Psalms 29:10-11
The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood, And the LORD sits as King forever. The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace.
God is King and He will always be King. No one or no thing will ever change this fact. Circumstances can't change it, weather can't change it and government can't change it! He and He alone is in control. In Isaiah 48:13 God says, Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the Earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call them They stand up together." With a word from God The stars are held in place, the sun and the moon give us light and the earth sits just exactly in the right place to sustain life. The majesty of our God is great! Everything, and I mean everything is governed by Him. In Isaiah 45:5 He says, "I am the Lord and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. Today we must come to a sobering perpetual fact. Humanity is not in control of anything! We may think so. We may have a high position in our community, our job or even in our government. We may even oversee, and be in charge of people. But the truth remains," God is overseeing us all." Nothing gets by Him! Our every action is either under His control or allowance! He is sovereign! The problem we have is relinquishing that control and allowance. I've heard people make the statement, "Put it in God's hands." This sounds great but it's really impossible. The truth is, everything is all ready in God's hands! Our part is to recognize that everything is in God's hands! The air we breath, the sunshine, the moonlight, the baby in the womb, the newly weds, the crime victim, the cancer patient, the burned out sunday school teacher, the atheist, the pastor, the hurting marriage, The widow, the orphan, and everyone in between. In Matthew 10:29-30 Jesus said,"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are numbered." God knows when the sparrow falls. Not even a little bird will die apart from His will! Nothing happens outside of the will of God. And it is in His sovereignty that He is working out His eternal purposes. He sees eternity, He knows what is best. He is using situations and circumstances to draw us to Him and make us more like Him.(Romans 8:28-29) He is teaching us to know His sovereignty. Prayer is a prime example of this. Jeus told us in Matthew 7:7,"Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Our prayer moves the heart of God. He loves it when we pray to Him. He always has His ear bent toward us. I have personally seen God do incredible things for His children when they ask Him. Trust is another very good example of how God is making us to be more like Him. Proverbs 3:5-6 says,"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." God may not change a situation when we pray! He may call upon us to trust Him through it, and acknowledge His sovereignty in it. It is in this trust that He directs our lives and works His purposes. Another way God shows us His sovereignty is through our obedience. God will never call us to do something, and then leave us on our own to accomplish it. Many times God will call us to do things that we feel are completely out of our ability. This can make us very uncomfortable. We need to remember that God did not call us to comfort but to obedience.Acts 5:29 says," But Peter and the other apostles answered and said:"We ought to obey God rather than men." Even when it makes no sense from humanities' point of view, we should obey God. God in all of His sovereignty loves to make the impossible, possible. He loves to do things that only He can do, and He loves to use us to do them. Even though we maybe ill-equipped for the task. Our obedience will testify to how God is truly in control of all things as He takes His ill-equipped servants and uses to accomplish His purposes. I will close with this statement,"God is in total control! Our thoughts on this, and our belief about this is truly irrelevant. We can either acknowledge this fact or we can go through life with the ridicules presumption that our own hand can save us.Psalms 103:19 "The LORD has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all."
WHAT YOU MUST DO TO BE SAVED
ReplyDeleteBest of all, the promise of eternal life is a gift, freely offered to us by God (CCC 1727).
The Catholic Church teaches what the apostles taught and what the Bible teaches: We are saved by grace alone, but not by faith alone (which is what "Bible Christians" teach; see James. 2:24).
When we come to God and are justified (that is, enter a right relationship with God), nothing preceding justification, whether faith or good works, earns grace.
But then God plants his love in our hearts, and we should live out our faith by doing acts of love (Galatians 6:2).
Even though only God’s grace enables us to love others, these acts of love please him, and he promises to reward them with eternal life (Romans 2:6–7, Galatians 6:6–10).
Thus good works are meritorious. When we first come to God in faith, we have nothing in our hands to offer him.
Then he gives us grace to obey his commandments in love, and he rewards us with salvation when we offer these acts of love back to him (Romans 2:6–11, Galatians 6:6–10, Matthew 25:34–40).
15 Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.
16 Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5: 15-16)
Jesus said it is not enough to have faith in him; we also must obey his commandments. "Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do the things I command?" (Luke 6:46, Matthew 7:21–23, 19:16–21).
We do not "earn" our salvation through good works (Ephesians 2:8–9, Romans 9:16), but our faith in Christ puts us in a special grace-filled relationship with God so that our obedience and love, combined with our faith, will be rewarded with eternal life (Romans 2:7, Galatians 6:8–9).
Paul said, "God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work" (Philippians 2:13).
John explained that "the way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:3–4, 3:19–24, 5:3–4).
Since no gift can be forced on the recipient—gifts always can be rejected—even after we become justified, we can throw away the gift of salvation.
We throw it away through grave (mortal) sin (John 15:5–6, Romans 11:22–23, 1 Corinthians 15:1–2; CCC 1854–1863). Paul tells us, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
Read his letters and see how often Paul warned Christians against sin! He would not have felt compelled to do so if their sins could not exclude them from heaven (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, Galatians 5:19–21).
Paul reminded the Christians in Rome that God "will repay everyone according to his works: eternal life for those who seek glory, honour, and immortality through perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness" (Romans 2:6–8).
Sins are nothing but evil works (CCC 1849–1850). We can avoid sins by habitually performing good works.
Every saint has known that the best way to keep free from sins is to embrace regular prayer, the sacraments (the Eucharist first of all), and charitable acts.