Salvation

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PREDESTINED

(Ephesians 1:3-5) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

Isn’t it amazing to think that, before the creation of the heavens and earth, God chose us to be his children.  It is impossible to comprehend how God knew us individually even before he began his creation.  Our God is incredible!  So here we are, walking in the wonder of salvation, filled with his Spirit, and basking in the hope of eternal life in his kingdom, because God predestined us to be his children.

Since God alone knows who is chosen, and we have no ability to know, we function in our daily lives knowing that God’s desire is that all would come to repentance.  The gospel is opened to all, only God knows the final outcome of who will enter his kingdom.

We can feel secure in our salvation and experience the great comfort of knowing our creator, without the burden of knowing who is chosen. Our part is to share the good news of salvation through Jesus and to pray for the unsaved.  The rest is in God’s hands, and in faith, we put our trust in God who knows all things.

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OUR FUTURE

(Revelation 21:3&4) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell among them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

(Revelation 22:1-5) Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great city.  On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.  And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be any curse.  The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more night.  They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign for ever and ever.

These passages from the last two chapters of Revelation describe some of the features of the New world and the new Jerusalem when God makes all things new.  The New Jerusalem is the city where those of us who have received God’s forgiveness of our sins through the Lamb of God, Jesus our Savior, will dwell. God will no longer be hidden from us; He will dwell among us.

We are so used to the old order of things; I find it hard to imagine what it will be like when there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain.  Sin will be gone, and there will be nothing to fear.  We will dwell in the peace of God eternally.

This is what God has promised us who remain faithful till the end.  No matter what we are currently facing, These promises are our future if we don’t lose heart.

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THE HEAVENS AND EARTH BELONG TO GOD

(Psalm 121 1&2) I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, The maker of heaven and earth.

The Bible begins with the Words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Now, if I don’t believe this, what good is the Bible to me?  The very premise of the Bible is that God created all that exists in the physical world, and therefore, creation is His.  I believe that the initial statement of the Bible is true, so I can trust that the rest of the Bible is true and trustworthy.

From the very beginning, we his created ones, have worked to deny God his right to his creation. We have created false gods and worked to eliminate God by saying that he doesn’t exist.  At the beginning, God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden He made for them.  Direct fellowship with mankind ended when they rebelled against Him.  God separated Himself, because He cannot tolerate the presence of sin.  The human rejection of God left us on our own.  We did not repent of our disobedience. Instead, we began to embrace evil by murdering, stealing, and lying to each other.

 However, God did not abandon us; Because of his great loves for us, He planned for our redemption:

 (1John 4:9&10) 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.

I believe that God created the heavens and the earth; it belongs to Him, and the Bible tells the true story of how He has dealt with His creation.  The sad part of the story is how utterly hard we have worked to destroy each other and His creation.  Considering how patient God has been with us, I believe he deserves our devotion to His plan for our redemption. We His children have the opportunity through our gratitude, praise, and worship to recognize God’s rightful place as our creator.

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THE CALL OF GOD

(Luke 13:34) Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

Here in this lament over Jerusalem, Jesus expresses God’s desire to care for and protect His chosen people, but like so many of us, they refused the call of God.  You can almost hear the sadness in His voice as He recalls the many times, He desired to gather His children to Himself. 

Jesus was just days away from His death on the cross when he spoke these words of lament.  The Son of God was about to take on the sins of those who rejected Him.  We were about to be given the greatest gift that mankind would ever be offered, yet to this day many reject God’s call to repent and receive eternal life.

I have been teaching through the book of Revelations.  As I am coming to the end of the book, I read that those experiencing God’s final wrath against the sins of the world still refuse to repent.  Rather, they curse God clinging to their ungodly ways to the very end.

For those of us who have accepted God’s call to return to Him, we have the promise of eternal life with Him in a sinless and new heaven and earth.  Our sins are forgiven and covered by the blood that Jesus shed.  So, no matter what this world may throw at us, let’s stay close to our God.  In the end, it will all be rewarded if we keep the faith.  How foolish it is to reject the call of God!

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THE VALUE OF FORGIVING AND REPENTING

(Colossians 3:12-14) Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved cloth yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

One vital aspect of good family relationships is forgiveness.  God forgives us because he loves us with a perfect love. He demonstrated this love when he gave us his son to cover our transgressions.  The love we have for each other is tainted.  Our sinful nature causes us to resist forgiving.  Therefore, forgiving even insignificant offences tend to be a challenge.  It’s important then to overcome sinful tendencies and take care of the list of transgressions we are holding on to; otherwise, they can grow into a festering sore that will damage our souls as well as our relationships.    God has provided us with forgiveness and repentance for the healing of relationships.

I share these thoughts with you because I have experienced difficulties with forgiveness and repentance, and I have learned through these struggles the great value of forgiving and repenting.  I have found that forgiving someone reveals that their value as a person is greater than the offence.  This is a Godly perspective.  To repent is a humble expression of confession of the offence we have perpetrated. This initiates the process of forgiveness, but do we have to wait for someone to repent before we can forgive? 

My answer to this question is no.  Forgiveness is ultimately a righteous act before God.  It’s nice if a person repents, yet our forgiving does not depend on their repentance.  When we repent before God it clears our soul and opens the door to rebuilding our relationship with him.  The same is true when we repent to each other. It provides the initial step to rebuild a relationship.

There is great value in following God’s command to forgive.  Unforgiveness resides in our soul and does much damage.  Forgiveness frees our soul.  The same is true about repentance.  To repent frees our soul.

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THE KEY TO ETERNAL GLORY RESTS IN FORGIVENESS

(Ephesians 4:31&32) Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Our fallen nature has the ability to produce bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander and malice.  These are all counter to what God desires for us his children.  He wants us to be kind, compassionate and forgiving.  This is perhaps the greatest challenge for a Christian.  We live in a world where there is little of what God wants and much of what our fallen nature generates.  The key to living a Godly life lies in our ability to forgive one another.

Jesus set the stage for us to forgive, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (see Romans 5:8) God made provision to forgive us through the sacrifice of his Son.  If God was willing to sacrifice his Son for our forgiveness, we should be able to forgive those who sin against us. 

Sometimes the sin against us seems impossible to forgive.  That’s when we need help from the one who knows the cost of forgiveness.  Jesus humbled himself, even to the humility of death on the cross.  If we are willing to set aside our pride, Jesus can patiently guide us through the process of forgiving.  As we work through the difficult challenge to forgive, we can rest assured that God will be pleased, and there is a blessing coming for those of us who are willing to surrender to God’s way.

(1Peter 3:8&9) Finally, All of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.  On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

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GOD HEARS OUR EVERY WORD

(Ezekiel 35:13) You boasted against me and spoke against me without restraint, and I heard it.

This was the word of the Lord given to Ezekiel to prophesy against the nation of Edom.  The Edomites were descendants of Esau, and they were the enemies of Israel for many centuries.  When Judah, the southern kingdom of divided Israel, fell to the Babylonians, the Edomites plotted to take over their land.  They boasted against the God of Israel and spoke against God himself.  God heard them!  And that led to their demise.

Isn’t it interesting to know that God hears what we say?  Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:36, “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgement for every empty word they have spoken.”  It is beyond our ability to comprehend how God can know every word that has been spoken – for all of time since the beginning and on to the end.  I am very glad that I have been given grace through Jesus Christ.  I hope you have received this great gift of God.

There are those who say that God doesn’t exist, and they use many other words that dismiss the existence of God.  They use his name in vain without restraint. I hope they repent before they come to the day of Judgement to avoid having Jesus speak to them the words he gave to Ezekiel for the Edomites.

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WE EACH HAVE A PART IN GODS PLAN

(Ephesians 2:8-10) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

In the first sentence of this scripture passage, the Apostle Paul points out that we are saved by grace, not by works that we might think we deserve salvation; but it is by God’s gift that we are saved.  Then he tells us that we were created in Christ Jesus to do good works.  However, we don’t have to think up these good works because God has already prepared them for us to do.  How do we know what these good works are?

Obviously, since God is the one who prepared our good works, we need to go to him to discover these good works he has set for us.  There are clues that are found in those abilities and talent that are inherent in our character.  There are things that we do that makes us feel fulfilled, but we need God’s direction and guidance to lead us to those specific works that he has prepared for us to do.

Doing what God has designed us to do answers the question why we are here. As we follow Gods plan for us, we discover fulfillment that gives purpose for our lives.  We are now part of a very complex worldwide team of believers. Our part fits into a tapestry where each tread has an important part of the whole picture. 

God alone knows the whole picture.  We walk by faith trusting that what he has assigned to us represents a significant part of the fulfillment of his overall plan for his creation.  What we experience when we are in line with God’s plan for us is our best possible life here on earth.

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FEARING GOD

(Proverbs 9:10) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

In the last 60-70 years, our society has worked to limit the reality of punishment.  What was at one time considered good parenting by correcting our children with a spanking, is today called child abuse.  Criminals often get away with minimal consequences for their crimes. The obvious outcome has been that there is a greatly diminished fear of those in authority.  Though we are sinners in need of a savior, It would seem that we are trying to avoid the reality of eventual punishment for our sins. 

(Psalm 33:18) But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.

Recognizing the unlimited power and authority of the God of creation is wisdom.  Fearing him leads us to a desire for the knowledge of him and his righteousness.  That desire causes us to avoid those things that anger him.  When we surrender ourselves to his will, we arrive at the humble place where a loving relationship with him can begin.  We can then confidently put our hope in his unfailing love.

Those of us who learn to fear God begin a father-child relationship with him that involves discipline.  His discipline is always for our good (see Hebrews chapter 12). God is molding us into the beings he created us to be.  His discipline is always purposed for bringing us closer to the righteousness he desires for us. 

God built fear into our psychic; fear can be a healthy way of protecting us. Fearing God is a healthy fear, for it leads to an eternal relationship with him.

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FINDING REST FOR OUR SOULS IN GOD

(Psalm 62:5-8) Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.  Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.  My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. 

King David wrote the words of Psalm 62 to share what he had discovered. He reminds himself, “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.”  David knew this, but he needed to remind himself.

  We are God’s children dealing with a fallen world full of many evils.  We need our God’s help.  David rehearses all the support God provides for us.  He is our hope, our rock, our fortress, our salvation, our refuge and even our honor.  In the midst of our distress, we tend to get caught up in the troubles and forget that God is there for us.

It’s good to be reminded that we need God.  He is the creator, the source of life, wisdom and power.  It is fortunate that he wants to provide us with all those above-mentioned supports.  All we need to do is ask and then trust him to work out our troubles.  That sounds simple; and it is. In God, we can find rest for our souls.