“Are you saved?” I can remember as child a Baptist preacher saying every week without fail the words; ‘Are You saved?’ I believe those 3 words are possibly Baptist’s greatest contribution to the faith. You may know a lot about Him, but do you know Him? If there is no grieving or sorrow over your sinful condition…no witness of the Spirit, then you don’t know Him. For Jesus to truly save you, you must believe you are drowning and in need of saving—otherwise the broken cry for a savior is not heard and He cannot save. It is a matter of need…do you need Him? Do you see your very real need of His love and forgiveness? Or, do you see yourself ‘pretty good’– never considering that one sin…it’s rebellion like witchcraft that has you under a spell of deception never considering yourself that bad; it is your only weak link, but it is powerful enough to destroy your whole life with that one unredeemed failure. I see God is not mocked and sin must be atoned for. What are you doing and where are you taking your sin for atonement? Because what He takes, He covers–what He covers, He redeems, what He redeems He changes, and what He changes He keeps for Himself with a movement of the Spirit that directs my steps to increase as His disciple and witness. So, I ask you again, “Are You Saved…Are You Really Saved?”
Tag: thoughts
The Miry Clay
In Psalm 40, David says of God, ‘He took me out of the miry clay and put my feet upon a rock!’ The miry clay is a picture of something, it represents a horrible place, but a timeless reminder of what to do when you get your feet stuck. While hopeless for the unbelieving, it holds a truth that there is great hope for all who call upon the name of the Lord by faith. Hear the lessons from the miry clay. It’s a place of waiting, but with expectation. There’s an expectancy that God will deliver. It is a place God uses to bring about patience, but with it the ability to endure because God is faithful and He sits in the place of confident victory. David says in that place, “He inclined to me.” Do you recognize that place holds the inclinations of God’s heart. If you go on to read, it continues by saying, “many are your thoughts to me and too vast to number.” He inclines himself toward us by making that place abundant with his thoughts to lead, to guide, to encourage, to strengthen, to rise above, and to make our footsteps firm. The picture here is one producing a place of foundation out onto a rock. The land longs for foundation, for when the foundations are shaken and men no more live by the principles of God’s word, things begin to crumble, and so goes the evolution of societies that failed to recognize God as Almighty! But God has a foundation for those who cry out to him there in that horrible stuck place–it’s a place on the Rock, and it’s a place of comforting refuge! The miry clay represents a place of melody and song because David says out of that place, “He has put a new song in my heart a song of praise to our God”. It is the sound of praise and singing that establishes us as victors and not victims. It will be a song that will call many to worship His name because of the testimony that the clay produces for the believing. It’s a super-natural place of Divine influence with a power able to raise us up because of Jesus Who says, ‘because I live, so shall you’. Verse 4 of that same chapter says, “How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust”.
The Eye Doctor
“Then Jesus told them, I entered this world to render judgment, to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” John 9:39; (NLT) What Jesus said then, he is still saying to us. He came for a great revelation, one that would obliterate our thinking making us fit to take up his cause. As with the blind man, when Jesus heals the eyes he does so to reveal himself in a way as to involve us in a greater, more devoted worship (Jn 9:38). This revelation knowledge has the power to destroy speculations that severely limit our potential to believe him and see great and mighty things. It obliterates the thoughts and intentions of the heart that held us guilty and bound and of no use to God (Jn 9:41). ‘This knowledge’ truly is power to remove the blindness we so easily stumble over. I don’t know about you, I can only speak for myself, but I need the “eye doctor” who can remove my limitations caused by sin and failure to see things clearly. I need the eye doctor! He changes my view so that I might be able to see from his perspective thinking less of myself and more of him. He changes my slavish thoughts and the way that I think in an incorruptible fashion consistent with his potential to overcome my inadequacies. And finally, he changes my motives and the intentions of my heart, so that I am no longer stumbling for bread, but I’m owning the things that he gives me, so I may be used to reveal His cause and His glory. Do you need the eye doctor? If so, get in line and be willing to wait your turn. Get everything else off your agenda, you just need to see him. He will come to you, and He will find you at your lowest point when you cry out to him. And If you’re wiling, he will show you great things you did not see.
‘Because of Who I Am’
I sometime get that sense of God’s purpose for humanity and truly experience a desire to be used to reach others for His kingdom. In the middle of one of those thoughts, God brought a revelation to me; ‘you have abilities, or you think you do, but it’s not your abilities I need; it’s not your charm or charisma, not your personality or persona, no matter if you think it’s strong or weak. No, reaching men has nothing to do with your good intentions, or even what you think! Remember, ‘I told you to come to the cross and surrender your thoughts, intentions, and abilities or lack of them. I told you to in My word to reckon ‘yourself’ to be dead, so I could live because this world doesn’t need to know who you think your are, it needs to know Me and who I Am! So surrender your thoughts to Me! As long as you live ‘your life’, you cannot reproduce Mine! The Apostle Paul said, ‘I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me….’ He further says, ‘whatever things were gain to me, I counted as loss that I could know Him and the power of His resurrection life!’ God says, ‘live My life and others will see Me through your surrender. They will see a brokenness that is evidence you serve me and not yourself, and you will prove to be my disciple whose actions reach many because of who I Am!’
GraceLife 