Words have power. Written words provide proof. You can read them, and reread them whenever you want. They can speak life to someone who needs encouragement. They can speak death to someone who is being deceived. The choice lies within you. How is it that you want people to remember you? Encourager...that is the gift that God has laid on my heart. To use my written, spoken, and/or sung words to lift people up. To be one link in their road to healing, restoration, joy. I have been without those things, and I claim them to be mine again. If you want me to seek God on a prayer for a specific situation...that is why I am here. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to pray God's Word of Life over you.

Friday, February 24, 2012

God’s Generosity

God is generous. Boy is that an understatement! There isn’t an adjective that I can think of that explains his generosity to the full extent. So I will leave it simple…He IS absolute generosity.
Salvation is complete generosity. Remember…if you got what you deserved you would spend eternity in torment. Forever death and never-ending, inescapable suffering. It is His unfathomable, supernatural generosity that allows eternal salvation through the simplest cry, “God forgive me and save me from my sins!”
You don’t have to take my word for it…here is the Word of God. Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Salvation is not a hard word to grasp hold of. It is not a word reserved for the ‘religious’. It is for the common man/woman. It is for you and I. Simply put…it is God saving us from what we truly deserve. Don’t make it out to be difficult to understand or receive. But also don’t forget the sacrifice it took. Don’t underestimate the power of it. It is simple. But it is also not anything we can recreate on our own. There is only one way to salvation. And that is through Jesus Christ!
He doesn’t make us grovel for it. He doesn’t watch us squirm in our uncomfortable shame after we cry out. He doesn’t make us work for it. It is a gift. I know you know how to receive gift. Christmas wasn’t all that long ago…
Extend arm. Grasp gift. Give thanks. Open…and enjoy! Salvation is just like that. No strings attached! I promise.
You may be thinking…but I see Christians ‘working’ for the church all the time, and some of those people seem miserable. Right you are. Sadly, for some they do it because they feel like they can earn salvation by doing good things. “Works don’t make the Christian, they mark the Christian.” That means you can’t receive salvation through any amount of good deeds that you do. You also can not earn ‘better’ salvation because of how awful you used to be. Meaning…you don’t work harder if you used to be a criminal.
We are new creations in Christ. All of us. When we ask Christ to reside within us…those old things pass away. They become dead to us. They will try to come back as often as the enemy chooses…but we have the right and the power to tell him that there is no place in us any longer for those sinful, natural desires. (Ex. anger, gossip, foul language, lust) They must leave at the mention of the name of Jesus. Try it! There is POWER in that name!
Ephesians 4:22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Once you are saved…you will WANT to do good deeds. Your motive…should be only to please God. Because you stand in the amazement of His unconditional love, you will do good in His Name. People will see Christ through your actions. And you may be all the Christ that they see!
Oooo, that last line reminds me. I have a prayer request. There is a man who I am praying will attend church with his family. I will say no names, and we all know that God will answer because HE knows. God wrote a song for me to sing over the past few weeks. And last Sunday He revealed who it is for. When I see this man enter our doors…I will be obedient and sing the song God wrote for he and his wife. I am sooooo excited!! I can’t wait for God to work in his life and change his eternal Home. Pray with me won’t you? Pray that he will come soon! I feel like I am busting at the seems with joy for him to listen to the Voice that has been calling him Home. And when this all happens, I will write to you and let you know the outcome. Promise! =D

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