Listen...

So, I am not very good at being a church planter. I have never done it before and there are so many hurdles to jump, potential mistakes and worst of all, the missed opportunities. I am ADD at the best of times, and simply the myriad challenges that I think about as a church planter keep my mind whirring a lot -- too much.

The really difficult thing when you don't know what you are doing is that you are always asking for advice and opinions. And the amount of books by experts is staggering. I find myself jumping from book to book, opinion to opinion, expert to expert - each one contradicting each other. It just sends my ADD into overdrive.

So, when I sat down today to begin preparation for the sermon this week, I felt I was preparing to add one more thing to the to do list. But then I hit Mark 4:3 - Listen! Jesus says listen. His teaching is simpler and more challenging than anything else I hear out there. Jesus rarely answers my questions - which says more about my questions than the ability of Jesus to answer them. How often to I burn energy thinking, doing, planning, acting, rather than listening. So, I am going to try that for a change this week. Pray for me!

Salvation is Not By our Works...But By the Work That God Has Done In Christ!!!

This is what salvation looks like. We try but can't do it!!! Jonah said from the belly of fish that swallowed him because of his disobedience, "Salvation is of the Lord". If we are to be saved, God must do it!!! We try to save our selves by our own works, but we only frustrate ourselves because we ALWAYS fall short. Galatians tells us that if getting right with God could be obtained by our efforts, then Christ died in vain. But thanks be to God the Father, who saw our helpless condition and sent us a Savior. And like this boy in the video who had to come to the realization that he couldn't do what needed to be done to fix his condition, he stopped working and let the father do for him, that which he couldn't do for himself...And Look At The Amazement & Joy He Experienced When He Got Out of the Way!!! This is Salvation!!!

(Isaiah 45:22) Look to me and be saved. All ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else...



Enjoy this brief article by Pastor Don Fortner:

"Salvation Is Of The Lord!" - JONAH 2:9

"Salvation" is a big word. It includes much more than a believer's initial experience of grace in regeneration and conversion. It includes everything required to bring fallen men from the pit of the damned into the eternal presence of God's glory in heaven. And, from first to last, it is the work of God's free grace alone. Man does nothing. Man contributes nothing. Nothing is determined by or dependent upon the will of man or the works of man. "Salvation is of the Lord!"

This is the essence of all true doctrine. Today, sinners are called upon to walk an aisle, say a prayer, or otherwise do something to obtain salvation. The prophet of God declares, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" (Ex. 14:13). "Salvation is of the Lord" in its planning (Eph. 1:3-6; II Tim. 1:9; Rom. 8:28-30), in its purchase (Rom. 3:24-26; Gal. 3:l3; Heb. 9:12; I Pet. 1:18-20), in its execution (John 3:8; Eph. 2:1-9) in its preservation (John 10:27-30; Jer. 32:38-40), and in its completion (Phil. 1:6; Eph. 5:25-27; Jude 24-25).

In old eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ assumed the responsibility of saving all God's elect as the Surety of the everlasting covenant. When Christ agreed to save us, he became responsible to save us (John 10:16-18). In his life of obedience unto God as a man, our Savior worked out a perfect righteousness for us, which is imputed to all who believe, making us worthy of God's acceptance (Rom. 5:l9; Col. 1:12). When he died upon the cross, the Son of God fully satisfied the claims of Divine justice against us; and he made that satisfaction for a particular people (I John 4:9-10; Isa. 53:8; John 10:15, 26). Christ purchased for his redeemed people all the rights and privileges of salvation and eternal life. Then, having purchased eternal salvation for his elect, the Lord Jesus Christ was exalted to the throne of universal dominion, to sovereignly govern the universe for the purpose of giving eternal life to his elect, redeemed people (John 17:2). And, in the last day, the good Shepherd will present all the sheep entrusted to his care, the covenant Surety will present all the elect people given into his hand before the world began holy, unblameable, unreprovable and glorious before the throne of the triune God (Heb. 2:13; Col. 1:21-22). Not one of God's elect shall ever perish, because "Salvation is of the Lord!"

AMEN...