Nuggets of Gold: Reflections on Right Relationship with God

By Denise Watts-Wilson and Joe Crawford

"Finally! A guide in laymen's terms that will guide us in a closer walk with our great God!"

-RITA SNOW

Licensed Massage Therapist, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

"This is a very thorough yet very simple look at the basic tenets of Christianity. Denise and Joe have done a great job of making it concise,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Jan 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781647739003

Denise Watts-Wilson

DENISE WATTS-WILSON, BA, MACE, MDivRE, is a blessed and grateful Christ-Follower, mother and grandmother, ordained minister, licensed local pastor, Bible teacher, Gospel singer, International Transformational Leadership trainer, and Church Leadership Development Coach.Denise's life has been immeasurably enriched through harvesting the Nuggets of Gold in God's Word since her teen years.

Book preview

Making the Most of Nuggets of Gold

Chapter 1

Scripture

1.1 Scripture Is God-Breathed

1.2 The Credibility of Scripture

1.3 Scripture Is Eternally Relevant

1.4 Scripture Is God’s Mirror for Your Life

1.5 Scripture Is God’s Surgical Tool

1.6 Scripture Is God’s Cleansing Agent

1.7 Scripture Is God’s Seed of Eternal Life

1.8 Scripture Is God’s Milk for New Christians

1.9 Scripture Is God’s Solid Food for Maturing Christians

1.10 Scripture Is God’s Text for Your Life of Study

1.11 Scripture Is a Unified Book

Chapter 2

God

2.1 God Exists

2.2 There Is Only One God

2.3 God Is One Triune God

2.4 God Is Creator

2.5 God Is Spirit

2.6 God Is Love

2.7 God Cares

2.8 God Grieves

2.9 The Wrath of God

2.10 God Hates

2.11 God Is a Consuming Fire

2.12 God Is the Source of All Life

2.13 God Is Light

2.14 God Is Unlimited in His Understanding

2.15 God Is All-Powerful

2.16 God Is Present Everywhere

2.17 God’s Mercy

2.18 God’s Grace

2.19 God’s Prevenient Grace

2.20 God’s Justifying Grace

2.21 God’s Sanctifying Grace

2.22 God’s Perfecting Grace

Chapter 3

Jesus

3.1 Jesus Is Creator of All Things

3.2 Jesus Claimed to be God

3.3 Jesus Was Identified as God by Others

3.4 Jesus Was Worshipped as God

3.5 Jesus’ Virgin Birth Was Foretold

3.6 Jesus as a Man Grew and Developed

3.7 Jesus the Man Experienced the Needs of the Flesh Without Sin

3.8 Jesus Has All Power

3.9 Jesus Sustains All Things

3.10 Jesus Forgives Sin

3.11 Jesus Died a Natural Death

3.12 Jesus’ Death Was Unnatural

3.13 Jesus Died a Vicarious Death

3.14 Jesus Died a Supernatural Death

3.15 Jesus Is the Resurrection

3.16 Jesus Is Resurrected from the Dead

3.17 The Resurrection Appearances of Jesus

3.18 Jesus Ascended into Heaven and Is Returning

Chapter 4

The Holy Spirit

4.1 The Holy Spirit Is God

4.2 The Holy Spirit Is the Author of Scripture

4.3 The Holy Spirit Is Present Everywhere

4.4 The Holy Spirit Is the Living Water Who Fills Us

4.5 The Holy Spirit Is Like Fire

4.6 The Holy Spirit Is Represented by a Dove

4.7 The Holy Spirit Is Like the Wind

4.8 The Holy Spirit Anoints Believers for God’s Work

4.9 The Holy Spirit Baptizes Believers

4.10 The Holy Spirit Bears Fruit in Believers

4.11 The Holy Spirit Fills Believers

4.12 The Holy Spirit Gives Gifts to Believers

4.13 The Holy Spirit Has All Knowledge

4.14 The Holy Spirit Indwells Believers

4.15 The Holy Spirit Leads Believers

4.16 The Holy Spirit Makes Scripture Understandable

4.17 The Holy Spirit Proves the World Wrong about Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment

4.18 The Holy Spirit Regenerates

4.19 The Holy Spirit Seals Believers

4.20 The Holy Spirit Seals Believers in Jesus

4.21 The Sin of Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

4.22 The Sin of Grieving the Holy Spirit

4.23 The Sin of Quenching the Holy Spirit

4.24 The Sin of Resisting the Holy Spirit

Chapter 5

Sin

5.1 What Is Sin?

5.2 How Sin Entered the World

5.3 The Result of Sin

5.4 God’s Remedy for Sin

Chapter 6

Judgments

6.1 We Are Ultimately Accountable to God

6.2 Judgments of the Believer’s Sins

6.3 Judgment of the Believer’s Self

6.4 The Judgment of the Believer’s Works

6.5 The Final Judgment on Earth

6.6 The Great White Throne Judgment

6.7 Is There Really a Hell?

Chapter 7

Repentance

7.1 What Does Repentance Mean?

7.2 God Commands Repentance

7.3 Jesus Preached Repentance

7.4 God Wants Everyone to Repent

7.5 Repent from Acts that Lead to Death

7.6 False Repentance Can Leave You Lost

7.7 Christ-Followers Need to Demonstrate Repentance

Chapter 8

The New Birth

8.1 You Must Be Born-Again

8.2 Evidence of the New Birth

8.3 Your New Birth Is Imperishable

8.4 The New Birth Produces a New Sinless Nature

8.5 How to Experience the New Birth

Chapter 9

Facts of Salvation

9.1 God Loves You

9.2 You Are a Sinner

9.3 Sin Separates You from God

9.4 God’s Gift to You Is Eternal Life in Jesus Christ

9.5 Christ Died for You

9.6 You Are Saved by Personal Faith in Jesus Christ

9.7 You Can Know that You Are Saved

9.8 You Are Saved to Obey God

9.9 There Are Three Dimensions of Salvation

Chapter 10

Your Identity in Christ

10.1 You Are Created in God’s Image

10.2 You Are Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

10.3 In Christ You Are Blessed

10.4 You Are Chosen to be Blameless to the Praise of His Glory

10.5 In Christ You Are Adopted

10.6 In Christ You Are Accepted in the Beloved

10.7 In Christ You Are Redeemed

10.8 In Christ You Are Forgiven

Chapter 11

Living the Christ-Life

11.1 What Is the Christ-Life?

11.2 The Christ-life Begins with Responding to Christ’s Call

11.3 The Christ-Life Is a Life of Being Obedient

11.4 Being a Child of God

11.5 Being a Living Sacrifice

11.6 Being a Servant Among Fellow Believers

11.7 Being Faithful in Gathered Worship

11.8 Being Transformed Not Conformed

11.9 Being Vulnerable

11.10 Denying Self

11.11 Dying to Sin as Jesus Did

11.12 Forgiveness Versus Restoration

11.13 Growing in Grace and the Knowledge of Christ

11.14 Growing in Love

11.15 Living a Life of Integrity

11.16 Living a Life of Prayer

11.17 Living a Spirit-Filled Life

11.18 Living as One Set Apart for the Gospel of Christ

11.19 Living Humbly

11.20 Living the Abundant Life

11.21 Living Under Accountability to God

11.22 Loving with Sacrificial Love

11.23 Overcoming Satan

11.24 Practicing Forgiveness

11.25 Practicing Gratitude

11.26 Remembering The Least of These

11.27 Suffering with Christ

11.28 Witnessing

Chapter 12

Worship

12.1 What Is Worship?

12.2 Teaching That Which Is True to Scripture

12.3 Careful Reception of the Message

12.4 Good Order in Worship

12.5 Sing Joyfully

12.6 Tongues in Public Worship

12.7 Understanding the Breaking of Bread

12.8 Praising God

Chapter 13

Prayer

13.1 What Is Prayer?

13.2 Why Pray?

13.3 How to Pray

13.4 Where to Pray

13.5 Hindrances to Prayer

13.6 Fasting and Prayer

Chapter 14

Faith

14.1 What Is Faith?

14.2 The Importance of Faith

14.3 Little Faith

14.4 Three Kinds of Faith

Chapter15

The Church

15.1 What Is the Church

15.2 The Head of the Church

15.3 The Elders of the Church

15.4 The Worship and Work of the Church

15.5 The Foundation of the Church

15.6 The Power of the Church

15.7 The Church Is Kept Strong with Sound Doctrine

15.8 Discipline in the Church

15.9 Attending Worship Regularly

15.10 Celebrating the Breaking of Bread

15.11 The Great Commandments of the Church

15.12 Being Vulnerable

15.13 The Future of the Church

Chapter 16

Witnessing

16.1 What Is Witnessing

16.2 The Importance of Witnessing

16.3 The Qualifications of a Witness

16.4 The Indirect Approach

16.5 The Direct Approach

16.6 How to Give an Invitation

16.7 The Follow-through

16.8 The Shift from Witnessing to Disciple-Making

Chapter 17

Rewards

17.1 The Crown of Glory

17.2 The Crown of Life

17.3 The Crown of Rejoicing

17.4 The Crown of Righteousness

17.5 The Crown That Will Last Forever

Chapter 18

End Times

18.1 What Is Meant by End Times?

18.2 The Rapture

18.3 The Great Tribulation

18.4 The 1,000-Year Reign of Christ

18.5 The Judgment of Satan

18.6 The Great White Throne Judgment

18.7 A New Heaven and a New Earth

18.8 Eden Will Be Restored

18.9 The New Jerusalem

Congratulations And Thank You!

References

Acknowledgements

From Denise:

It all begins with God. He placed this work within me, and, in the fullness of time, He brought it out of me. But He worked through some people that I dare not fail to mention and thank.

The Fresh Expressions 2017 Kentucky Team who stirred up within me the celebration of what God is doing to keep His church alive in a nation that is tiring of church as usual.

Joe Crawford, who stepped into this project two and a half years ago, having no idea of the amount of time and effort that would be required to get to this place…and is still investing the time and effort to take this work to the places where God would have it go.

Denise Barker-Jamison, Ella Dubose, Vernon Hodge, Mike and Diana Lehman, Laurie McKnight, Brenda Moorman, Garry W. Polston, Rita Snow, Marcia Toth, and Rose White, who took the time to read and review this work.

Mike Lehman and Laurie McKnight—who noticed and shared some very significant deficiencies in the review copy that helped tremendously in the final editing process.

From Joe:

Denise Watts-Wilson, for giving me the opportunity to work with her on these reflections. It has helped me go deeper in my understanding of being a Christian and walking with Jesus.

Foreword

This page is traditionally written by someone other than the author. While that may, at first glance, appear not to be the case here, in so many ways, it is fully the case. A legacy speaks on this page.

When I was in Junior High School, two or three years after my life-transforming surrender to the saving power of Jesus Christ, I had one of the briefest conversations of my life and one of the most significant. My grandmother asked me a question: Do you read your Bible? My honest reply, No. Her simple challenge, You should.

That was the end of the conversation but certainly not the end of the story. I began reading the Bible, the way I had read scores, maybe even hundreds of books already in my life—from the beginning. It went fairly well…until I reached the book of Leviticus. That was just too much for my young mind. I was ready to put it aside (maybe forever), but I couldn’t shake the fact that my grandmother had said, You should.

With trial and error as the primary strategy (thank you Holy Spirit for guiding even then), I eventually wound up jumping over to the book of Matthew. In spite of the lineages that open the book of Matthew, I made it to my first nuggets of gold—the accounts of the life of Jesus, my savior and LORD.

By my sophomore year of high school, I had read the entire New Testament. Did I understand every word? Of course not! Did I grasp every one of its great teachings? No way. What did happen is that I found on those pages the satiation of an appetite I didn’t even know I had.

From that time until now, more than fifty years later, there is nothing that fills my soul like the Word of God. There is no wisdom that makes more sense than the wisdom of the Word. I’ve been through the Bible, and the Bible has been through me multiple times. I’m still learning from its pages how to succeed and how to fail. I’m learning how to lead and how to follow. I’m learning when to sit still and when to move forward. I’m learning when to let it slide and when to stand against it.

The second verse of His Eye is on the Sparrow has a phrase that revisits the message of this book: For by the path He leadeth, just one step at a time I see (Psalm 119:111 KJV) puts it like this: Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. In other words, in God’s Word, I find guidance for the next step as well as a direction to travel from year to year. And how does that happen? It’s in the constant and continual mining of the nuggets of gold that are waiting to be uncovered in the Word of God.

In this book, Joe and I have shared The Truth that has been blessing our lives for as long as we have spent in the Word. And that Truth continues to appear in the moments of each day.

The day before this writing, however, another truth came to me. I’ve learned to mine these nuggets by just staying in the mine. Much of what is here was not presented so clearly, if at all, during my years at seminary. Most of these grew clear as guided by the Holy Spirit, I studied the Bible and studied it again, and I listened, not just to my pastor but to great Bible teachers from around the country.

And it all started because of two sentences: Do you read your Bible? You should,

Putting together and reviewing these nuggets with Joe brought fresh waves of joy over what it means to follow Jesus Christ. Thank you, Grandmommy, for a simple nudge that continues to rock my world daily.

Now I ask you, my friend: Do you read the Bible? For all the days you have left in this world, may your answer be a decisive and joy-filled, Yes!

May the nuggets of gold you gather in your reading encourage you along the way.

—Eddie Mae Jowers 1905–1993

Introduction

What does it mean to be in relationship with God? Is it just a matter of attending a certain church every now and then? Is it hereditary, based on what church your parents attend, whether or not you attend church? Is it about being a citizen of a particular country, no church required at all? Is it a matter of simply being spiritual? Is it even possible to have a relationship with God?

In Romans 12:1 and 2 (NIV), Paul writes, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.

That sounds good, but what does it mean? What’s mercy? What’s a living sacrifice? What’s holy? What is worship?

Let’s start at the beginning. We are invited into an everlasting relationship with God, a