#salvation
JESUS IS ENOUGH…
No need to add or subtract from Him
He is GREATER than everything that exists
All else adds up to LESS than He
He is the SUM of all things:
- the infinite
- the absolute
- the constant
Jesus is HOLY to the highest degree
If we take Jesus out of the equation, nothing adds up
Regardless of the good we multiply, how much we divide and share
A part of us remains unsolved, a fraction of who we should be
But Jesus is the answer, our common denominator
Jesus – the product of God’s love
A perfect combination of 100% God, 100% man
Intersecting the arc of human history
To be the difference, the solution we needed, the root of our salvation
No need to add, subtract, multiply or divide
Nothing greater than, everything less than
Jesus is and always will be the solution to every equation
When you do the math, the answer is clear
JESUS IS ENOUGH
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The Gift…
2 Corinthians 18-21 NLT
“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.“
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God’s Amazing Love…
His love is unquestionable
Its power unconquerable
Its meaning undeniable
Its mystery unexplainable
Its sacrifice incomparable
Its price unimaginable
Its absence unthinkable
“For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
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The TRUE meaning of EASTER:
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
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Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
28“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
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Isaiah 46:10
Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 23:23
“Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord,
“And not a God far off?
Psalm 90:2
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
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Colossians 1:27 NIV
27To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
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With my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! —Psalm 119:10
One of my favorite classic hymns is “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” which was written in 1757 by 22-year-old Robert Robinson. In the hymn’s lyrics is a line that always captures my attention and forces me to do some self-evaluation. The line says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” I feel that way sometimes. Too often I find myself distracted and drifting, instead of having my heart and mind focused on the Savior who loves me and gave Himself for me. Robert Robinson and I are not alone in this.
In those seasons of wandering, our heart of hearts doesn’t want to drift from God—but, like Paul, we often do what we don’t want to do (Rom. 7:19), and we desperately need to turn back to the Shepherd of our heart who can draw us to Himself. David wrote of this struggle in His great anthem to the Scriptures, Psalm 119, saying, “With my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!” (v.10).
Sometimes, even when our hearts long to seek God, the distractions of life can draw us away from Him and His Word. How grateful we can be for a patient, compassionate heavenly Father whose grace is always sufficient—even when we are prone to wander! —Bill Crowder
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above. —Robinson
Our tendency to wander is matched by God’s willingness to pursue.
The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. —John 4:14
Visitors to Colorado often become dehydrated without realizing it. The dry climate and intense sun, especially in the mountains, can rapidly deplete the body’s fluids. That’s why many tourist maps and signs urge people to drink plenty of water.
In the Bible, water is often used as a symbol of Jesus as the Living Water who satisfies our deepest needs. So it’s quite fitting that one of Jesus’ most memorable conversations took place at a well (John 4:1-42). It began with Jesus asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water (v.7). It quickly progressed to a discussion of something more when Jesus said to her: “Whoever drinks of this [physical] water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (vv.13-14).
As a result of this conversation, the woman and many people in the village where she lived came to believe that Jesus was “the Christ, the Savior of the world” (v.42).
We can’t live without water. Nor can we truly live now or eternally without the living water we receive from knowing Jesus Christ as our Savior. We can drink of His life-giving water today. —David McCasland
Gracious and Almighty Savior,
Source of all that shall endure,
Quench my thirst with living water,
Living water, clear and pure. —Vinal
Only Jesus, the Living Water, can satisfy the thirsty soul.
Question: To those who know of it, how do y’all feel about Pelagianism?
It sounds nice, but it fundamentally misunderstands what salvation is.
Pelagianism,as it is constructed and criticized by Augustine*, teaches that one does not need grace to perfectly obey God’s commandments, and (further) that one’s salvation is determined by one’s actions in this life, and those actions alone. The latter point especially is simply not feasible with the Catholic-Orthodox perspective of what salvation is - it’s not just some happy reward for those who do good things, but a very share in the life of God. And because of that, salvation is of necessity something that requires God’s intervention.
Human beings are not divine; there is absolutely nothing that human beings can do, in and of themselves, that will give them divinity. It must be given to us; that’s what grace is, the gifting of God’s very Self into our own selves.
And, frankly, that’s a good thing. We’re always talking about how we’re human, and that’s a good thing; how we mess up sometimes, how we’re not always going to be perfect. Pelagianism doesn’t really allow for that; if Pelagianism is true, if we are not drawn to sin, well, what is your excuse? Why do we sin? I very much believe that “human nature is flawed” is probably one of the most verifiable doctrines of the Christian faith; we stumble all the time. We have character flaws that predispose us to certain bad choices; do you really think you have the absolute freedom to do good in every situation that you’re in? And if you do genuinely believe that, why don’t you do the best in every situation you’re in?
Pelagianism is an attractive heresy because it assumes the absolute best of human nature, but in doing so it places an impossibly heavy burden on human nature; it makes God a Judge first and foremost, and not a Savior. And, worst of all, it encourages us to look in ourselves as the ultimate solution to our problems, rather than realizing that we are creatures meant to subsist in and coexist with others.
(*I phrase it this way because Pelagianism as we understand it probably did not exist; Augustine brought a bunch of different ideas associated with Pelagius together, and condemned them as if they were a formal and coherent system of theological thought. Poor Pelagius, condemned for these ideas, might not have even subscribed to them)
“I guarantee that you will encounter difficult times in your relationship with Yah, blessed be His Name. The trust of some will waver in the midst of tests. Do not be one of those who waver because life becomes difficult or because the elder or congregation disappoints or betrays you. Do not give up the greatest and hardest relationship because you lose someone dear to you. Do not lose trust because you have unanswered questions or because you may not understand. Do not lose heart because you feel alone. Do not give up the good fight because you want to die, persecution endangers and harms your life, or for any other reason. Shun the rocky soil. Instead grow deep roots into the Lord through relationship with Him that is nurtured in daily prayer, meditation, fasting, fellowship, service, purpose…and focus and endurance.
My children, continue the struggle to draw near to the Lord even if you do not hear His voice. Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, more widely known as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, did not hear from God for sixty years, yet she maintained faithfulness, enduring trust, in Him. Questions and doubts may arise - endure anyway. Challenges in your life and in your walk with God will come - persist anyway.
If you stand firm, persecution will come, but please never give up, never quit… do not allow bitterness to corrupt your heart. Seek Him for comfort, for purpose, and for answers. Even if you do not receive a response, sustain in your walk with the Lord. No matter how difficult the Way, the struggle, the fight, the race, may be…persevere. Trust Him. Trust Him for salvation and Life. Know that persecution and pain will come if you stand with His Anointed One (Revelation 2:9-10), but He will be there to help you every step of the way (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). He will be with you even if the test means the death of your body.”
~R. H. Ben-Shalom, Papa’s Last Words: They Lied About God
(Art: Burning Bush Byzantine mosaic 6th Century St Catherine’s Monastery. Sinai)
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“Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’” - John 13:7
During the time of the twelve disciples, they see Jesus as their political Messiah. They thought that He will save them from the terror government they were under. That is why during their time, they got mad when Jesus did things that a king should never do, especially Peter. When Jesus washed their feet, Peter really disagreed with what He was doing because he thinks that a king should never do that. However, a lot of Jesus’ actions were all a mystery to the disciples. Not just when He washed their feet, but almost everything because they only see Christ as a political Messiah.
So, when the time came, Jesus was really so eager to teach the disciples things that they don’t understand. Jesus wanted to teach them the importance of being humble and also to have faith in Him. Jesus then said that they may not realize what He was doing at that time, but when the time comes, they will. What Jesus was actually referring to is all about how He will save the whole world. He did not come to just defeat the current government at that time, but His mission in the world was greater. He came to seek and save the lost. He came to give us eternal life, and all He did was all for us.
Now, our verse today can still be a reminder for us. Even if we are now at the present times, we can still be encouraged by this because right now, we are all full of what-ifs. We don’t know what’s wrong with life, and sometimes we ask ourselves if what’s our purpose in life. Yet, we can then be reminded of this verse and trust God. Right now, whatever we are going through, we may not understand it, one day we will. We should trust our lives, our unknown future to our omniscient God. We may be facing a lot of struggles that we are on the verge of giving up on, always remember our verse today and be encouraged that we may not know what’s happening, but our God knows. He is our everlasting God, our Savior, and our Father.
Therefore, we must never doubt His perfect timing. One thing we should hold on to is His promise that all things work well for those who love Him. We are serving an almighty God, a miracle worker, a promise keeper, and an everlasting forgiving Father– we are in good hands. Thus, whatever we are facing right now, we should not give up, and instead, we should just lift it all to God because one day, we will then understand why we went through this. God is not unfair, He will remember everything we did for His kingdom, and He is also a loving God. He loves us, and He cares for us. So, there’s really no reason to doubt Him. Let’s not base our trust right now on our unknown future, but let us trust God with our unknown future.
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We must do now what will profit us forever.
The good of all concerned may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love.
FromThe Rule of St. Benedict
Ora et labora
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Book jacket for Del Rey | Art Director: David G. Stevenson | Designer and illustrator: Anna Kochman | Published 2018
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