A Hero's Life in Christ

A Hero’s 

 Life 

 In Christ

Practical Christian Living

II Peter 1:5-8

Author: Pastor Edward Wade

© Copyright 2003 Edward Eugene Wade Jr.. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

This book is dedicated to the power of the

Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians

Worldwide.

Thank you

Jesus!

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Aunt Lonnie for her insight and constant wisdom. I thank the whole New light congregation for giving me an important reason to study Gods word. I thank Mom and Dad for their never-ending encouragement and for being Mom and Dad. Dad and Uncle Bill have been powerful role models in my life. I have learned so much from them. I thank Carlene, my loving wife, for her patient proof reading of this book. She has been a wife to adore. I appreciate the love she shows me, and the care she gives to our children. I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, AND I LOVE YOU! Carlene’s mom is my other mom and she has never treated me like a son-in-law but a son. Mrs. Emma Herbert, I really love you for your kind heart. I don’t want to forget sister Richardson up in Milwaukee who saw something in me and put me up to teach the Sunday school class on various occasions. She told me I could do it and I believed her. I also want to thank Nadia, Tayler, Cecily, Ashley, Nala, and Camryn for the love and joy they give me. Thanks children.

There are so many people that influence our lives that you cannot name them all, and I do thank everyone that has been a part of my life. I would like to thank my whole family for being my family. I would not have it any other way. My family is too big to name them all but I will name four more. Mark, thank you. Elaine, thank you. Deborah, thank you. And Sherry, thank you.

God Bless You All.

Edward Eugene Wade Jr.

Introduction

A LETTER TO YOU FROM SATAN

I saw you yesterday as you began your daily chores. You awoke without kneeling to pray. As a matter of fact, you didn’t even bless your meals, or pray before going to bed last night. You are so unthankful, I like that about you. I cannot tell you how glad I am that you have not changed your way of living, Fool, you are mine. Remember, you and I have been going steady for years, and I still don’t love you yet. As a matter of fact, I hate you, because I hate God. I am only using you to get even with God. He kicked me out of heaven, and I’m going to use you as long as possible to pay him back. You see, Fool, GOD LOVES YOU and He has great plans in store for you. But you have yielded your life to me, and I’m going to make your life a living hell. That way, we’ll be together twice. This will really hurt God. Thanks to you, I’m really showing Him who is the boss in your life, with all of the good times we’ve had. We have been watching dirty movies, cursing people out, stealing, lying, being hypocritical, fornicating, overeating, telling dirty jokes, gossiping, unrighteously judging, back stabbing people, disrespecting adults, and those in leadership positions, no respect for the Church, and bad attitudes. SURELY you don’t want to give all this up. Come on, Fool, let’s burn together forever. I’ve got some hot plans for us. This is just a letter of appreciation from me to you. I’d like to say THANKS for letting me use you for most of your foolish life. You are so gullible, I laugh at you. When you are tempted to sin, you give in. HA, HA, HA, you make me sick. Sin is beginning to take its toll on your life. You look 20 years older, and now, I need new blood. So go ahead and teach some children how to sin.

All you have to do is smoke, get drunk or drink while under-aged, cheat, gamble, gossip, fornicate, and live being as selfish as possible. Do all of this in the presence of children and they will do it too. Kids are like that. Well, Fool, I have to let you go for now. I’ll be back in a couple of seconds to tempt you again. If you were smart, you would run somewhere, confess your sins, and live for God with what little bit of life that you have left. It’s not my nature to warn anyone, but to be your age and still sinning, it’s becoming a bit ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong I still hate you. IT’S JUST THAT YOU’D MAKE A BETTER FOOL FOR CHRIST.

P.S. If you really love me, you won’t share this letter with anyone.

This letter was sent to me over the Internet, (Author unknown) like hundreds of other emails but this one got me to thinking. Even though the devil does not send letters to people, this made up letter brings out a possibility everyone needs to consider. What if the contents and the intentions spelled out in this letter are really true of the devil even though he did not write this letter? It makes sense to me that the devil would think exactly like this and would have no love or good intentions for you what so ever. I believe you know that you can take this letter as if it really came to you from him and he really hates you. If he hates you and wants you to do the things that can keep you from heaven then you should run from those things fast. In the letter he spelled out a list of things that keep you from fellowship with God. Let me make this clear, it is a partial list and should not be taken as the complete list of the sins of this world. Sometimes when you have a list spelled out for you, your subconscious tends to limit what is wrong to what is spelled out. In other words, if it is not listed then it is not sin. I included the letter because I thought it would be a good thought provoking tool to get your thinking cap going. Sin got started in the garden and sin is the problem. Not a partial list of how sin can show itself but sin itself is the problem and this takes place on the inside and shows itself on the outside in many more ways than any list can do justice. There are many places in the bible where God has listed the things of the flesh that

keep you from fellowship with Him and I think it is important to know what is on these lists for yourself. They must be pertinent or God would not have had them listed. But the point is that a list can often make you feel that what is on the list is all there is, and that’s just not true. Well, I am going to include a list from the bible for the purpose of showing you that Paul knew that humans would look at the list and find things that were not listed and claim that those things not listed must be acceptable behavior. So to combat that possibility, look at how Paul dealt with it in the list of sins he wrote in Galatians. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-211 want you to know that Paul has listed specific things but these things can also be looked at as general categories where many things can be further listed under each one on the list. So to let you know that he did not intend for this to be a complete list of the sins of the world Paul includes the words, And such like to let you know that you are to include anything else that he did not write. He is letting you know right there that the list is much bigger than what he wrote down. Again I included the letter because I think it accurately spells out the mindset of the devil and I want you to know that you ought to never forget his goal for your life. Which is an eternity in hell.

So with that said what’s the goal here in this book? I want to encourage you to a closer walk with Jesus. I want to let you know that through His power you can live the Christian life He has called you to. I however, do not in any way believe that you or I or anyone else can live this life in our own power, so when I speak of your part or your responsibility I am always using those terms in light of the equipping of the Holy Spirit

in you first. He must first empower you to live the life of virtue spelled out in these pages. I don’t believe that you can do anything spiritual on your own. I believe that Jesus must draw you first and after He has drawn you out of fellowship with this sinful world, then you become powered to live this life.

This is not an exhaustive study on Christian ethics and behavior. This is not the end of it all because there are many other passages in scripture that would expand on the words in these pages. This is an introduction to some of the characteristics that make up a Christian life. The attributes in the passage this book is based on are opened up to you the reader for a better understanding of how they are to affect your life. There are examples given, in this book, from many other related scriptures in the bible to help you better grasp the concept of what the writer is trying to tell you. The examples that have been chosen will usually have the same word in it that you are reading about at that time. For example when you are reading about virtue and learning what part it plays in your walk with Christ, the related scripture might use the same word. This way you get to see the word used in another passage and as you better understand what the message of the passage is, the better you will understand what the word itself means and how it can be applied to you living a hero’s life. I do not believe that one word on the list is more important than the other. They are just handled one at a time in the order the writer wrote them. Let me repeat something here that is very important. As I stated before, by the time this passage becomes relevant to you, Jesus has already performed His saving work in you and is now maturing you in your daily walk. Pruning and chiseling you to be the example that He wants you to be in this dark world.

This passage of scripture speaks to you after you have already come to faith in Jesus Christ, and because of that faith, He then gives you all you need to live the Christian life. So what it amounts to is this. All you have to do is use the tools that you have been supplied

with. When you became a part of His army He supplied you with all you need to successfully fight this spiritual warfare. You cannot supply yourself, you cannot make the tools, nor do you even have a clue what the tools are outside of Jesus and His grace. However through His grace a glorious life in Christ is available to you. This life that He offers will shape, mold, and mature you into a soldier ready for battle in the war of the worlds that still rages on after thousands of years. This hero’s life produces soldiers that are bold and fearless because they know whom they follow. They also know their mission, which is to recruit and convert more soldiers for their Masters army. Every one that converts through your efforts is literally pulled from the fire and in God’s eyes that makes you a hero. That’s right a hero. You are someone who saves lives. But you are a different kind of hero than what the world would describe. A firefighter of another sort, so to say. I hear you ask, what other kind of hero is there? That is what you would like to know right? Good, I was hoping you did. Well read on and find out what it means to live: A Hero’s Life In Christ

Preface

Let me try and set the stage for why I believe this is such an important passage for us all to grasp. I believe that if Christians would simply follow the principles in this passage alone, we would change the world. The Christians are the people on this earth with the responsibility to show the world that Gods principles work. With that said I believe the world for the most part will not give this passage a second look. I also believe that even though the world will ignore this passage and its message, you will be immensely blessed by its contents.

Today’s world is full of choices and we are taught that what’s right or wrong is at the discretion of the person making the choices. In the midst of this freedom of choice society we have a very confused world where everyone seems to make up their minds as they go. Our children are pushed to grow up faster and faster and before they have had time to grow into maturity they are facing adult decisions with immature minds. The way they dress, talk, and think are dictated by the powers that be, which care nothing about the children. The fad of the week is the right way to go until a new fad replaces that one. Then the fad of last week is wrong, wrong, wrong, when last week it was the rightest thing in the world. This week’s fad totally contradicts last week’s fad but is just as right as last week’s fad was last week.

The music makers, the media, the movie and television show makers, and our role models who are usually athletes or musicians are the pied pipers leading a world of children down to any road they choose. Don’t get me wrong there are many pied pipers, they can be dads and moms, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, or cousins and friends. All roads are available and introduced to the children of this nation, by these pied pipers except one, that being the road that leads to righteousness. This is why it is so important that 12

Christians offer the one road that leads to righteousness. It is the only road that matters.

All of the lusts of the world are freely available to all and sin runs rampant in this society. The people of the world are bombarded with these things on a daily basis and the media, for the most part push us to believe that these things are