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In 100 Years

Take just a moment and imagine what you might be thinking in 100 years. What will be important to you? Will your job, bank account or bills be on your mind? Will you care about your favorite sports team, car or hobbies? Will even one of the problems or plans that consume your thoughts and resources today matter to you then?

After you’ve quickly done the math (your current age plus 100), your probably saying, “None of that stuff will matter to me then because I won’t be here in 100 years!” And that is the point. Psalms 146:4 says, “His (man’s) spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his plans perish.” We were created by God for eternity. The short span of time we live on this earth is but a vapor compared to God’s eternal plan for us.

Look at it this way: If someone were to give you the choice of 100 Million dollars that would receive in 2 years OR one hundred dollars that you would receive today, what would you choose? I’m sure you would not forfeit the hundred million just to spend the hundred dollars today, would you?

As silly as it sounds, that’s what many people do with their souls. Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) In other words, He is saying that to choose to live your short life here apart from God instead living for eternity is like spending the hundred dollars and forfeiting the fortune.

God has made each of us an incredible offer! We place our trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin, and God will grant us the gift of eternal life in paradise with Him. God’s offer to us not only includes eternal life, but He will lavish upon us all that is His – which is everything! The Bible says in Romans 8:32, “He (God) who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up (to be crucified) for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Oh the joy in obtaining this inheritance!

What is the alternative? To reject God’s offer of life in Christ, spending the short span of time that God gave us here (the “hundred dollars”) on ourselves, seeking whatever selfish pleasure it will buy, acquiring as much of the world as we can, quite miserable that it’s never enough, aging too fast and dying too early – separated from God for eternity and regretting the choice.

God said in Deuteronomy 30:19, “…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life…”

What does it mean to be saved?

We often hear the call to accept Jesus and be “saved”, but what does that term really mean?

The original Greek word used in the New Testament from which the word “saved” is translated is “sozo” (sode'-zo) meaning, “to save, i.e. deliver or protect”. Webster’s defines the word “save” as follows: “To deliver from sin, to rescue or deliver from danger or harm, to preserve or guard from injury, destruction, or loss.” Sounds serious, doesn’t it?

To the shepherds, upon the birth of Jesus, the angels proclaimed, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Matthew 1:21). A Savior! If a Savior has been sent from Heaven to save us, especially if that Savior is the Son of God Himself, then there is something very, very serious we need to be saved from. Here’s a clue: In telling of the Savior’s birth, the angel told Joseph, “…and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Luke 2:11). This is it! We need to be saved from our “sins”, or more literally, from the consequences of our sin. What are the consequences of sin? Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death…” The death from sin speaks of more than mere physical death. This death is the eternal spiritual separation of the sinner from God in a place of torment called Hell (Matthew 23:33, Luke 12:5, 2 Peter 2:4).

How many sins does it take to earn the death wage of sin? Just one. That’s right; just one sin committed in your lifetime qualifies you. Romans 3:23 says that we ALL have sinned, therefore we ALL are under the sentence of death and eternal separation from God in Hell - unless we are “saved”. Please read again the meaning of the word saved.

Jesus came to offer His life as the payment for our sin, to pay the death wage for our sin Himself so that in Him we can be forgiven and live. This is His salvation He offers us. His was a dramatic and love-filled rescue mission of the highest order to save us from certain doom.

Are we all automatically saved because Jesus came to save us? No, it is a personal salvation. His death for your sin made His salvation possible and available to you, but you must come to Him by faith to personally receive Him and His forgiveness. God’s grace becomes yours the moment you repent (turn your heart to God) and come to trust Jesus as your Savior, believing that the death He died paid your sin debt in full.

Heaven can now be yours based on what Jesus did for you, and not because of your own perceived goodness (Ephesians 2:8). This simple faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior causes God to indwell you with His Holy Spirit (New Birth), change your heart and seal you for eternal life in Christ. You now have been purchased by Christ (1 Corinthians 6:20) and belong to Him. This is being “saved”.

Perhaps you have always thought that your sins aren’t really that bad or that your good deeds will outweigh your sin and God will somehow look favorably upon you without your being saved. There’s not a chance because that’s not how it works. Just one sin is too many. God will not let you or anyone else into Heaven unless you have been “saved” by making Christ your Savior.

I pray that you have received this dramatic rescue that God offers you through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. If not, it’s not too late - the Savior’s rescue offer is still open to you today. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Bob Holland

Faith in Action Ministries

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Christ the Savior is Born!

"Friends of God" Bible study and discussion group is meeting at The Crossing every Thursday evening from 7 - 9 p.m.

All are welcome!

We are currently doing a 12 week DVD series teaching by Chip Ingram on "The Miracle of Life Change". It takes a look at how we are so wonderfully saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and how God then - by His grace - begins to change us from the inside out.

We come to Christ just as we are, but God loves us too much to leave us that way! He wants to set us free from sin and opression and conform us to the image of His Son. This series is initiating some very good discussion and is very eye opening. It is good news!

See you there!

Bob Holland

Faith in Action Ministries

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