Tag Archives: salvation

Guilty As Charged

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Acts 22-25

They tried so hard to find Paul guilty of something – anything. The only charge they could back up was that he believed Jesus rose from the dead, and he pleaded guilty to that accusation. Everything else they said about Paul were lies.

Yesterday morning, our Youth Pastor spoke about what it means to follow God: Denying self. Picking up the cross.

Following God means living a life like Paul’s, that if someone wanted to condemn us, it would have to be on the basis of our unwavering belief that Jesus is alive. Following God means patterning our lives on the life of Jesus – who was perfect!

Impossible, you say. True.

But following God ought to make us a bit more perfect today than we were yesterday. WIth the help of the Holy Spirit working in us, it’s not only possible but it’s a sign we are truly following God.

I’m not talking about a works-based salvation or a holier-than-thou attitude. I’m talking about having the mind of Christ, loving God and loving our neighbor. I’m talking about crucifying my desires and allowing God to replace them with the gifts of the Spirit and His desires for me.

I pray that all of us who call ourselves followers of God will BE followers of God in such a way that when we are questioned, or accused of believing that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world (which we have accepted for ourselves), when we are put to the test and condemned for being Christians, we will stand together and proclaim:

GUILTY AS CHARGED.

Crucified

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Galatians 2:20

I used to say Galatians 2:20 was my “life verse.” I think it probably still is, although I’ve come to embrace other verses as well. But I remember sitting in the tiny room in Waco Elementary School where I gave music lessons, and coming across this verse as I read my Bible during my lunch break. It spoke to me that day in a pointed way, and I sat there and memorized it, claiming it as my life verse.

Today I read it and wonder if it is even true in my life.

What does it mean to be crucified with Christ? I can’t die for my sins like Jesus did. I’ve heard it said Jesus died on “my” cross. But that cross was His. He was the only one who could hang on that cross. And because He did, I won’t have to hang on mine.

Being crucified with Christ is not the means of salvation. That was Jesus’ job.

I believe Paul was talking about what happens after we accept Jesus’ atoning work on His cross. It’s the dying we do as willingly as He died; the giving up, the surrender of the “me.” Dead men have no rights, no plans, no will of their own. A dead man is dead – not almost dead, or dead in some ways but not others.

Dead.

So I’m wonder if that describes me in my relationship with my Savior. Is the life I now live lived by faith in the One who loved me enough to die in my place? Is my walk with Him surrendered to His will? Is He my co-pilot… or the ship?

If 2:20 is my life verse (and I think I might claim it once again), then I have some soul-searching and changing to do.

God, help me truly and finally die to Connie, and allow only You to fill me, raise me up, and live through me.

Crucify the “me,” Lord.

You Are Not The Exception

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Luke 12-14

Is Jesus the only way? Really? People want to believe that, if there aren’t multiple ways to God, a least they themselves will be the exception. In theory, Jesus is the Way, but God is too loving to send a good person like me to hell. Right?

That’s not what Jesus says. Jesus says the way is narrow, the invitation to the banquet comes with restrictions, the landowner demands obedience, even those rich according to their own standards will be held accountable to God’s standards.

The truth is, it doesn’t matter what you think. You aren’t God. It only matters what God says about His design.

Like it or not. Believe it or not. Jesus is the only way…

And you are not the exception.

My Service to the Lord

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Nehemiah 5-8

There were some men who wanted to serve in the temple in Jerusalem. Their intentions were no doubt good, but they could not prove they actually belonged to Israel by birth. Because of that, they were considered unclean, and were denied the privileges afforded those who were proven Jewish.

Today, a lot of people want to be included into the family of Christ. They call themselves Christians, but when it comes right down to it, they haven’t been born again. They haven’t dealt with their sin problem and asked Jesus to cleanse them. They, too, will be excluded in the end.

But in this passage of Scripture we also read about hundreds of men, along with their sons who did serve the Lord. In fact, all we know about the majority is that they served the Lord. Thousands of years after their deaths, we are still reading their names based on their service to God.

We don’t know their net worth, or the kind of camel they drove, or if their house had a view. We don’t know how much education they had, or whether they had influential friends. All we know – all we know – is that they served the Lord.

That’s what I want people to say about me today, tomorrow, a hundred years from now and into eternity. “She served the Lord.” I have been saved by grace. I am a Christian according to Scripture. And I am a servant of God.

That, my friend, is all that matters – all that will matter in the end. It’s not about me. It’s about my Savior, and my service to the Lord.

Just You

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Ezekiel 13-16

Some of us need to hear the bad news. Are you ready?

You are going to be judged.

I’m not talking about the judgments of trolls in social media, or people you know who think differently than you. I’m not talking about that mean girl at work, or the neighbor who complains because your lawn isn’t manicured to his standards. You, my friend, are going to be judged by Holy God.

You will stand before Him, totally exposed, totally vulnerable, totally guilty, and know His verdict will be totally what you deserve.

It won’t matter if you went to church, gave to charity, had a godly mother who prayed for you. It won’t matter if you hung out with Christians and never cheated on your spouse. God won’t compare you to other people. He will compare you to Himself.

God told Ezekiel to tell His people that His judgment was coming, and that even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were right there among them when judgment came, only Noah, Daniel, and Job would be saved. Every person would be judged according to his own righteousness. Every. Single. One.

What did the righteousness of Noah, Daniel, and Job look like? It looked like the righteousness of God! You see, those three had put their faith in God. They weren’t perfect in and of themselves. Read their stories for yourself. But because they had submitted to God, God saw His own righteousness in them, and they were saved.

Same with us. If we think we can stand before God and compare our righteousness to His, we are fooling ourselves. If any of us think we will stand before God and have anything to say in our defense, we are fools.

Your salvation and mine depend solely on the righteousness of God. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

For our sake he (God) made him to be sin who knew no sin (Jesus), so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I don’t know about you, but when I stand before Holy God, I don’t want Him to judge me based on anything I’ve done. Nothing! It would be like me standing before Simone Biles and asking her to compare my gymnastic ability to hers because I did a cartwheel in the backyard once, or putting myself in the same league as Albert Einstein because I got an A on my math quiz in second grade. Ridiculous!

When I stand before God, I want Him to judge me based on what Jesus did when He took my sins upon Himself hanging on the cross. And you know what? That’s exactly what is going to happen, because I have submitted myself to God, accepted Jesus as my Savior. I am saved, not by what I have done, but what Jesus has done on my behalf. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Noah, Daniel, Job, and I will stand before our Judge with no fear. We each have put our faith in God, and He will declare the guilty, NOT GUILTY! I pray you can add your name to the list.

When God Becomes The Enemy

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Lamenations 1-2

A popular view of God makes Him out to be milk toast, a wet noodle, a doting Grandpa, a weak parent who can’t say “No” to His self-centered children. That is NOT the God of the Bible.

Yes, God is love. But not without His holiness. I’m not sure we really get that.

The truth about God is that He loves people. In fact He loves people so much He went to the cross to provide the only way sinful people can be in the presence of Holy God. We can try to figure out our own way to Him, look for a back door or loophole. But if we want to be accepted by God and enjoy the love He has for us, we gotta play by His rules.

He’s not asking us to approve of His plan. He’s demanding we accept it. And honestly, it’s not that hard. Quite the contrary. It’s an amazing plan!

Warning: if you don’t accept His plan, if you reject the Gospel of Jesus, hear Him say He is NOT your friend. He is your enemy. And I’m not sure you are ready for that reality, no matter what you’re telling yourself at the moment.

When God becomes the enemy, we are in serious trouble.

You Can’t Make Him Drink

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2 Chronicles 34; 2 Kings 23

There was a rocking Passover; thousands of sacrifices over a seven day period. A Passover like this hadn’t been celebrated since the days of Samuel. Josiah was all in where God was concerned, and as king of Judah he wanted God’s people to be all in, too.

That’s how it often is when someone comes face to face with God, and accepts God’s saving grace. We feel the emotion and want everyone we love to experience what we have. We should want that.

But Scripture tells us Josiah, in his zeal for the Lord, seems to have thought he could make people want what he had found in God.

And Josiah took away all the abomination from the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. (2 Chronicles 34:33)

The writer of 2 Kings says in verse three, the people joined in the covenant Josiah made to the Lord. But I wonder; was it their covenant with God or were they just honoring Josiah’s covenant with Him? I think it’s the latter because the minute Josiah was dead, they were right back worshiping their old idols.

Here’s the thing, Christian parents: you can make your kids go to church with you, you can have them repeat a prayer of confession, arrange for them to be baptized, even send them to Christian schools. But unless they internalize it and meet Jesus at the cross themselves they are simply honoring your faith. The moment they are on their own, they will do what’s in their own hearts.

You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

I hope you do make your kids attend church with you. I hope you send them to good Christian schools. I hope you pray with them and take them to youth group activities.

But I also hope you are talking to them about what and why you believe Jesus is the Way, Truth, and Life. I hope you talk to them about sin and their need of a Savior. I hope you share your own walk with the Lord, including your struggles and victories as they are mature enough to understand. I hope one day you will have the privilege of being present as they choose Jesus for themselves.

But whether or not they choose Jesus is a decision you can’t make for them. You can’t make them be a Christian. You can’t make them drink the water. You can, however, keep bringing them to the water until they recognize their thirst and want to drink it for themselves!

I’m praying for you today.

God’s Enemies

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Isaiah 63

Sometimes I read Scripture and am struck by the fact that God considers people who reject Him His enemies. I know He is loving and patient and kind. What He is not is accepting of disobedience. He’s not playing around.

The thing is, He Himself died to make a way for HIs enemies to become His dearly loved children. But in order to move from the enemy category to the family category, we have to go through the cross. There is no other way.

God loves His enemies. God is patient with His enemies. But they are still His enemies.

Yes, it’s a spiritual battle we are in. Satan is the leader of the opposition. We humans align ourselves with one or the other. The question is: are you God’s enemy or are You His child?

I pray you are His child.

By His Stripes We Are Healed

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Isaiah 53

First let me say God is the Great Physician. If there is healing of any kind, it comes from God. From that hangnail that annoys us, to broken bones, to cancer, when healing occurs it’s because God heals.

But Jesus didn’t suffer and die to heal our physical ailments. There was no need. God was and continues to be the Healer.

Isaiah 53:5 is often quoted out of context to say our physical bodies ought to be healthy because Jesus took a beating. But that is NOT what God is saying here. Read it for yourself. Start with verse one and read through to the end of the chapter. It clearly says Jesus suffered and died for our sin, our iniquity, transgressions, our griefs and sorrows. He was crushed when his soul made an offering for our guilt. He bore our iniquities so we can receive His righteousness.

There is no mention of any physical ailment. None. Jesus didn’t go to the cross so He could knit our bones back together or shrink that tumor. He has been doing those things from the beginning. He continues to do those things today.

What He did on that cross was so much more important than healing these bodies of ours that will one day die. Jesus died once and for all so that our sins can be forgiven, so that our sin-sick hearts can be healed. By his stripes, those wounds that he incurred at the hands of his captors, we are healed from the fatal disease of sin.

Let’s praise God for taking care of our physical bodies. But let’s not claim that the cross was anything less than the price you and I deserved to pay for our sin. The cross, and everything that Jesus endured to get there, was about our need of a Savior. By His stripes we are indeed healed, the eternal healing of our souls.

That They May See

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2 Kings 5-7

O Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. (2 Kings 6:20)

Are you praying this prayer every day? Our society has been blinded by the darkness of sin. But do we understand that our “society” is made up of individuals: men and women, boys and girls, people of all ages with eternal souls?

O Lord, open the eyes of the bearded man pretending to be a woman, the child being mutilated in the name of choice, the doctor, the parents, the angry teenager and self-absorbed thirty-something. Open the eyes of legislators, teachers, pastors, and professors. Open the eyes of the people in my family and neighborhood.

Elisha didn’t pray for the army. He prayed for the people who made up the army. I think Satan doesn’t want us to pray for the hearts of individuals. We are more removed from the issue if we pray for society, or the Church, or government, or education.

But do you pray for child’s teacher by name? The mayor of your town? Your state’s governor, Senators, Representatives by name? Do you pray that God will open the eyes of Joe Biden?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t pray for the Church or society or the world. But let’s not stop there. Let’s make it personal and, like Elijah pray for the individuals who make up those groups, too.

O Lord, open the eyes of these men and woman that they may see.