we can't do it ourselves!

"And they said, Believe on the Lord

Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,

and thy house"

(Acts 16:31)

~~~~~

The hardest part of our salvation experience is realizing that it has nothing whatsoever to do with us. We are saved by FAITH and FAITH alone. We are saved without works and we are saved without merit. There is absolutely nothing we can do in ourselves to be saved and there is nothing we can do to stop being saved. 

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the

LORD shall be saved"

(Romans 10:13)

It's all about Jesus. It's all about the work that the Son of God did on the Cross at Calvary. It's about a loving Savior dying a cruel and ugly death on a cruel and ugly cross and exchanging His perfect and sinless life for our depravity and wickedness. It's about believing that God's Son is the only way to eternal life. The only way to forgiveness of our sins. It's about knowing that God is who He says He is. And that His Son became our sin - all of our heinous, filthy, wicked sin - so that we could live. 

Now, don't misunderstand me here. Once we acknowledge that TRUTH in our hearts, we have to acknowledge that same TRUTH in our minds.  We have to allow Him to penetrate deeply into our spirits so that things will begin to change within us. 

See, the scriptures tell us in Romans 6:14, that once we have received that precious gift of grace, sin loses its dominion over us. The NLT says that "sin is no longer your master".  Once we understand the magnitude and the cost of the amazing gift of GRACE, we begin to see those sinful areas of our life in a completely different light. There will be things that we no longer desire to do. Places we no longer desire to go. Things we no longer desire to obtain, or read, or listen to, or watch. As we begin to let God be our master, something begins to happen deep inside of us. The Holy Spirit begins to work and to show us the depths of our sinful nature. And as the Spirit convicts us when we do sin, we begin to learn how to put away those areas of our life once and for all. We begin to see our sin through the eyes of Christ. 

We aren't saved by our works. Scripture is clear about that. But, oh, my friends, when we are saved by the precious, shed blood of our Savior and Lord, we want to do good works. We want to do things that please Him. We want to put away those sinful deeds that once beset us and walk in the ways of Jesus. We are to be imitators of God ( Ephesians 5:1). We are to have a yearning to be like Christ. The Word commands us to be holy as He is holy!

Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He loved us with such a great love that He did something for us that we couldn't do for ourselves. He redeemed us with His blood. He bought us with a price. He became the sacrifice for our sins. Past, present and Future. And there is nothing that we can do to make ourselves worthy of what He did other than believe that what He says is TRUTH and allow Him to be the Savior and the Lord of our lives. It truly is all about Him. 

"For the wages of sin is death;

but the gift of God is eternal 

life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 6:23)

Faith is believing and receiving that gift and then purposing to be like Him as we walk in the newness of the life He gives us. Somebody say Hallelujah!

Worship the Savior...

I'm a worship girl.

There is nothing I like better than to pop in some praise music and worship my Savior with all of my heart. I love to worship and I love to meet with Jesus in the midst of it. I can't think of a better way than that to sync my heart with His in preparation of hearing a Word from the Throne of Grace. I just love to worship.

I think that many Christians have either lost that desire to worship or perhaps they never had it to begin with. Worship is the way our hearts come together with the heart of God. It is a joining together of our souls and spirits. It is opening ourselves wide for the filling of His Spirit. It is about an encounter with an Almighty God. An all-out, holy-ghost, heart-changing, consuming-fire encounter with Jesus. True Worship.

When I listened to Chris Tomlin's newest endeavor (to be released November 16th),  And If Our God Is For Us, I was transported into such a place of worship as that. Every song on this CD was full of the power and goodness of God. Every song touched my heart in some way. Chris has a way of getting right to the heart of who God is and who we are in relation to Him.

As I was listening to the CD, one of the songs just spoke so loudly to my heart. "The Name of Jesus" is a beautiful song about who Jesus is. He is our refuge and our shelter. He is our fortress and our hope. But two little phrases just hit me with force.

"When we fall You are the Savior.
When we call You are the Answer"

Those words just touched my heart deeply. Those words just seemed to sum it up. He not only is our Savior, He is our Answer. For everything and in everything. We fall. We call. And He is there. Thank you, Jesus.

I want to worship Him with an unquenchable thirst. An unending hunger. An unsatisfied desire.

I am so thankful that God has anointed Chris Tomlin with a heart to hear from Him, a voice to praise Him with and the unction to share that gift with others.