How to Live Righteous in Our Changing World

By Benjamin Jackson

The righteousness of God is given to the born-again believers who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Believers are the righteousness of God because they are "in Christ." Being "in Christ," believers can live a righteous life in our changing world. Believers are justified by God's grace through the redemption that is "in Christ." They renew their minds in the Word of God, which transforms their minds so they can live a righteous life. Believers who are "in Christ" will not conform to this world's patterns and behaviors. They are "the just," and "the just" lives by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Believers have righteous attitudes because of their faith "in Jesus Christ" and in the Word of God, which helps them live a pleasing life before God in order to have peace with God and themselves. Believers' attitudes determine their thoughts, their thoughts determine what they say, and their words determine their results or their reality. Therefore, believers can live righteous in our changing world because they are led by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, which is their final authority, and they have the mind of Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643497846

Book preview

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How to Live

Righteous

in Our Changing World

Benjamin R. Jackson

ISBN 978-1-64349-783-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64349-852-2 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-64349-784-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2019 by Benjamin R. Jackson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Scripture quotations taken from the 21st Century King James Version®, Copyright © 1994. Used by permission of Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible,

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Acknowledgements

Writing this book was a challenging, learning experience and tremendous undertaking. I believe that writing this book was a rewarding experience and it took my life to another level. I am indebted to my wife, Diane Jackson for her encouragement and support. She was willing to read the manuscript and offered constructive criticism.

I especially want to thank a good friend who deserves thanks-- Kenneth E. Overby. He encouraged me to focus on my goals and to reveal my essence when writing this book. He inspired me to stay on target and to complete this book.

I want to thank my daughter, Michelle D. Jackson for sharing one of her poems in this book. She has been very supportive and a consistent encouragement in me writing this book.

It has been so wonderful for me to have the support and encouragement from my wife, Diane Jackson, my daughter, Michelle D. Jackson, and my friend, Kenneth E. Overby.

A Message for the Children

So dissed and stressed.

I tell you I’ve had enough!

To be in so much pain and so disappointed.

Can anyone understand?

When it rains, it pours.

These tears of mine run all the time.

Fighting these hurts when fighting is not the cure.

Only time will tell,

But how much time do we have?

He has the answers.

Only He can stop the tears from falling

When my ticket is ready to come home.

Only He knows that, you see, for only He will be the judge.

He’s everlasting. Let us not be afraid.

Trust in Him. We are all one.

So come with me. We are in this together.

Don’t get distressed.

He has all the answers!

—Michelle D. Jackson

Introduction

Growing up in the Deep South gave me a mindset about righteousness and righteous living. My mindset about righteousness was doing and being the kind of person who performs to please my church and conform to my church’s membership. When my church and my church’s membership were pleased, I was happy. In other words, this was what I was taught. I can remember the pressure I felt as a young man when I was fifteen years old. I needed to be born again. I needed to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. No one told me I needed to be born again at the age of sixteen. I could feel the pressure from my church and people in my neighborhood. I didn’t understand at the time, but that was the tradition in our church and neighborhood. Young boys should be born again by the age of sixteen.

At the age of sixteen, I prayed every day for four to five hours. Each day, I went half a mile from my house to pray in an isolated straw field to be alone and shut the world out. I was praying to get my conversion experience, but nothing happened for almost one whole month until one Wednesday evening, after I had been praying for three hours. Suddenly, everything changed, and I felt joy and peace I had never felt before. At that moment, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I accepted Him in my heart by faith, and I was converted from an unsaved person to a saved person. I was born again. So then the only thing I needed to do was to join the church, which I did on the same day I accepted Jesus as my Savoir. I started to live the Christian life, which I was taught by my church. I was taught to perform in my church in order to live a Christian life. I sang in the church choir. I was a junior usher. I went to prayer meetings on Wednesday nights. I attended Sunday school. I felt if I didn’t do these things, I would not be fit for the kingdom of God, so I kept performing to feel good about my Christian life.

After high school, I moved to New York and got involved in a new church where my mindset was changed from a mentality of performing to an attitude of acceptance for what Jesus had done on the cross at Calvary to make me the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus alone for salvation and to live an eternal life in heaven. The righteousness of God is given to believers who have placed their faith in Jesus. The power of sin has been taken care of by Jesus’s finished work on the cross at Calvary.

Believers are justified by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ. Being in Christ, we can live a righteous life in our changing world. We are the righteousness of God because we are in Christ. Believers renew their minds in the Word of God, which transforms their minds so they can live righteous lives. Believers who are in Christ will not conform to this world. They will be righteous because they are the just, and the just live by faith in Jesus alone. By being the righteousness of God, believers have righteous attitudes that help them live pleasing lives before God in order to have