security, stability, confidence …

something else that has never changed is GOD's plan of salvation.

for two thousand years there is only one way to get to know GOD and that's through JESUS CHRIST HIS SON. JESUS said, I am the way – “I'm not a good way, the best way, one way, – but the way”. and HIS plan has never changed. GOD's invitation to you has never changed. HE wants you to come to HIM and establish a relationship with HIS SON JESUS CHRIST.

in your life, between now and when you die, however long that is, you will experience many stressful changes in your life. my question becomes: how are you going to respond to those changes? you can't prepare for them because they aren't predictable. you don't know what they're going to be. how are you going to handle them? what's going to be the source of stability in your life?

three things to remember when you're under stress and they're based on the three things we've been looking at. they are absolute facts. they become SPIRITual anchors for your soul in a changing world.

1) GOD will never stop loving me. never. HE won't even love me less. i won't understand all that is going on but no matter what HE's doing, HE's acting toward me in love. that's a stabilizer. no matter what happens, HE loves me.

2) GOD's word is always right. the advise here in the bible is the right thing to do, even if it's unpopular or unpleasant it is always the right thing to do. that's a stabilizer.

3) GOD's purpose for my life is bigger than my problems. problems can't change GOD's purpose. it has not changed GOD's purpose for your life and it will not change what HE wants to do in your life.

psalm 125.1 (lb), those who trust in the LORD are as steady as mount zion, unmoved by any circumstance. that's what i call stability, unmoved by any circumstance.

security, stability, confidence come from being anchored in an unchanging GOD. when everything around us is changing in this throw-away society where nothing remains the same, there is one thing that never changes and that's GOD and these aspects of HIS life.

just a thought from the front porch…

grace or guilt?...

ephesians 2.8-9 (tev), for it is by GOD's grace that you have been saved through faith. it is not the result of your own efforts, but GOD's gift, so that no one can boast about it

the point is that salvation is based on GOD's mercy not my merit. salvation is based on GOD's promise not my performance. he says, you don't earn it.

it's almost comical the way some people try to earn their salvation, to prove themselves worthy to GOD, try to earn his forgiveness.

some have what could be called salvation by sincerity. "it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere." the only problem with that is you can be sincerely wrong. i read about a pilot who sincerely flew into a mountain. i could pick up a glass of arsenic and drink it thinking it's milk. it will still kill me! you can be sincerely wrong.

then there is salvation by subtraction. you don't do this, don't do that, stop doing this and that... and maybe GOD will forgive your sins. don't smoke, cuss, or chew or run with girls that do. just don't do anything!

i've said many, many times that if all the CHRISTian life is is a bunch of "don'ts" anybody who lives in a rest home qualifies as a CHRISTian. you don't do much in those places. just set around and wait for your oatmeal.

then there is salvation by service. do good. be nice. take the LORD's supper. get baptized. help little old ladies across the street.

then there is salvation by comparison. "i don't need to become a CHRISTian because i'm better than..." the fact is you may be better than so and so, better than me, probably are. but GOD doesn't judge you according to me. i'm not the standard and neither is the other guy. the bible says GOD himself is the standard and we all fall short. that's the most basic thing in the CHRISTian life. but GOD's saving grace removes my guilt.

if you could save yourself the cross is a waste. there's no reason for JESUS CHRIST to die. if you could save yourself why did he put forth all the effort?

the most important decision you'll ever make is to receive GOD's saving grace. if you haven't done it, do it today. GOD's saving grace removes my guilt.

just a thought from the front porch…