Dear friends,
Warmer weather has finally returned. I trust everyone is enjoying it. Official spring is coming up soon, I can hardly wait!
There have been a few fishermen here at the lake. I guess there are still some hardy souls that aren’t afraid to venture out in the cold. I do realize that a heated hut might make it more attractive than sitting on a bucket out in the elements. That is how we did it in the ‘old’ days.
In spite of the extreme cold and snow, the Creation shows God’s glory through its beauty. If we can overlook the cold and the inconvenience, we can appreciate the picture of purity and serenity the snow brings.
The new fallen snow reminds me of the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus, and the sacrifice he made for the forgiveness of our sin. Scripture reminds us that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness for sin. Salvation comes through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone.
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
Before we observed the Lord’s Supper in church Sunday morning, we sang the hymn ‘Nothing but the Blood’. What great words of hope and encouragement the hymn has for a forgiven sinner.
“What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow,
no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Scripture is clear; there is no other way to fellowship with God than placing our faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. Jesus himself, in his last words from the cross said, “It is finished.” There was nothing else to be done for the salvation of lost sinners. Christ paid the debt of every sinner for all time. His invitation to every person is “come.”
Nothing but the blood, Jesus has paid it all. It isn’t Jesus plus anything. Christ alone can save. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” Acts 4:12).
In Him,
Pastor Jerry
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