Salvation

God finds me in the darkness, the place where fear of the unknown resides, but he doesn’t leave me there. He is my personal light, revealing the sin of my heart, showing my desperate need, and illuminating the right path to take.

I grew up believing that I could lose my relationship with God. I could be a child of God in the morning, sin at lunch, and be kicked out of his family by the afternoon. I walked on spiritual eggshells. Insecurity characterized my spiritual walk. Sometimes, I was certain of heaven; other times, following an act of sin, I was on my way to hell.

The rich young ruler had an urgent question. He asked Jesus how he could somehow grasp eternal life.

In our passage today, David, the man after God’s own heart, felt like he was caught in deep waters up to his neck. His feet were trying to locate a rock—a foothold—on the bottom of the stream, but he searched in vain and felt like he was sinking “in deep mire.”

Sometimes, life’s windstorms hit us hard and knock us off our feet. One person likened the storms to a blizzard and wrote, “The blizzard of the world has crossed over the threshold, and it has overturned the order of the soul.” The blizzards outside make their way inside and disrupt the rhythm of our lives. That’s what happened to Job. As we have seen, he lost everything and still praised the Lord. But Satan was merciless in his attacks. He was convinced that Job was self-centered and would turn on God when he encountered personal illness.

When an angel appears, you can bet that something amazing is going to happen! The amazing certainly took place when the angel Gabriel told Zechariah that he would be having a son. For Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, that dream had died long ago. In fact, because of Zechariah’s unbelief, he was unable to speak a word until his son was born. Then, he broke out in a song of praise about the one who would prepare the way for Jesus.

Repentance is a word that doesn’t get a lot of positive press these days. We would like to blame it on the times we live in, but honestly, people have had trouble with repentance since Genesis 3. Today, let’s consider why repentance gets such bad press.

In his book Essentials of the Christian Faith, theologian R. C. Sproul wrote about a time when a young man asked, “Are you saved?” Sproul answered, “Saved from what?” Sproul wrote, “The man was taken aback by my question. He obviously hadn’t thought much about the meaning of the question he was asking people.”

According to a recent article in Forbes, there are many reasons that you may feel tired all the time. Here is part of their list: Inadequate sleep, medical conditions, stress, depression and anxiety, and lack of physical activities. They also listed caffeine, but I refuse to include it! I need caffeine! Certainly, there are many things that can wear us down, but there is only one place where we can find true rest.