Category: Salvation

  • Safe in the arms of God.

    Baseball umpire indicating "safe"

    Safe!

    Safe! What a wonderful call for any baseball base runner to hear an umpire call. It’s also good for the rest of us to know we are safe in a tumultuous world that seems to have lost its mind. Christians are safe in the arms of God.

    Don’t misunderstand. We are not exempt from trials, tribulations, illness, crime, poor choices, physical harm, economic downturns, or natural disasters. We’re not safe from persecution, or temptation, or relational ills. All of those are part and parcel of living in a fallen, son-filled world.

    What are we safe from? In the words of the hymn “Before the Throne of God Above” …

    Before the throne of God above. I have a strong and perfect plea. A great High Priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me. My name is graven on his hands, my name is written on his heart. I know that while in Heav’n he stands no tongue can bid me thence depart.

    Every element of our salvation is our God. He calls us and gives us the faith and courage to receive Him. He dies to pay the cost of our sin, and He dwells within us to make us more like him.

    Once we are His, we are His forever. Safe in the arms of God. We can’t mess up so badly that we fall completely from Grace. We may face consequences and discipline, but never rejection. Nothing can tear us away from him, or as the song says, “none can bid me hence depart”.

    I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:28 ESV

    For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 ESV

    Some will say that gives us freedom to sin. Paul clearly tells us that isn’t the case.

     For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means Romans 6:14-15 ESV

    We need to understand that we are secure in Christ. That knowledge should help us understand how deep His love and mercy for us is. That understanding leads us to love Him more and to desire to please Him. That desire makes it harder for us to sin and easier to repent. 

    My friends, as believers, you are safe in the arms of God. Now live in that wonderful news.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

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  • The Boardwalk

    Is there really more than one path?

    The boardwalk gave us a dry path through the swampy  undergrowth. Without it, we would have been wet to the knees.

    There was another path that paralleled the one we took, but it wandered straight through the swamp without the benefit of a high and dry walkway. It ended somewhere deep in the wet.

    It’s nice to have a clear path at times. The pathway to salvation is less clear in the world. Yet, one thing is apparent: almost every faith recognizes Jesus in some way.

    The Baha’i believe he is who he claimed to be. The problem is that they accept other views that make the claims about their paths equally valid. So to them, Jesus is one of many ways.

    The Muslim faith accepts Jesus as a prophet.

    The Buddhists accept Jesus as an enlightened messenger, although they do not accept his claims of being God or the path to redemption.

    The Hindu view of Jesus is as an avatar. An avatar is the descent of a deity into animal or human form for the sake of humanity. That means they accept him as a god.

    The Rastafarians accept Christ as a prophet. The Shinto accept Him as another way to redemption. The orthodox Jewish view sees Christ as a man, not God. To the Sikh, Jesus was a prophet.

    All these faiths acknowledge Jesus in some way, though they differ on the details. Since they all recognize Him, why don’t we look to the source and examine the words of Jesus Himself?

    So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:7-9 ESV

    I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.  John 10:14-15 ESV

    My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27-28 ESV

    Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7 ESV

    Christ is the only path that will lead to your salvation. Don’t be lured into the weeds by those who acknowledge Him but refuse to accept what He clearly claimed.

    If you haven’t done so yet, choose Jesus today.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed, 

    Kevin

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