Looking outside and seeing high
winds as they shake the trees and blow off the leaves. Love this time of year!
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God:
9 Not of works, lest any
man should boast.
I am very grateful for this
reminder through Paul, that God’s grace is what allows us to be saved – not
deeds on our part.
There are very few people, that
I have met, that I would consider even being close to being righteous enough to
enter into heaven – and I most certainly am not one of them.
We can quantify what an item is
worth here in this world. It comes down
to what someone is willing to pay for it; and, of course, if they have the means
to purchase it. I may be willing to pay
a million dollars for something, but I can’t raise that kind of money.
I can remember when my uncle was
employed by a meat plant. The butchers
were paid by the piece, the more you were able to cut up, the more you made – he
was one of the highest paid workers.
His value to the company was
measured by the amount of work he could do during the day – yet it was
insufficient to keep his job when the company sold the company to another and he
could no longer get piece work pay, it was by the hour and he didn’t earn
anywhere near what he earned with piece work.
His efforts on behalf of the
company had been high, but it didn’t save him.
There was no longer a standard of how well you did, now all you had to do
was keep up with everyone else.
The world’s standards change,
and not always for the better. Some
times more is expected of a person, but often less is expected – people do
enough to get by and that is sufficient – at least for now; I am sure it will
once again change when people are fed up with mediocre work.
God’s standard for entering
eternal life with Him has not and will not change. He expects perfection and I know of no one
who can meet that standard – especially on their own. Only Jesus met that standard.
God recognized this, that is why
He sent His only Son to die on a cross bearing our sins and in doing so allowed
us to form an alliance with Christ as a fellow child of God - proven by the
acceptance of His sacrifice by His resurrection.
If Jesus is the standard, how
can we possible hope to work ourselves into heaven? One mistake, one sin, one failure to serve
will make all we do worthless as far as having the gates of heaven open up for
us.
I remember the time that I
helped the citizens of Antelope by taking possession of all the paper work and
weapons that had been acquired when the Rajneesh were in control of the
city. At that time I was the white night
riding in to protect them; as far as they were concerned I was their ‘hero’ and
could do no wrong.
I mentioned that to a good
friend, who had been Sheriff of his county for several years, a few weeks later.
His comment (paraphrased and cleaned up
for my writings) Enjoy it while you can, but understand that one mistake can
wipe out a hundred ata boys.
A wise man, and while I didn’t
fully appreciate the fullness of his sage counsel at the time – I learned he was
absolutely right.
It is no different with
God. One sin can wipe out an
eternity.
Only Christ was perfect. But, because HE was, we have the key to
heaven and as we accept Him and live for Him we grow closer to that
righteousness that God expects – but it will never be enough to open those
gates.
Thank you God for sending Jesus
– and accepting His sacrifice; thank you Jesus for dying for us and sending us
the Holy Spirit of God; and thank you Holy Spirit for your comfort, wisdom and
guidance.
Later, Art :-)
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