| Good Morning Everyone, Our theme for this month: “Be thankful” Our Bible verse for today: “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift – not from works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (CSB) Our thought for today: “Be thankful for your salvation” So, with respect to your beliefs about salvation, are you a Calvinist or an Arminian? Although there are flavors and degrees in both schools of thought, basically Calvinists believe that if you are saved, it’s because God selected you and predestined you for salvation before you were even born. If you subscribe to the Arminian school of thought then you believe that salvation is a matter of personal choice – you have to make a decision to accept the offer of salvation and actually invite Jesus into your life and ask Him to forgive your sins. Personally, I’m more of a hybrid. I’m a “Cal-Minian”. I do believe God predestined us for salvation, in that it is His intent and desire for us to be saved from our sins and through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross He made it possible for us to be saved (more about this tomorrow). Then, He has extended the invitation to us to join His heavenly family, but we do need to accept that invitation. But whether you consider yourself a Calvinist or an Arminian or something in-between, if you believe you are saved then you should be deeply and eternally grateful to God for your salvation. And, I believe most of us are. When we take the time to think about it, I believe we are thankful for our salvation. But how often do we think about it? Instead, don’t we more often than not simply take our salvation for granted – especially if we’ve been saved for a long time? Isn’t it just sort of an accomplished fact, a matter of history, something that happened a long time ago in our lives and which is now simply a fact about us, sort of like your gender, or your height, or the color of your eyes? Your salvation is actually the most important thing about you and like Paul explained in Ephesians 2:8-9, it’s was not your doing. It is a gift from God. It is pure grace on His part. It’s not as if you accumulated enough brownie points in heaven to have earned your salvation. It’s also not as if you’re just so cute and irresistible, and God is so infatuated with you, that He will accept you in heaven whether you come to Him through faith in Christ or not. God does love you, and He does want you in heaven with Him, but it was the work of Christ on the cross that made it possible and it comes to you as a gift. We’ll think more about this tomorrow but for now, I encourage you to spend some time thanking God for your salvation. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
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