you come to the LINKS. I will be adding others, but now I have listed several of the ones I like.

• My sister's website, and her daughter April Williams blog you need to check both out.

• John MacArthur, Jr. of course is the model of my preaching/church ministry for over thirty years. The link is to Grace Community Church, and also the link to Grace To You Radio.


• The link to my website GROWBYLEARNING.COM. is listed as well.
  

Check them out if you like. I will add another post later today.

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