An Eternal Difference!
“If we say that we have no sin,
(The First Letter of John 1: 8-10 & 2: 1-2 NASB)
we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
My little children,
I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
And if anyone sins,
we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous;
[the Only One who intercedes to the Father for us] &
[the Only One who comes alongside us]
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins;
[Jesus Himself—the atoning sacrifice for our sins—the sins of the world!]
and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”
When we first married, my husband and I brought our individual things together into our new, shared home. We were children, barely nineteen, so we had not acquired many worldly possessions.
- Clothing.
- Books.
- Childhood Trophies.
- Trinket Souvenirs.
- One Large, Glass Piggy Bank, gifted to my husband by his grandmother.
Everything we owned fit into the interior of that shared home, and the items we purchased during our first year of marriage found its place within our new home.
- All of our clothing fit together in one bedroom closet of our rented mobile home.
- All of our collected books were stacked on a two-tiered shelf that sat in our newly-shared living room.
- All of our combined childhood trophies sat together in the back bedroom on our loaned dresser.
- All of our combined coins we accumulated that first year of our marriage landed together in the belly of our shared glass piggy bank.
When we married, what was mine became his, and what was his became mine—Shared. As we worked, our ‘combined’ coins were dropped into the bank that sat on our dresser, and it was so easy to watch the little bank fill to the top.
This parallels the work we do while we live here on earth. Consider for a moment the way the Holy Spirit leads us to share Jesus, to be the hands & feet of Jesus, and to be on-mission as we walk throughout our earthly days.
We cannot just stand around with our hands shoved in our pockets, talking about non-important topics.
WE KNOW JESUS!
- WE NEED TO INTRODUCE THOSE WE KNOW TO OUR SAVIOR!
- WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO THE FATHER FOR THIS ‘BRIEF’ MOMENT OF TIME HE GIVES US TO WALK THE FACE OF THE EARTH!
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME WE PRAYED FOR A LOST FRIEND?
Our Testimony, Our Witness, Our Faithfulness to Our Lord—makes an Eternal Difference!
It’s like dropping coins into the eternal bank where the Father keeps our combined names recorded in His Book—the Book of Life.
Who Belongs to the Father
&
Who Does Not Belong to the Father
Jesus addressed His Father’s record of names when He spoke to the seventy witnesses He sent out to witness. They returned on a ‘spiritual high,’ but just as we do, they needed perspective. The Savior reminded the children of God, His witnesses—
“The seventy returned with joy,
(The Gospel According to Luke 10: 17-20 NASB)
saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.
And He said to them,
“I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy,
and nothing will injure you.
Nevertheless do not rejoice in this,
that the spirits are subject to you,
but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”
- We who Accept Jesus as our Savior are called to Be Faithful.
- We who Believe in Jesus do not peddle a counterfeit religion but FAITH IN JESUS!
- We who Confess our sins & Confess Jesus as Lord must deny our selfishness every day we live—A Decision that has made an Eternal Difference—one that costs us Everything—Our Lives!
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
(The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 2: 1-7 NASB)
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air,
of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh,
indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God,
being rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved),
and raised us up with Him,
and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
so that in the ages to come He might show
the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”