Pam Padgett ... member of the body of Christ operating in the spiritual gift of helps
I have a neighbor whose mother is in her 80s and has dementia as well as cancer. They have recently discovered that the cancer has spread to three places.
I had an interesting dream about the mother ...
In the dream, my neighbor and I were standing outside her car. She told me her mom was going somewhere else to live. I asked what the place was called.
She replied that the place was called “Forgiven Sins”
As I woke right after having this dream, I was reminded of “Blessed is the man whose sin is covered”
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Psalm 32:1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Romans 4:6-8 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
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Being born again
Being born again occurs when God speaks to the individual by His Spirit, and the individual accepts what God has said. Here are some examples:
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Pam Padgett: When I was 14 years old a boy in my class at school was killed in a motorcycle accident.
For the first time, I realized that I could die.
I was terrified.
Somehow, I strongly knew that the various things I had learned to do in the Catholic church would not keep me from going to hell.
My only hope was God.
I began praying ... "I know there is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but I don't know which one to pray to. So please get this to the right one."
I went on to ask that God would somehow save me.
I was changed from within, born again, and wanted to do what God wanted me to do and to please Him.
And not long after this, I realized there was something of God in me.
A few years later I read the following scripture and, for the first time, realized that it was the Holy Spirit in me:
I Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
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Joan Boney: My mother was born again while I was visiting at her house and the subject of horoscopes came up.
(She had read horoscopes all her life. and had read them to me since I was a child.)
I read the following passage of scripture from the Bible to her:
Deuteronomy 18:9-14 When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.
For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
After I finished reading from the Bible aloud, my mother grew very still and then said, "Well, then I guess we better not do that any more."
She was instantly changed.
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Barbara Preston: I was born again in early 1981.
I had been trying to stop drinking for years but had never been able to succeed no matter how hard I tried.
Then one day I realized that something had happened to me. I didn’t know what had happened. It happened suddenly but somehow I was different.
I told my husband that I was going to go to an AA meeting the next day and stop drinking. He had heard this many times throughout the years so he couldn’t really believe me. But I was sure I would be able now to do this.
I told him something had changed inside of me and I was going to do this. I couldn’t tell him what was different because I didn’t know, myself, at first. I just knew something in me had changed.
Then, right after the above took place, I knew what had happened to me. I had been born again. I knew this because I had such a desire to read the Bible, go to church, listen to Christian radio programs on my way to work, watch TV preachers, and read books about God. At that point in time, if someone said they were going to talk about God, I wanted to hear it.
And that is how I was born again.
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Romans 8:31 If God be for us, who can be against us?
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Hymns: Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow'r
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1. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow’r?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Chorus:
Are you washed …
in the blood,
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
2. Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
3. When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white!
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for His presence bright,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
4. Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb.
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(Click forward arrow > to play music:)
1. Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There’s power in the blood,
power in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful power in the blood.
Chorus:
There is power, power,
wonder-working power,
In the blood ... of the Lamb;
There is power, power,
wonder-working power,
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
2. Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There’s power in the blood,
power in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide,
There’s wonderful power in the blood.
3. Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There’s power in the blood,
power in the blood;
Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow,
There’s wonderful power in the blood.
4. Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There’s power in the blood,
power in the blood;
Would you live daily His praises to sing?
There’s wonderful power in the blood.
(Click pause symbol, " ... at beginning of hymn, to stop music)
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Hymn: There is a fountain filled with blood
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1 There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
2 The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away:
Wash all my sins away,
Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
3 Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed ones of God
Be saved, to sin no more:
Be saved, to sin no more,
Be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed ones of God,
Be saved to sin no more.
4 E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
5 When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy power to save:
I’ll sing Thy power to save,
I’ll sing Thy power to save;
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy power to save.
(Click pause symbol, " ... at beginning of hymn, to stop music)
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