Tag: salvation

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The scripture for today, March 10, is Colossians 3:10 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK EIGHT-COME FLY WITH ME-Cover“And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

Did you ever make something with your hands and were so proud of it that you would stop at nothing to take care of it and make sure that it lasted forever? You were its creator and it was, in a sense, a part of you.

Do you resist knowing the Bible because you think of it as being full of rules from a God who doesn’t really like you and is just giving you a hard time so you can’t have any fun?

Think again. He is your Creator. He loved you enough to make you, and you are a part of him. Now he wants to take care of you so that you can last forever.

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The scripture for today, February 24, is 1st Peter 2:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

Many people do not understand what Jesus dying on the cross has to do with us going to heaven. Here it is. God is perfect, so cannot dwell with imperfection. God is complete love and goodness, so cannot dwell with hatred and bad.

Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. So all through the Old Testament era, whenever we sinned, God allowed us to kill/sacrifice a perfect animal in our place. This, however, was a temporary fix.

Eventually God sent his own Son to come to earth and live in a human body and be tempted in every way that we are (see Hebrews 4:15). Jesus resisted all temptations, and lived his entire life sinless. He was perfect. Then as the perfect Lamb of God (John 1:29), Jesus was the final sacrifice. He died in our place. He took the punishment for our sins. On the cross, he died spiritually (forsaken by God) and physically (blood was shed).

Then God basically told the world, “I will consider you perfect too; all you have to do is believe in and follow my Son.” It is explained further in Romans 6:3-4. Just as Jesus died bearing our sins, we die to our sinful nature ~ the part of us that sins and doesn’t care. Then just as Jesus was buried in his tomb, we are buried in the watery tomb of baptism. And finally, just as Jesus rose up out of his tomb the Savior, we rise up out of our watery tomb the saved ~ born again to a new life.

Indeed, by Jesus’ wounds we can be healed. We fall at his feet and say, “I am a sinner and so unworthy. Thank you.”

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The scripture for today, February 4, is 1st Timothy 2:4 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“[God]…wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

HS-COVER-KINDLE-GOLDSome people say, “You don’t choose God; God chooses you out of all the other people of the world.” But God wants to choose us all. He wants everyone to be saved. So in what sense does he choose us?

He is kind of like an employer who is looking for people to fill certain positions. He chooses those who qualify. He doesn’t have to choose anyone. By the employer’s grace he chooses people to fill certain positions. He doesn’t have to be in business and he doesn’t have to give someone else a job. He could do the work himself. But he chooses to hire help and give them part of his money.

So how do we qualify for God’s grace? We never deserve it; but because God loves us, he asks just a few things to qualify. Believing is just the first step. Read Romans 10 and Acts 2. Those two chapters pretty much sum up what we do to be qualified. Not many things, but they do qualify us if we follow them.

And remember 2nd Peter 3:9 ~ “He [God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but EVERYONE to come to repentance.”

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The scripture for today, September 17, is Nehemiah 9:17 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK EIGHT-COME FLY WITH ME-Cover“They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore, you did not desert them.”

Such love! We rebel against God (who is only trying to save us) over and over because we don’t want anyone telling us what to do, and God forgives over and over. I Peter 3:9 says “The Lord…is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

God could turn us all into robots and force us to obey him. But that wouldn’t be Love. God is Love, and he cannot go against his own nature. And so he follows us around and pleads over and over, “Follow my Son into safety!”

How he hurts when we do not; how he smiles when we do.

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The scripture for today, April 9, is 1st John 4:9f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

We human do not have the will to live perfect lives. We give in to sin. We can never get it right. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. In the Old Testament era, God let people kill an animal in their place whenever they sinned, but it had to be done over and over.

Then God put a stop to that by sending his Son to us for awhile with a body, so his Son’s body could be killed (paying our wages) in our place.

Finally, God invited mankind to “live through him” ~ that is, become Christians. How do we become alive through Jesus? Of course we know about believing Jesus was the Son of God and repenting of our sins. Also Romans 6:4 says when we are baptized, we begin to live a new life, we are born again.

But it does not stop there. We must try the best we can to live as Jesus lived, speak as Jesus spoke, love as Jesus loved. We are not saved by good works because we are still sinners, but we do demonstrate our salvation through the love of God by good works (James 2). With Jesus living in us, we are his mouth, his hands, his feet. It is then that we offer our own bodies as daily sacrifices (Romans 12:1).

This is love.

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The scripture for today, February 4, is 1st Timothy 2:4 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:


WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE“[God]…wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Some people say, “You don’t choose God; God chooses you out of all the other people of the world.” But God wants to choose us all. He wants everyone to be saved. So in what sense does he choose us? He is kind of like an employer who is looking for people to fill certain positions. He chooses those who qualify. He doesn’t have to choose anyone. By the employer’s grace he chooses people to fill certain positions. He doesn’t have to be in business and he doesn’t have give someone else a job. He could do the work himself. But he chooses to.

So how do we qualify for God’s grace? We never deserve it; but because God loves us, he asks just a few things to qualify. Believing is just the first step. Read Romans 10 and Acts 2. Those two chapters pretty much sum up what we do to be qualified. Not many things, but they do qualify us if we follow them.

And remember 2nd Peter 3:9 ~ “He [God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but EVERYONE to come to repentance.”

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The scripture for today, January 24, is Jude 1:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY-COVER-KINDLE“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy ~ “

God is perfect, and so cannot dwell with faults and imperfection. We have faults. Romans 3:23 says everyone sins. And Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. But God always has wanted us to live with him. What a dilemma!

God solved our problem at great expense. He sent His Son, Jesus, to earth who lived the faultless life for us. Then God offered His perfect Son, His only Son, Jesus, to die in our place.

After that, God told the world that He would consider us “without fault” vicariously through Jesus. He’s already paid the penalty for our sins. All we have to do is believe He did and follow everything He said and did to the best of our ability.

How amazing ~ God’s love for us!

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The Scripture for today, December 30, is Matthew 12:30, as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Cover-Bible Women-Createspace“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”

You mean we can’t just drift along just showing up at church services and that is all? We must gather people to him. It’s important that we do so. Are we doing it? Or are we too afraid?

Deep down inside, most people fear that, if we bring Jesus into a conversation, people will do us great harm and become dangerous enemies. Although in some countries of the world this is true, in most it is not. But still we quake at the thought of bringing up Jesus to our friends, and even to strangers.

It can be done. Give it a try. If it were your soul, would you want someone to at least try to save you? Dare to be a gatherer today.

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The scripture for today, November 14, is Job 11:14f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

jesusface“If you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear.”

Job’s misguided friend, Zophar, was advising Job that, if he would become perfect (“allow no evil”), he would stand firm before God.

Oh, Zophar! Hadn’t he caught on yet? Hadn’t he yet realized that we cannot be perfect? At the end of this book, God told Zophar and his friends to repent of their words to Job.

Throughout the Old Testament, the Jews tried unsuccessfully to be perfect with the help of the Law of Moses, but they couldn’t do it. In the mean time, the nations that had not received the Law were left to try with their own methods to be perfect, and they couldn’t do it either.

The only thing that ever has allowed mankind to be perfect has been the blood of Jesus. He was the perfect Lamb of God. So finally, eons after Zophar said those words, we who follow Jesus are able to stand firm, because Jesus can make us perfect, washing away our sins (John 1:29; Acts 22:16).

 The scripture for today, June 29 (6/29), is John 6:29 as found in the New Testament of the Bible.

“Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: To believe in the one he has sent.”

Yes, it is true that the gift of salvation is just that ~ a gift, a free gift. And it is true that we cannot be good enough to earn salvation, because we don’t know how to be perfect, and heaven can only accept the perfect.

But at the same time, James 2:18 says “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” In other words, there are things we need to do to obtain salvation. We have to believe there is a gift for us somewhere, walk over to it, reach out, and grasp it. Repenting is a work. And Jesus himself said believing (faith) is a work.

And how do we go about obtaining faith?  By believing what other people tell us to believe?  Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing/reading the Word of God ~ the Bible.  It is going directly to God’s Words to find out for ourselves.  It takes a little bit of work to read through it.  But then, we can know whether what we believe is really what God said.

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