Tag Archives: Salvation

All

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Who does God want to save? All people.

Who does God love? All people.

All people. Me, you, that guy down the street, your co-worker, cousin, aunt, and mail man. Everyone. All people. The world. Whosever.

Listen to what Paul writes to Timothy today in 1 Timothy 2:3-6:

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

271402392_640God desires that all be saved. Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom for all. God wants there to be restoration and hope for all people. That’s His heart and His desire. And He wants to used us to accomplish that.

We are His representative today. We go out in our work. In our family. In our community. Everywhere we go. And take that Good News with us.

To all.

To everyone.

No one is unimportant. Everyone matters. Everyone is made in His image. All of us. Me, you, all of us.

God loves them all. May we do what we can do today, to show His love to all that we meet today.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Healing

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Do you want to be healed today? That was the question that Jesus asked a man today in John 5. Jesus saw a man sitting beside a pool where healing happened.

Listen to what happened:

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me. “Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

This man had been sitting there for many years. Jesus came to him and said, do you want to be healed. He said no one could help him.

Jesus cuts to the chance. He doesn’t accept that statement. He heals him. He restores him. He helps him to become whole again.

The same Jesus comes to us today and asks us the same question. Do you want to be healed? Now we may be facing a physical situation that has no easy answer.

We may be facing and emotional or spiritual situation that has no easy answer.

We may be dealing with things that aren’t easy to fix. That are challenges. That may take lots of work, tears, prayers, and faith.

Our life may be full of these types of challenges. But, listen to the question that Jesus asked this man.

Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be whole? Do you want to be restored?

You can be. By Jesus.

He can make you whole. Even if He doesn’t “heal” you. You may still have you physical challenges. You may still have your emotional challenges. You may still face trials, trouble, and worries.

But, you can be healed today. You can be made whole today. You can be restored and renewed today.

Through Jesus. In Jesus. By Jesus. Today.

Today, do you want to be healed? Today, may each of us find that new life in Jesus Christ!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Not Who We Used To Be

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We know Paul as Paul. The guy that wrote most of the New Testament. The guy that started churches all over the known world. The guy that is the reason that those of us that are Gentiles (i.e. non Jews) are Christians. He took the gospel to the Gentiles.

So, Paul’s kind of a rock star. That’s who we know him as.

But, that was not how he was always known. Listen to what happens right after Paul starts preaching in Acts 9:20-22:

And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

They say, hey, wait, how can this be Saul (when God saved him, He changed his name from Saul to Paul)? How can this be Saul? Remember what he used to do? Remember the havoc he used to raise?

Surly this guy up there preaching can’t be the same guy that we all used to know. There’s no way!

But that’s what God does. He changes us. He makes us new. He restores us. He recreates us.

He changes our name. He changes us.

So, two things this morning. First, when your past is brought (others, the devil, yourself) remember, you aren’t who you used to be. You are new. You are changed. You are different.

Remember the work that Christ has done in your life. You are new!

And likewise, when you meet a new creation today, someone that is not who they used to be. Remember.

They are not who they used to be.

Don’t allow the devil to bring up your past.

Don’t you be the one bringing up someone else’s past.

I am forgiven. You are forgiven. They are forgiven.

Today, let’s all live in the newness of life that God has given to us. Let’s be the people that God is calling us to be.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Doing our Part

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I sometimes think of what Dr. Bryson, one of my professors at Mississippi College, used to say about Paul. He said, sort of jokingly, that we as preachers would rather preach on Paul than Jesus. He said Paul was hard understand, so we could preach for hours about Him.

He said Jesus wasn’t hard to understand. He was just hard to follow. It’s not hard to understand loving your enemy. It’s really, really hard to do.

Today in Philippians 2:12-13, we have one of those Paul passages that can be hard to understand at first.

Listen to what it says:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Is Paul telling us that we have to earn our salvation? That our salvation is up to us? That its something that we have to “do?” He says to work it out.

But then, notice what he says right after, it’s God that works through you. For His will and good pleasure.

So, well then. Which is it? Do we work it out, or is it God that is at work?

Yes!

We do our part. We are faithful. We put ourselves in a position to hear God speak and move in us.

One of my mentors used to always say – pray, read your bible, and go to church. That won’t make everything easy or perfect, but it will put you in a position to hear God.

So, we do our part. We put ourselves in a position to hear God and know God.

And God moves. God speaks. God changes us. God saves us. God works on us.

So, we’ve done our part. And God does His. We don’t earn it. It’s not about anything we can do. It’s about all that He has done and is doing.

And, the very fact that we have the desire to know Him, to follow Him, to love Him, to put ourselves in that position?

That desire comes from Him. He is at work. Even in the acts of faithfulness. He is at work, calling us to be faithful.

So, today, let’s do our part. And let’s know that in that, God is at work. And He will be working on us for His good pleasure.

Let’s be faithful. And let’s see what God will do in our lives!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

To Give Him Glory

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Today, in Psalm 50, God tells us to call upon Him in times of trouble. To thank Him and to make our vows to Him. And to call for His strength and might in our times of trial.

Listen to what verses 14-15 say:

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

God says – call upon me. I will deliver you. And you shall glorify me.

He has saved us, literally and figuratively, for that purpose. To glorify Him. To give Him praise and glory.

Because He is worthy of that praise and of that glory. He is worthy.

So, let’s tell the story. Let’s tell the story of how He has saved us. Let’s give voice to the ways that He has changed our lives for the better. Let’s talk about what He has done for us.

Does this mean you have to pin your co-worker or classmate down and make them become a Christian?

No.

But, do your words glorify Jesus? Do our actions bring glory to His name? Do we let our lives honor Him?

Can others tell the difference that Jesus has made in our lives? He has saved us. He has restored us. He has rescued us. He has changed us.

For this purpose. For this reason. To give Him glory.

Today, in our lives, we give God glory through action through, word, action, and deed. He has saved us.

May we glorify Him.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Wednesday of Holy Week 2012

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Somethings in life are bigger than us. Somethings in life are beyond us. Somethings are bigger than our ability to understand or our ability to plan.

God’s plan of salvation is one of them. When we think about the cross and Jesus dying upon it, there are so many things that we can focus on.

Who’s fault was it?

Why did it happen?

What about Judas? What about the devil? Where was God? Did Jesus have a choice? Why did it have to happen this way?

Lot’s of questions. Lots of things that we wonder about. Lots of things that we don’t know.

Today, we see in this passage for this Wednesday of Holy Week, something bigger is playing out.  Listen to what happens in Luke 22:1-6:

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

God’s plan of salvation was bigger than one person, bigger than one choice, bigger than one betrayal. It was His plain to bring us to Himself.

He knew that we could earn it or work our way to salvation. He knew that we weren’t good enough or faithful enough. He knew that we could never do it on our own.

So He did it for us. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves.

And so, yes, the devil entered into Judas. And Judas made a choice. And earlier Jesus made the choice to come to Jerusalem. And yes it was bad and messy and ugly. Yes it was painful. Yes it awful.

And God did that for us. For our sin. For our redemption. For our forgiveness and salvation.

Yes, there are things about all this that I don’t understand. But I do understand this. Jesus loved you, and me, enough that He willing did it.

And it was God’s plan of salvation all along. I am thankful that God loved us enough that He went to this length for us.

May each of us, in our lives, be faithful to God today, as He was faithful to us.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

What Does God Want From You?

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Yesterday we talked about how Jesus was what really mattered in our lives. As important as theology is, Jesus is what matters the most. He is the foundation, He is the rock, He is what counts and what everything comes down to.

Today, we look at what a life following Jesus is based upon. Look what Paul says today here in Romans 1:16-17:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

He says that he is not ashamed of the Gospel, it’s the power of God.

But here, here is the key – the righteous shall live by faith. Not by works. Not by anything you can do. No by anything you can earn. Faith.

We are people of faith. Our lives, our walk with God, everything starts with faith. Paul says later on in Romans – if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you shall be saved.

Belief. Faith.

What does God want from you? Faith. It all starts with faith. If we have faith, if God is pleased with us.

Why? Because faith is dependence upon Him. Faith says, there is someone bigger and stronger than me, and I trust in them. Faith says that there is a rock higher than I that I trust Him. Faith says I throw myself upon. Faith says it’s all about Him.

That’s where salvation starts. That’s where our walk with Him starts. That’s where it all starts.

Faith. The bible says without faith, it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). But with faith, we know the assurance of salvation.

What does God want from you today? Faith. Dependance upon Him. Trust in Him. A childlike humble belief in Him. Faith.

Today, may we really be a people of faith. May we trust in Him, in each moment of day today.

And in that faith, may we find the joy of salvation.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Why I Love the Bible

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Before today’s devotional – a quick note. This week, Asbury released a mobile app for smartphones. You can download this app and listen to my weekly sermons, read this devotional, and find out all that’s happening here at Asbury. To download the app for iPhones/iPads, click here. To download the app for Androids, click here.

Now, onto today’s reflection!

In this passage Peter is sharing with the people about Jesus. He is telling how God, through Jesus, longs to give salvation to all that would believe. Jesus lived, preached, taught, was betrayed and rose from the dead. He was the offering for us all, and through Him, all of us can know the power of salvation and grace and peace.

Today listen to part of Peter’s sermon in Acts 10:39-43:

And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

I love what Peter says in that last verse – all the prophets bear witness to Him. In other words, all the scriptures point to Jesus. All of it.

That’s why I love the Bible. It is God’s love note to us. Are there things there are hard to understand? Yep. Are there things there that can be a little confusing? Yep. Can Leviticus be a book that’s a challenge to read? Yep.

But all of it, from Genesis to Revelation, paints a picture of God’s love for us and a picture of God’s plan of salvation for us through Jesus Christ.

So, as we said, there may be things that we don’t understand, John 3:16 shows that love. Romans 10:9 shows that love. Today’s passage shows that love. Jesus Christ came so that all who believe in Him will receive forgiveness.

All of the scripture, all of it, points to this. Jesus. His love. His life. His forgiveness. God is working all of it out for this point. To show us, me, and all the world, that we are loved, forgiven, and accepted.

Today’s passages points to this truth. All the bible points to this this truth. And that’s why I love the bible.

Getting Ready – The Gift Podcast

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The sermon podcast for Sunday, December 4, 2011 is up on Asbury Church’s website.  This is the second sermon in our Advent 2011 worship series “Getting Ready.”  In this series, we talk about the things that we have to “get ready” for with Christmas.  In this sermon we talk about getting ready for the greatest gift of all, God’s gift to us of Jesus Christ.   The text for this sermon is Matthew 1: 18-25.  Also by clicking on these verses you can see my notes from the sermon as a note in the YouVersion online Bible.   You can listen to it by clicking here, or you can listen to it here on this blog by clicking the link below. And, as always, you can subscribe to my sermon podcasts through iTunes.

CLICK HERE

Getting Ready – The Gift

The One Thing I Do Know

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What do you truly and totally understand? Well, I guess it depends on what we are talking about, huh? I don’t understand how at this point, my Rebels can lose this many SEC games in a row, but that’s not important in the grand scheme of things.

What is important in the grand scheme is God. Is faith. Is Scripture. Is salvation. These things matter; these things are important.

And we want to be able to understand them. We want to be able to really know what is important.

But, we don’t fully know, do we? We don’t fully understand, do we? There are things about God, faith, salvation, and scripture that we may not fully understand this side of glory.

Today in John 9:24-25, we see a many questions about his healing by Jesus. He is being asked by the religious leaders, what about this? What about this? What about this?

Listen to what the man says:

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

He finally says, I don’t know the answers to the questions you are asking, but one thing I do know. I once was blind and now I see.

I love that answer. There are lots of things about faith I don’t understand. Lots of things that don’t make sense to me. Lots of things in life that I can’t figure out.

But, I do know this. I once was blind. But now I see. I once was lost and now I’m found. I once was wandering away from God and now I’m home.

I can’t understand every deep thing about God. But I do know that He loved me enough to save me.

Just as He loves you that much.

Today, no matter what you don’t know and don’t understand, one thing I do know. God loves you and wants to be in relationship with you.

And that’s the best thing of all!