{"id":8240,"date":"2013-05-13T12:48:52","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T12:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=8240"},"modified":"2013-05-13T12:55:23","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T12:55:23","slug":"the-abundant-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=8240","title":{"rendered":"The Abundant Life……."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I just celebrated a wonderful Mother’s Day with Sherelene and our family, and a nice restful weekend, and tonight I head to the airport for a trip to Seattle this week for the International Association of Aviation \u00a0Photographers, one of my favorite groups!!!! \u00a0I am so excited about the new phase of life starting very soon!!! \u00a0I’m also excited about a few more events with my Nikon friends.. \u00a0I was thinking that God has truly given me an abundant life, and then this morning the In Touch Devotional just capped it all off, please let me share it with you.<\/p>\n

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John 10:1-11<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

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New American Standard Bible (NASB)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Parable of the Good Shepherd<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

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10\u00a0\u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2\u00a0<\/sup>But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3\u00a0<\/sup>To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4\u00a0<\/sup>When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5\u00a0<\/sup>A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.\u201d 6\u00a0<\/sup>Thisfigure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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7\u00a0<\/sup>So Jesus said to them again, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8\u00a0<\/sup>All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9\u00a0<\/sup>I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10\u00a0<\/sup>The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it<\/em> abundantly.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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11\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cI am the good shepherd; the good shepherdlays down His life for the sheep.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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While there are many religions, there is only one way to heaven. Jesus clearly states that \u201cno one comes to the Father but through Me\u201d (John 14:6<\/span><\/a><\/span>). He used several picturesque descriptions to emphasize this point\u2014He called Himself the way (14:6<\/span>), the door (10:9<\/span>), the living bread (6:51<\/span>), and the good shepherd (10:11<\/span>).<\/p>\n

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God does not expect you to follow some kind of ritual to make Jesus the Lord of your life\u2014you can use any words that you like. However, some biblical elements are essential when beginning a relationship with Him:<\/p>\n

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\u2022 Confess your sin and admit your need for a Savior (1 John 1:9<\/span><\/a><\/span>).
\n\u2022 Place your trust in Jesus Christ as the only possible Savior, acknowledging that He died for your sins, was buried, and rose again three days later (John 3:16; 1 Cor. 15:3-4<\/span><\/a><\/span>).
\n\u2022 Believe that your sins are forgiven and your name is written in the Lamb\u2019s Book of Life (1 John 5:11-13<\/span><\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n

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Every person has a choice to make. Death is inevitable, but we can decide whether, on exiting this world, we will enter eternal torment or the everlasting beauty of God\u2019s presence. Let me make this very clear: What a person believes about heaven and hell won\u2019t influence God in the slightest. People will be judged not by their attitudes but by the truth of His Word.<\/p>\n

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Scripture declares there is but one way to heaven\u2014through faith in Jesus Christ. His gospel is a straight path from the pit of sin to the glory of heaven, with the promise of an abundant life in between. What we must do is go through the Door and follow the Way; then the Living Bread will sustain us.<\/p>\n

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I shared this wonderful devotional because I want you to enjoy that abundant life!!! \u00a0He wants to give it to you!!! \u00a0If we accept Him, and confess our sins, and truly repent, we not only get Eternal Life with Him, but The Abundant Life now! \u00a0This is too good to pass up!<\/p>\n

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Blessings,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n

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I just celebrated a wonderful Mother’s Day with Sherelene and our family, and a nice restful weekend, and tonight I head to the airport for a trip to Seattle this week for the International Association of Aviation \u00a0Photographers, one of my favorite groups!!!! \u00a0I am so excited about the new phase of life starting very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8240"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8247,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8240\/revisions\/8247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}