First Mentions

This is the first newsletter from Emmanuel Full Gospel International making this very special as there can never be another first of its kind.  For example, you never forget your first school,  job, car, win, etc. Above all we could never forget our first encounter with God through our Lord and Saviour,  Jesus Christ.    I will always remember that glorious moment when I first accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and  the day, the place, and the prayer. God places great importance on firsts. For example, the law of ‘first mentions’.  This law is the principle that requires us to go to that portion of the Scriptures where it is mentioned for the first time and to study it’s first occurrence in order to get the fundamental  meaning.   Study the circumstances where a subject or word is first mentioned and apply that principle to subsequent occurrences. 

God first introduces us to light in Geneses Chapter 1, in the context of formlessness, confusion and darkness, the world as a useless mass of shapeless material drifting aimlessly through the emptiness of space veiled in darkness just like mankind without Christ.  Jesus informed us that He is the light and just as God saw that the light was good, God also referred to Jesus as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased.  So applying the law of ‘first mentions’, this passage teaches us that there will be chaos in any area of our life where the light of Christ and His redemptive work are not allowed to operate by the Holy Spirit. We can be certain that if we have an area that is out of control in our life, Christ and His teachings have not been allowed to shine into that dark area in our life and be applied.

In the Bible, without exception, day always commenced with the light, a new day dawned by the rising of the sun. Our society  on the other hand, starts a new day at midnight. This is consistent with the conceptions of fallen man in a darkened society that sadly believes that new beginnings can occur without any need of a Saviour. Contrastingly, Christians understand that God’s day breaks forth with light –  not darkness.

An encounter with Jesus Christ for the first time will change your life forever but perhaps you have never opened a Bible or considered  the God of the Universe loves you.  Perhaps you have never given a thought to eternity –  but there is a first time for everything.  An encounter with Jesus Christ for the first time will change your life forever.

Let it be our prayerful aim therefore, that our lives be Christ centered and we place Jesus first in all we do throughout 2013.