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Lord God our Father in Heaven, Holy be your name! You are full of grace and mercy and we come before you with humble hearts. Cleanse us. Cover us with the precious blood of your Son, Jesus Christ. We commit to you this time, Father. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and guide us into all truths. We give you all the glory and praise! This we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen!
In the earlier years of maritime history, sailing ships and boats alike often get caught into storms where it could be so dark, and the visibility could drop to less than a mile. These weary sailors lookout for navigational aids, such as a lighthouse, to get them back on route, guide them to their destination, and lead them to safe ports that could shelter them in the midst of the bad weather.
In our life, we also have a lighthouse that we can look out for especially when we are living in dark and uncertain days. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path". God's Word, written in the Bible, gives us the beacon of hope in our daily struggle in life. His light will lead us to our ultimate port of destination, our true home. Therefore, let me show you Bible verses, which you may know very well, that can serve as waypoints that guide us to where God wants us to go.
One of the most well-known verses, John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life". Our God loves us so much and He desires for us to have an abundant, meaningful, and eternal life with Him. Now, you may wonder, If this is true, then why are we living in this broken world with broken families and broken relationships? If this is true, then why am I still in pain, and there are times that I don't feel that He loves us?
This world and the whole of humanity have a problem, and that is sin. Our sin separates us from God. Why? Yes, God is love but we also have to remember He is also holy, pure, and just. And so, if we are seen as sinners in the eyes of God, who is just, we have to pay the penalty for sins and that is eternal suffering away from His presence, which is the second death. As written in Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death..." yet I praise God for it doesn't end there. Now here is the good news! Yes, the payment for sin is death, BUT "the free gift of God is eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord"!
Yes, God is love but we also have to remember He is also holy, pure, and just.
Just like me, you may have thought once in your life that religious practices can pay the penalty of your sins, or being a good person and doing good works will get you into heaven. The truth is, alone, we can't solve our sin problem. Religious practices, good works, good moral character will never be enough to pay for our sins, so God Himself gave the ONLY solution. Remember John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son"? Why? Jesus Christ is God's answer to our problem and He is the ONLY way to heaven. How? Colossians 1:13-14 "He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Jesus paid the penalty of our sins with His own life on the cross. He has taken away your sins, my sins, all of our sins; past, present, and future. He has carried our shame and nailed it to the cross.
What Jesus has done for us is really love in action and it's so beautiful and majestic! But merely knowing what He has done is not enough, we must place our complete faith in Him to save us. As it is written in Ephesians 2:8 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God". In this verse, I want to emphasize that we are saved through Faith. Through faith in no one else but Jesus Christ. And notice that "it is a gift of God". Salvation is a gift. You don't have to pay for it or to work for it. Just like in any gift, all you have to do is to accept it with all your heart and hold on to it with all your strength through God's grace. Good works are merely evidence of salvation, something that comes out naturally as a by-product of the Holy Spirit dwelling in a believer in Christ.
To sum it up, In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... and the Word became flesh as written in John 1:1. The Word the apostle John was talking about is no other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now let me paraphrase Psalm 119:105, Jesus is the Lamp of my feet, the Light on my path. He is the Light that shines in the darkness! God gave us His Son to pay for the penalty of our sins. Jesus died on the cross thinking of you and me, and He rose again, went up to the Father, and He is coming back again. He is coming back again. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ which is now ours
Now knowing all of this, while we are on our own personal voyage, let us point other people to the Light that guides us to our ultimate destination: the eternal home we have in Christ.
Will you pray with me?
If you're a person who has heard this for the first time, and you would like to place your faith in Jesus to save you, let's pray: Lord Jesus, thank you so much for loving me. I confess that I have sinned against you. Today, I put my trust in you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Thank you for forgiving my sins. I accept your free gift of eternal life. From this day on, I choose to surrender my life to you, to follow you, and to love you.
And for those who have already accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, let's pray: Lord Jesus, you are the King of kings and the Lord of lords. we thank you for this message that you have given to us today and thank you for reminding us of your finished work at the cross. We recommit our lives to you and we surrender any aspect of our lives that we are still taking control of. We give you all the praises, glory, and most importantly we love you from the bottom of our hearts. This we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the one who is to come. Amen.
Photo by: Anand Dandekar
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