A Very Present Help

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. That is, in Christ, he chose us before the world was made so that we would be his holy people—people without blame before him. Because of his love, God had already decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. That was what he wanted and what pleased him, and it brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely, in Christ, the One he loves. In Christ we are set free by the blood of his death, and so we have forgiveness of sins. How rich is God's grace.

 Ephesians 1:3-7

What does crisis do to your faith? Does it shake it to the core, or does it reveal to you how big your God is? If God is who He says He is, then He’s the same in crisis or in calm.

Our level of security plays a big part in how we manage our faith in difficult times. If we are secure in God and his promises, we will stand firm in the midst of the storm. When we know who hold our lives in balance, we need not run scared from a battle.

When we are insecure about who we are in God, our relationship with Him won’t be deep enough to learn to trust Him above anything else. The Bible tells us that we are loved, chosen, redeemed and blessed. He has adopted us by his choice and takes his parenthood seriously—but do we?

When a child is secure in knowing his daddy will protect him, feed him, forgive and prefer him, there is strength to take on the world. The bond that trusting brings to a relationship is a valuable thing, and God gives us every opportunity to share in that trust. Our daddy is faithful and gracious in good times and crisis. That’s enough to rest in for a lifetime.

Lord, I am grateful for the chance to be your child. Thank you for choosing me.

Understanding Salvation

"The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God."   I Corinthinas 1:18

New Testament references to salvation indicates an ongoing process. Christians are people who are "being saved". This is the manifestation we are to show the world. Not that we have arrived and they have not. Not that our work is complete, but that we are living through our salvation with expectation and obedience.

We are all still vulnerable to the clutches of temptation and sin - after all, we live in a world full of it. But we wait on God, persevere and pick ourselves up time and time again. It's an ongoing race that can only be finished by clinging to His righteousness and grace.

There are those that will see the message as foolish. But if we consistently live Christ in front of them, their doubts just might be dispelled. Being honest about our rescue from our sin on a daily basis will show them the validity of Jesus in our life.

We cannot take the process of salvation for granted. The word tells us to be on our guard, lest we forget our Savior's sacrifice and fall into the trap of complacency.

Thank you Lord for keeping us daily in your plan of salvation.

Devotion to God

Well, here I am starting a new blog. I have been writing devotions for some time. But it wasn't until recently (yesterday in fact)that I thought of sharing them in a blog exclusively for devotionals. So here is the first one. I hope you will enjoy, visit again and draw some meaning from what God has shared with me.
Blessings.

I Corinthians 13:13
"And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

I listened to a video sermon given by a friend of mine this morning. In his message he mentioned that real love - charity - perfects grace, mercy and kindness in our everyday lives. For some reason that brought me up short. Grace, mercy and kindness in my everyday life, huh? If you are like me, you tend to think of those attributes occurring only when there is a big issue to be addressed. I don't always think of exercising them in even the little things in my daily life.

Our lives are full of seemingly insignificant incidents. We engage other people, write emails, talk to family members and make choices every day. Bearing in mind that we are to reflect the light and charity of Jesus, how often do we operate in grace, mercy and kindness? Perhaps we should pay more attention to words, actions and attitudes that shape our final outcomes for the day. Days piled upon days shape a life. What shape will our life take, and how will we reflect the charity of Jesus? We do it moment by moment, remembering that the great gifts we give make a difference in reaching a lost world.

The greatest gift is charity - the kind that reflects Jesus.