Posts Tagged ‘ Salvation ’

VerseD: Jude 1:20-21

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
Jude 1:20‭-‬21, ESV

Do not merely go to church.

Cherish your salvation!

Read your Bible!

Serve others in love!

Because He loved us enough to come and die for us. We ought to be ready to do the same for Him.

VerseD: 1 Peter 1:8-9

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:8‭-‬9, ESV

The reward for trusting in Him is the salvation of pur souls.

That’s the power of love.

VerseD: 1 Timothy 2:5-6

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
1 Timothy 2:5‭-‬6, ESV

Jesus came at the right time in history to show us our need for God and His forgiveness, and He sacrificed Himself to bring that forgiveness. If we believe, we are saved from God’s judgment.

VerseD: Psalm 18:2

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalm 18:2, ESV

Our Rock is Christ, our solid foundation that holds steady when life gets shaky and hard. He sustains and lifts us through it all.

VerseD: 1 John 1:7

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7, ESV

Salvation is a moment. Both 2000 years ago and the moment you believe.

However, we walk out our salvation for the rest of life, as we follow the Light of Christ and let Him continue to cleanse us.

VerseD: John 3:36

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 3:36, ESV

Belief and obedience go hand in hand. It is not enough to believe in Christ Jesus to be saved.

“If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” (John 14)

VerseD: Isaiah 12:2

“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
Isaiah 12:2, ESV

Is this true for you today? Is God your salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ? Do you still fear death or the worries of life?

Trust Jesus today.

VerseD: Psalm 34:18

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18, ESV

The simplest meaning of this is that the realization of our sin and complete inability to remove that sin should break our hearts and crush our spirits.

Until we realize that is why Jesus came. When we understand and believe this fully, we are saved from our sins and God’s wrath.

VerseD: John 5:24

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
John 5:24 ESV

When John later said “There is no fear in love” (1 John 4:18), he was reminding us that faith in Christ means we no longer need fear punishment and harsh judgment. Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ literally saves us.

Preparing Your Heart – Third Week of Advent

We are continuing the series originally posted three years ago!

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It is now the third week of Advent! (See the last two weeks’ devotional thought here and here.)

Again, Advent is a time to remember our Lord’s first coming as we look forward to His imminent return.

So, let us prepare hearts for encountering the Lord!

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old

. . .

“for my eyes have seen your salvation
    that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.”
Luke 1:68-70, 2:30-32, ESV

The first part of the quote is from Zechariah, John the Baptist’s dad, at John’s birth. The second part of the quote was said by Simeon, an old and devout man, when he saw the baby Jesus at the Temple.

These two men knew that the Lord’s salvation was at hand. If you read all of chapters one and two of Luke, you can see that even they did not understand His plan of salvation. They were on the right track, but they were not aware of how things would unfold.

The Lord had come, Emmanuel, God with us, and he brought salvation. It was first brought to Israel, the Jews in Jerusalem in particular, and then it spread to “all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) over the past 2,000 years.

What most everyone then did not know was that first the Lord would bring spiritual salvation, the forgiveness of sins and the repairing of the relationship with God and humanity; the physical redemption from all enemies is still to come.

Let us remember that salvation has come, but we await our salvation from the pain and evil of this world (see Romans 8). We do not understand fully how it will all happen, but we know Jesus will return!

May we not get caught up in the knowledge we have and miss the signs of His coming. May we remember that we are not home yet, and we await our coming Savior. May we bring as many as we can to all of this knowledge of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father!