How I was saved, and how you were, too!

This post was inspired by this salvation story on natashametzler.com.  Reading Natasha's post and responding to it got me thinking about my own salvation story!

The story of my salvation doesn't start with me.  It starts with God.  God, who created heaven and earth and everything in them.  God, who from the beginning of the world had a plan to conquer sin and death (Genesis 3:15).  God, who sent His Son to earth to become a human baby, who would grow into a sinless human man, who would die for the sins of the whole world (John 3:16).

Image Credit:  bela_kiefer via www.freedigitalphotos.net

My salvation starts with the incredible love of God.  It's because God loves us--all people--so much that He has a plan for all of us to spend eternity with Him.

He gives us faith.  We become His children.  We believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and the fact that Jesus' death paid the price for all the wrong we ever do.  We live a brief life on earth, obeying God and loving Him according to His Word and in response for the gifts He constantly gives us (in addition to the gift of faith in Him!  Wow!).  Then, when our sinful, earthly bodies die, our sinless souls are united with God in heaven, and spend eternity joyfully with Him in paradise.

This is what God did for me.  He made me his child just four weeks after I was born into this world.  In my baptism, the Holy Spirit came into my heart by the power of God's Word, and gave me faith.  It wasn't necessary for me to understand what that meant, because my saving isn't about me.  It's not anything I do.  God saves us, God makes us His children.  It's kind of like how we become our parents' children.  We don't have any choice to become their children.  And they don't love us because of anything we do.  They love us simply because they are our parents.  God loves us because He is our Father.

So I became God's child through the miracle of baptism.  As I grew, my parents taught me, using God's Word, how much God loves me, and what Jesus did for me.  And I knew for sure that I was God's child.  I knew that whenever I died, I would be in heaven with Jesus.  I knew that I was sinful, and did bad things, but I also knew that God forgave those sins when I asked Him to, just as my parents told me they forgave me when I disobeyed them.

Now that I'm an adult, I'm still constantly learning what it means to be God's child.  How does that play out in my everyday life?  God reminds me daily to trust Him in everything.  He has to keep teaching me how to accept His forgiveness, because I struggle with remembering that.  Satan is constantly working to try to pull me away from God, but I know that because the Holy Spirit lives in my heart, Satan can't hurt me.  Jesus has already defeated him and his power, and I have nothing to fear.

So my salvation story doesn't end with me, either.  It ends with the ultimate gift from God--eternal life in heaven.  It will end when my sinful body dies, and my eternal, holy, sinless soul is taken to heaven by Jesus, where I will live with Him forever.  There no one will be sad or in pain.  There will be no death, no grief, no discomfort.  There will be joy, peace, love, and light, and it will be more wonderful than we can ever imagine, until we actually get there.

God wants everyone to be in heaven with Him.  He has created you just like He did me, and He loves you, too, more than you will ever understand.  I hope you know my Jesus, too, and know that He is your Lord and Savior--and how much He loves you.  You can spend eternity in heaven, too, because Jesus paid the price for your sins as well as mine.  Try saying this to God, your Father--you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain:

"Dear God, I know you love me.  I know you sent your Son, Jesus, to pay the price for my sins.  I acknowledge Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  Thank you for giving me faith in you and in what Jesus has done for me.  Now, as your child, I give my whole life to you."

Linking up today: A Holy Experience, Upward Not Inward, Deep Roots at Home, Raising Homemakers, We are THAT Family

living in Advent

Some days I forget it's Advent.

Not just the days leading up till Christmas...but we're living in Advent all the time, people!  We're waiting, preparing (that's what "Advent" means), for the second coming of Jesus Christ, whose first coming to earth we'll celebrate in just twelve days.

We're waiting for the Son of God to come back--God, who became human, one of us--in order to live, die, and rise again--for us.

This Son of God, who loves us so very much, is coming back for us.

Even as we anticipate the joy of Christmas, we see so much sadness in the world.  War, hunger, poverty, homelessness, disease, crime, anger, hate... all the signs that sin saturates this planet.  It might be easy to forget about some of those things for a while, when we're in our warm homes, brightened by colored Christmas lights, eating lots of special food and treats, spending our over-abundance of money on gifts (many of which aren't really necessary), and wishing each other the peace and joy of the season.

Don't get me wrong, those are all good things and I enjoy them so much!  But we like to forget all those bad things that are happening, that don't affect our lives.  But those things are part of our world, too.  They're caused by our own sinfulness.  But Christ came to this sinful world anyway...isn't that amazing?

It's important to remember that these things won't last.  All those horrible, sad, depressing things?  They're temporary.  Our houses, our possessions, our jobs, our wealth (or lack thereof) aren't permanent.

The peace and joy that our Savior brings, though--that will last.

Soon the reign of sin in the world will end.  It may not be in our lifetime, but it will not last forever.

I'm fairly certain it won't end on December 21st.  God is returning, but not when we expect Him to.  We can't foretell when that Day will come--not even the Son knows that, but only the Father.

But it is coming!  The Savior who has come into the world, will come back--to take me, and all believers, to live in paradise with him, for eternity.

It'll be like a never-ending Christmas celebration: surrounded by our loved ones, in the light of His presence, praising God and basking in His love.  Forever.

Are you ready?

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

Ten years ago, it seemed like the world was ending.
For a lot of people, over three thousand, it did.  Their time on this earth ended.
Their families and friends probably felt like the world was ending for them, too.  But they had to live through their pain and grief.  Ten years later, I'm sure they're still living through it.

It's at times like that when the whole world cries out, "WHY?!?"


Why does an all-loving God allow evil things to happen?  If God is supposed to be good, where was he when those planes crashed into the World Trade Center?  If those things happened, does he even exist at all?

I'm one of those people who firmly believes in the existence of an all-loving, all-good God.  Sometimes I wonder, too, why he lets things happen.

Why he lets young fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, die, before it seems they've lived their lives fully.  Why so many babies get aborted, gypped out of a life they should have lived.  Why wars happen.  Why diseases take the lives of hundreds, thousands.  Why tyrants control innocent people.  Why people starve and go without clothes or homes or money.

I even wonder why he lets annoying little things happen to me.  Why do I get sick?  Why do I sometimes not have money for the things I want and think I need?  Why do things go wrong?

Enough questions.  I have an answer:

I don't know.


I don't always know why bad things happen.  I do know what causes them: SIN.  God has reasons for allowing them that my human reason cannot understand.  When I don't know why, I DO know that God DOES.  He is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful.  Nothing happens to me or anyone else without God knowing about it.

I can't understand why sometimes, but what I do understand is that God loves me more than I can imagine.  I know that I have a finite mind, that I can't see or understand the future.  I know that he's God, and I'm not, and I'm happy and content with that.

God has my life in his hands.  He has your life in his hands.  He does, in fact, have the whole world in his hands.  And considering how big, gentle, loving, and caring God is...I can't think of any place for my life to be.  No matter what happens.  And when this world ends for good, I know where I'll be...in God's arms.

When Jesus Takes Me Home

I just read (in about three hours, it's an easy read) the book Heaven is For Real, by Todd Burpo, about his son Colton's experience visiting heaven.  It's a good book, and you can read it yourself (find it here).  In a nutshell, three-year-old Colton develops a life-threatening case of appendicitis, and during his surgery he spends (according to him) "three minutes" in heaven.  There he sits on Jesus' lap, meets also the Father and the Holy Spirit, meets his long-dead great-grandfather, meets his sister who was miscarried before his birth, and sees other wonders of heaven.

This book is along the lines of Ninety Minutes in Heaven, but the really lovely thing about it is the child's perspective.  According to his father, Colton described many things that are found in detail in the Bible, without ever having read or been told about them.  I approached the book with some skepticism, but I do believe that God is all-powerful, which means he can give a little boy an experience in heaven to be able to bless the lives of many people on earth.  Everything Colton says about God and heaven are things that the Bible clearly states as well.  The book is an inspirational and encouraging story.

In the end, though, it doesn't matter much to me what other people say about heaven.  I can read about it for myself in God's word.  And what I can't understand about it (which is a lot), I am okay with just accepting until I can experience it for myself.  Because I know, without a doubt, that I will spend eternity in heaven with Jesus.  I don't know a lot about heaven, or about eternity, but I do know this:

God is all-good.  So heaven will be completely good.
I will have a perfect body: no more sickness, infirmity, ailments, weaknesses.
I will get to meet every other person who is a child of God, who has ever lived, including family members I've never met.
I will be in the very presence of God himself, and will get to praise him in his presence.
I will never sin again.  No bad thing will be able to exist in heaven.
I will never be sad, angry, lonely, or hurt in heaven.  Those things are all a result of sin, which won't be in heaven.
I will see Jesus for myself, face-to-face.
All the bad things I've ever done will be forgotten, because Jesus' righteousness will cover me.
However time works, I will be there forever, with God.

I'm Loved: Clean House or Not

My family is coming to visit on Sunday!  They're staying with my grandparents (unfortunately we don't have room for four more people) but Hubby and I will spend as much time as possible with them while they're here.  I can hardly wait!!  It's only been about six weeks since I saw them last, and I know the next time gap will be much longer--either till Thanksgiving or Christmas.  But this will be the first time my parents and siblings will see our apartment.  I have a list on the fridge of what cleaning I want to do before they arrive (and, gulp, I only have three days to finish it!).  I really want my mother, especially, to see that I'm a capable housekeeper and can keep a house clean!  (Mom, if you read this, yes, this is what's going through my mind.)

The house needs cleaning anyway: picking up, dusting vacuuming, etc.  The bathroom got cleaned yesterday; it's always so nice to have a clean bathroom!  This morning I want to get the living room tidied up, dusted and vacuumed.  It really shouldn't take long.  :)

It's not that I'm trying to impress my family...well, I am, to be honest.  And I like having a clean house, so that's a benefit for Hubby and me, too.  But I know I don't have to have a sparkling house to impress my family.  They know I can be messy.  They know I'm not perfect.  They love me anyway, and I know they would whether my house was clean or a disaster!

God is like that.  He looks into our lives and sees the best and the very worst of us.  I sometimes wonder what I'll be doing when Christ returns.  I hope I'll be doing something that's pleasing to him.  But I can't impress God.  He knows how sinful I can be; how disobedient I am to him sometimes (often), how unperfect I am.  But he loves me anyway, whether I'm "good" or not!  The truth is, when God looks at me, he doesn't see sinful, flawed me.  He sees the righteousness of Jesus, which covers me because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and his glorious resurrection.  He sees the sinless, perfect glory of his Son, even as he knows that I'm a sinner.  He sees the me whom he has forgiven, and continues to forgive daily.

When my parents arrive, they won't care about dust and crumbs on the furniture and floors; they love me because I'm me, not because I can do everything right.  Now, that doesn't mean I shouldn't strive to have a clean house, and to have everything in order!  Just because God loves and forgives us unconditionally doesn't mean we can do whatever we want regardless of whether it's pleasing to God or not.  We obey, love, serve and honor him simply because he is God.  And I want to love, serve and honor my family because they are my family!

So, with that encouragement in mind, I'm going to start getting things done around here!! :)

Holy Week: Monday

This week I'm going to read the accounts of what Jesus did each day of the last week before his crucifixion.  My Bible (the NIV Study Bible) has a timeline of what event took place on what day.  I'm sure if I studied the accounts myself thoroughly I could see how they determine what happened when.  In any case, the events that happened on Monday were Jesus cursing a fig tree, and his cleansing of the Temple (See Matthew 21:12-13, 18-19, and Mark 11:12-18).  I'm not going to get into any deep interpretation of the passages, just pondering what happened during this holiest of weeks.

Considering that yesterday was Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, I imagine that his disciples were pretty pleased with how things were going.  Jesus had entered on a donkey, true, not on a horse as a conquering king would.  But he had been awfully well received!  The people had praised and honored him.  They were glad to have Jesus in Jerusalem.

This Monday morning, on their way into Jerusalem, the disciples witnessed Jesus curse a fig tree that had no fruit on it, despite the fact that it was full of leaves.  He explained his reason for this to them the next day.

Upon entering the Temple, he drove out the people who were selling livestock to be offered for Passover sacrifices, and those who were changing money for pilgrims who had come for the Passover.  Jesus was indignant because the money-changers were cheating people, and in turning the Temple into a marketplace they had desecrated the house of God.  After the Temple was clear, Jesus healed the blind and lame people who came to him there, while the religious leaders watched indignantly.

I wonder if the disciples were as shocked and angry at the proceedings happening in the Temple as Jesus was, or if they were more shocked at his response.  Perhaps some of the people there were among the ones who had praised him just the day before.  Didn't he know that?  Didn't he know he would offend them?  Did he have the right to throw the merchants out of the Temple? the disciples might have wondered.

When Jesus cleared out the temple, he said, "It is written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers'" (Matt 21:13).  Did the disciples know who he was by then?  Did they know he was the son of God?  Did they have any idea what the end of that week would be like?  Did they realize how much he was still teaching them, as his time with them neared its end?

I wonder how Jesus was feeling at this point.  He knew it was only four short days until he would have to die. Not permanently, of course, but he would have to experience the complete and utter wrath of his Father.  But then he would rise again, and the course of human history would be altered for the salvation of many.  And yet he continued preaching, healing, and teaching his disciples.  He carried on as if very little was changing.  This is an example I could follow; we all could.  Right now I have one month and eleven days until my wedding.  I can hardly wait; I just want that day to get here, and yet I have school work to finish and a dorm room to pack and finals to take, and it's hard when I'm so focused on the wedding.  But I can, and should, make the most of every day, doing my best, continuing to serve and work hard, and think of others more than myself--as Jesus did.

The same thing can apply to believers who are anxiously awaiting Christ's return.  We don't know when it will happen; Jesus said that only the Father knows the day or hour (Mark 13:32-33).  So instead of sitting around and waiting for him to come again, we can be constantly ready, constantly serving, living our lives to his glory as best as we can every day.

[If you've stuck with me through this whole post, I realize it's not very insightful or poetic or theological today, but I was just writing what was on my thoughts.]

Pondering the letter of Jude

This is one little Epistle that I think often gets overlooked.  I was reading the introductory material because I don't know much about the letter.  Apparently it was disputed as to whether or not it was really God-inspired for two reasons: Jude echoes much of what Peter wrote in 2 Peter 2, and twice he quotes Apocryphal literature, which Lutherans don't believe was God-inspired (I can't say for other denominations).  Anyway, it was finally accepted into the Biblical canon and does have a lot of good to say.  Most of the 25-verse book warns about false teachers and compares them with evil people from Old Testament times.  But toward the end Jude encourages his readers,

"But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.  Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.  Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them, to others show mercy, mixed with fear" (20-23).

It is God who will build us up and keep us and have mercy on us as we look forward to when Christ comes again.  The last sentence describes what we should be doing until then: be merciful to those who doubt (have been influenced by false teachers, those who would try to sway them from their faith); snatch others from the fire (rescue them from being destroyed by Satan, who would try to take away their faith); to others show mercy, mixed with fear (be kind and merciful to those who are not of the faith, but be wary around them in order to not be influenced by them).

Finally, in concluding the book, Jude turns his focus completely to God, who after all is still in control despite the work of Satan and false teachers and those who preach lies.  Jude writes,

"To him who is able
to keep you from falling
and to present you before his glorious presence
without fault and with great joy--
to the only God our Savior
be glory, majesty, power and authority,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
before all ages, now and forevermore!
Amen."

(I divided up the lines myself; this feels like it could be a psalm so I made it look like one.  Didn't change the text at all!)

God keeps us from falling, from stumbling in our faith.  God will present us, without fault and with great joy, before his own glorious presence!  This verse is such a comfort to me.  It's all Gospel; it takes the work and the burden completely off us and puts it all on God.  It's not about what we do!  It's about HIM, and him alone!  Not only will God keep us strong in our faith in him until the last day, but he will prepare us to stand before him, without fault.  I take that to be a reference to how he has taken all of our sins away and no longer counts them against us.  When we stand before his judgment seat on that last day, he will look at us and see not our sinful selves but the perfect righteousness of his Son who died to wash away our sin.

To that great God be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!

Amen.

Advent: He is Coming!

I remember when, as a child, I would wait excitedly for a guest to arrive.  Sometimes it would be my grandparents, sometimes my friends.  I would clean the house, make myself look nice, and sit in the living room ready to greet whoever was coming.

We prepare to greet honored guests all the time.  It's exciting when we're expecting a special person to arrive.  But do we realize that a person more honored and special than anyone on earth is coming?  At the very end of Revelation, Jesus said, "I am coming soon."  At the end of time, when God decides, Jesus will come again in glory and take believers to heaven with him.  We don't know when he is coming, but we will know it when he arrives.

Just as I prepared excitedly for family or friends to visit, we have the opportunity to prepare for Jesus' arrival on the last day.  A clean house won't matter very much, nor will nice clothes or combed hair.  But there are things we can do to prepare.  In Romans, Paul encourages his readers to be awake and ready for Jesus' appearing.  He writes,
"The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.  The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.  So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.  Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature."  (Romans 13:11-14)

We are living in the end times right now.  They began when Jesus ascended into heaven and promised his disciples that he would return someday.  The next great event in God's plan of salvation is to send his Son back again.  That is what we are waiting for.

The season of Advent leads up to Christmas; it's the beginning of the church year.  During Advent we remember how Mary and Joseph waited for Jesus to be born.  That was the Messiah's first coming.  In these last days, it is also a time to remind ourselves that Jesus is coming again and to be prepared.

Today, I am going to remember to live in anticipation of Jesus' second coming, and to wait on him: for he is coming!