The Talk Place

I listened to a sermon last week from a powerful preacher in the USA. He likened the state of the church in the Western World to the church of Laodicea as described by Jesus in Revelation. I don't think he'd get too many arguments from Christians today.

He brought home some powerful truths about how we should always put God first, and warned about how easy it is in our materialistic society to become complacent about God and His Great Commission. Sadly though, the Pastor added how few people, even in his congregation, would actually be saved. He went on to describe that as we are "rich people" in comparison to the rest of the world, that we fit into the category of "it's easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven".The implication was that we are to be "perfect", and totally sinless if we are serious about our calling. He implied that as we are rich, we have no hope of getting into heaven. How utterly condemning!

I think he missed one very important point; GRACE. It is by God's grace that we are saved. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It is God who calls us. The Bible tells us that God will finish in us the work He started. I cannot be perfect; I cannot even strive for it; but I can trust that what God has started in me will be finished by Him. I am so overjoyed that His grace IS sufficent for me. Whilst I can never be perfect, I am a work in progress and I will continually submit to what He is doing in me. 

As I plod along in obedience to Him and allow Him to use me in His work, I am being transformed. As I offer back to Him the gifts He has given me and use them for the work of GRN, I am getting step by step closer. I thank Him for the material blessings He has provided me with and continually sow back into His work. It is not until I stand before Him on that great day that the work will be finished. Until then.... I plod along thanking Him for GRACE!