One More For JC

Should you not fear me? declares the Lord.  Should you not tremble in my presence?  I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.  The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it.  But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away.  They do not say to themselves, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’  (Jeremiah 5:22-24) Do I fear the Lord?  Do I tremble in His presence?  I love, praise, and respect Him, but do I fear Him?  There are times in my life when I take the Lord’s goodness for granted:  “Oh He’ll forgive me!”  There are other times when I defiantly disobey Him. Fortunately for me, the Lord and I have come to an understanding.  When I take Him for granted or I defiantly disobey Him, He punishes me - swiftly.  For example, back in college I was at a club and I made a joke in

What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have given us a remnant like this.  (Ezra 9:13) This verse provides a wonderful example of how I should be communicating with God.  Countless times in my life I’ve come before Him with a shopping list of needs and desires I fully expect Him to fulfill, whether it be for good grades, a good performance on the baseball field, a good job, a wife, etc.  Other times I’ve come before God questioning His goodness:  “How could you do this to me?  How could you abandon me?  Will you ever answer my prayer?”  On the contrary, I can count on my fingers and toes the number of times I’ve come before God acknowledging a well-deserved punishment.  I can’t remember the last time I got down on my knees and said “Lord, thanks for the whipping you gave me!  I was clearly disobedient and yet you were just in your punishment.” I don’t know if I’l

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  (Romans 10:9-11) Is salvation by grace or is salvation by works?  Most religions profess salvation by works:  How did you treat others?  What did you do in your walk on earth?  Did you follow all the commands of the faith?  Were you a good person?  Christianity offers a unique view of salvation – salvation by the grace of God:  Did you confess Jesus as Lord?  Did you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead?  Did you accept the one means of salvation that God graciously provided? There was a time in my life when I believed in salvation by works.  It encouraged me to serve others and to live an honest life, but I lived in constant doub