Blog #1020 God's Gift of Grace

Many people believe (or hope, anyway) that they will go to heaven when they die because they did their best to live a good life while they were here on earth. But the simple truth of the matter is that the only people who will spend an eternity with God are the ones who have accepted God's gift of grace and have put their faith in Jesus Christ and on what He did at the cross, whereas those who reject this gift will not. The price for rejecting God's gift is eternal separation from Him.

When we become a believer, we recognize that we are not good enough in ourselves to deserve anything but death from God. Humankind's sinful nature ... which is characterized by rebellion against God ... has alienated us from our Creator. Even if it were possible, by sheer will, to never sin again, we would still be alienated from God because by our natures we are sinners. Just never sinning again (even if that were possible) wouldn't do anything to change our natures and that's where the problem lies. We aren't sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. Please grasp the difference because it is crucially important. Our condemnation and subsequent alienation from God is due to what we are, not to what we do. But the fact is that because we are sinners we will never be able to not sin and if we think we can, we're just fooling ourselves. But luckily for us, at the moment of salvation, Jesus forgives all our sins, declares us no longer guilty and He gives us brand new natures. We may still sin but we are no longer sinners by nature.

Therefore, if we reject the truth that salvation comes only though the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we have nowhere else to turn. The only way is through Christ. Our good works ... no matter how good ... aren't good enough to get us into heaven ... a place of sinless perfection ... because our transgressions remain unforgiven. The penalty for sin is death (Rom 6:23) and if Christ's atoning sacrifice is rejected, we must pay the price ourselves.

I'm not trying to scare anyone into salvation here; I'm just trying to give out a warning about what the future holds for those of us who reject the Lord. God has set before us all a choice. A choice between eternal life or eternal death: "I am offering you life or death, blessings or curses. Now choose life! Then you and your children may live ... love the Lord your God" (Deut. 30:19-20 NCV).

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[I found this and thought I'd share.]

Tongue-tied

Five o'clock at last; I slipped the dustcover over my typewriter. As I did, Sharon, the secretary who sat at the desk next to mine, lingered around my work area. It was obvious by the way she picked up a pen and put it down again that something was on her mind.

With a smile, I sighed, "Long day wasn't it?"

"How does God speak to you?" Sharon blurted out.

"Through Scripture and prayers," I answered after a brief hesitation. "He ... He ... sometimes ... " My mind went blank.

Before I had a chance to say another word Sharon grabbed her purse and was out the door, barely taking time to toss a, "Good night ... thanks," over her shoulder.

It never failed. Every time Sharon asked me about God or salvation, I was only able to answer her specific question, and then couldn't think of another thing to say.

I'd been trying to lead Sharon to the Lord for several months and even though I'd brought her to church and introduced her to my friends, I felt I was failing her ... and God. And even though I believed God can turn everything to good, I wondered how He could use my silence to His advantage.

One morning several days later, Sharon came running over to me. Her sparkling eyes told me something wonderful had happened.

"I accepted the Lord last night," she said, as she reached over and grabbed my hand. She explained how one of her new friends at church had prayed with her. Smiling, she continued. "Thanks for not preaching to me when I asked questions. Everyone else tried to tell me too much at one time, and I became confused. You simply answered my questions, and told me what I needed to know at the time."

I smiled to myself when Sharon went back to her own desk. God's ways are so mysterious and powerful. He can even use silence to His advantage.

By Beverly Hamilton, Still Moments.

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I think I have about decided to go back to trying to give each of my devotions a title rather than a number. It's easier on me, not having to think up a title, but it's harder if I want to go back and reread something. I can never remember what number it was and it's next to impossible to find the one blog you're looking for with them just numbered. Today I put both in my title. Just bear with me as I struggle with the best way to identify my blogs. It just seems that we Can remember titles easier than numbers. If it comes right down to it, I can number those for which I can't think of a title and write titles for those I can. I'll have to see how things go. I'm still learning about blogs.

The brakes on my car have still not made a sound since I prayed about them. What an awesome God! Just goes to show that He cares about anything that effects us and not just spiritual things. And He didn't even get mad at me for being "a little short" with Him when I prayed. Well, it was an honest prayer because I was a little miffed at Him at the time. It's happened in the past but I'd always managed to kind of smooth it over when I prayed and hadn't come off with my honest emotions. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not encouraging you to get mad at God; I'm just trying to tell you that's it's okay to be honest with Him. In fact, I think it's what He desires. It's just hard to let yourself be a little cross with Someone who can zap you into oblivion anytime He wants to. LOL. It's so easy to cop out with "not my will but Yours," and surrender as a defeatist, rather than being honest and saying "I know You will do the best for me, but this sort of irritates me!"

But, you know, faith is either going to work in our lives or it isn't. And if we don't have enough faith to put it all on the line once in awhile, then we're sorely lacking in faith. God isn't going to annihilate us just because we're honestly perplexed and at the end of our rope. With me it was just that the Lord had been teaching me to pray specifically for things in my life and not pray in such general terms as I had the habit of doing. And when I started praying specifically for my car and to then have something else go wrong! Well, it was just too much for me. My prayer was just, "I don't understand! You say You want me to pray for specific things and when I begin to do that, You let another thing go wrong with my car! What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to think? Either prayer works or it doesn't work. Which is it?"

I don't know if I'll ever have the nerve to get put out with the Lord again, but I sure hope I do, I hope I'll be able to continue being that honest with my prayers. Because this prayer certainly seems to have been answered in the affirmative. Not that I expect all my prayers to be answered that way. But I hope I will continue to give Him the opportunity to answer my prayers in the future. I mean, He hasn't answered the specific thing I was praying for about the car, yet, but I have confidence He will. Or maybe He's answering that prayer by not letting the front end get any worse on my car. That's an answer too. He kept the shoes of the Israelites from wearing out for 40 years. He can do the same with the front end. But I have confidence now!

'Twas bright sunshine this morning. All the overcast cleared out yesterday afternoon. But the loss of cloud cover let it get colder last night. We got down into the 20s so it was pretty chilly in the house when I got up. Well, I need to get busy so I think I'll let this be it for today. Until tomorrow ...