Man makes plans and yet it is God who determines the
outcome of all things...
What really amazes me is how we believe that we are within
ourselves very powerful and that we determine the outcome of so many things. A
good word to describe our characters is “delusional”; how often have you heard
someone accuse someone else for the outcome of a sports game being played
thousands of miles away; “you see if you had kept quiet they would not have
lost”, really! As if the powers some possess will determine the outcome of an
event by what they say or what shirt they wear. Are we really that simple? We
most certainly can be at times! This then would be a simple illustration most
could relate too.
We then may have other ideas as we hold onto the notion that
we determine our very own outcome. This is where it becomes somewhat more
difficult to differentiate from the ease of superstition. Every action has a
reaction, this is a fact, science teaches us that; throw a ball in the air and
it will lose its kinetic energy induced by the arms action and gravity will
cause it to drop to the ground. Put two fingers in a plug socket with the power
on and “zap” you will be shocked!
We are emphatically taught through scripture that
prior to salvation we are “dead in our trespasses and sins”. How can we be
dead and yet we breathe, eat and conserve with others that seem to live? We do
in fact live as carnal beings but we are people enslaved to sin and its
strongholds, this is something totally different to being alive in the spirit!
True life only takes place once we have been quickened by God the Holy Spirit; “This man came to Jesus by night
and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for
no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered
him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to
him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time
into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water
and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:2-6)
“Salvation is
of the Lord.”
- Jon_2:9
“Salvation is
the work of God. It is he alone who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and
sins,” and it is he also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is
both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is of the Lord.” If I am prayerful, God
makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on
in a consistent life, it is because he upholds me with his hand. I do nothing
whatever towards my own preservation, except what God himself first does in me.
Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is
my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I
have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live
before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I
sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I
weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my
good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were
fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself
nothing but sin and misery. “He only is my rock and my salvation.” Do I feed on
the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my
soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down
from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body
and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of
strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills:
without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it
abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in him. What Jonah learned in
the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: “Salvation is of the
Lord.”” (C.H.Spurgeon)
It is one thing
to promise but another thing altogether to preform! Therefore let us be slow to
promise and eager to peform, let us all seek out God’s graces to live out our
lives in holiness!
Signing off
Tyrone
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