Skip to main content

 FROM START TO FINISH

Hebrews 12:1-2

“As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, upon Whom our faith depends from start to finish.” 

My faith depends upon Jesus Christ from start to finish. Faith is a gift from God; salvation is a gift from God and depends upon God for “salvation is from the Lord. Since my faith and living this new life is by the grace of God in the Holy Spirit’s power, it has little or nothing to do with the way I feel at any one moment. My faith is grounded solely in Jesus Christ and He is the One Who has grounded me in Himself.

It is because Jesus Christ is utterly faithful that I am now living in faith, hope, and confidence. It is only because of all He had already accomplished and is bringing to competition in me by the work of the Holy Spirit that I live in faith. As the hymn goes, my hope is built on nothing less and nothing more than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

This life I’ve been given by God, this life of faith, courage and authority in His name is much like a garden. God, by His grace has tilled and will continue to till the soil of my life, breaking up any hardness of heart, indifference of mind, and stubbornness of will, removing rocks and thorns and soul-shallowness so His Word can take root and produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Because I live in a broken world and the residue of my old sin nature, cut off by the Lord Himself, still can resonate to the lies and folly of sin, I need Him. Weeds are a given in any cultivated garden, and I need the weeding effect of the Word of God internalized by the Holy Spirit to pull up the weeds of sin that would try and sap the life out of me. This “garden” needs a Gardener!

What God has planted in me, His Word and the gift of Eternal Life, He is committed to bring to fruitfulness and maturity. Having begun a good work, He promises to bring that work to completion by the Day of Christ. I am trusting Him to cultivate, to feed, to water, to weed and to tend the garden of my life. It all depends upon Him from start to finish, and I can trust Him, faithful and true.

1 Peter 1:3-9

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

 HE IS RISEN! IT IS FINISHED! After the Israelites had passed through the Red Sea by God opening the way for them to be saved, the whole of Pharoah's army, his horsemen and chariots pursued God's people into the opened way. Once they were all in, the waters flowed back into their place with suddenness and fury. Not one of the enemies survived. All perished in those waters. When Jesus Christ hung on the cross, all that sin contained, the full measure of the rebellion of mankind for all time, all the wickedness that was ever in human hearts were absorbed into the Lamb of God as He died our death, received our just judgement from God for all time, taking all that sin and death contained. In Him, sin and death died once and for all. They were overwhelmed, covered and drowned in the sea of His precious blood, poured out for the sin of the whole world. Not one enemy remained alive, all were stripped of their power to hold us in slavery to sin any longer. All their weapons were confis...
Post a Comment
Read more
WHAT DO YOU BLESS? It would be an act of utter folly and disaster were I to choose to "bless" what God will not bless. God's wrath is set against anything and anyone that would try and hinder you becoming all He created you to be and to grow in by being united to Him through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is nothing arbitrary about the Word of God. He is very specific on what will make for life and what will not. Human life only becomes human life when the Holy Spirit becomes Life withing a believer. Being united to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the follower of Jesus becomes a new creation and begins to live Life as God intended. God begins the good work, and He is the One who will bring it to competition. Somethings will NEVER make for life. What God calls sin, missing the mark of what will make for life, is always sin regardless of what culture anywhere and anytime say to the contrary. Sin cannot save, heal, redeem, restore or remake...
Post a Comment
Read more
 CONVICTION When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, He doesn't ask us to make it right. We can never add to what Jesus Christ has already done on the cross to deal with the totality of our sin. The Holy Spirit asks us to accept the truth, turn from sin and turn to the Lord. Then He will make it right. Remember Who our faith depends on from start to finish, that salvation is of the Lord alone. Laying aside every hindering weight and the sin that so easily trips us up (different for everyone), we are to run the race He has given us to run with perseverance, fixing our eyes on Jesus. He is the One upon Whom our faith depends on from start to finish. He will never run out of eyesight any more that a good shepherd would go ahead of the sheep he was leading where they couldn't see to follow. Hebrews 12:1-2 "Surrounded then as we are by a great cloud of witness to the life of faith, let us strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which dogs our feet, and let us r...
Post a Comment
Read more