Thursday, November 14, 2013

PSALM 30

BEAUTY FROM ASHES
If a man die, shall he live again?
All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. (Job 14:14)
 
PSALM 30 
1      I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
       and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
 2    O Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me.
 3    O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol—You have kept me alive,
       that I would not go down to the pit.   

 4     Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name.
 5     For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime—
        Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.
 6     Now as for me, I said in my prosperity, “I will never be moved.”
 
 7      O Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong;
         You hid Your face, and I was dismayed.
 8     To You, O Lord, I called, and to the Lord I made supplication:
 9     “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?
         Will the dust praise You?   Will it declare Your faithfulness?
 
 10    Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me;  O Lord, be my helper.”
 11     You have turned for me my mourning into dancing—
         You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,
 12     That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent.
          O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.   [New American Standard Bible]
 
YOU WE MADE TO KNOW GOD 

Deep down, there’s a place within each of us that is made for one thing—a relationship with God. No matter how hard we try to cover it up or fill it with something else, we will never be satisfied.  Our hearts will remain restless until we find our way into a place rest in the arms of God.

To extol is to “Praise highly”… to exalt far above anything else.  Only a personal relationship with Christ the loving savior can relieve us from the aches we feel in our heart—and to “extol” Him would be the only natural reaction.

GOD WANTS TO GIVE US A BETTER LIFE

There is a problem. A barrier exists between us and God.  It’s called sin—we fall short of God’s design and will for our lives.  Romans 3:23 tells us, “Everyone has sinned, we all fallen short of God’s glorious standard.” And Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death.”*

In other words, all people need to be brought “back from the dead” spiritually. There’s nothing we can do to remove this barrier of death on our own. No amount of good we can do can us. 

In His kindness and mercy,  He will continue to sustains us—blessing us even when we don’t deserve it—so we can eventually find the way back to Him. But if we don’t seek Him and His ways or choose to reject Him, our spiritual deaths will be permanent.

God knew that we needed to be rescued. He loved us so much that He devised a plan to free us from the grasp of sin and provide forgiveness for all time.

JESUS CHRIST IS GOD'S RESCUE PLAN!  

We fail to live according to God’s plan for mankind, but Jesus humbled Himself and came to earth to live as a man. He lived a sinless life and performed miracles—but the world rejected Him.

He died on a cross and was buried in a tomb, but three days later… He rose from the grave.

What the world didn’t realize was that dying on the cross was God’s plan.—to sane man.  Through His death and resurrection, He removed the barrier between us and God. Jesus conquered sin and death on our behalf so we could truly live.
 
GOD ALREADY KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU 

Just come as you are...
There’s no need to clean yourself up first, start behaving better, or anything of the sort before you can become a follower of Jesus. Just open your heart to God and receive Him. He’s ready to receive you.

LORD JESUS,  

I believe you truly are The Son of God.

I confessed that I have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed.  Please forgive me of my wrongdoing
and let me live in a relationship with You.
I receive You As my personal Savior,
accepting what you did on my behalf—
The work you accomplished once and for all on the cross.

Thank You for saving me,
help me to live a life that is pleasing to you.

AMEN.

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