BE STRONG! Part II: Am I saved?

Many times, people ask me for prayer, but don't seem sure exactly what to pray for. So they end up saying, "Just pray for strength." That is not a last ditch effort - that is a great prayer, and one that God wants to answer, can answer, and will answer. 

Picking up from the last blog, where we saw that strength only comes from God’s grace. We can’t will it, think it, or feel it enough so we have strength - it only comes as we are branches attached to the vine of Jesus Christ.

But a lot of Christians are not strong because they don’t understand grace. When it comes to salvation, too many don’t realize what really happened through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Here are 4 common responses people give when asked if they are saved, or if asked if they are going to heaven. See if any of these fit you.

“We’ll see.” - As in, “I guess I’ll find out when I die.” Bad idea. The Bible says you can know now! Yes, now! God doesn’t want us living in the uncertainty of where we stand with Him. If we have received Christ as Savior and Lord, it’s a done deal. If you aren’t sure, you need to seek the Lord on this now! You don’t have anything more important to do.

“Hope so.” - First cousin to “We’ll see” is this guy. The problem is we use the word “hope” in a different way than the Bible does. The Bible uses hope in the sense of “we are sure this promise is going to be kept and we are looking forward to it.” But we often use hope like this: “I hope it doesn’t rain. I hope the dog isn’t sick. I hope I get that Aluma Wallet for Father’s Day.” This is just stating how we are wishing for our preferences, but we’ll see what happens. Catch the difference? Our hope is in Jesus, and we have the hope of heaven, but for God’s children, that does mean, “I am wishing to get to heaven. That is my preference. We’ll see.”

“I tried.” - This one is, “Well, I think I did what I needed to”, but with a hint of, “but I am not sure if it is enough.” I didn’t kill too may people, I tried to obey the speed limit, I was nice to my neighbor. I did my best. Salvation is never achieved by human effort. It is only attained through faith in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.

“It depends.” - As in, “Whether or not I go to heaven depends on how good I am on the day that I die.” Some people believe that you can receive salvation, and then by sinning, lose your salvation until you confess and repent and get saved again. This is completely false on a thousand fronts, but here are just three reasons:

1. We are children of God. Even as fallen people, when our children disobey, we don’t kick them out of the family until they repent! Nothing will ever make my sons stop being my sons. God adopts you in Christ, He does not un-adopt (John 1:12).
    
2. We have been made alive in Christ. The Bible says spiritually we have crossed from death to life (Ephesians 2:5), but nowhere does the Bible say we can die again spiritually.
    
3. All of our sins are forgiven. “But Jeff, I know I am saved now, but what if I commit some sin in the future?” When Christ was on the cross, of your sins were yet future, right?  

How forgiven are we, anyways? The next blog will cover that topic.

p.s. - embracing the Biblical “hope” of Jesus

A Life and Death Decision

Jesus Christ does not turn bad people into good people, He turns dead people into alive people.

The Bible tells us we are dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1). Not just wrong in our sin, not just evil in our sin…dead. Our problem is so much deeper than being people who make mistakes. We are spiritually dead and separated from God. And leaving the earth in that state puts us in a place of being eternally separated from God.

The Bible uses other words to describe our condition.

Not only are we dead, we are weak, or helpless (Isaiah 64:6). We can’t even do anything about our condition. No doctor, no medicine, no surgery, no seminar, no religious activity can fix it. This flies in the face of everything we want to believe. We want to think that we have the ability to fix ourselves. Dead people can’t fix anything.

We are also ungodly, or lawbreakers (1 John 3:4). This is bigger than jaywalking or littering. This is violating the holy standard of a Holy God! “I am not that bad! I know people much worse than me.” God isn’t comparing you to them. He compares you to His standard, which is holy perfection.

We are also, by nature, God’s enemy (Romans 8:7). Let that one sink in! I wouldn’t want my neighbor to be my enemy, he could do some harm. I wouldn’t want a Navy Seal to be my enemy, he could do even more harm! But the Almighty God of the universe…! That is the last thing I would want, but by nature, we are enemies of God!

And this is what makes the Gospel of Jesus Christ so glorious. Through Jesus Christ and Him alone, God turned all this around.

Read Romans 5:6-11, notice I highlighted the words I just mentioned, and I also highlighted what we have become through Christ.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We were helpless, but God provided the power in Christ, and in Him we are strong (Colossians 1:11).

We were sinners, but God provided the substitute in Christ, and in Him we are righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21).

We were God’s enemy, but He provided restoration in Christ, and in Him we are friends of God (James 2:23).

We were dead, but God provided life through Christ (Romans 6:5).

What side of the cross are you on? Have you cried out to God for the restoration that He offers freely through Christ, believing in what Jesus accomplished through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead?

Do you want to remain a dead, helpless, sinning enemy of God, or become an alive, strong, righteous friend of God?

A choice must be made. It is literally a matter of life and death.

A Huge Complaint

I have a huge complaint. Actually, I have a few of them. But complaining is a sin, so I shouldn't. I am such a complainer sometimes. I am sick of complaining. Then I complain about being tired of being sick of my complaining. Man, I am sick and tired of being tired of being sick of my complaining. 

I complain a lot. A lot less now, that my wife has been showing me that I can be a real whiner sometimes. God is working on me.

But it’s a “respectable” sin, right? No harm done, right? It’s natural, everyone does it, not a big deal.

Uh, wrong, wrong, technically since we are all sinners, doesn’t make it right, and wrong, respectively.

We choose to complain. It’s a choice. Let’s acknowledge that first. It IS a sin, it hurts ourselves (we become depressed in our negative thinking), it questions God’s sovereignty (never a good idea), and it affects others (ever been around a constant complainer? ugh).

I love how James MacDonald defines complaining: It is: expressing dissatisfaction with a circumstance that is not wrong and about which I am doing nothing to correct. . If you are expressing dissatisfaction because something is inherently wrong, that is not complaining. Or if you are trying to fix a situation, it is not complaining. But if these two don’t apply, you are complaining.

Not only do we do it verbally, but how often I catch myself doing it inwardly! “I don’t like this, I don’t prefer this, I wish I had my way, boo-hoo.”

It is a trendy thing, too. Websites are devoted to allowing people to post complaints, as I first learned, again, from James MacDonald. So I decided to check one out personally. For research. (I didn‘t post anything.)

I went to mybiggestcomplaint.com. One person actually was griping about people using the brand name “Styrofoam” for things not made by that brand. Wow, really? People that do that should be fined…or shot… or SOMETHING, for Pete’s sake! We have to stop the misuse of the Styrofoam name, those people are running roughshod in our society!

Enough sarcasm. That is silly, but true. And maybe you and I say, “At least I complain about important things.” Does that matter?

Numbers 11:1 - And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.

God doesn’t give a pass for complaining about adversity. There is no gage on how bad things can get before God allows you to complain.

The Apostle Paul wrote: Do ALL things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world… (Philippians 2:14-15)

The Bible teaches us that we are to replace sinful habits with Godly habits. So you don’t just stop complaining, youreplace it with thankfulness. How do I do that? Part II is coming…

p.s. - moving out of Whinersberg