“For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. Selah
“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah” (Psalms 62:1-8 ESV)
Yes! Our salvation comes from the Lord and from no other. Even the faith to believe in Jesus Christ is authored and perfected by Christ, and is gifted to us by God, and is persuaded of God, and is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of man. Same with the grace of God. So it is God who decides how to define salvation, faith, and grace, and not us. And we read about salvation, faith, and grace in the Scriptures, but we need to read these passages in their appropriate context so that we don’t misread them.
[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44]
Now, in our day and age, in America especially, we have people who are coming in between the truth of the gospel and the delivery of the gospel message who are freely interpreting the Scriptures outside of their appropriate context to make the Scriptures say what they want them to say, which are often distortions of truth and altered gospel messages intended to deceive the masses and to appease human flesh and the ungodly of the world. And so the masses are not being fed the truth, but lies.
And they who are willfully misconstruing what the Scriptures teach on salvation, grace, faith, and eternal life with God, are of the spiritually dead who are serving Satan whose goal it is to deceive and to lead people astray. For since Satan is behind this, and he wants us all to end up in hell, he is going to be and he is amassing an army of people who will do his bidding and who will get these false messages of salvation out there to the people and who will vilify the truth in order to keep people from believing the truth.
So, we need to be watchful for this and not be so naïve as to believe whatever we hear coming from the mouths of those professing to be ministers of the gospel of Christ. We, like the Bereans, need to be people who are testing what we are hearing and reading against what the Scriptures teach, in context, and under the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit who was given to us to lead us into all truth and to teach us the things of Christ. For the lies abound. They may look good and sound good, but they are still lies, and so they are not good, and they are harmful.
So, God alone is to be our salvation and we must listen to him and what the Scriptures teach (in context) regarding our salvation so that we do not get caught up in the lies of the enemy. So we must be discerning people who are able to see the lies and all the evil that is coming between the truth and the presentation of what is supposed to be truth. And the only way we are going to be able to discern truth from lies is if we are students of the Scriptures who study them in context and who then apply them to our daily lives.
So, it isn’t just the people of God who the enemy is coming against to attempt to destroy us, but he is coming against the truth of the gospel to alter it in order to deceive the masses into believing the lies and into rejecting the truth. And he is being very successful at what he is doing presently, but he won’t be forever. So please be people who test what you hear against the Scriptures (in context) and who pray and ask the Lord for wisdom to discern truth from lies and to know when we are being lied to.
And please be people who listen to God and to his word over the words of other humans, no matter who those humans are or what titles they hold or how popular they may be among the people. And let your salvation come from the mouths of God and of Christ and of his NT apostles and of all who are teaching what they taught, in truth, from the Scriptures, and in context. For our salvation is not the one-time deal that so many promote and then we can live however we want and still go to heaven.
Our salvation is progressive, and we must be those who are walking (in conduct, in practice) no longer in deliberate and habitual sin, but in righteousness, godliness, moral purity, honesty, uprightness, faithfulness, and in obedience to our Lord and to his commands. For if sin is what we practice (and obey), and not righteousness, and not obedience to our Lord, then we don’t really know God, we are not born of God, but we are of the devil, and we will not inherit eternal life with God. Please believe this!
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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