Wednesday, January 20, 2010

God-given Ability - January 20, 2010

Good Wednesday morning! Oi, my burning eyeballs! No, I didn't see one of them nekked pictures; I just cut up an onion for a stew this morning. The rain or snow didn't arrive last night, but they say some may come tomorrow. The predictions of freezing drizzle are always the worst. Most of us can drive just fine on snow; rain is not a problem, but that freezing drizzle on the roads is just the worst. Ah well, no sense in anticipating something that may not come.

I watched another of those symptom shows last night. Is the television a window on the fast-approaching end times or what? Examples of love growing cold abound in the media. However, from the police in a third world country who refuse to investigate a murder, to earthquakes and tsunamis, and to simple acts of ignoring the distress of another, we must realize that those are all symptoms. If you took off right now with all of your might and force of will, you couldn't so much as put a dent in the symptoms of the times. You might be able to help in a small area, but wouldn't it be more efficient to put your faith in the one who can straighten the entire mess out?

None of us has the power to bring peace to the world. God does, but He lets every person make decisions that can bring harm to others. These decisions, painful as they may be to us when it results in evil done to innocent persons, are necessary that all may come to decide about Jesus. I find it interesting that in this life we cannot save ourselves, but we can convict ourselves by refusing to believe in Jesus. A person can put up the stop sign to Jesus and go their own way, trusting only in their own strengths, or a person can believe in Jesus and be saved by a free gift.

Although I believe in Christ, I find that when I trust in my own strength to avoid sin, I fail. How could I have ever believed that I would succeed without Christ then? Like those lost in this world, I fell for a lie. The lie might be "you're smart" or "you're beautiful, talented, strong, fast... or many other compliments that in themselves are not lies, but when we believe in this or that ability to save us, it become a lie. No ability you or I have can save any one of us, much less other people. If there is one ability I thank God for, it is the ability to realize that only Jesus can save me. And ya know, I do believe that ability came from the Father too!

Praise God for the saving grace of Christ Jesus!

Bucky

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