saving grace

“My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” ~ 1 John 2:1-2.

When a soul dies before its time against the Maker’s will, whereforth does it go? Does the assurance of salvation still remain and will our good Lord have mercy on those who lost this battle of life? We have so many demons to battle with, coming from every angle, breaking us down and tearing apart our hearts…and in the end, we are only human.

I have wondered long and hard what happens to the ones we have loved and lost to suicide. Is there anywhere in God’s Word that proclaims eternal damnation upon these poor, helpless, and broken ones? They are His after all, given Him to keep, in this life and forevermore.

All of us sin, terribly and day by day. Jesus Christ, our Advocate, will speak for us on Judgment Day. He paid for our sins once and for all, it is finished. And it is enough. Surely, His sacrifice will cover over the murder of our own souls. Surely, God’s love and mercy will wash over those who chose to leave this life early, and He will bring them home.

I pray and believe with all that I am that God will hold those of us who hurt the most, who somehow believed there was no other option. May their souls not be wandering and lost forever, dear Heavenly Father. Carry Your children and lost lambs in Your arms until the very end of eternity. May we not be separated from the ones we loved and lost, the ones we could not save. Only You can save them now, so let them not be lost forever.

O Heavenly Father, remember the ones You love, the ones You gave faith to, the ones You breathed life in. We are all flawed and broken and daily need your grace and mercy. For the lost, I pray for Your guidance. For the poor, I pray for Your hope. For the fallen, I pray for Your healing. Your Love is steadfast and new every morning, and You are ever faithful and true. I know not where their souls are as we wait between heaven and earth, but I pray You be with them always. Let them never feel lonesome, lost, and abandoned. May You make Your presence known to them, and may You give them rest. O Lord, I pray You let these poor souls sleep in the healing arms of Jesus Christ. He has redeemed the whole world and set us free from the clutches of evil. Though the best of us may fall out of life along the way, I pray You will save them still and give them another chance to be with You. You are righteous O God and You know all things and all hearts. Please bless and keep the souls of our loved ones safe in Your love for all eternity. Thank You Lord. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

A Simple Question that Changes Everything...

Psalms 34:3 O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.

Hebrews 12:1-2 And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 

The more years I spend limping and struggling through my walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, the more and more I realize His call on my life. I am deeply humbled by his promise to never forsake us (Matthew 28:20). Oftentimes I am driven to tears realizing that such a worthless sinner like me would receive so much love and mercy. O the beauty of our Lord. May we revel and marvel in how good he is to us...

As I am a person who is often distracted by my own thoughts and driven down winding roads and inconsequential roundabouts, it takes a lot of effort for me to fix my eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, but this is what he has asked us to do. 

A simple powerful question that usually obliterates every "pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 10:5) ....at least in my mind is this: 

What am I putting before Jesus Christ? What am I allowing to impair my vision of him?

We should ask ourselves this not just as a daily question, but as a moment by moment wake-up call and reality check. 

The material, corporeal world is blinding, this is why we have been instructed to look only to Jesus Christ. As a child have you ever held a magnifying glass up to an insect? Do you remember how big it gets? The psalmist tells us to magnify the Lord in our hearts. 

Do you wonder how big of a space the Lord actually occupies inside of you? Although I may spend time with the Lord daily, I would not in the slightest be surprised if it was perhaps only a microscopic portion of my heart. How easy it is for me to direct my attentions elsewhere! 

Dear God, thank you for your mercy and grace for all of us who believe. Thank you for cleansing us through faith. Despite the sin that is ever so pervasive in our hearts, thank you for your kindness and your purposed plan of redemption. Dear Lord, you are too good to us and we don't deserve it....there is no part of who we are that deserves you. 

like stars in heaven

“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” ~ Luke 10:19-20

My conscious battle in spiritual warfare began two years ago. To know about the power I have in Christ, the power He has shared and bestowed me with so that Jesus will always come through whenever I call upon His Name, is life-changing and healing. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can command away the unclean and ungodly. He saves and protects me from such spiritual intrusions and disturbances.

It can be the most frightening of things but it can also be the most enlightening. To know the power of God lies within me, wherever I may go through valleys of death and the darkest of places, they cannot touch me within His will and protection. I have everything indeed when I have God. To know too that God’s heavenly angels are engaged in battle in the spiritual realms makes everything we believe in so startlingly real. Our faith is not a joke. As a believer and warrior, I must be aware of what this battle is that I have come into, what God has armed me with as His servant.

This is not a simple do-good-feel-good religion; we are dealing with the dark forces of all ages, we are in a battle that began before Man and will go on till the very end. We have our faith and salvation set in Christ, and we have our duty to help fight for and save those who do not yet know Him. To remain in the dark of what goes on in the spiritual realms is to remain ignorant, because we can only go so long without knowing the depths of what we believe in and what Christ has done for us in this battle across ages.

And yet, Jesus tells us not to focus solely on the authority He has bestowed upon us. Yes, it is in every sense absolutely essential as we walk this broken and plagued earth, but it isn’t everything. What is worth more is the blood of Jesus that has covered over our sin, thus opening the gates of heaven to let us in for eternity. Without Him, we will remain estranged in the outer courts forever. We can cast out demons in the power of His Name but if our names aren’t written in the Book of Life, what would we be rejoicing for?

The crux of our faith, the reason Jesus Christ came to die for our sins, was to bridge the deep chasm between heaven and hell, so that we would have a fighting chance to be with Him forever. I thank the Lord for those of us whose names are written in heaven, for our sojourn on earth will not be in vain. And when You are ready to take us across life and death, we know where we will be going. We know we will not be lost forever. Like stars in heaven, we will always shine by Your everlasting light.