|
In today’s society many will find people saying that they do good things and good works so they can please God and be accepted into His glory. This is all well and good, however, good works alone does not get you to heaven.
The Apostle Paul’s letter to the church of Ephesus explains God’s great goals for the church and proceeds to show the steps toward their fulfillment. Some will take verse 10 of Chapter Two literally and spend their time on workmanship or doing good works, thinking this is the way to eternity and a life with Christ in His heavenly home.
Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. It is a gift from God and nothing we can earn or build by doing good works. Through God’s amazing grace and your acceptance of Him in your heart is the way to eternal salvation. This is clearly stated in Ephesians 2:8-10 which says: “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.” (NIV)
Doing good works is something that you want to do after you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You accept Him by faith and work for Him because of your renewed heart and desire to please the Master.
Through good works some say this is an outward expression of an inward decision. Good actions will allow you to show that your Christian values are in place and that the old sin nature of the past is gone. This allows others to see Jesus’ grace in you because of His kindness, unmerited favor and forgiving love. After your conversion experience you will want others to know that you are saved. Your salvation will show to the ages to come and to those around you in the present that the incomparable riches of God’s grace is expressed through Christ Jesus.
Continue doing your good works but do this in the full knowledge that salvation is a gift from God and accepting the gift, which is Jesus Christ, is the only way to eternal life.
(Suggested Daily Bible Readings: Sun.- Matthew 6:30-34; Monday - Mark 2:1-5; Tuesday - Romans 1:5-6; Wednesday - 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5; Thursday - Judges 9: 7-20; Friday - Malachi - 2:10-12; Saturday - Matthew 21:18-21) A001-08 |
Circulating around the internet is an email called the “Dash Movie.” This is one of the best emails anyone can receive and has a great message for anyone that will read it.
To paraphrase from this email and to give a brief glimpse of what it is about, think about what you read on tombstones when you visit a cemetery. Most head stones will have a name, the date born and the date of death. Between those two dates will be a dash and this dash represents life on earth and this is what that person is going to be remembered for.
What to you want your dash to say about you? Will it speak of you in a way that says you were a worrier, that you worried about what you didn’t have instead of being thankful for what you did have? Will it display the remembrances of words such as God fearing, good, kind, honest, loving, unselfish, merciful, friend, humble, or will it allow your memory to be displayed by the opposite of these words. Will you leave this world and have people say you were a person of integrity? Will you be considered a good family member with leadership qualities and strengths that are going to be missed by all of your family and friends.
Are you going to be remembered as a person that was frugal with your finances, but a sharing individual, a good parent, a person that people wanted to be around? Are people going to say that you were honest, dependable, and sincere?
Many in today’s society fight very hard to become successful and do. They have the big cars and the big houses and plenty of material possessions that can be bought with money and your dash could reflect this, but it will quickly fade. Your dash is going to speak about you, not what you had. It will speak about your character and how you treated and worked with your fellow man. What do you want your dash to say about you?
Jesus tells us in the gospel of Matthew to not worry about tomorrow but take care of what we are doing today. Will your dash say that you were person that did not worry, but allowed the Holy Spirit to lead you? “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34 NIV.
(Suggested daily Bible readings) Sunday - Matthew 6: 25-34; Monday - Proverbs 12: 8-17; Tuesday - 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7; Wednesday - Acts 10: 1-2; Thursday - Matthew 5: 3-12; Friday - Hebrews 13: 15-19; Saturday - Job 2: 3. A004-08
|
|
What do you receive from going to Church?
By ANDY GRANT
andgrant@bellsouth.net
Being a Sunday school teacher over the past years, I think I have heard every excuse around for people not to attend Sunday school or church.
I encourage the people I talk with about church that we need the fellowship of the believers. It helps and nurtures us in the word of God and gives us encouragement to go back into the world each day and be a shinning example.
Being a church member may be enough for some people but, I firmly believe that being an active church member and attending on a regular basis strengthens your inner self and allows you to face the problems of the world on a higher, spiritual plane.
A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.
"I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them.
So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals.
But I do know this. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today.
Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"
When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible.
Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!
(Suggested daily Bible readings: Sunday - Matthew 16:17-19; Monday - Acts 21:27-28; Tuesday - 1 Corinthians 5:11-13; Wednesday - Galatians 1:11-17; Thursday - Ephesians 5:23-28; Friday - 1 Corinthians 14:12; Saturday - Colossians 1:15-18)A016-07
|
