Saved by Grace, Not by Works

A local radio personality, passed away over the weekend. In the midst of all of the facebook posts there was one that really stuck out to me - it said that he must be in heaven, since he founded a foundation to give trips to special and medical needs children & their families.
Granted it is a very nice thing to do, and extremely humbling for so many. It is important to reach out and to help others.
However, just because you do good works, does not mean that you will go to heaven. You can do good things for your whole life, it does not mean that you will get into heaven. 
 Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.


In order to get into heaven you have to have your faith in Jesus Christ.  

Just because someone goes to church, sing songs, and does good deeds does not mean that they are truly a Christian and will get into heaven....

Just as if I go to a golf course, take some swings of a golf club, and maybe even make the golf ball go into a hole, does not mean that I'm a golfer. 

you have to truly believe with your heart that Jesus died to be your savior, confess it with your mouth. Then you'll be saved.

Romans 10:9

9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

God has instructed us to do good things, and be a faithful servant. we are directed to serve others, however just by serving others does not merely get you into heaven, it takes just a little more than that- to believe and declare with your mouth that "Jesus is Lord" and truly and deeply believe in  your heart that God raised him from the dead.

not just say it, but believe it with your whole heart.

It does sadden me to see some people to do so much good and help others and such, but you know that deep down (or not so deep) they are only doing good so that they can be recognized (when they are not to be boastful about the good deeds) or they are doing it because they think that "oh, God would like this, and this will help me be on his side..... and I'll get into heaven, even though I don't completely believe that He died for my sins..."
It is sad to see.
We must recognize it though, and God told us how we can get into heaven - we just have to do it, and believe it. ..........
SO i must ask you,
Do you fully believe? or are you just putting on a mask for others (or even yourself) to think that you are a Christian?

We cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

We cannot fathom what God is doing in our lives. 

God has made EVERYTHING beautiful.

NOt just some things.

You may be going through a tough time in your life, where you feel that things just are not going as you had thought/hoped....

when we go through those times of our lives, we have to recognize that God is still with us. We may not know why he is doing this to us, why he puts us in those situations, but we do need to recognize that within that time, God is doing beautiful things. 

We have to remember that we are not to be so absorbed in these things in the world, because we were made for eternity.

In my NIV Bible - I have some commentary at the bottom.

here is what it says about this verse:

"The chapter summarized: God's beautiful but tantalizing world is too big for us, yet its satisfactions are too small since we were made fore "eternity" (but cf. NIV text note), the things of time cannot fully and permanently satisfy."

The things in this world are temporary satisfactions......

Cars ... money.... houses... eating sweets.... sexual immorality... gossip... jealousy....

the list could go on.

things that may make you feel good for a temporary time.

However when we are with the Father, then we have a satisfaction that will not just last here on earth, but will last for eternity - beyond this life we have on earth.And we cannot even comprehend of what that kind of relationship will be like, being that our relationship with God is so much extraordinary than any kind of relationship that we have on earth.

IN process.........

Going where God leads

Wednesday was the last day at the office that I had been at for 2 years and 7 months.
I took the job figuring that it would be a short term job just to get me by for a little while, while I searched for other jobs, went to school and was still trying to figure out what exactly God had planned for me.
I did not gain a whole lot of skills while there, however I know that God had me there for a reason. My job was pretty simple. I ran errands, I scanned, shredded, and later  on helped out in the accounting department with a few little tasks. It was definitely different than my past experience and not using hardly any skills that I had learned. My first job that I had, I was trained greatly with doing administrative assistant type work and wore many hats in a small company. I was 19 at the time, and I was learning a lot. eventually I was laid off, and found myself folding clothes in the Juniors department at Dillard's Department store. eventually i found a job doing some data entry work for a large company, which eventually I bounced around from department to department, as a receptionist, performed surveys for customer service, I assisted the sales team, I was a marketing assistant, I went back to inventory and helped out with the inventory team ( I was "laid off" but they gave me the option to either join the inventory team or to take my severance and go..... I took the job.) after I was in the inventory I was asked to be the Legal department administrator, where I learned a lot, in a few short months, and then I was laid off again, this time for good. a few short weeks later I had two interviews, one to a local University, the other was to an office. I didn't get the job at the university, but i was offered the runner position at the office. I felt a calling in my heart a few months after I began working there to get into ministry. I began to realize that there are so many people in the world that really are so incredibly involved in the world and worldly was. And they do not believe in God, or maybe they do 'believe in God' but they do not follow through with demonstrating how Christians are intended to live. It began to bother me to great lengths. It was placed on my heart, around a year ago to write a book.
A book directed towards young adults that are involved in this world to such great extent. A generation who's faith has become stagnant, or non-existent.
I am extremely excited about the endeavors that are ahead of me.
I do know that God has been leading me in a fantastic direction, and I cannot wait to see where this goes.
I want to help people to know Christ, or have a better relationship, or something, instead of thinking that there are other things in life that are more important.
I cannot wait to see where God leads me.