The whole point of this blog is to proclaim the absolute free grace of God that can be acquired simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have been following this site you know that I have a contact form in the right side bar. Yesterday, I received an email from a young man who let me know that he has placed his trust in Jesus and he wanted me to know and he told me that he had also shared this news with his mom! My heart rejoiced. I know that the angels in Heaven rejoiced at his decision as well. It reminded me of a gospel passage in Luke 10 where Jesus had sent out 70 disciples to preach, heal and cast out devils. When they all came back to Jesus after their time of ministry they were excited by all the miraculous things they had witnessed. But Jesus reminded them of the most important thing to get excited about and that was their names were written down in Heaven. The Bible tells us that when someone believes on Jesus the angels in Heaven rejoice and as the old hymn says..."there's a new name written down in glory and it's mine oh yes it's mine!".
Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.v.20
I'll be praying for this young man to grow in the grace of our Lord and to rejoice because his name is written in Heaven.
I also want to share with you Dear Reader that this blog has reached people in 10 different countries in the last couple of months. People are searching for an answer to the yearning in their souls in these last days. Do you need God's everlasting forgiveness...trust in Jesus then let me know and I'll pray for you and rejoice with you too! This video presents Hillsong and I believe a little Russian lyrics too...enjoy.
As my wife and I prepared to go to church this morning we were listening to the Sunday morning version of Fox News. I remarked to my wife that the program resembled more of a prophetic broadcast than a news cast. The reason that I made that statement was three fold. First, they reported that a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit Oklahoma at about 10:30 p.m. CST on Saturday evening. They had a swarm of earthquakes from Texas to Wisconsin. Jesus warned His disciples that this kind of event would be a signal that the time of the end had arrived and it is recorded in Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8 and Luke 21:11. The second story involved the great whale sightings that have been occurring in Santa Cruz, California. The bizarre temperature extremes and the total stoppage of the gulf stream have created all kinds of weird phenomenon ranging from extreme fish and bird die offs to strange migration activities. Last year a large whale was located just off the beaches of Israel and it was the first time in history such an event had ever occurred. See related story http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137514. Third, Fox reported that Benjamin Netanyahu has spent the better part of last week warning the world that Israel can no longer delay in acting against the nation of Iran because of their pursuit of nuclear weapons. The Bible foretold of a time in the future when Russia, Iran and a group of Islamic nations would come against Israel. This is recorded in the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel. Needless to say, the outcome will not be favorable for the invaders. Here is a story of some of the steps Israel is taking to defend themselves http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Israel_gets_ready_to_unveil_Davids_Sling_999.html. Israel is the prophetic wrist watch of God. Time is growing short. I think most Christians know in their hearts that time is running out for this current age. A new day is coming when Christ will reign but before that day arrives there will be dreadful events on this planet. I'm not really appealing to Christians in this blog I'm appealing to those who have never believed on Christ. Time is running out and I urge you to check out the little 3 minute video in the right hand margin of this site entitled "Learn How To Be Forgiven In 3 Minutes". Jaw dropping events will soon unfold. Come to Jesus!
Pastor James David Manning is one of my favorite preachers and I catch him on Youtube often. The video above is a short presentation of his personal testimony. Pastor Manning presents a testimony that is based on the "free grace" of the Lord Jesus Christ. By "free grace" I mean that Pastor Manning tells us that you are forgiven and saved by simply believing the testimony of the Scriptures concerning Jesus. We are saved by believing that Jesus lived a sinless life, died on a cross (shedding His blood) and rose from the dead for the payment of our sins. Free grace teaches that if we will trust in what Christ did to be sufficient payment for our sins then we will be forgiven and saved. Free grace does not mean "cheap grace" and it does not mean "easy believism". God's grace is not cheap - it cost the life of His dear Son. Free grace is not easy - it is not easy to trust your eternal destiny to another person. But free grace theology is the gospel. It is the liberating alternative to the haughty, self righteous and judgemental proponents of lordship salvation and all teachers who teach grace + works. The legalists of our day have muddied the waters of the gospel of Christ. It is good to hear of a life that has been changed by the free grace of Jesus and so I have given you Pastor Manning! Here is a snippet from a statement of faith by one of the great seminaries in our land - Free Grace Seminary. They present a definition of saving faith, free grace salvation. Enjoy and Learn. We believe salvation is the gift of God brought to mankind by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Faith is a personal response, whereby we are persuaded that the finished work of Jesus Christ has delivered us from condemnation and guaranteed our eternal life. God neither overrules nor implants mankind’s volition in accepting or rejecting His provision of salvation. A human being appropriates salvation by the sole means of faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, whose death and resurrection are the ground of man’s salvation. The means of salvation is to be properly correlated with and distinguished from issues related to discipleship (Acts 16:31 ; 4:12; John 1:12 ; 3:16, 18; 20:31; Ephesians 1:7 ; 2:8–10; 1 Peter 1:18 –19; 2 Peter 3:9 ; 1 John 5:11 –12).
No act of obedience (other than faith in Christ), whether preceding or following faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, such as commitment or willingness to obey, sorrow for sin, turning from sin, baptism, or submission to the Lordship of Christ, may be added to, or considered a part of, faith as a condition for receiving eternal salvation. The saving transaction between God and the sinner consists simply of the giving and receiving of a free gift that is without cost to the believer (John 4:10 ; Romans 4:5 ; Galatians 2:16 ; Ephesians 2:8 –9; Titus 3:5 ; Revelation 22:17 ).
