Topic: Hold The Fort! [Thursday 1 October, 2015]
Memorise: Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. - Philippians 2:16
Read: Philippians 2:12-16 (KJV)
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
Bible in one Year: Leviticus 23:9-25:7, 1 Corinthians 14:6-25
MESSAGE:
Without controversy, the salvation that Jesus Christ has brought to mankind is free and for anyone who will receive Him. The way to receive this salvation is revealed to us in Romans 10:9:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Have you confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord? Do you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead? Have you asked that your sins might be washed away by His blood? If you have done these, congratulations, you have received the free gift of salvation. However, you need to know that the salvation you have received his the beginning of a process that will culminate in your living eternally with God in Heaven, with a transformed body which death and sin have no power over (1 Corinthians 15:50-56). This is the same type of body our Lord Jesus Christ resurrected with and has right now in glory (1 John 3:2). It is at the event where this transformation will take place, referred to as the rapture, that the ultimate experience of the salvation in Christ Jesus will be revealed and received by you. Apostle Paul speaks of this in Hebrews 9:28, while Apostle Peter further expounds on it in 1 Peter 1:5:
“Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
While awaiting the revelation of the ultimate experience of salvation, the devil, the world and the flesh will work to derail the salvation experience you have received by trying to lead you back to sins you have been saved from. That is why Jesus in Matthew 24:13 says:
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
You therefore need to endure and not give in to them. You need to continue living in the reality of the salvation from sin which you have received by enforcing your victory over sin. If you return to your former sins, you will not partake of the ultimate salvation experience which shall be revealed and received at the appearing of Christ. Enforcing your victory over sin everyday involves a lot of work. It involves the use of God’s word against temptations, the renewing of your mind, praying for grace and fasting to keep the cravings of your body under check. Apostle Paul refers to this work in Philippians 2:12. The Lord will sustain you as you work at it to the end in Jesus’ Name.
Prayer Point: Father, grant me grace to keep at the work required to sustain my salvation in Jesus’ Name.
Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.
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