Tag Archives: Salvation

What Do We Lift Up?

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One of the things that I most dearly believe is this – it all comes down to Jesus. Everything. Everything n the church, everything in our lives, everything in our ministries. It all comes down to Him.  He is the center of it all, the cornerstone of it all, the foundation of it all.

It’s all about Jesus.

I had a professor in seminary that used to say that eventually every problem in our lives can be traced back to our walk with Jesus. I think that there is some real truth in that.  Everything comes back to our relationship with Him.

Listen to what Our Lord tells us today in  John 3: 13-16

No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Of course, we are always drawn to John 3:16, which is one of the key verses for Christian hope and eternity. But, look before that.  In that Jesus references something that happens in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament, when to save the lives of the people being bitten by snakes, God instructs Moses to make a snake and attach it to a pole.  In doing this, all that looked at the snake would live.

And He says that when He is lifted up, just as the snake was, all that look to Him will be saved.

He says later in John 12, when He is lifted up, He will draw all men unto Him.

When we life Him up, with our words, with our lives, with our actions, with all that we are, people are drawn to Him. People are drawn to the hope and salvation in Jesus. He’s at the center, He is the heart, He is it all.

When He is lifted up, all people are drawn to Him.

So, today, a question. What do we lift up in our lives?  Are we lifting up Jesus? Do our lives point to Him?

It’s all about Him.  He is hope, life, and salvation.  And all are drawn to Him.

Today, as we live our lives, are we lifting Him up?

That’s our mission today.

 

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.

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.

Be Careful

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Last night in my Small Group Connection (Asbury’s Small Group) we were talking about the end of Galatians 2.  In that passage it talks about how if we can earn salvation through our works or through following any law, then Jesus Christ died for nothing.

And we talked a little bit about the fact none of us are righteous.  None of us.

Just because we come to church, or pray, or read our Bible, or serve, or give, or “do” anything, these things don’t make our righteous, these things don’t save us.

Jesus saves us.

In fact, I argued that those of us that are Christian are actually a little more unrighteous than others. Because we KNOW right from wrong. We KNOW what we should do and not do. And we choose to wrong.  We choose sin. We know right from wrong and we choose wrong.

We know better. And we don’t do better.

So, as Christians today, we need to be careful. Be careful judging others. Be careful thinking you are righteous. Be careful thinking you are better.  Be careful thinking you are holier.

Listen to what happens today in Mark 2:

Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Let us not be like the religious leaders, who saw themselves as “better” than others. Let us realize today that we are in need of a doctor. That we are in need of a savior. That our sins are as great as anyone else’s out there.

And He loves us anyway. He loves us in spite of our sin.  And let us live a life seeking after Him as a joyful response to His mercy and grace.

Let us be careful that we never think that we are “better than” others. We are simply saved by grace through faith, so none of us can boast.  Let us live a joyful life in response. And let us seek to love others as Jesus loved us.

None of us are righteous, no not one. Thank God Almighty for grace, mercy, and salvation. May we show to others that same grace that Jesus shown to us.

Let us be careful to never become like the Pharisees.

Simple

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One of my favorite statements by John Wesley was in talking about the Bible.  He said “The Bible contains everything needful for salvation.  And everything that is needful is made plain within.”  I just love that quote because it tells us two things.

First, everything we need to know to be a Christian is found within the Bible.  We know that we can look there inside to find the things that are necessary to be a Christian. But, to me, the second part is just as important.  In that he said that all these things are made plain with.

If it’s important enough to impact our salvation, don’t you think that God would make it plain to understand?  If it was something that was going to impact our eternity, don’t you think that God would make it simple within Scripture?

God doesn’t play hide and seek within His plan.  He doesn’t play hide and seek with salvation.  He wants to know, to understand, to seek yes, but to find. Scripture says to seek and we will find.  Knock and the door will be opened.  God wants it to be simple to understand.

It may be hard to follow, but simple to understand.

In that vein, listen to what Paul says in Romans 13 today:

For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.”  These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

These commands are summed up in that command.  Love.  Love your neighbor.  Jesus taught us in the Gospel that the entire law is summed up in that command, love God, love your neighbor. That’s it. That’s the list.

Simple.

Easy to understand.

Hard to do. But simple to understand.

You want to follow the law today?  You want to be good?  You want to be holy?  Love.  Love you neighbor.  Lay down your life for them.  Point them to Jesus. Care, pray, carry.  Love.

That’s the law.  Love God and love neighbor.  Simple.  Simple to understand.

So, the question for us today, is what will we do with it? Will we follow the law?  Will we love?  In that action, we are keeping the law.

May we see the simplicity and beautify of God’s law and God’s command to us today.  To love.

Salvation

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Sometimes in life, it’s easy to think that people are out to get us.

Sometimes when things are going wrong, it’s we can make ourselves think that forces are conspiring against us.

We can even think sometimes that God is out to get us, particularly if we feel as though we have done something wrong.

Perhaps we are being justly punished for some great sin.

God is getting us for some mistake, some failing, some misdeed.

That’s why all this is happening.

Listen to what Paul writes today in First Thessalonians:

9 For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

God has not destined for wrath.  God has not created you for destruction.

God is not out to get you. God desires you to know Him, love Him, and love each other.

That’s your purpose in being here. Nothing more, nothing less.  Knowing Him, loving Him, loving each other.

Be encouraged. Be hopeful.  Be joyful.

Even if it’s bad right now, even if things are tough.

It will get better. It won’t be like this forever. It will improve.  It will change.  It will turn.

This is not the end of your story.  Don’t give up, don’t lose hope.

God is good. And He loves you.

You were created for salvation and for life and for joy and for peace.

Don’t forget.

Remember. You’re His child and He loves you.

Today.

What’s Most Important

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Not everything in life is as important as we make it out to be.

There’s that little book that came out a few years ago – “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.” And I believe the subtitle was “It’s all small stuff.”

Not everything in life is as important as we make it out to be.  Not everything is life or death.  Not everything is earth shatter.

Now, that’s not to say somethings are not important. They are. But, we need to keep focus on what is most important.

We get a glimpse of this in Luke’s Gospel this morning:

20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

The 70 that were sent out that we talked about yesterday return, and man are they pumped.  They have seen so many amazing things, so many things done in Jesus’ name, so much that they had done through Him.

They were so excited and pumped they just couldn’t stand it.

And here Jesus reminds them.  Don’t be happy over this.  Be  happy you are in the book of life. Be happy that you are His.

That’s important for us to remember today.

We have no idea what today will include for us. There may be tremendous victorious.

There may be terrible defeats. We just don’t know what is to happen. We don’t know what all lies in store.

No matter high the highs or how low the lows, don’t celebrate too much, don’t mourn too much.

Remember what’s most important.

You’re His child.  He loves you.  You are His.

That’s what’s important. Tomorrow will be a new day.  If we succeed today, we may fail tomorrow.

If we fail today, we may succeed tomorrow.

But, if we are His, we can rejoice no matter what.

Because we’ve got life.  Life now, and life forever.

Today, remember what’s most important.

You’re a child of the Living God. And nothing beats that!

Salvation Issues

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What’s most important to the faith?

What matters the most?   What is the essentials of faith?

There a lot of things that faith encompasses.  There a lot of different things that we as Christians believe.

But, what’s most important?

What are these things I call salvation issues? These essentials that we are called to gold together over?

We can “discuss” (i.e. argue) baptism or beliefs or worship, but what matters? What is most important?

What are salvation issues?

We see this crop up today in the book of Acts. They were discussing what matters the most, today, what is essential. This is what the text says:

11On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.’

Jesus.

That’s what it all comes down to. We can argue about a lot things. There are a lot of things we can disagree over.  We can have a lot of different interpretations of scripture.

And that’s ok.

But, what it all comes down to is Jesus.  These things we often disagree over, in the end, they aren’t that important.

What matters is Jesus.

If we believe in Him, have faith in Him, have Him as our Lord, then that’s what matters the most.  Everything else fades into the back.

Today, don’t worry as much about these things. Don’t focus on these things that distract.

It’s all about Jesus. That’s what matters most.

May we focus on what’s most important.  May we focus on what matters.

And may we find the life that comes only through Jesus.