Heavenly Father, we praise You today and every day for your great love and grace and mercy. Please lead us this week as we focus our minds and hearts on you. We desire to do your will, and to fulfill our calling to be salt and light to the world around us. Fill us, Holy Spirit, so that the character of the living God shines through us, allowing you to do a mighty work in and through our lives. We give our lives to you and pray that you use them for your glory. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen.
“So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’ For this reason they tried all the more to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” (John 5:16-18)
Salvation does not depend on being a good person, going to church, owning a Bible, or being an American.
It depends on Who we say Jesus is. Some say he was just a good man, maybe a prophet. He said He was God. Either He was crazy, a liar, or speaking the truth. If He was telling the truth, then what we do with that truth will determine where we spend eternity. If we reject it, we reject God, for the Father and the Son are one.
Jesus Himself said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Without accepting Christ and His payment on the cross for our sins, we will stand before God at the end of our mortal lives and the beginning of our eternal ones with no excuse, and we will receive the just payment for our sins – eternity apart from God and the love and peace that originate in Him and flow from Him.
But, if we accept that Jesus is who He says He is, that He is God, and by accepting Him we accept His sacrifice on the cross as payment for our sins, then there is no condemnation for us, and will be no judgment for our sins as we stand before God, since Christ paid it all.
Salvation isn’t dependent on what we do or who we are, but what we believe. If we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, and we will forever live in His presence and all that He is – love, joy, peace, goodness, grace, mercy, kindness…
Who do you say Jesus is?
Could there be anything more wonderful, more gracious, more astounding and life-changing than being called – by God Himself – into fellowship – not just a knowledge of, not just an acquaintance with, but into a partnership, a daily, ongoing, communicating fellowship – with His Son, that we might live in oneness with Him, allowing His Spirit to flow through us, bringing our hearts and minds and lives into alignment with God’s will, allowing us to live an abundant life far above all we can imagine?
Lord help us to not waste a day…
If you need a love that never gives up, a hope that never fades, mercy that never ends, grace that knows no bounds, and life everlasting, look no further than Jesus Christ. In Him, and ONLY in Him will you find all those things and so much more. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is your Creator, your Father, your Friend, your Co-laborer. The world will never hold a candle to the power of His life-giving Light, and no other love can do what His can.
Today is a new day. He stands ready to forgive you, embrace you, and clasp your hand as you walk this walk together. Will you?
“For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life in Christ Jesus the Lord. John 3:16
Friends,
Tomorrow, Thursday, May 5, is our National Day of Prayer.
If our beloved country were ever at a crucial crossroads, it is now. And if we ever needed an opportunity to come together on one day to lift up fervent prayers to Almighty God on behalf of our cracked and crumbling nation it is tomorrow.
I am personally brokenhearted at the direction I see our country moving, at the lives being destroyed and the hatred being shouted. We cannot continue to live as though there is no God, as if we can govern it or riot it or picket it or troll it all away. We cannot continue to just hope it will somehow get better. Hearts must be changed and only God, through faith in Jesus Christ, can do that.
It is time to humble ourselves and repent of our own sins first, and then pray for God’s mercy on this land.
I believe there is still hope for God’s peace to return IF we will each – in faith – seek Him for grace and forgiveness.
I believe He is waiting for us to do just that.
May His love and wisdom and discernment in prayer go with each of you.
“…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14