“Trust in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength. He shall swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces: and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. “

“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death better than the day of birth”. ~ Proverbs 7:1

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. Because His compassions fail not.” Lamentations 3:22

The lighthouse shines in the darkness. Guiding the fisherman from out on stormy seas, it is their Beacon of hope, their guiding force to safety. Often it is the only glimmer in a fierce and tempestuous storm. When sea billows rage and angry winds toss the waves in an unruly uproar, the lighthouse stands firm upon a rock, amidst the splash of sea driven spray pounding it’s shores. Such is life in a dark storm where one’s only hope is that distant beam of luminous rescue if only it can be reached against such intense opposition.

Yet there is a force beyond the storm so powerful, so full of truth and light, that if called upon, if trusted in, will bring that storm shelter nigh and preserve that life that would be lost. This force is a person, this force is God Almighty. The maker of heaven and earth is He, and the creator of the storm you may find yourself in today. He is in the storm, yes! He uses storms oftentimes to bring us safely into the cove of shelter, the everlasting arms of His salvation.

His name is Jesus Christ. He is the creator of the universe and all storms as well as all places of paradise and peace. What does man have to do with Him? Everything! For it is in Him and through Him that we live and move, and have our being. He is God, God Almighty.

Are you in a storm? Do the waters rise up in your life and threaten your peace, your abode, your very existence? Go to Him. Go to the one who controls the storm and He will guide you home, safe into the love of His omnipotence.

All storms have a purpose, all events are ordained. God is moving the chess pieces though we don’t often see His hand at work. He is calling your name and mine, He is drawing every man to Himself, while there is still time. While one’s heart is beating there is still time. Eternity awaits and is on a clock. One day the final grain of sand will fall through your hourglass of time and eternity’s threshold will meet you where you are. Are you ready for such a step? Have you made peace with your creator? Are your sins paid for? ” for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord “.

We are all sinners making our way through the storm of life. Fallen and lost at sea, we yearn for light, truth, a Saviour. Our conscience tells us, we are sinners. We have broken every one of His laws, if we are honest with ourselves. We are estranged from this one and only most high God. He has declared way back in the garden of Eden, ” the soul that sinneth shall surely die”. We are on a death March, yet many don’t know it, or refuse to admit it. There is a day of judgement coming, a day of righteousness, truth, and judgement. On this day, an accurate accounting will be done, for every thought, careless word, and unrighteous deed. We will all give an account for our lives. The fact that we may think we are ” a pretty good person” will not deliver on this day. We will be judged by our deeds, by every broken law handed down by a Holy God.

But wait, what about the love of God!! Yes God loves us all , each one of us was made in His image, a unique creation of God Himself. It is not His will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Does that mean He wants me to repent of all my sins to be saved, and start living like a good person should? If this were enough, He wouldn’t have appointed Himself our Saviour and come to earth and died for us on a cruel and brutal cross of pain to atone for the sins of the whole world. But the love of God you may speak of and hope for is found in the lighthouse, the light of Jesus Christ, in His death, burial and resurrection that was given to save each human soul from the coming judgement of God in eternity.

What must be done to receive this gift of salvation, this light of hope of forgiveness and mercy, that we might escape the justice due that our sin debt demands? The God of creation, Jesus Christ has made it so simple, that even a child can make this choice and be saved. He says, ” and to as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the Sons of God.” “To anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord, though shalt be saved “. And He says in John 6:40 ” verily verily I say unto you , he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” It is simple childlike faith in His all atoning sacrifice of Himself on the cross that saves the human soul. Nothing more, nothing less. Faith alone in Christ alone saves from the impending judgment to come.

Jesus Christ is calling every man, woman, and child to Himself. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

I’ll never forget being a student nurse in training at the University Hospital in Tucson, AZ. It was my final year of nursing school and I was working in the intensive care unit. Actually I was following a teaching RN around while he performed his very challenging job and trying to learn as much as I could in the short clinical period I had with him to observe. It was a very busy day on that unit, and full of action and excitement. A man had just been brought up from the ER who had been in a very serious car accident. He was conscious, but not much else. He was in tremendous pain, had many lacerations, and road rash, needed surgery, and was having trouble breathing. He was being intubated and placed on a ventilator as stabilizing his condition was a first priority. As my RN preceptor got him settled in his bed and did the usual assessments, the patient, whose name was Benji, was struggling to breath. The alarms were going off on the ventilator and the need arose to suction the secretions from his lungs in order to improve his oxygen levels. If you have ever seen any one suctioned this way, through a tube like catheter to clear his air passageways, to say it is unpleasant would be a horrific understatement. Of course he became combative, expressing his discomfort in this process, and what the nurse said next are words I would never forget. I expected something informative, sterile, instructive, perhaps comforting, but none of these descriptions apply. He simply said,” yeah I know, this sucks Benji”. He’d just met the man and the comment seemed a bit informal, if not insensitive, yet he nailed it with these words, and I never forgot them. He was right on point with that statement,”this sucks”. Yes it did! And though I don’t use that phrase very often if ever, it was perfect for that occasion. Nothing would have more succinctly expressed the man’s experience at that moment than those words. Who knows how his day had started out, his plans, or situation, but surely where he ended up at 9:30 in the morning in the ICU of the University of AZ teaching hospital was not on his agenda. He was having a very bad day that promised to get worse in the coming hours.

In the valley, yet suddenly was where he found himself and a long road to climb back to wear he was resting and cruising along just hours before. The nurse knew it and said it, and it was a comfort. Yes that’s right, a comfort. Because when we are in the valley, and experiencing deep pain, sorrow, loss, difficulties, what most of us really need is someone to come along side us and say, “I understand”. This is painful, this is hard, you are in the crucible….I get it, and I sympathize, I am sorry. These words touch us because they validate our suffering. They strengthen us because someone knows, someone cares and affirms our pain. To acknowledge someone’s pain is to in some way bear it with them, lift them up, and console them. It comforts us in ways that few other interventions do and yet oftentimes it is the very thing that is withheld.

Let’s face it being around someone in pain is uncomfortable and most of us would rather avoid these moments and opportunities. We can’t relate, some of us, so we don’t. But then there is that person, who is not afraid, but gets down there in the valley with you and in whose kindness, the Lord works to lift us up, to carry us through.

Words are powerful, they can bring healing, they can bring hope. And understanding and acknowledging one’s pain can be cathartic. It’s amazing how it can ease the edge of a bitter wound or console a deep sorrow. Simply “I know” can work wonders. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who intimately understands how you personally feel. He made you, he created your heart, and he knows how it hurts, why it hurts, and what it feels like on the inside. In fact I believe in Benji’s case, He might have exonerated the RN’s statement. For it was the truth.

It is when our pain doesn’t matter and no one recognizes it or is even aware of it and we must bare it alone that it becomes excruciating. A true friend will notice, will care and will offer comfort. If you don’t have a friend like that, there is one that sticks closer than a brother and will always care. He says “cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you”. That person is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who made you and knows all about you. Every pain, sorrow, insult, rejection that are seemingly insignificant to others do not go unnoticed by Him. He loves you and He is waiting for you to open the door of your heart that He might comfort and love you and give you everlasting consolation.

In this world you will have tribulations and man was born of trouble as the sparks fly upward, but Jesus says, ” fear not, for I have overcome the world”. Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning for that wounded lost soul who finds peace and faith in the Saviour.

” they looked unto him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed”

Go to Him, tell Him your sorrows, for He cares for you.

He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Jesus knows all about you. He loves you with an everlasting love that reaches into the deepest parts of your soul. There is no shadow of turning with this love. It is pure, even as He is pure. It is unconditional, and it is eternal.

We don’t experience love like this in this world. For we live in a frail and fallen world where sorrows abound like sea billows roll. People let us down, and we let ourselves down. Everyone is hurting in some form or another. We all experience pain, disappointment and heartbreak. But there is one that will never let us down or let us go, if we will receive Him and put in Him our trust.

Jesus, the Son of God, is our blessed hope. He said to us, ” in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” He has overcome all our sorrow and all our tears. He has swallowed up death, our death, in victory. He has made a way for us to spend eternity in heaven with Him, and though we could never earn so precious a gift, He has paid the ultimate price to make it possible for each one of us, through His own death burial and resurrection on the cross. This act on His part has paid our sin debt. It has made possible the gift of eternal life with Him forever. How do we receive this gift? By faith. By placing all of our faith, hope and trust in the person of Jesus Christ, in His mercy. John 6:40 says ” verily verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” It is a gift, it is a person, it is a blessed hope. It is for everyone.

He loves you. He came to give you life and abundant life at that. It is a gift. His gift, to you. Sin has ravaged and destroyed mankind. Our human souls suffer from this blight and the whole world lieth in wickedness, the Bible says. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He came to set you and I free from the awesome penalty of death that we have all earned. He came to quicken us, and give us everlasting life. Will you trust Him to set you free?

Do you believe that God is love, and that He loves you just exactly as you are? Did you know that His unconditional love for you will save your soul, simply by placing your faith in His finished work on the cross on our behalf? No conditions, just recieve, and believe. He does the rest.

The Bible simply says “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”. It does not require us to repent of all our sins, for we can never fully do that. We will no sooner conquer one sin, and we will have another sinful area in our lives revealed to us. There are many false teachers however, that have gone out into the world who are teaching a different gospel.

Here is the lie of these false teachers. They say ” you’re not saved if you’re not surrendered to the Lordship of Christ.” Then they proceed to define ” surrender”. It is living life according to their “list”. This list is made up of rules of do’s and dont’s according to their ideas of holiness and how a Christian should live. Some of the list is Biblical and good but they make the mistake of requiring adherence to this list to be saved. They do not accept the concept of ” faith alone.” You either see truth as they see it, live life as they do, or you are still lost. Once in their opinion you have sufficiently surrendered and are saved, you run the risk of losing this salvation if you fail in your faith walk. There are no guarantees with their gospel. You must do your part, or you salvation is null and void.

Your part is to repent of your sins, all of them, become a spiritual man or woman, become in essence, like them. A Holy person. If you fail to do this, your faith has failed. Your salvation is forfeited.

Sadly, as a result of these false teachings, many fall away, give up, and go back to the world. It reminds me of Peter, after failing the Lord and betraying Him, he went back to being a fisherman. But the Lord didn’t let him go. Nor does he let anyone go, because they fail in their faith walk. This is the truth, but unfortunately these false teachers neglect to tell you that. They reject eternal security. The salvation they preach is ultimately left up to the individual, not God. It’s dependent on the convert’s success at changing their behavior sufficiently to merit so great a salvation. Few can bare this burden, and eventually give up. Salvation becomes nebulous, and a wish rather than a certainty. A vain hope actually and one which ultimately will damn. Why is this so? Because on some level our input, according to them, is required to complete the salvivic transaction. Our works, they say, factor in, so if they’re not there, or there not good enough, or enough enough, we’re lost.

These teachings rob the believer of rest and cause them to doubt. There is no security or real peace. Their gospel is not designed to give you peace, except in your own accomplishments which is a false peace. Often it rather drives you on in fear. There is no real love because how can you love someone who requires good works out of you that you cannot perform perfectly or fail to perform at all for eternal life? There’s no freedom and no real joy. How can there be, its all works! It’s a job! You are earning your keep. There is no unconditional love or acceptance. It’s a contract not a covenant, in which God does His part, and you agree to do your part. If you fail, the contract is nullified.

What these false teachers are offering is a work your way to heaven process veiled in the finished work. What they don’t tell you is that the work isn’t finished until you finish it, with works in keeping with repentance. Its a lie. A lie that gets bigger the longer you are in these groups and churches. A very subtle lie at first. But a lethal lie. A little leven levels the whole lump.

Many believe this lie. It comes in so many forms, and so many denominations. There is a smorgasbord of churches and faiths where this lie is taught. Just pick one, they’re all out there. Just different varieties, but the same lie. All so convincing as they cater to man’s wisdom, and man is so impressed with it. Man loves religion!

Young people today don’t want this, a list of do’s and dont’s. They want love. They reject Jesus Christ because to them He represents rules! Rules they cannot keep, nor want to keep. We as parents have so often gravely misrepresented Christ to them. An introduction to Jesus Christ must start with love. But so often we don’t even have that love ourselves. We don’t know of it, haven’t experienced it. Why? It is due to our own unbelief! We don’t believe God’s word deeply or truly. We are just passing on what we do know, rules and religion. But it is hollow, empty, and cannot save. We ourselves must experience God’s unconditional love, forgiveness and grace. That word unconditional is HUGE. For if we must merit it in our own estimation, we will fail of it. God loved Lot and was faithful and merciful to Lot even when he lived in filthy Sodom. Lot was a just and righteous man per Jesus Christ! This was due to Lot’s faith in Him, period!

We must see God’s faithfulness to us in the same vein. If we believe on Him, we’re His! Plus nothing! He then becomes our Father. He will forever love us. He is committed to us! He is in a covenant with us that He will never break, though we may break it. He may not reward our works in this life at the Bemis seat, but He will give us eternal life and forever love us. This truth must be separated out from all works on our part in order to be truly touched by the gospel. We will never know who Jesus Christ is until we understand this, we will never truly embrace Him. Many would rather embrace a ” list”.

God gives His love unconditionally and we must accept it and spread it unconditionally. For if we wait until we or those around us deserve His love to embrace or share His love, we will never experience it in this life.

The name of Jesus is powerful. The name of Jesus saves. To simply look unto Jesus in faith determines one’s eternal destiny. How could the name of a person be so mighty? There is only one answer, because the name of Jesus is the name of God.

We live in a mundane world of veiled reality. Without faith we cannot see past the clouds. We don’t “know” very little of anything past our own existence and experience. We have science, but science is limited to the realm of what we can measure and comprehend. What about the vast body of knowledge we cannot grasp? What role will such knowledge play in how and where we spend eternity? These are questions we can only speculate about but truth can be found in only one source, the Bible and Holy word of God, and it’s not as complicated as the intellects would have us to believe.

The name of Jesus saves. God in all of His omnipotence has made the path to Himself very simple. So simple, that many miss it. We are sinners, we are frail, we fall, we transgress the laws of God. We possess a human nature that naturally violates His commandments and because of this we experience a broken relationship, we are estranged from Him. “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good. No, not one. Romans 3:10- 12. We are on our way to hell fire when we die for our transgressions against a Holy God. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Ronans 6:23. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to earth as a little baby. He was the promised Saviour of the Old Testament, Emanuel, God with us. His purpose, to offer His life, His flesh and blood on the cross to take the punishment and the wrath of God the Father, that should have been ours, upon Himself to atone for the sins of the whole world. He offered Himself, a sacrificial lamb, to take away the sins of the world.

How is this act appropriated in the life of the individual such that eternal life in heaven and forgiveness of one’s sins is secured? God made it very simple, “Look and Live”. God says ” Look unto me all ye the ends of the earth and be saved for I am God and there is none else.” Isaiah 45:22. Look unto the cross and be saved for all eternity from every transgression against a Holy God! How can it be so simple you ask? How can a look, some seemingly insignificant act save a human soul? It doesn’t take any work to look, no effort, or reform, no labor, or commitment. Just a look, just a call, just a sip of water from the well, just a mustard seed of faith and a living soul is transported into the kingdom of God. Just like that?? Yep, just like that.

You say, well that’s too easy, that didnt take any work on the part of mankind! Well did the creation of the universe take any work on the part of mankind? We’ve certainly proven we can ruin it, but we can take no credit for the magnificence of it’s creation. How about the conception of your own human life? Did that take any work on your part? When the sun comes up every morning, did one or any of us have a part in putting it there? Tell me, do you make your heart pump blood, how about your lungs? Do they obey your commands?

The problem with a lot of us is that we don’t know who God is, and WE want to be God. We’re not too sure about this God in the heavens or the expanse of His power or the truth of His promises, so we attempt to step into His shoes and rewrite “wisdom” according to our own feeble minds and understanding. God hides wisdom and knowledge from such fools, but freely gives it to the meek and childlike. Not fair? Well it’s his wisdom and He can give it to anyone He chooses. He made it too high for the learned, scholarly, and intellectual, but well within reach to the trusting believing one, the one who will simply take a ” look” and believe what He says.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”. This was told to the phillipian jailer when he asked how to be saved. Look and live is all you need to do. The rest is up to God. He raises the Son in your heart, and you are forever His. He seals you with the power of the Holy Spirit, and you shall NEVER perish. He does the work. Not us. Our part is to look, His part is to work. Too simple? Beware of stumbling over the rock of simplicity that is Christ. Simply look and live.

What is life at it’s best? What are some of the greatest blessings one can experience in their lifetime? Good health, material prosperity? Perhaps a wonderful family who loves you, or meaningful work that you enjoy. Maybe it’s the achievement of an excellent education or the experience of one’s most coveted and longed for desires and ambitions being realized. What constitutes a “good life” or one well lived and where is it all leading when it’s over? What is the meaning of life and what happens when it ends?

The older I get the more I realize how very brief life is. Life at its longest is so very very short. One day it dawns on you, as good as life may have been, as much as you may have been blessed or been able to achieve, there is is an end coming to this thing called life, there is the ” last day” to be lived. When will that last day be? No one knows, we’re not given that information but oftentimes it comes suddenly and without warning. When life ends, whether suddenly, or expected, it’s over and what then? What lies beyond this life?

Many theories and beliefs exist about what awaits us in the next life, but the Bible holds the truth to the question of eternity and the meaning of life. The Bible is the word of God. A book written through men by the Holy Spirit of God to guide us into all truth. Though we may wonder at life’s ultimate meaning and what the future holds in the afterlife, the Bible does not keep it a mystery, but lays the truth plain, if you have ears to hear.

You see, God created you. He gave you a spirit that will live forever. You have a physical body and soul, but your spirit is the part of you that is eternal. It will never cease to exist, long after your physical body has disintegrated in the grave. You will spend eternity somewhere forever and ever. The Bible speaks of only two destinies, two homes for the departed soul, heaven or hell. Religion tells us that how you live determines your eternal fate. Good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell. This makes sense, right? If you are a good person, by this defined as, never having killed anyone, or been in trouble with the law, a “good neighbor”, good husband or wife, good son or daughter, law abiding citizen, maybe even a very benevolent person, or just someone who tried to love others, treat others the way they wanted to be treated, and did the best they could. If such a one should pass away, heaven should be expected, and why not? This individual is surely as good as most and maybe even better. Could not such a one have peace at the time of approaching death, that acceptance into heaven will be granted? And certainly the opposite would be true, that a murderer on death row, no matter how contrite, will pay for his crimes in a dark place of torment. We make the mistake as humans of thinking that God is like us and his thoughts are like ours, but the Bible does not teach this, and some may think it very unfair. But when we come to see our true condition before a Holy God, we begin to see the truth as the Bible teaches it.

We are all sinners. No matter how good or bad a life you think you have lived, we all miss the mark when it comes to being good enough to go to heaven on our own merit. ” As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one, Roman’s 3:10. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Roman’s 3:23. This pretty much includes everyone. Man’s best efforts are as filthy rags in God’s sight. Living a “good” life will not get us to Heaven. That’s why we need a Saviour! The penalty and eternal destiny for all first time offenders is hell. We are all sinners and we have all earned hell. No exceptions. ” For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Roman’s 6:23 Man can do nothing to save himself. No matter how many good works you may have done, or how well you may have loved others in this life, these works cannot earn you a place in heaven. One sin, one transgression of Gods law is all it takes to condemn a soul to eternal hell. The wages of sin, one sin is death. We cannot save ourselves, no matter how good we’ve tried to be. God offers the honest sinner who would admit their sinful condition, a Saviour and the free gift of eternal life, by simply believing on that one and only Saviour for mercy and eternal life. ” For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9. All we need for eternal life in heaven instead of eternal torment in hell is to believe (trust) in Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour! ” For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16. Jesus himself stated, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the father but by me”. John 14:6.

God offers eternal life freely to all who will come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ and believe on Him. When Jesus Christ died on the cross He took the punishment we deserved and paid our sin debt for us. He offered Himself a sacrifice to atone for the sins of all mankind. Because He is God, He was the only one who could do this, offer himself up as a sacrifice to the Father for every human soul. John the Baptist refers to Jesus Christ in the proclamation ” Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world”. By believing on the name of the Son of God, and what He did for you on the cross in paying your sin debt, by trusting in His finished work, you are declared blameless before the Father, your “sin account” canceled! That’s why we celebrate Easter, we have proof that His death, burial and resurrection are accepted by the Father, by the open grave and the rolled away stone. He lives! Because He lives, all who believe on Him shall live forever also. What good news!

There is a life after this one, eternal life and every human soul living will spend eternity somewhere. I don’t know when you are going to die, but when it happens its going to seem like it came awfully quick. Today may not be the day that you will die, but it is the day to believe on Jesus Christ, that when that day comes expectantly or suddenly, you are ready for the next life, eternal life with Him. We are all going to die one day. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”Hebrews 9:27. When our physical body dies we will be judged according to our works, if we have not believed on the Saviour and received his love gift of eternal life. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. ” Verily verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” John 6:40. There is a life beyond this one, a life in heaven that will never end for those who hear his voice and believe.

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

There is a satanic deception regarding salvation today that sadly is so prevalent that countless people are trusting in it, believing in it, and yet may not even be aware that this dead fall trap will one day cost them their very soul. In order to have this kind of power, this deception would have to be a belief that is very akin to our natural inclinations and logic. It would have to be extremely believable, and make a lot of sense to our human reasoning. In fact, this belief would have to be so persuasive, so cunning, that only one who would diligently strive against it could escape its pervasive grip. This lie, though not taught in the Bible, is common in churches today and many are living by its tenets. This falsehood is the belief in our own goodness, and the hope that it will someday justify us before a Holy God. Whatever form this self righteousness takes, and it has many manifestations, it is the belief that we can contribute in some way to the salvation of our souls through our acts of obedience, service, benevolence, or morality. In this belief not only is the ability to contribute to our justification desirable but it is, in the opinion of many, required to secure our hope of heaven. And so many go about attempting to establish their own righteousness while trusting in this perceived accomplishment as securing their salvation to its completion. Sadly, this could not be further from the truth. In fact, the more we believe in our own goodness and righteousness, the less righteous we actually are, and the less holy. Paradoxically, the potential for holiness achieved in this life seems to be directly proportional to the awareness of one’s true condition before a Holy God, as a wretched sinner, poor, naked and blind. This is precisely why this deception is so deadly, so fatal. It blinds us to our true need, and as a result we never fully come to trust in our only hope, Jesus Christ, and his blood shed for us at Calvary. This is why the apostle Paul denounced his godly works and heritage as dung that he may gain Christ! Christ alone saves, and His righteousness becomes our righteousness when we put our faith wholly in Him. The false hope that we must somehow add to his all atoning sacrifice by ” making him Lord of our life”, repentance of all our sins, or bearing fruit of a life of good deeds, to complete our salvation, actually nullifies it and Christ becomes as Paul said, of none effect to us. It is faith alone in Christ alone, that saves the human soul. No amount of goodness on our part can be added to the work done on our behalf by the Saviour.

Jesus warned, ” enter ye in at the straight gate, for many will strive to enter but will not be able.” The straight gate is faith alone. Jesus said ” I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh to the father except by me”. He also calls himself the door and states that anyone who enters by Him, will come in and out and find pasture. In other words, will become one of his sheep. He promises, “my sheep hear my voice, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish”. But those who would place their hope in themselves and their own good works to be saved, he refers to as a ” thief and a robber”. What did they steal? They tried to steal God’s glory, in giving away freely so great a salvation, not meritoriously, but by His own goodness, and they stole the eternal life of many a poor soul who put their trust in the false prophet’s pernicious ways.

“I’m a nobody, who are you? Are you a nobody too? Then there’s a pair of us, don’t tell. They’ll banish us you know. How dreary to be somebody, how public like a frog, to tell your name and live long day, to an admiring bog.

~ Emily Dickinson

Many people may feel like nobodies today. There is a pervasive sense of loneliness and isolation that spans across every strata of society. Ironically however , in the age of social media, being a nobody isn’t allowed. We all know or can know just about anything we want about each other, or so we think. To a degree we are public beings, out on display for all to see. Of course much of what is promoted is very positive and only a sliver of who we really are. Jesus knows each one of us intimately. He knows the truth about each one of us, uncensored, raw and real. We cannot fool him, or hide from him. How wonderful this is. That the God who made us knows every intricate detail of our lives and still loves us. He does not reject us or look down on us, as we often do one another. He unconditionally deeply loves each one of us. Yet many in churches today and everywhere in society feel unloved, unwated….a nobody. Sadly, this is a common experience. That forgotten person, that lonely one, is a hidden flower in the jungle of life. God, our creator waits to shine all the love divine omnipotence can possess on such a one. Yet love unknown, no matter how great, is love unfelt, inexperienced, and unreturned. However this in no way diminishes its existence. God is love, and He loves you!

“Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Galatians 1: 3 No greater love has ever been shown than a man lay down his life for his friends. Jesus did this for you and me. He came down from heaven, leaving his royal throne as Creator God, and took upon himself human flesh, lived the perfect life, sinless and obedient to His Father, and then offered up his life on a Roman cross for the sins of the whole world. In so doing, He paid our sin debt, and delivered us from the penalty of our sin, eternal death in hell. All He requires is that we receive so magnificent a gift by believing on His name alone and trust Him for the outcome, life eternal with Him forever.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall without your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10: 29

In a world of nobodies where true love and friendship often elude us, will you let Jesus love you?