“I
Assure You,
Today
You
Will Be With Me In Paradise.”
Scripture
Luke
23
39 One
of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the
Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while
you’re at it!”
Observation
When
I talk to people about their relationship with God and I ask them
this question, “If you were at Heaven's gate and if God were to ask
you, 'Why should I let you into my Heaven?' What would you say to
Him?”
I
almost always get an answer that is more or less like this, “Well I
think I have been good enough for God to let me in.”
If
you have talked to people about their relationship with Jesus, then
you have most certainly experienced this same kind of response.
It
is like they think that God has this gigantic set of scales up in
Heaven where He weighs our bad deeds against our good deeds. And I
have noticed that somehow people almost always seem to think that the
scales will tilt in their favor. In fact, I used to think that way
myself until someone shared with me what the Bible had to say about
that!
It
is our job to let people know that there are no scales in Heaven and
that we can't ever be good enough to get into Heaven on our own
merits.
Luke
23:39-43 is a good passage to illustrate the point that it is
not good people that go to Heaven and bad people that go to Hell. It
is only forgiven people that go to Heaven.
Ephesians
2:8-9
8 God saved
you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for
this; it is a gift from God.
Titus
3:5-6
5 then he
saved us—not because we were good enough to be saved but because of
his kindness and pity—by washing away our sins and giving us the
new joy of the indwelling Holy Spirit,
6 whom he
poured out upon us with wonderful fullness—and all because of what
Jesus Christ our Savior did
Acts
13:38
“Brothers,
listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there
is forgiveness for
your sins.
Application
I
will look for opportunities to share God's plan of salvation with
someone when God opens up the door!
How
about you?
Prayer
Heavenly
Father, give me a heart for the lost. Give me compassion. Give me
both the boldness and the sensitivity to share the Gospel in a way
that helps a person see their need for Jesus. Give me opportunities
to talk to people about their relationship with You. Give me the
right words to say and help me to communicate clearly. Thank You for
bringing someone into my life who told me about Jesus. Help me to be
that person for someone else.
Daily
Bible Reading: Exodus 6,7,8; Luke 23
No comments:
Post a Comment