July 21, 2015
MY FRIENDS, LOOK AROUND YOU, HOW LONG WILL GRACE ABOUND?
“It was to redeem us that Jesus lived and suffered and died. He became “a Man of Sorrows,” that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy. God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred and blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse. He permitted Him to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death.”(E. G. White Steps to Christ pp. 13)
My friends, as I look at where we are as a society our unearned favor the unmerited mercy and favor that God gave to humanity by sending his Son to die on a cruel cross, for our Salvation has just about run its course.
Now look back over your life and think about every situation and circumstances that has occurred where God has not been a part of those choices you made and the many years our Savior has given you to get it right as you lived a life centered on self and not God.
That was grace 1 Peter 2:21-25 (NKJV) says For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,……..and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
For you were continually straying like sheep……” But our God is kind, loving, and merciful and in spite of us, His Grace continues forever, He will never abandon His children, that is not an option, so grace abounds as He pleads with us to seek his presence and focus on Calvary.
“Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. [Yes my friends] Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretched like me.” (John Newton, Amazing Grace)
Time belongs only to God. Man’s interpretation of time moves in one direction and it is set. “The days of our years are only threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Ps. 90:10 (KJV)
“you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” James 4;14 (NIV) But to God “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” Ps. 90:4 (NIV)
But what I need you to focus on today my friends is each of our allotted time, or the divine influence which operates in a Child of God to regenerate and sanctify, to inspire virtuous impulses, and to impart strength to endure trial and resist temptation.
I can say with full assurance as I see prophecy being fulfilled, we meaning a Child of God is just about at the end of God’s free gift and soon He will say to each of us “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still:……and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev 22:11-12 (KJV)
So friends stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY