Monthly Archives: August 2011

Jesus Saves

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Jesus saves!

That’s a statement you have probably heard a million times.  You’ve seen on signs.  You’ve heard it in sermons.   You’ve seen it on bumper stickers.  You know the phrase.

I remember one of the first times I read the phrase was when I was a kid and my parents were driving down to New Orleans to see family, I remember seeing where someone had spray painted the phrase “Jesus Saves” on one of the legs of a bridge crossing the interstate.  I remember seeing that a lot of bridges when I was a kid.

That’s one of the things that we believe as Christians.  Jesus saves. Jesus saves for eternity, and Jesus saves now. In John 17, Jesus prays that His followers would have eternal life, and that eternal life is found in knowing God the Father through Jesus the Son. And that eternal life begins now.

Life is not something we have to wait until heaven to receive.  Life begins now.

Jesus saves.

But, what does that mean?  Listen to what Jesus says in Mark 8 today:

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

Jesus promises us life.  He promises to save our lives. But, the only way that we can know that life and live in that life is to lay down our life.

Wait, what?  What does that mean?

The only way that we can truly find that life is to realize that we weren’t put upon the earth to live for ourselves. We weren’t put here for our “stuff.”  We were put here for Him.

It’s not about us.

And as long as we are living for ourselves and for what we want and for our will, we’ll never know life.

But, when we lay down our lives and follow Him, we will know life.

Jesus saves.  In stopping living for we want, and starting to live for what He wants, we find life.  To save our life, we must lose it. To know the life we are desperate for, we must stop living for ourselves.

Jesus saves.  In laying down everything to Him and for Him, we find life.  In holding onto it, we will never know it.  It laying it down, we find more life than possible.

Today, may we lay down our lives and follow Him. And in following Him, may we find the life we seek.

Too Busy to Pray?

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This morning I was reading in a daily devotional about a new family that moved into an area and the first thing they started doing when they got there was they started to pray.

The gathered the names of each of their new neighbors and began to pray for them. They prayed that they (the new family) could shine the light of Christ to their new neighbors.

They prayed for the needs, that they didn’t even know about yet, that each of their neighbors faced.

They prayed that each of their neighbors could be aware of God’s presence and light in their life. They prayed that each of  their neighbors could be drawn closer to God.

And I was immediately convicted by the Holy Spirit when I read this. Because I don’t do that enough.  I don’t pray for my neighbors as I ought. And the question is, as we talked about at Asbury this past Sunday, who is my neighbor?

Everyone we meet.

And as I read this, I was inspired.  What a powerful thing that each of us has access to, and we don’t use like we ought.  Daily, we have the chance to pray for others. Wow.

Listen how Paul instructs Timothy in 1 Timothy:

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

God wants everyone to be saved. Everyone.  And He wants to use us to accomplish that great mission.

And that mission starts with prayer.  Praying for our neighbors. Praying for our co workers. Praying for the people that we meet daily.

But I’ve let myself get so busy, I forget sometimes to do that.

How about you?  Have we let ourselves get too busy to pray? Sometimes we get so involved with what is before us, we forget to do what is most important.

Today, with the tasks set before us, let’s not get to busy to pray. There are folks all around us in need of prayer. May we take the time to notice. And may we take the time to pray.

Rest

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I’m a busy body.  My wife accuses me of never being able to leave well enough alone. I’ve always got some plan, some thought, some something that I’m up to or thinking through.

I tend to stay on the move, going and doing.

And it’s not just me. We are all busy. As we talk in church, it’s hard to find time to have a meeting at night, most everyone so busy they just don’t have time.

We are busy, busy people.

The notion of rest is something that we don’t do well, we don’t observe well.

Listen to what God says through the prophet Isaiah this morning:

This is what the Sovereign Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
“Only in returning to me
and resting in me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.
But you would have none of it.

Only in resting in God can we be saved. Resting in Him.

What does that mean?  That means, to me, that we trust totally in Him. We don’t have to worry, don’t have to work. Don’t have to “do” anything.

God has done it. God has taken care of it. It’s done. Don’t worry about it. God has it.

Rest.  Relax. Trust.

In placing our full trust and faith in Him we are saved. And in placing our full hope and trust in Him, we can relax. We don’t have to do anything. We just rest.

Today, if we are overly anxious or worried or stressed, are we resting in Him? Are we totally trusting in Him?  Is He our trust rest?

Trusting in Him allows us to rest.  Today, we may know the power of salvation. Today may we know the power of resting in God.