August 24
Job 12:1-15:35 | PS 39:1-13 | Prov 21:30-31 | 1 Cor 15:29-58
Our salvation is not a right. It is not deserved or owed. It is a gift. We haven't even earned our next breath. Unless we can see this, we can't truly see Him or ourselves. It is like living in a fog and thinking that we see clearly. But pause for a moment and realize that it is exactly the opposite which the world rails against God. Creating their lists of all the good that they do, they stand in disbelief that God would not bestow upon them one gift after another. All too often we look in the mirror and fail to see the reflection of what looks back at us. Do we see the good, but not see the sin which covers us? Are our motives always pure? Unless we get this right, we fail to see the need for a Savior, and the most important decision any of us ever make is missed. We read in Romans 7:24-25, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!...".
Though beaten down, Job understood this, as we read in Job 12:9-10; 13:15-16, "Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this, In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?; Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him...He also shall be my salvation,...". David understood this, as we read in Psalm 39:4-7, "“Lord, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them. “And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You." Paul understood this, as he described the reality of our hope in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”"
The question remains, do we understand this? We have done nothing to earn God's earthly blessings or His offer of spending eternity in heaven with Him. It is not a wage based on our good works or efforts. On our birthday we don't receive earnings from our loved ones, we receive gifts. God has offered each of us a gift. It is wrapped and offered to each and every person. The question is will we accept the gift and open it? Just as the person who gives us the birthday gift, chooses it and buys it, so our gift was purchased for us at the cross. Jesus bore our sins for us, he doesn't ask us to pay for them ourselves. He then simply says believe in Me, and salvation is yours, freedom is yours, peace is yours, wisdom is yours, discernment is yours. Do you want these? Then it is time that we stop relying on our earnings and start opening the gift.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: