There is More to Salvation

There is more to salvation than escaping hell. Salvation and happiness in this world are not our ultimate goals either. God’s salvation enables us to flourish in our victory over sin and to live in absolute obedience to His Spirit moment by moment throughout the day. In order to fully succeed in life, we daily repent of our sins and submit our life to God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. As we abide in Christ we grow in our ability to hear His Spirit leading us each moment of the day.

Abiding in Christ, we also bear the burdens of our brothers and sisters, and we share a passion for souls to come to Calvary’s cross and to repent, just as we did. Christ in us gives us the courage and strength to share His love with the unsaved world, in spite of any difficulties along the way. We love each person with God’s agape love, regardless of his or her behavior. We are able to impart His life to others as they open their hearts to His Word.

We cannot live without the Vine. The vine cannot bear fruit by itself. It needs branches in order to bear its fruit. The Master Gardener prunes us as a branch of the eternal Vine; and we bear much fruit that blesses others when they feast from it. As we abide in Christ, completely and fully, we bear the fruit of His Spirit, which is the nature of God.

We bear His love for the world, His joy which is our strength, His peace in our circumstances, His patience in tribulation, His gentleness toward irritating people, His goodness in the face of adversity, His meek in submission to our superiors, His self-control in temptation and His faith in God’s faithfulness.

As we submit our life to Christ, we admit our weakness and find His power in place of our strength. We are mighty instruments in the hand of the Father, because His Spirit dwells within us. His strength is perfected in our weakness as we fully admit our need for all of Him in our life. Then we can rest assured that He is working through us, according to His purpose, timing and way. As we lift Him up, Jesus uses us to draw all men to Himself, giving them the opportunity to accept or to reject Him.

The key to abiding in Christ is the realization that we are empty of all ambition and abilities, but that He fills us with all the fullness of His divine power and spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). We live in childlike faith in His faithfulness. We walk in confidence that God is using our body, soul and spirit for His Kingdom and glory. We do greater works than Christ (John 14:12), because He dwells in us by His Spirit. His Spirit within us draws all men to Him.

Prayer:

Father God, our humility comes from realizing that without You, we can do nothing; and that in You, Christ can do all things through us (Philippians 4:13). Help us to walk in Your Spirit, to influence those in our life for You, and to walk in the calling that You prepared for us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 2:8-10). Let others see our resemblance to the Vine, as a branch full of Your Spirit’s fruit.

Thought for the Day:

May we live so that the holiness and love of God within us shines His light into the darkness of the world around us.

Grafted

 

A gardener will take a young vine and cut the trunk off at ground level. Then, he will graft a new branch into the trunk, just where it rises from the earth. The sap from the trunk flows into the new branch until the old sap from the branch is embedded completely as one with the trunk. Similarly, God cut Jesus down to His roots on Calvary’s cross to give us new life. He grafts us into the vine of Christ (John 15:1-17). God’s Spirit totally renews us until we are completely consecrated and surrendered to Christ with wholehearted faith and devotion (2 Kings 10:3).

If we forget that we are in Christ and that He is in us (1 John 2:28; Colossians 1:27), life can get absolutely unbearable. When we live according to our will or try to do anything in our own strength, we will eventually self-destruct. It is only as we allow the life of Christ to fill us that we are able to succeed in life. God’s wisdom and power come spontaneously as our life is rooted and grounded in Christ (Ephesians 3:17). We only find true contentment as we consistently dwell in Christ with unbroken fellowship (1 John 1:6).

We recognize Christ as our life (Colossians 3:4), and without Him we have no life at all. Life is not a mystery for us to decipher. The Holy Spirit guides us throughout the day with His spiritual insight: a deep abiding understanding of what God wants to do through us. We trust His faithfulness, wait for His guidance and glorify Him in everything we think, say and do. We live in Him and He lives in, through and instead of us as we submit to the Holy Spirit’s leading throughout the day.

As God reveals His faithfulness to us, we acquire confidence that He will continue to supply all of our needs according to His heavenly riches (Philippians 4:19). As we surrender our humanity and abide in Christ, our thoughts are clear, our passions tempered, our judgment wise and our body strengthened. Our former roots are cut off from earthly temptations and worldly distractions. As we wait in our dependence on our union with Christ, He inspires us, leads us and works through and instead of us.

We dwell in the inner recesses of our spirit, united with Christ, safe and blessed regardless of the circumstances that plague our life. This keeps us from reacting in the flesh and allows us to act from the spirit instead. We cling to Him, unshaken by the storms of life, in harmony with the Spirit of God within us. His work of righteousness in our soul brings us rest, tranquility and reassurance forever (Isaiah 32: 1,17). Abiding in Christ, we stand complete and accepted in God’s beloved family (Colossians 2:10; Ephesians 1:6).

Prayer:

Father God, we are delighted that You are in us, that You quiet us with Your love and that You save us mightily; however, we are especially blessed that You take great delight in us and that You rejoice over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17; Isaiah 62:5). We abide in Your rest because You keep us in Your perfect peace, as we trust You and keep our focus on You (Isaiah 26:3).

Thought for the Day:

God unites us with Christ to make us right with Him: pure, holy and free from sin. – 1 Corinthians 1:30

Our Destiny Hangs in the Balance

Read: James 3:10-12

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." - 1 John 2:15

Living Godly lives requires that we focus on living holy lives. However, in today's society with all of the glitter and glitz, it is so easy to get sidetracked. We start out by dabbling in sin, but we end up as sin’s slave. Holiness and sin cannot dwell together in the same person. There is only One Way to obtain freedom from this addiction to the world. That is through the leadership of the Holy Spirit within us. He will permeate and perfect us until we live for God alone, in the abundance of His righteousness, peace and joy.

Sometimes, the weeds of this world threaten to choke the very life from us. There is hope, however. The Master Gardener promised that in the end, He would separate the chaff from the wheat and burn the counterfeit in the eternal flames of hell. The difference between the chaff and the wheat is found in those who are not only convicted of sin, but who are also actually converted from sin and who live transformed lives. 

Prayer:

Lord, never allow any love for the world to dilute our love for You. Keep us unspotted from the world and overpower us by Your love.

Thought for the Day:

As we conform to the image of Christ, our spiritual identity will insure our eternal destiny.