"Lord, You will establish peace for us, for You have also done all our works in us." (Isaiah 26:12)
The CEV says, "You will give us peace, Lord, because everything we have done was by Your power."
I read today in Acts, "....and by Him (Jesus) everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." You and I could do, cannot do, nor ever shall be able to do anything to justify ourselves before the Living Triune God, "....everything we have done was by Your power." Nothing we have or are brings us into the Kingdom of Heaven, makes us a child of God, takes us to Heaven. The "playing field" before the Living Triune God, however, is level. In Jesus Christ, anyone surrendered to Jesus, anyone, "....who believes is justified...."
No two finger prints are alike. No two people look exactly alike; there is always some unique feature which proves this. There is one "arena," however, where all are "alike," one in which no matter how "good or bad," how gifted or seemingly ungifted, no matter how others may like or dislike. This is the all-encompassing, without prejudice, "unmerited favor," bestowed upon all human beings in Jesus Christ. When Jesus died upon that Cross, He was not selective. He, "gave Himself for all." He did not look ahead and see me and my sin as a hopeless condition, "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied...." Seeing you and me was not the "satisfaction." The "satisfaction" for sin is in, "the travail of His soul," not in me, nothing in me, from conception until the end of this life for me. Jesus in His Cross saw the "result" of His Shed Blood, His Death and Resurrection: My salvation, and my salvation brought great, "satisfied." When Our Lord Jesus said, "It is finished," was He and Father also saying, "We are satisfied?"
The awareness of my wretchedness is before me every day; "....of whom I am chief," can be uttered by me also. Yet in the face of my own sin, shortcomings, failures, mistakes, etc., is, "the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ." And, "in the Face of Jesus Christ," is love, forgiveness, acceptance for the repentant sinner, "Everything we have done is by Your power."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I confess with Your Words, "Everything [I] have done is by Your power." Amen.
The CEV says, "You will give us peace, Lord, because everything we have done was by Your power."
I read today in Acts, "....and by Him (Jesus) everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." You and I could do, cannot do, nor ever shall be able to do anything to justify ourselves before the Living Triune God, "....everything we have done was by Your power." Nothing we have or are brings us into the Kingdom of Heaven, makes us a child of God, takes us to Heaven. The "playing field" before the Living Triune God, however, is level. In Jesus Christ, anyone surrendered to Jesus, anyone, "....who believes is justified...."
No two finger prints are alike. No two people look exactly alike; there is always some unique feature which proves this. There is one "arena," however, where all are "alike," one in which no matter how "good or bad," how gifted or seemingly ungifted, no matter how others may like or dislike. This is the all-encompassing, without prejudice, "unmerited favor," bestowed upon all human beings in Jesus Christ. When Jesus died upon that Cross, He was not selective. He, "gave Himself for all." He did not look ahead and see me and my sin as a hopeless condition, "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied...." Seeing you and me was not the "satisfaction." The "satisfaction" for sin is in, "the travail of His soul," not in me, nothing in me, from conception until the end of this life for me. Jesus in His Cross saw the "result" of His Shed Blood, His Death and Resurrection: My salvation, and my salvation brought great, "satisfied." When Our Lord Jesus said, "It is finished," was He and Father also saying, "We are satisfied?"
The awareness of my wretchedness is before me every day; "....of whom I am chief," can be uttered by me also. Yet in the face of my own sin, shortcomings, failures, mistakes, etc., is, "the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ." And, "in the Face of Jesus Christ," is love, forgiveness, acceptance for the repentant sinner, "Everything we have done is by Your power."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I confess with Your Words, "Everything [I] have done is by Your power." Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
