Salvation and How?

"Is there a way to live happily ever-after - here and now, and life after death, too?"
Christ Jesus died for MY sins, taking away the "death-sentence" written all over me.
"I Believe, Lord Jesus"; You have borne my punishment.

My SINS are FORGIVEN (washed away / not remembered anymore by God)! I am given a new lease of life with a right-standing (righteousness) before God.
Yes, I am born-again (A NEW CREATION).

"By GRACE, we have been saved through FAITH, and that NOT of YOURSELVES, lest any man should boast; it is the GIFT OF GOD" - Eph. 2:8
"For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only BEGOTTEN SON (JESUS), that whosover BELIEVES in HIM shall not perish, but have EVERLASTING LIFE" - John 3:16.

"You never give up on me" - Josh Bates

A fb friend's status message led me to listen to this song by Josh Bates from the movie "Facing the Giants". Comforting thoughts that God is not going to give up me or you anytime now... Thanks to the inspiring post by Ebenezer Davidraj, here are the words from the song...

Stanza1:
Time after time You’ve been left behind
Like the sun when it’s starting to rain
Time after time You’ve been forgotten
Like a picture that’s faded with age;
Time after time You ran after me
When I was still running away

Chorus:
You never give up on me
No, You never give up on me
Though I’m weak You are strong
You told me I still belong
No, you never, never give up on me

Stanza2:

Time after time I’ve used your grace
As a way to do what I please
I’ve taken for granted prayers that you answered
Never been all I could be
You are holding out your hands
And now I clearly see...

[Chorus]

Bridge:

You always erase all my mistakes
You lift me up when I'm down
Through all the ages, Your love never changes
You welcome me just as I am

Prayer Today

Dear Father,

Thank You for Your everlasting love that stretched down and picked us from our own sin and shame. By Your merciful gift of faith, we came to know our Lord Jesus; and through His blood obtained forgiveness. You are the Comforter to the fatherless; and Healer to the wounded hearts. Redeeming grace is the reason for the song on our lips and the spring in our steps. In our soul too, Lord, we need Your healing touch; that we may freely forgive those who wronged us- for this pleases You, our Father.

We love You and we know that You redeem all things- even the painful things, the shameful things, the sinful things of our past living - to use them all to work together for our good, not wasting a moment of our sufferings and struggles. You work forgiveness and restoration in our own hearts, and in the hearts of those we may have hurt unknowingly. Lord, forgive us; heal us from the wounds and afflictions because of words and attitudes of those against us; heal us from all the circumstances and sufferings we've endured by the wrong choices of others and our wrong choices as well. Use it all to allow us to become all You've created us to be.

Lord, remind us today of our calling and purpose and destiny. Give us a humble and a forgiving heart - hearts of flesh that would respond to Your voice. Create is us a clean heart and give us the spiritual sensitivity to know when it's time to arise into the moments of our destiny for the sake of our own fulfillment, but more so for the fulfillment of Your purposes in our own lives and the lives of those around us. You have called us; You have chosen us. Now we hold on in faith to Your hand that holds us. Let Your words of truth determine our identity and let Your purposes for our lives determine our destiny. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

(The above prayer is a slightly modified version of the one I found on Tommy Hays' blog of 'Morning by Morning, prayer journey with Tommy Hays' for June 6, 2011. The portion of Scripture is Judges 11:1-7 about the story of Jephtah. You can find more prayers in that blog or visit http://www.messiah-ministries.org/)

The Easter of 1946

I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.

By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.

When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could.

For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1. We made $20 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives. Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them.

We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before. That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.

We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet. But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20. As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes!

Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.

Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn't talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn't have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night.

We had two knifes that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor. That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed--I didn't even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!

I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed.

All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn't know. We'd never known we were poor. We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn't talk on the way.

Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.

Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church."

Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100."

We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so? From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

True Story by Eddie Ogan

The Toys- By Coventry Patmore

My little Son, who look'd from thoughtful eyes
And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise,
Having my law the seventh time disobey'd,
I struck him, and dismiss'd
With hard words and unkiss'd,
—His Mother, who was patient, being dead.
Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep,
I visited his bed,
But found him slumbering deep,
With darken'd eyelids, and their lashes yet
From his late sobbing wet.
And I, with moan,
Kissing away his tears, left others of my own;
For, on a table drawn beside his head,
He had put, within his reach,
A box of counters and a red-vein'd stone,
A piece of glass abraded by the beach,
And six or seven shells, 

A bottle with bluebells, And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art, To comfort his sad heart. So when that night I pray'd To God, I wept, and said: Ah, when at last we lie with trancèd breath, Not vexing Thee in death, And Thou rememberest of what toys We made our joys, How weakly understood Thy great commanded good, Then, fatherly not less Than I whom Thou hast moulded from the clay, Thou'lt leave Thy wrath, and say, 'I will be sorry for their childishness.' Coventry Patmore