Dear friends,
The garden beds are finally ready, and plants are being placed in them. Now if we can get them watered when they need it, we’ll have a harvest at the right time. My newest project is to tidy up my office. This could be a major undertaking. I have taken out the oversized desk and replaced it with a smaller version. Now, I must find places for all the ‘stuff’ that was taking up space.
This reminds me of a comment heard often when sharing the gospel with people. They say things like, “But my friends will go away.” Or they will say, “I will have to give up some of my enjoyable habits”!
The truth is, when we come to the Lord in faith and let Him take over our life, He will replace those friends that left with new friends that share in Christian fellowship. Those old habits will disappear, and new and better ones will replace them.
Another perceived hurdle to becoming a follower of Christ is this: “I have to get my life cleaned up before I can be accepted by the Lord”. This is far from the truth, He says come, nothing is said about getting your act together ahead of time. There is no person capable of getting his life in order to be acceptable to Jesus by his own strength. The truth is when we come to Him in faith, he makes us into the person He wants us to be.
2 Corinthians 5:16–18a: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God…”
If we could save ourselves, then Jesus died for nothing. We cannot save ourselves, nor can we do anything to make ourselves worthy of His salvation. We must come by faith and by faith alone.
“For it is by grace you have been saved through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Saved by grace,
Pastor Jerry
sandhillspastor 