Good Friday morning! Our government is deep in debt, but what's another $450 billion or so? The government is so deep in debt that even the Mint officers are helping themselves to some coin it seems. Of course the second of those has nothing to do with the first and it wasn't plural; other than that I reported it faithfully. You know that reporting headlines faithfully is not changing the single to plural so that an entire group becomes guilty of a crime or changing the context of the president's job plan. It is so easy to change and alter words to have a comic or even a criminal effect. With words in our language so easy to fool around with, how does a person find not only his way in life but the Way to eternal life?
First, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit out into the world to convict the world of its sin. Then, our Lord sent His Spirit into the hearts of those who will believe in Him. A person under the conviction of the Holy Spirit will be seeking answers, and we have a command directly from our Lord to share the Good News that we have in Christ. We point to the Way and help others find their way by showing the grace of Jesus in our lives and in our communications. We do good works because our faith in Christ has set us free to love our Lord and our neighbors. Those good works speak to even the unbelievers of the glorious changes God has made in us.
Of course the devil is going to tell you and me that we haven't gone on a 30-year mission to the Congo, endured starvation, disease, attacks by little tribesmen with big spears, years in prison, or even spoken to 50,000 people in a stadium about the love of Jesus. How can we possibly think that we are qualified to call Jesus "Lord"? Praise the Lord Jesus Christ that his good news was not about how much we have to do to qualify ourselves for salvation! We do good works because of the free gift of grace. And those good works start with the very simple.
Many an evangelist has put together a show on television or at a big stadium to preach to tens of thousands and even millions of persons. However, it is certainly possible that not all of them are saved. Some of those very impressive television evangelists may find themselves left behind when Jesus calls his own up to Heaven. If preaching the Word to a whole bunch of folks doesn't automatically qualify a person for salvation, why do we tend to listen so well when the devil says that we haven't done enough? One of the oldest temptations in the book: a person can do enough to save himself. The serpent used it on Eve to start the whole avalanche of sin. "Just eat this and you will become like God!"
I know in my mind that I cannot save myself through human effort and accomplishment; yet every now and then I find myself praying for help to accomplish this or that task so that I will be impressive in my own eyes. Gotta get that head knowledge into my heart and just accept that salvation is the work of the Lord Jesus. Good works will prove my faith in Jesus, but they are not for building some kind of resume to present to God proving my right to be in Heaven. Nope, can't earn our way to Heaven; guess we better let God show us the Way while we share the Good News that there is a way to eternal life!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Bucky
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