What must I do to be saved?

Flint, Michigan. Dupont, West Virginia. Marlin County, Kentucky. East Orosi, California. Hoosick Falls, New York. These are just a few of the infamous places. In fact, the more you search, the more places you find. The story is always similar. Harmful chemicals and elements seep into the water supply, making people sick, producing fatal conditions, and even outright killing those who drink it. Large lawsuits and even criminal charges are leveled against the offenders. Water is a basic building block of life. We want it to be as pure as possible. Whether ineptitude, laziness, or even willful neglect is the reason why, we find it inexcusable.

Webster’s Dictionary defines eisegesis as the interpretation of a text by reading into it one’s own ideas. Whereas exegesis is an effort to objectively approach a text, eisegesis is subjective. Nowhere is this more dangerous than when approaching the text of Scripture. We can bring so many deadly contaminants to the process, like presuppositions, prejudices, the religious views of others, and existing preferences and desires. In fact, this most often happens when we make up our mind before we even come to the Bible. The Bible actually describes the harmful effect of this approach as to “twist” (ESV, NKJ, NLT) or “distort” (NAS, NIV) the Scriptures (2 Pet. 3:16). God accused the wicked of perverting His words (Jer. 23:36). In the strongest terms, He disapproves of those who contaminate the purity of His Word with their own thoughts and ways (Isa. 55:7-9).

John especially highlights Jesus’ offer of “living water” (John 4:10,14; 7:37; Rev. 7:17; 21:6; 22:1,17). While His metaphor concerns eternal life rather than Scripture, we ask an all-important question. How do we get access to this living water? We have to come to Scripture to find the answer. Our buckets must be empty. Our ladles must be clean. Biases are harmful contaminants!

On a mission trip to Tanzania in 2005, Kathy and another campaigner came in contact with water contaminated with the bacteria that causes typhoid fever. I have never seen her sicker. Her temperature repeatedly spiked to 104 degrees. She was weak, lethargic, had severe headaches, and even suffered hallucinations. Thankfully, she recovered. One in five die from it and survivors sometimes suffer complications. The best guess is that a food they ate was rinsed in contaminated water.

When it comes to God’s truth, we cannot allow it to be tainted with the aforementioned contaminants. This means we must go to Scripture, read it in its context, and mine out of it the intended meaning. We cannot afford to let anything seep into the process that prevents a proper understanding and interpretation of the Bible. Eternal life is at stake!

Neal Pollard

Dr. Craig Keener wrote a massive 4,000 page commentary on the book of Acts. Four volumes of 1,000 pages each. I recently finished reading the first volume. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I read, relative to his comments on Acts 2:21: “Peter concludes by exhorting them to call on the Lord’s name by baptism in Jesus’s name (2:38)” (pg 921).

Doesn’t that sound like Dr. Keener believes the gospel? But, alas, you got your hopes up too quickly. You see, we have another example of deception through nuance.

When he gets to Acts 2:38, you will see if he actually lets the Holy Spirit teach the truth or if he has to obfuscate the text… Notice on page 975, he writes:

“The “forgiveness of sins” is explicitly associated especially with repentance in Acts (e.g., 3:19; 5:31; 11:18).”

Here is what Keener believes the Scriptures teach:

“Repent for the forgiveness of sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and immediately be baptized.”

He goes on to write: “Scholars debate to what extent the forgiveness of sins is also associated with baptism, and the grammatical debate can become quite involved [Actually, as we have seen, it absolutely is not “involved,” unless you’ve got denominational theology you’re trying to defend that is not grounded in the Scriptures; ph]. Given the various texts surveyed above, it seems that “for forgiveness” is linked more often with repentance (though the grammar alone could not decide this), which is never missing when baptism and forgiveness are both mentioned (Luke 3:3; Acts 2:38) or even when forgiveness is mentioned without baptism.

“…For Luke, however, baptism is not dissociated from repentance but constitutes an act of repentance; under normal circumstances, one does not separate the two (Luke 3:3; Acts 13:24; 19:4). John’s mission was to bring Israel to forgiveness (Luke 1:77); he preaches a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (3:3) when he preaches repentance (3:8). Thus preaching repentance in Jesus’s name (ênti tw ovóuati, 24:47) is concretely expressed by summoning the repentant to baptism in Jesus’s name (êni T@ ovóuati, Acts 2:38), and baptism figuratively [?, ph] “washes away sins” (22:16). As in contemporary Judaism (below), a baptism of repentance was an act of conversion, though early Christians invited Jews as well as Gentiles to submit to it” (all emphasis is mine, ph).

A few pages later, Dr. Keener writes (pg. 976): “Water baptism was meant to symbolize [?] and (ideally) accompany the gift of the Spirit, however, not to replace it, as if the act were sufficient without the experience (see 10:47; 19:5-6; esp. 8:12-17). … Baptism appears as the accepted initiatory rite in our earliest Christian sources (e.g., Rom 6:3-4; 1 Cor 1:13-17; 10:2; Gal 3:27) and was used by John the Baptist as a moral purificatory rite before the Christians adopted it (Mark 1:4; Jos. Ant. 18.117, Bantiou®). …What is most striking is not the activity of baptism but its use for initiation specifically into the community of Jesus’s followers, identifying them as a distinguishable sect within Judaism…”

Again, what we see is the nuance that baptism “initiates” one into the church, but it is not connected with the salvation from sins. Dr. Keener has desiccated the gospel.

If you found this erudite scholar to be confusing, so did I. So, you know what I did? I wrote him. He teaches as Asbury Theological Seminar in Lexington, KY and I asked him: “In simple terms, can you tell me what must I do to be saved?”

Here is his response: “Trust/depend on what God did to make you right with him: he had Jesus die for your sins and raised him from the dead to inaugurate new life. When we depend on what God has done in Christ, he welcomes us to his side so we can follow Jesus as our new Lord instead of going our own way.” That’s 60 words. Again, Peter’s response is half that. Jesus’ response in Mark 16:16 is only 9 words.

Does that sound like the gospel? Does that sound like the type of response an inspired apostle gave? It is, my friends, deception through nuance. In these men’s view, whom we have critiqued, aptism is an “initiation rite” into the church, but it’s not a condition to being forgiven by the blood of Christ.

CONCLUSIONS TO A SEVEN-PART DEVOTIONAL:

1.) Satan’s MO is deceit. We need to be very discerning when we listen to or read what other people say about the gospel of Christ. Satan is adept at using biblical terms but stripping them of biblical definitions.

2.) The biblical teaching on the purpose of baptism is extremely clear.

3.) Satan is deceiving thousands of people through “smooth and flattering speech” of so-called Bible scholars all across the country. When these preachers put pen to paper or open their mouths – specifically but not only on the subject of baptism – Satan is speaking through their lips.

Let us be careful that we do not allow our love and respect for other people cause us to weaken our understanding or our dedication to the gospel of Christ as He has given it to us.

Paul Holland

When something is too expensive, we sometimes say that it cost “an arm and a leg”.  If you were incarcerated, would you be willing to pay a kidney and bone marrow to reduce the amount of time you’re required to serve?

A bill has been submitted in the Massachusetts Statehouse that would make establish a Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program within the state Department of Correction.  Under this bill, an inmate could shave off between 60 days and one year from their sentence for undergoing surgery to donate.  As you might expect, the bill has met strong opposition and has little chance of passing.

More than 4,600 people in Massachusetts are awaiting donated organs; nationwide there are almost 106,000 on waiting lists.  Critics of the proposed bill, however, point to Federal law that prohibits the sale of human organs for transplant.  Also to be considered are the ethics of asking people already desperate to be released to do something as drastic as donating an organ, a risky procedure.

The reason America exists is because of a lack of freedom for the colonists.  In declaring their independence from Britain, the colonists asserted that people are endowed with “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Liberty – would you give an arm and a leg for it?

We don’t usually consider spiritual liberty, but we should.  Once we transgress the laws of God we become prisoners of sin, captives of Satan.  God’s word shows this to be a frightful condition, one from which we need release.  But is release from Satan possible?

Hebrews 2:14,15 gives the answer: “… He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”  That’s news that should make our hearts jump for joy; we can have freedom from Satan!  But at what cost?  It required Christ’s death.

I admire people who selflessly choose to donate a needed organ to a loved one.  It puts them at risk, and a certain period of painful recovery.  But how much more should we admire what Jesus has done for us!  “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).  (Those were Jesus’ own words.)

But He didn’t just do this for friends: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  An arm and a leg?  Jesus gave much more than that.  For friends?  No, even for those who were sinners.

How we long for freedom, especially when we don’t have it!  One has paid the price for our freedom.  Let’s not ignore this amazingly generous gesture.

Come to the light God offers!  Study His word, the Bible.  Worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24).  Get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss these ideas further.

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Copyright, 2023, Timothy D. Hall

Luke, the author of the book of Acts, begins by alluding to the previous book he wrote… the Gospel of Luke. Let’s take brief note of this chapter that prepares the reader for the establishment of the Lord’s church.

THE SCOPE OF LUKE (1:1-2)

Acts is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke which recorded the things “Jesus began to do and teach” (v. 1). In Luke 4, which is the beginning of the Lord’s public ministry, Isaiah is quoted in verses 18-19 showing that Jesus came to heal (perform miracles) and preach the good news. This is what He did and taught. In healing mankind’s diseases (and performing other miracles), Jesus showed Himself to have power over the physical world and confirmed that He was from God and in fact was God (the Word) manifested in the flesh (see Jn. 1:1-3, 14). Jesus came to proclaim the Good News to a lost world. The timeline of Luke’s Gospel account was basically from the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, until the time He ascended to the Father. The book of Acts picks up from that point, as the apostles carry on the mission of Christ, commenced with the birth of the church.

THE WITNESS OF THE APOSTLES (1:3-5). The end of the book of Luke chronicles for us the witness of the apostles to the resurrected Christ. (See 1 Cor. 15:5-8 for the most complete record of witnesses of the resurrected Lord.) This witness was crucial to being an apostle (see Acts 1:21-22). It was during the course of these forty days, between the resurrection and the ascension, that Jesus appeared to the twelve, and continued teaching them about the kingdom.

THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER (1:4-8)

Before His ascension, Jesus instructed the apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, which is clearly related to the coming baptism of the Holy Spirit that the apostles would receive (see again vv. 4-5). Before discussing this further, note that when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, they shall be witnesses for Him beginning in Jerusalem (v. 8). Jesus had previously foretold the apostles of this event, assuring them of the guidance of the Holy Spirit that would come upon them and enable them to perfectly reveal the teachings of Christ (see Jn. 14:26-27; 16:13). Additionally, and significantly, we can discern with confidence that this coming of the Spirit would signify the beginning of the kingdom, or the church.

We can reason as follows: Jesus said in Mark 9:1, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” We learn two things in particular here: (1) The kingdom will come soon (or, in that generation) and (2) the kingdom will come with power. In Luke 24:49 Luke also says that the “promise of my Father” will come “with power from on high.” So the promise of the Father is going to come with power and will signify the beginning of the kingdom. Remember that some of the final instructions Jesus gave to the twelve involved going to Jerusalem to wait for the “promise of the Father” (1:4). In Acts 2 we see the apostles together on that first Pentecost day after the resurrection and then the Scripture says in verses 2-4: “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Clearly, the apostles were baptized in the Spirit and received miraculous powers enabling them to speak in tongues. The sermon that Peter preached as the Spirit moved him also makes the connection between the events that are witnessed here, connecting them to OT prophesy about the “last days” (2:17), the final era (or the Christian Dispensation). Later in the sermon Peter refers to the reception of the Holy Spirit which has been seen and heard (v. 33). With this reception of Holy Spirit, the apostles of Jesus are ready to fulfill the commission of Acts 1:8 (see also Mt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:15-16; Lk. 24:46-47). In fact, Acts 1:8 can be thought of as a basic outline of the book of Acts, as it traces especially some of the noticeable work and teaching of Peter and Paul.

As we conclude, we should observe an extremely important application. Back in Acts 1:1, Luke noted that his previous book was about what Jesus began to do and teach. The work of our Lord did not end when He ascended to heaven. Jesus continued to work through the apostles (see Mt. 28:20) and early church. Today, as we work the works of God, and teach the Gospel of Christ, Jesus continues to work through us!

Daren Schroeder

    The title of this article caught my eye… It was on National Review Online on January 20 of this year. “‘Conversion-Therapy’ Bans Threaten to Criminalize Dissent on Gender Identity, Sexuality, Therapists Warn.” What the article is about is Lee Webster, a state-certified therapist in private-practice in Wisconsin who oversees the “Center for Human Development.” The center has a cross in its logo. It’s mission statement on their website says that they are a “faith-based” organization. But on December 1st of last year, Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Public Standards started a new rule that would make it illegal for therapists to engage in what is called “conversation therapy.” Conversion therapy is the effort to get people who have homosexual tendencies to not practice homosexual behavior. 

    If we can understand what is happening in our country we have a good idea of what was happening in the first century with Christians being persecuted by the Roman Empire. Now, we are not being persecuted physically – at least not yet – and they were. So John wrote Revelation to encourage and inspire those Christians in the first century and his message is relevant for us today.

    Let’s look at the letter to the church of Christ in Philadelphia, which will represent for us all the letters to all the churches.

THE IDENTITY OF JESUS – 3:7:

    In all the letters, Jesus identifies Himself, mostly with phrases or images that come from that first description of Him from chapter 1.

    Notice how Jesus identifies Himself:

    1. “Holy” – Jesus is set apart from sin. And He calls on His followers to stay away from sin because the only way we can get to heaven is to “Pursue holiness, without which no one will see God” (Heb. 12:14). Out of the 25 times the word “holy” is used in Revelation, it is translated “saint” 13 times! Christians are saints and in 22:11, as John finishes his revelation, he reminds the Christians, “the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.”

    2. “True” – Jesus is “true.” That means He is Reality. He is the one who knows what is real and true. There is nothing false in Jesus Christ. There is no deception in Jesus Christ. The words of Jesus are “faithful and true” (21:5). That’s why Christians have to stay dedicated to teaching that message. 

    3.  “Has the key of David” – (Isaiah 22:15-23)  – Nobody will be saved except with the permission of Jesus Christ.

    4. “Opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one opens.” Only Jesus has the power to allow people into God’s presence. 

JESUS’ PRAISE OF THE CHURCH – 3:8-9:

    Jesus first praises the church by saying He knows their deeds. The church in Philadelphia apparently was still evangelizing as they should. They had not gone silent in the face of opposition.

    These people – the “synagogue of Satan” – were Jews by race and by religion, but they had probably sided with the Roman Empire and their pagan ways against Christians and so John calls them the “synagogue of Satan.”

    But God will not be mocked. God says that He will make the Jews come to the Christians and “bow down” at their feet – not in worship, but in recognition of the fact that the Christians are the ones with the true faith, the true religion, the true Savior.

JESUS’ PROMISE – 3:10-12:

    Notice that Jesus’ promise is based on the fact that the church of Christ in Philadelphia had not compromised!

    That “hour of testing” is pictured in chapter 6 through the so-called “horses of the apocalypse:” War, which leads to famine and economic hardship which leads to death.

    That is the hour of testing and it is under Jesus’ control. He says, “I am coming quickly” (ver. 11). This “coming” is not referring to His second coming. This is referring to Jesus coming in judgment, against the Empire and perhaps against unfaithful Christians as we saw with the church in Ephesus. 

    Jesus says, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God” (see 1 Kings 7:15-22). Pillars are for support and stability. For Jesus to promise victorious Christians that they will be “pillars” is to say:

    1. They are members of Christ’s spiritual temple.

    2. They will be established firm in His presence.

    3. They will be kept by His strength.

    4. They will live in God’s and Christ’s presence forever: “they will not go out from it forever.”

    Next, Jesus says:

    1. I will write on him the name of My God – in contrast to the number “666”.

    2. I will write on him the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. We have yet another indication – or emoji – of Christians being identified as God’s people and being blessed in God’s presence forever. 

    3. I will write on him “My new name.” It’s like going from being “engaged” to your fiancé to being married. Marriage is the fulfillment of that engagement. 

    All three of these also have an “emoji” in mind from the OT. The high priest had a band of gold on his turban on which was inscribed “Holy to the Lord” (Exo. 39:30-31). All Christians are priests and all Christians will be priests serving in the temple of God in heaven. 

    What a group of wonderful promises that are waiting for Christians who are victorious!

    Rich reality #2 – Christians who do not compromise the word, but overcome will serve God in the temple of heaven!

Paul Holland

Please follow the special studies on First Corinthians at Lord Let Me Grow.

Today we finish a brief study of Exodus 14 related to Israel crossing the Red Sea.

Two of the key verses in this chapter are verses 13-14. The text says, “And Moses said to the people, ‘Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.’”

Now, the Lord fighting for us is bigger than we often think. Here is what I mean… Sometimes we think: “Oh, I’m very ill, the Lord will fight for me.” Or, “I’m going through this particular struggle, but I know that God is with me.” I’m not denying that, but the Lord’s fighting for us (and for His church) has particular relevance (especially) to Him fighting in accord with His eternal plan to save us and to save the lost of this world! That’s what we are seeing here in Exodus. And the Israelites are worried about this fickle hard-hearted man. We worry about so much less!

Here is an eternal truth that we need to make certain we have our sights set on. God is fighting, as we see in Scripture, not so much on an individual, physical, temporal basis, as He is for the eternal souls of mankind. One of the problems that Israel suffered from, and caused their grumblings, is that they had the same tendency we have. The tendency to make it all about them and their outward circumstances. It is a very short-sighted, shallow, physical, and temporal perspective.

Now, in contrast with that, let’s consider the plea of Moses in verse 13 again: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.” Now this has special relevance to the particular event that was going to occur, but yet there is tremendous application in these wise words.

“Fear not.” Fear not who? Fear not Pharaoh who is seeking to not only stop Israel from fleeing from Egypt, but really, to hinder God’s plan, His scheme to redeem mankind. His plan cannot be stopped. Our Lord established a kingdom that will never be destroyed (see Dan. 2:44). We just keep ourselves faithful to our King. God can take it from there!

Instead of fearing forces that oppose God’s plan, we “stand firm” with our God, trusting anything and everything He has said. We trust His plan. We trust His promises. Often times the fear of man stands in stark contrast to faith in God. It’s not that all fear is a spiritual problem, but when fear causes us to not trust God, seen in giving up, and and in compromising the Word of God, then there is a real problem. Fear and anxiety in the church can cause us to actually oppose God and oppose His revealed will. Our Lord instructed us in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Do you know what this simply means? Listen to God, trust and obey what He has said, and it will be ok!

We know from the OT and the NT that God’s plans succeed. His plan always leads to victory. Often it is not according to our time-frame. Just ask Abraham and Sarah. And would you have waited 4000 years or so to bring the Savior into the world if it was up to you? His ways aren’t our ways (Is. 55:8-9). That’s why it is so essential to trust Him. Trust His will. He has this. And remember that the “this” we are referring to is beyond our daily desires and difficulties. I’m not saying at all that God does not care about them, but we do need to see a bigger picture or we end up having a very shallow, fearful, and even suffering faith.

If we learn anything here, and even to this point in the Scripture, it is that we have every reason to trust the Lord and no reason to fear and give up on God’s revealed plan. It is so easy to be faithless; and so frustrating as well!

Instead of fearing, instead of bickering, instead of changing God’s plan… how about we listen carefully to the plea of Moses: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD” (Ex. 14:13).

Abraham (in Gen. 22) could have risen up in opposition to God’s absurd sounding plan, but he didn’t. He decided rather to trust in God. Abraham knew with all of his heart that if he stuck to God’s way and God’s plan it would work out! I would like to warn though… that doesn’t mean that our will will always happen. God wants something better!

This great chapter ends and is summed up in verses 30-31 with the text stating: “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

God truly is our deliverer, but for us to see that properly we need to make sure we see the big picture, and not just focus on our desires and our difficulties. It is easy to turn faith into something very self-centered and temporal. God wants something more for you and for all who are willing to come turn to Him. Trust and follow Him!

Daren Schroeder

Have you stopped to realize just how blessed we are? In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we are reminded of the many blessings that we have in Christ Jesus and, specifically, in His church.  This letter encourages Christians to live with gratitude because of the many spiritual blessings that we have been given in Him. In this opening passage of Ephesians, Paul elaborates on three different ways we are blessed because of Him.

First, we are blessed because we are chosen. Even as a child, we appreciate being chosen. In recess, how early you got picked for a team was almost like a sign of social status. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Do you remember making shoebox mailboxes and handing out cards to all of your classmates? Do you remember how special you felt based on which character was on the card? For example, you knew you were special to someone if you opened a Looney Tunes card and Bugs Bunny was on it.  This meant your friend chose their best for you.

Isn’t it special to know the God of the universe chose us to be in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4)? He predestined us for adoption that we may be called his children through Jesus Christ (v. 5). This was God’s plan from the beginning. It is our holy calling (2. Tim. 1:9). We are chosen to be holy and blameless. Yet, we cannot be holy and blameless apart from God. So, how can we be considered holy and blameless? Through faith in Jesus! 1 Peter 1:20-21 tells us that He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, that He would be raised from the dead, given glory by the Father so that our faith and hope would be in Him. Our sin did not catch God off guard. He had a redemption plan for us from the beginning.

    So secondly, we are blessed with redemption. God’s will for us is to be redeemed, as shown through this passage. We are blessed in the Beloved (that is, Christ). We are redeemed by His blood. We are blessed with His rich grace. Paul says his riches of grace are “lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.” This isn’t some chump change of grace. It’s a full feast of riches. And this feast is given to all. Paul will elaborate more on this throughout this letter, but for now, let’s focus on the gift of reconciliation we have in Christ. His plan was to unite ALL things to Him (v.10). This was a foreign concept to Jewish Christians in particular, who still viewed themselves as God’s chosen people. But God, through Jesus, offers grace overflowing; a grace that flows down to all who believe, both Jew and Gentile. And through the blood of Jesus, God makes known the mystery of His will (v. 9-10), that we are to be united to Him and each other. We have the blessing on the other side of the cross of seeing God’s redemptive plan come to fruition. God is building us into a spiritual house, a dwelling place for Him (1 Pet. 2:25).

Finally, we are blessed with the seal of the Holy Spirit. As his redeemed, adopted children, He has blessed us with the Holy Spirit. Paul says in verse 13 that we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. That seal is a seal of approval. It is a mark of who we are and whose we are. We belong to God. He is the guarantee (or “down payment”) of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it (v.14). We haven’t fully received our inheritance yet, but the indwelling Holy Spirit marks us as His people, destined for that inheritance.

When a child is adopted, a judge stamps a document, proving who they are and who they belong to. The child is given a new name, and they become part of the family. When we put on Christ, we are stamped by the Holy Spirit and given a brand new name: Christian. This is a gift of grace, coming from the Father who lavishes his riches of grace on us. In return, let’s honor Him by living lives that are changed by grace, lives worthy of the stamp of approval we have been given through the Holy Spirit.

As Christians, we truly are a blessed people. Blessed to be chosen. Blessed to be redeemed. Blessed to be sealed by the Holy Spirit. Blessed to be adopted children of God in Christ Jesus. Praise be to His glorious name!

Jared McLeod