The Fruit Of Christ S Presence

"... Harry L. Poe explores the meaning of the Fruit of the Spirit as described by Paul in Galatians." [book back cover].

Every soul strives for unity with God. Over the centuries, spiritual guides have offered myriad methods for achieving such an intimate relationship. But those sincerely invested in the spiritual life know there is no shortcut to finding God. There is only one true path: through Christ. This slim volume, penned by an anonymous Carthusian monk in the early twentieth century, offers a direct and practical way to advance one’s personal holiness. Set upon a foundation of Christ’s own words in the Gospels, Life in God’s Presence confesses that God offers every soul the means to unity with Him through the virtues of faith, hope, and love. These virtues, coupled with a straightforward, childlike approach to prayer, can lead a soul to recognize God’s presence in every aspect of daily life. By constantly and genuinely offering Him “all of our time, all of our strength, our whole soul”, eternal life need not wait until after death; it can begin here and now.

The God revealed in the Bible loves us and has a wonderful plan for us. For us to experience God's nearness, we must have a right understanding of who He is. Today's world offers many alternative "gods" to whom we can pray: Allah, Buddha, a Higher Power, and even our "higher self"! There is only one true God and He exists as Three Persons in One, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We accept by faith what the Bible tells us about God and that He sent His Son to die for us on the cross so we may have an intimate and right relationship with God.The Holy Spirit is co-equal with God the Father and God the Son. He possesses all of the attributes of God.

In the Old Testament, an anointed one would be a king or a member of the temple hierarchy, such as a priest or a Levite. In the New Testament, Paul introduced an entirely different understanding of Christ. A Christ of God was anyone anointed with the life of God as His offspring, whether or not that the person was aware of being a child of God. The word Christian applied only to those who chose to be born again by being raised from the dead. Thus, we must let go of the life we have been living in order to take on the life of God. We are then a Christ of God, just as Jesus was a Christ of God. In a detailed study of this concept, the Reverend Canon George Cummings contextualizes his lifelong reading and study of the Scriptures, following the thread of the message of the Gospel from its origin in the Old Testament to its triumphant re-emergence and re-signification in the writings the New Testament. Drawing upon his years of reflection and use of Greek text, Cummings posits a conception of the presence of God as Christ in us, so that we might live the life of God as it is revealed in the person of Jesus, the Messenger of the New Covenant.

"God is with us." We say this in our sermons, prayers, and songs, but what does it really mean? For many Christians, the whole notion of God's presence remains vague and hard to define. Exploring both the Old and New Testaments, professor J. Ryan Lister seeks to recover the centrality of the presence of God in the whole storyline of Scripture—a theme that is too often neglected and therefore misunderstood. In a world that longs for—yet struggles to find—intimacy with the Almighty, this book will help you discover the truth about God's presence with his people and what his drawing near means for the Christian life.

Bringing Christ Back is a priceless and practical theology desperately needed by the modern church to drag it out of its doldrums—far too many of its “average” believers are finding no release from agonizing chains of sin. Its knife-edged message is that the powerful presence of Christ seems to be withdrawn from the church as crucial truths about our Lord are reduced to common platitudes. When Christ is brought back as the center of faith in fact, not just in theory, believers will experience his deliverance from sin through the power of the Holy Spirit.