| | Wow. One week since I posted and a year's worth of events happened.....including a car, stitches, tickets and tornados. For now, I'm only going to cover the most important event of the week. Today is my 15th birthday!!!!!  Contrary to popular belief, I am not 15 in physical age, although I have been known to act that way a time or two.  Actually, today is my 15th spiritual birthday - the only one that counts! Yep, May 2, 1993, when I was nine years old, I became a Christian. I no longer went to church because my parents were taking me along, I was going because I had a personal relationship with the God of the universe. As I pondered the significance of this day to me personally, I started thinking about all the people in the world who look back at a time in their life when they "asked Jesus to come into their heart." Then, with what they believe to be their fire insurance firmly in hand, they proceed to go out and live life like the devil. Uh, that's not the way it works. Unfortunately, that's the way many people operate today. Jesus made it very clear that "even the demons believe and shudder." (James 2:19) You do well to believe, but faith without works is dead! (James 2:14-26) God saved us not just to be forgiven, but to live a life of holiness (Mat. 7:16-21, 2 Thes. 3:13-15, 2 Tim. 2:15, 1 John 1:6-7, 2:3-6, 2:15, 3:6, 3:9). God demands perfection (Mat. 5:48). Here's a great quote from a recent sermon Ryan was preaching.... "There is an alarming number of people in the church today who are not saved. Many people hang their salvation on a very weak peg, because most people point back to a point in their lives when they prayed the sinner's prayer - which is not even in the Bible. The fruit spoken of in Matthew 7 is directly related to a person's salvation....Those who are truly saved must do the will of God (James 1:21-22). If you can come to church and hear the Word of God without being moved to do the things you hear preached, you don't have a foundation of Christ (Matthew 7:24-27)....I don't base my salvation on what happened February 2, 1979; I base it on everything that has happened since then." - Ryan Dalgliesh I hope you will take a moment to reflect on what God has done for you and then examine yourself to ensure that you are indeed of the faith. (2 Cor. 13:5) If you are, praise God!  |
