Sunday, July 12, 2020
Light is a Gift
Like Salvation A Gift From God.
We See Salvation More Clearly When We Confess Our Sins,
Like Smoke Makes Light Obvious.
Daniel 9:7
‘Righteousness is on your side, OLord, but open shame, as at this day, falls on us… all …, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you.
Ephesians 2:8
By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
Words of Grace For Today
It is good to confess one’s own sins.
It can be helpful to confess your people’s sins, in which you are part of that guilty community.
It is most helpful to confess that we are saved by faith through grace – and that our faith and the saving us is not our doing, but a gift (which is Grace) from God.
Most things in life that we receive are earned through work, some of it extremely hard work. The work can be ours or someone else’s.
The car in your drive, or the bicycle against the post: someone worked hard to have them.
The house you wake up in, or the ram-shackled shelter the wind rattles you out of in the morning, which keeps you somewhat dry and warm through the nights: someone worked hard for them.
The nutritious and balanced fresh food you put on your table from which you can choose a selection to enjoy, or the past-the-best-buy-date canned food from the food bank that may fill your belly and only get you a little sick: someone work hard for them.
The clothes in your closet from which you have your pick of styles, functions, and colours, all freshly cleaned, or the same old sweaty and stained jeans and dirty T-Shirt that you slept in last night: someone worked hard for them.
Salvation cannot be worked for, though. When we try, the results would be comical, except it is tragic how much harm we usually do others and ourselves in the effort. It’s like trying all day to find your glasses … which sit perched on your nose.
God’s Grace provides us salvation without effort or cost to us, but at great cost to Jesus.
After we confess, trusting we are forgiven, we can only extend that Grace to others, at whatever cost is required of us, in order that they can live life, and live it abundantly.