Salvation
What must one do to be saved? This has been the question since Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden. Warren Wiersbe said it well when he said Nobody is saved by making and keeping a vow. Salvation is the gift of God to those who believe, not a reward to those who behave.”
In fact there is nothing we can do to work our way to heaven or earn it. It is only through grace, only through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that we can be saved.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Act 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Frustrations
Today I was taking little John to piano lessons. We got caught up in a huge traffic jam. I got so upset with the delay. I just could not understand why people were driving so slow, and not going when the light was green. It caused us to be majorly late. ugh. Of course, if I had left more than eight minutes to get all the way to colerain, I would have missed the traffic.
Coming home we went through the same intersection. They were hauling away the cause of the traffic jam and my frustrations. Two vehicles involved in an accident. One was obviously cut in pieces in an attempt to free the passengers. One of them eventually passed away.
I couldn’t help but stop and pause. How quickly their lives went from fun to over in a split second. And then the thought that I was so selfish. I wanted the traffic to move. I’m sure that the kids in the car would have loved to still be on their way. I was inconvenienced, their lives would never be the same.
I couldn’t have known what was going on. I couldn’t see the intersection but I could have thought it through. I could have left the house earlier. For me it was an inconvenience. For them a life changing event.
Sermon on the Mount
Today we began the Beatitudes. Verse three starts with the poor in spirit. Being poor in spirit is required for salvation, spiritual growth, and God’s approval. How does one become poor in spirit? How do we become totally dependent on Him?
Luke 18:10-14 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Without poverty of spirit no one enters the kingdom of heaven. No one is saved that believes that there is something in them that would make God prefer or accept him.
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