 “Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved”(Romans 10:13 TLB). Are you at a place in your life where you need to be rescued? Are you ready to call out for help? It doesn’t take a special phone or a bat-signal. All you have to do is ask and Jesus will rescue you. You can ask him to rescue you in any area of your life: a relationship, a financial situation, a health issue, anything. But you have to ask. In Psalm 91:15, God says, “When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them” (NLT). That’s not just talk, because God doesn’t lie. It would be contrary to his character because he is total truth. Notice that God says you have to do your part and then he’ll do his part. You call, he answers. That’s it. Just call on the name of the Lord. And the name of the Lord is Jesus. It’s vital to understand that in any rescue operation, the rescuer gets to determine the means and method of the rescue. You don’t get to determine how you are saved. It’s not up to you; it’s up to your Savior. And Jesus says, “I am the way . . . No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NIV). Jesus doesn’t say he’s a good way or a nice way or even the best way. He says, “I’m it.” If there were a plan B, God wouldn’t have sent Jesus — his plan A — to Earth to die for you. So if you’re going to be saved and have all your sins forgiven, there’s only one way it will happen, and there’s only one person you can call on: Jesus.
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“Jesus Christ rescued us . . . by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God’s plan is that we all experience that rescue” (Galatians 1:4 The Message). David was one of Israel’s greatest kings – powerful, smart, wealthy. He could have anything he wanted, but he knew he was unable to truly save himself. Only one person could rescue him: “I stand silently before the Lord, waiting for you to rescue me. For salvation comes from him alone”(Psalm 62:1 TLB). It is impossible to work our way, buy our way, or earn our way into heaven. When it comes to salvation, we are unable to save ourselves. The government can’t save us. Our popularity can’t save us. Our level of success can’t save us. “There’s no such thing as self-rescue, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. The cost of rescue is beyond our means” (Psalm 49:7-8 The Message). If you didn’t need a savior, God wouldn’t have sent one. But he knew that your spiritual condition was much worse than your physical condition could ever be. That’s why he sent Jesus to rescue you. There is no way you can get into a perfect heaven on your own. There is no way you can pay for your salvation. The cost is beyond your means. So Jesus paid for it by coming and dying for you on the cross. He made that ultimate payment with his life. God simply invites you to accept the free gift of salvation that Jesus makes available. Here's a little something I picked up..Hope you like it and I hope it serves you well
Self-will is the opposite of the nature of Jesus. Our Savior was and is the ultimate other-centered person, and a self-willed man or woman is a self-centered person. Jesus said that if anyone would come to follow Him, he must deny himself (Matthew 16:24). When Jesus said this, He added an important phrase:If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. Jesus said it this way to make the point that for someone to deny himself was like going to their crucifixion (to take up his cross). The cross wasn’t about self-promotion or self-affirmation. The person carrying a cross knew they couldn’t save themselves. Denying self means to live as an others-centered person. Jesus was the only person to do this perfectly, but we are to follow in His steps and to follow Him. This is following Jesus at its simplest: He denied self, He carried a cross; and so must those who follow Him. Those who would be leaders among God’s people must lead in self-sacrifice. They must come to serve, and not to be served. They should not be selfish. They should not be arrogant, stubborn, or have a proud self-focus. James 3:17 describes true wisdom: But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield. Out of pure stubbornness, the self-willed man is not willing to yield. The self-willed man is determined to have his own way in everything. They think their judgment is always right and superior to everyone else. They expect everyone to pay honor to their wisdom and to always do things their way. That isn’t godly leadership, and such self-willed men should not be appointed leaders among God’s people. Instead, leaders should be like Jesus who truly said of Himself I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me (John 5:30). We should be God-willed instead of self-willed. There are times when a leader must make a stand and hold his ground. When that time comes, he must do it in a spirit of humility and with a humble searching that he makes his stand seeking after the will of the Father, not his own will God sees the big picture. He knows what’s happening around us and ahead of us. We, however, are limited in our understanding. At times, we are like the child who only wants donuts for breakfast and candy for dinner. The parent knows that, although one day of having a diet like that won’t kill us, to continue in that pattern would be detrimental to our health.
The Bible is very clear that God is omniscient, a fancy word for “all-knowing.” He knows everything from beginning to end. He even created time, so He’s not limited by it like we are. When we seek God for wisdom about our lives, He will speak to us. As the Bible says in James 1:5, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” |
AuthorMy name is Cal..I was raised and born Jewish and now Christian by choice.. Archives
July 2018
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