pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: salvation


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Head to Heart

Faith rests upon the bedrock of Christ crucified and risen.  It is only through His sacrifice that we are made right with God and only through His resurrection that we have the promise of eternal life.  We ourselves can do nothing to earn forgiveness or to earn our way into heaven.  It is only by His grace and with the power of the Holy Spirit that we walk daily as a child of God.

For many today, this seems foolishness and is very hard to accept.  Like the Jews and Greeks in today’s reading, people today still want amazing signs or miracles or they want to be able to reason out faith.  Many in Jesus’ day saw miracles but failed to believe.  Many today believe that Jesus exists but fails to follow Him.  They observe the rules and diligently check off the boxes.  They know the stories in the Bible.  They practice religion but do not have a living faith.

But until Jesus makes that journey from head to heart, religion is all one has.  Once Jesus starts to live in our hearts, our lives change radically.  Instead of thinking how nice it was that Jesus did all those wonderful things for people, we want to go and do in His name.  Once Jesus lives in our hearts, our faith grows hands and feet.  The Spirit comes to dwell within us and life is never the same.  It is then that we can see with Jesus’ eyes, love with His heart, and serve others in the saving name of Jesus Christ!

Scripture reference: 1 Corinthians 1: 18-25


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Good Questions

In the beginning it was Israel that was God’s chosen people.  For the thousands of years before Christ, they were God’s only people.  They are the people of the law, the covenant, the prophets, the temple, the history, and of Jesus’ ancestors.  Yet they are, like us, a broken people.  The law is ever before them as a testament to their inability to make it on their own.  We too cannot walk out our faith on our own.  God sent Jesus to establish a new way, to establish a new covenant with a people who became known as Christians.  We are a people of the Jewish Bible but also a people of the New Testament.

In Romans 9 you can hear Paul’s pain and anguish.  He was a former Jew hurting for his fellow Jews.  Paul offers up his own faith – if Israel would just believe in Jesus Christ.  That’s pretty amazing.  It is very sacrificial.  It is also something that I could see Christ doing.

So it begs the question in me – and hopefully in you too – what am I willing to do to bring a lost soul to Christ?  What would I gladly yield up to save another?  These are good questions to spend some time with today.

Scripture reference: Romans 9: 1-5


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He Loves Us

Jesus said that if we love Him we will obey His commands.  Do you suppose He meant ALL the time?  Or just some of the time?  We know the answer to this question.  Hard as we might try, we cannot always obey.  Here is where vision runs smack into reality.  But we try.

God must have known this since the time of Adam and Eve’s sin – that mankind will always be a struggle.  Yet His love is so vast that He found a way to always allow us to renew our relationship with Him.  He first sent His Son so that we would know the way, the truth, and the life – as He intended us to live.  Then God allowed His Son to die as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Yes, He loves us.

Yet the story doesn’t end there, good as it is.  Because He remembered that we struggle.  So God sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, to lead and guide us.  The advocate brings us back to that way, truth, and life and helps us to share the good news of Jess Christ with others.  Yes indeed!  He loves us.


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Hosana to the King!

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, the large crowd of people gathered there threw their cloaks and palm branches on the road into the city.  The soft path that they created symbolizes a special entrance.  They must have sensed that there was something special about this man on the donkey and colt.  Perhaps the people’s kind act even brought comfort to Jesus as he pondered what was to come in the days ahead.

The people raised their voices to welcome Jesus too.  Their shouts sought what we too seek from Jesus –  healing and salvation – and what we offer to him – our praise and thanksgiving.

May we be full of praise and thanksgiving as we walk into and through Holy Week so that we may also experience the healing and salvation that the week yields!