Tuesday, August 2, 2016

The Lord is Your Keeper - Part 1 – A Secure Position


Psalm 121:5-8 “The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.

I read a devotional the other day on “Blessed Assurance”; the eternal perspective that when this life journey on earth come to an end, that we know without a doubt that we will be spending eternity in Heaven with the Lord. The article spoke plain and clear how one of the most precious doctrines in all of Scripture is that of the “secure position” of the believer in Christ Jesus. Nothing in creation is “able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” - Romans 8:39. Someone, who I was talking to about going to Heaven, told me that there was no way to know for certain that you were going to Heaven. I pointed to 1 John 5:12-13, which says: “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” It is not with arrogance that Christians have believing faith; it is the promises of God in His living Word, the Holy Scripture, the Bible.

Romans 10:9-10 “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

The article explains how the apostle Peter tells us that we who are born again (born anew, born from above, through the Holy Spirit) are “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation in 1 Peter 1:5. We tend to think that we can, somehow, earn our way to Heaven. But, reality is that there is nothing we can do to merit salvation; similarly, nothing we do can keep it. If we’re honest about it, we know that we all have done so many bad things in life (lie, cheat, steal, lust, greed, hate, idolize, hurt, break, belittle, misuse power or position, ignore needs of others, self-absorbed, et cetera) that we do not deserve Heaven. God knows it too. We have to realize that forgiveness and salvation is God’s work, not ours, and extends to all realms of our lives.

John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”

Let’s continue this message on the Lord God Almighty "keeping" us in His Hand for Heaven tomorrow. Thank you for coming by on my 60th birthday.

In Christ, Brian

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