What About Those Good Intentions

Good morning! Orowww! Sorry, but the big weekend isn't quite here yet. This is just a normal 2-day weekend for most. Next week is the... ooops, we'll worry about next weekend when it comes on Wednesday. Today is still Friday though, and for you corporate drones that means, ahhh, the weekend is upon us once more. Do you intend some home improvement this weekend? Or perhaps a little self improvement, or maybe even to volunteer somewhere, help out a friend or pay off your nation's debt? All good intentions, some perhaps more likely than others. I intend to pay down the nation's debt this weekend, maybe 10% of it or so if I can manage it. Yeah, ten percent of the national debt is a figure too large for me to print, but so what, my intention is just as good as yours.

Intentions are not actions, and our intentions to save ourselves in this life are perhaps the worst intentions of all. A corpse laid out in its coffin intends to live the good life. Don't laugh too much, its intentions are better than those who intend to save themselves through their own self-righteousness. The problem with the good intention of self-salvation is that it ignores the one way God gave us to be saved, Jesus Christ. Sure, becoming perfect through self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-improvement, self-righteousness and all of that is a good intention, but underneath is a whole lot of self-ishness. Under the righteousness of Jesus Christ is a whole lot of God's great love for you and me.

If a man intends with all his heart to save himself this weekend, I have a better chance of coming up with a tithe of the nation's debt in those two days and a Friday evening. On the other hand, if anyone intends to hear the good news of Jesus Christ this weekend, he or she has a wonderful chance at so many places to hear that good news. And more importantly, he or she will find a Helper in the Holy Spirit of God that will take that intention right into action, if he or she is willing to lay down the selfish good intentions and let God do the saving.

God bless you this weekend!
Bucky