The Gospel really IS Great News!

I've meant to post many times but just didn't take the time, but I wanted to just say a few words about the Gospel. It is great news! We often clutter it up, & worse, we alter it, & distort it until it is unrecognizable, & we even turn it into a conglomeration of impossible demands or at best, vague ideas that really mean little or nothing in everyday life. What is the genuine great news of the Gospel? Christ died for our sins, was buried, & rose again, all according to the Scriptures! It wasn't something just made up, it was prophesied from of old!

It is so good, that God says, "Hands off!" We're not to tinker with it but tell it! If we are tempted to tinker, God says we're under a curse until we come to our senses! (See Gal.1:6-9). I don't believe Paul ever wrote when he was any hotter than when he had a few choice words for those who were hoodooing the young Galatian believers! Things haven't changed much today, but when someone who is literally dying for the truth of God's Word finally hears the undiluted Gospel of the Grace of God, they rejoice in its wonder-working power!

OK, I'm done for now, I just wanted to share that with you, because not long ago I shared it with a poor fellow who was literally about ready to call it quits because he knew he was a sinner & hungered & thirsted after salvation, yet all he'd heard was these convoluted man-altered versions of the real thing. He wanted true Biblical grace!! He only found it in the real Gospel in God's Word!! May the Lord bless all of you real good!

ALL Things!

Brothers & Sisters,

Welcome to 2011. Yep, just as per usual, I'm almost 2 weeks late, but welcome anyway! I've just been thinking & thanking lately! Thinking about how good God is & then thanking Him for it. A Bible text that I memorized awhile ago has surely come in handy lately! The older I get in the Lord it seems the more I see my need of Him, & there are times brothers & sisters that I just plain see myself as an abject failure in a lot of ways & places in my life. I don't say that to elicit sympathy or to be anything but honest. But then, the Lord in His matchless, infinite grace, as the hymn goes, reminds me of this particular text & my heart soars! OK, what is the text, you ask? Just get to the text! OK, here it is, Paul is speaking in Acts 13:38 & 39, & he says, "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." I just want to replace that period at the end of verse 39 with 32,994 exclamation points!
There is that little potent phrase in the middle, ALL THINGS! We're justified, made right with God about all things in our lives! Not just some things with the rest for us to take care of, or most things, or everything BUT... No, it is ALL things! If you have trusted Christ as your own Sin-bearer too, but those failures & embarrassments that have been a part of your life come rushing back in, remember this wonderful little text. I can almost see you smiling now, just like I do whenever it comes to mind! May the Lord bless you all!

No Comparison!

I'm a baseball fan. I'm a Cincinnati Reds fan, & I congratulate them on winning the National League Central championship tonight. As I watched them rightfully celebrate a hard-fought win that caps off a hard-fought season, I couldn't help but think about our meeting with our wonderful Savior one Day! As exciting as this win was for me, it will pale in comparison, in fact there is NO comparison with what it will be like when we see our beloved Savior face to magnificent Face! It is so wonderful to know Him! If you don't, you can, He wants to be your Savior too. As He Himself said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My Word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." (Jn.5:24). May the Lord bless you!

I've Seen the Light!

There's a grand old hymn that says, "Send the Light, the blessed Gospel light, let it shine from shore to shore. Send the Light, the blessed Gospel light, let it shine forevermore!" I've seen the reality of that once again. While chatting with someone who felt he had to endure in good works to be assured he was saved, it became apparent that this person was becoming more & more in despair, thinking he was hopeless. He wanted to be saved, but saw no changes in his life & concluded he could never be saved. He thought there must be more to receiving salvation than faith in Christ because he thought he believed in Him. He found out that his "belief" was only a general belief that Jesus was in fact God, but he was still thinking he had to get to a certain point of faithfulness to conclude God had saved him. When I was able to show him that the Bible says that salvation is not of works but by trusting in the Lord Jesus alone, he became joyful, seeing the truth that salvation is by faith in Christ alone! Jesus died & rose again to pay for his sins, & though they were many, as it is with us all, he saw that they were all paid for! He was ecstatic & so was I! The LIGHT came on for him! He saw it! I saw it again too! It really "works" when a sin-darkened soul sees the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ! "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." I trust you've seen it for yourself too!

In Praise of My Savior

I just wanted to post a few lines to do as the great text in Psalm 107:2 says, "Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy..." I'm "saying so" right here & now! My Savior certainly is patient & kind with me, not giving up on me but rather completing that good work that He began in me the day He saved me! There is nothing good in my flesh, but neither is there in any son of Adam on this green earth! (Ro.7:18). But thankfully our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ, has shed His precious sinless blood so that we can have eternal salvation & can be washed perfectly clean in an absolutely holy God's searching eyes! There is no doubt that we who are simply trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ & His death on the cross will one day be in glory with Him forever. But, we will be there, not because of anything we have done, but because of what HE has done! (Ti.3:4-7). I just had to post a few lines in praise of my wonderful Savior Jesus Christ because His love is more wonderful than anything in Heaven or earth. If you have come to believe in Him as your Savior, why don't you drop by & just share a few words from your redeemed heart in praise of your Savior as well! I'll be delighted to listen, but far more importantly, so will He. May the Lord bless you.

The Sense of Sin

Hey y'all. I just had a thought cross my mind & I wanted to discuss it with you. My wife & I were just discussing a movie that came out a few years ago, & actually this could fit the description of likely 99.9% of all Hollywood offerings in the last 20 or more years. But the main character didn't know who his dad was & his Mom was rather a so-called "free spirit." This of course was portrayed as positive, & sin was seen as a non-existent concept. Keep that thought.

OK, now just recently I was chatting with a very cordial, but adamant, unbeliever. But there's a catch to this person. He used to be evangelical Christian! Unfortunately I fear his number is legion. Anyway, as we chatted, one thing he made clear was that he saw no need to be saved from sin. He was comfortable in his life of unbelief. Unfortunately we were not able to chat long. I hope we can chat more soon. But the point in this post (yes, there actually IS one!) is that these two incidents I believe are intimately related. I recall my own conversion to Christ was largely due to a tremendous sense of sinfulness hanging over me, & in me. It separated me from God, & it seemed to be suffocating. Thankfully soon thereafter I trusted Christ! Matthew 11:28 became gloriously true in my own life! As I've stated before, though I can't pinpoint an actual exact moment that I trusted Christ, I do know that there was that time, because though I'm still FAR from what I ought or even want to be, I still know that Christ is my Savior because I have believed in Him, actually I have grabbed onto Him as a drowning man grabs onto a lifeboat!

Anyway, back to my original point, whatever the factors were that led this man to become comfortable in his unbelief, in my mind anyway, a large part of it almost had to be the influence Hollywood has played in making sin seem irrelevant at least, & nonexistent at most. I know the ultimate source behind it all is Satan (Ep.6:12), but Hollywood is certainly a favorite tool of his. Now, I also take a large part of the blame along with the church as a whole. Yet the ultimate responsibility for the lost person is the lost himself. Oh well, I've started to ramble, & that is my sign to sign off! May the Lord bless you all.

So Amazingly Simple!

This CHRISTmas, I have been thinking about our wondrous Salvation Story & the amazing simplicity of it all! Paul did say that there is wonderful simplicity in Christ, & that if we are not careful, the enemy of our souls will distort that glorious reality in our lives. He said to the Corinthian believers: "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." (2 Co.11:3, NKJV) How tragic when the Lord Jesus Christ has done it all for us that so many believe they must do something or go somewhere, or in some way earn their salvation. I was thinking recently that though I know myself all too well, since I have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, there is no way that I can be lost! What joy that brings me in this CHRISTmas season!

A magnificent verse of Scripture that recently came alive to me is Isaiah 51:6 that says, "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished." About the only thing that will last is our salvation in Christ! It is not tainted by sin! I cannot earn it, or participate in it in any way except to simply receive it by faith! God is so good, & I trust that everyone reading this has received their eternal salvation by faith in Christ as well! May the Lord bless you & Merry CHRISTmas!

Moving Heaven & Earth

It is evident that God wants people to be saved. He literally moved Heaven & earth to get everyone in place for His Son's coming into the world to be the Savior. He moved Heaven by creating a special star to point anyone interested to follow it to the Savior Himself! (Mt.2:1-12) Only some wise men took Him up on it, as far as we know. But it was there for all to see & follow anyway.
He moved the earth by having Caesar Augustus to force everyone to the place of their birth to register for a tax (Lk.2:1ff) This of course brought Mary & Joseph to Bethlehem Ephratra so Jesus could be born at the correct place according to ancient prophecy (Mi.5:2). He still does the same thing today. Those of us who are saved, He was willing to bring about some amazing occurrences to get the Gospel to us so that we could hear it, believe it & be saved! If you are not saved today, consider what God has done to save you. It is truly amazing. If you will just consider the evidence, you will begin to see just how God loves you & wants to save, not just a mass of people, but you, personally. Those of us who are saved, let's never lose the wonder of it all. God Bless & Merry CHRISTmas!