salvation

Can we get excited about God’s Word together for a second?  Before the ascension of Christ, He replied to His followers question about when He would return in this way:

“He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'”  Acts 1:7-8 (ESV)

Pay attention.  We are given power by God through the Holy Spirit!  We have power.  And with this, we receive the great commission to bring Christ to the ends of the earth.  How cool is that?  God wanted us to help Him with this grand mission.  What an honor!  We, who are not capable of saving ourselves get to help the One who saved us!  A tall order, but a great honor.

Now let’s take a look at what happened after this promise was fulfilled during the day of Pentecost when Christ’s followers were filled with the Holy Spirit.  Everyone began speaking in tongues and people started hearing them and understanding in their own native languages!  Visualize that for a second.  What an amazing display of the flowing forth of the Holy Spirit from these believers!  And yet… the response was not unanimous:

“And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’  But others mocking said, ‘They are filled with new wine.'”  Acts 2:12-13 (ESV)

Sometimes, in this day and age, the thought of sharing our belief in Jesus Christ seems daunting because people are relying less and less on faith and leaning more on their own understanding.  If they in their own prideful, fallible human minds cannot comprehend something, they toss it aside as falsehood.  However, here in these verses lies proof that even back before the age of modern technology and science, there were always those who spread doubt and mocked believers.  The believers were accused of being drunk!

Therefore, go forth boldly.  Use the power Christ has given you through the Holy Spirit, spread the gospel knowing full well that there will be mockers and doubters.  God did not give you a spirit of fear, He gave you His Holy Spirit to guide you in the greatest quest we have set out before us.  How awesome is that?

So I proclaim: I believe in Jesus Christ and am a slave to Him.  I love Him, and I am His disciple.  I will go where He wants me to go and do what He wants me to do because I have given my life to Him for His eternal Kingdom.  You can think I am crazy and believe in fairy tales… you can believe I am drunk… you can believe I am uninformed and stupid.  It won’t change what I know to be true.  Jesus is the Son of God.  Jesus is God.  One and all in the trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He died on the cross as a ransom to save the souls of anyone who will reach out and take the gift He is offering- the gift He chose to offer to us by the outpouring of His blood.

Someday, when I die, I will be with Him for eternity.  Will you?  If you will, then I urge you to stay close to Him… realize that your eternity with Him doesn’t start when you die, but rather it started the moment you accepted His gift of salvation and decided to recognize Him as Lord of your life.  Make sure you follow your calling as His child: spread the gospel to the ends of the earth.  Help bring more souls into His Kingdom.

If you don’t know that you know that you know that you will spend eternity with Christ, I urge you to change that today.  Can science prove it?  No.  Will there be plenty of mockers and scoffers?  Yes.  That is why we need faith.  God’s Word says:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”  Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)

Are you willing to let your pride die for the sake of your eternal life?  Are you willing to say “Maybe I don’t know it all… maybe I can’t know it all because I am a created being with limitations… but I am willing to have faith to accept this gift that was paid for by Christ Jesus.”?  I can’t give you scientific proof that Jesus is God.  But I know what He has done for those who have believed in Him, including me.  Trust me, you may not know now, but if you decide to follow Christ, you will have all the proof you need living inside of you.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”  Romans 10:9-10 (ESV)