spiritualsnippets.com

Seeing life's events in the light of God's Word.

Jul 16

Sunshine and Rain

by Brenda Poulos

Matthew 5:45b- “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

This week, I had an “ah-ha” moment—a  sudden understanding of something I thought I knew about, but actually didn’t have a complete understanding. 

The subject was Grace.

My experience has been that Grace means “God giving us something that we don’t deserve.” Hence, forgiveness of sins and life everlasting with Him. This grace is given to believers.

But there is another kind of grace at work in the world that God gives to believers and unbelievers alike.

It is called common grace. 

It doesn’t get a person to heaven. But God takes pleasure in His creation and exercises the grace that makes the sun come up and sends rain on the just and unjust alike.

God tells us to pray for and bless our enemies. For me, common grace is His supreme example of this principle at work.

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Mar 19

Me, a Saint??

by Brenda Poulos

Hebrews 10:10– “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

When his neighbor thanked him for helping with his yard work while he was ill, he told Bill “You’re a saint!”

As Bill walked across the street to his own home, he thought about what Ben had called him.

Am I really a saint? Gwen and I have been arguing a lot lately and I’ve been slacking off at work, blaming a huge mistake on my partner instead of admitting it was my own fault.

He settled in a comfortable chair in the den and reached for his Bible. He needed to hear what God said about sainthood. After all, hadn’t the pastor preached on that very subject sometime last year?

He rifled through his notes from previous sermons and finally found the scripture the pastor had used. In the margin of the paper, Bill had scrawled, a saint is a person who is innocent in the eyes of God.

That’s right, a believer is forgiven of his sins. When God looks at him, he sees Jesus—his pure innocent son who died for his sins. He is declared righteous in God’s sight.

Bill confessed his sinful behavior to God, thanking Him for forgiveness through Jesus Christ, his Lord.

He was a saint after all—a sinner, saved by grace!

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Nov 14

The Eternals

by Brenda Poulos

John 3:16- “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

I watched the television previews for a new series this week. Called The Eternals, it is about a fictional group of super-powered beings whose job it is to preserve and safeguard the planet. The basic premise is that they have—and will—live forever. (At least that is what I conclude from the trailer.)

Humans have always been fascinated with the prospect of living forever. We’ve all heard about billionaires that die and have their bodies preserved for awakening at a predetermined time in the future.

Death, however, is seldom longed for—except, perhaps by those who are in intense physical pain, those emotionally disturbed, or the elderly.

But did you know that you can have the assurance of eternal life?

The Bible includes many verses referring to the promise of eternal life, given to believers by Jesus Christ. He is not a fictional character, like The Eternals. He is God’s Son who gave his life–shed his blood–to pay the penalty for our sin.

The gift of Eternal life is available to all who put their faith in him.

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Apr 12

Eternal Life with Christ

by Brenda Poulos

 

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Revelation 1:18- “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

 

Because Jesus took the cumulative sin of all mankind on himself at the crucifixion, he was completely cut off and separated from God the Father. He was punished in hell for the past, present, and future sins of every man.

In order to be restored back into fellowship with His Father, he had to be “reborn.” Revelation 1:5 says Jesus was the “first begotten from the dead.” And, He is now seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

When Jesus ascended, all believers were also brought to eternal life with Christ. That is why we are able to say, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”  Galatians 2:20.

All mankind was identified with Him in death, but only those who believe are identified with Him in His resurrection.

 

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Feb 18

DON’T BLINK!

by Brenda Poulos

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I Corinthians 15:51, 52- “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

We have been watching the Olympics. It is full of triumphs and heartaches.

Often times, the difference between winning a medal and losing it comes down to a hundredth of a second—less time than it takes to blink an eye!

The scripture in I Corinthians describes the Rapture of the Church.

Believers who have died before this event will be raised from their graves and will be forevermore with the Lord.

Their new bodies will be imperishable. They will never again know pain, sickness, or disease.

And it will all happen in the twinkling of an eye!

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Dec 28

Is All That Glitters Really Gold?

by Brenda Poulos

Revelation 22:13 and 16b: “I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last…I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”

The young woman at the restaurant flashed her engagement ring to the five other young ladies seated at her table.

“It’s so HUGE! Is it real?” one girl asked.

“I didn’t know Dave had that much money,” another chimed in.

“I’d get it appraised, and then insured. In that order,” offered yet another guest.

In a world full of fake jewels, furs, purses—even flowers—conversations like this are not uncommon. The quest for what is real is an ongoing one. No one wants to be outwitted or fall for a counterfeit, a reproduction, a copy.

We all want the “real deal”, don’t we? We have an aversion to being duped.

So it is with people. We want to know that our friends are really our friends. That they don’t pretend to be our friends to our faces, and then talk about us behind our backs. We want to be able to depend on the fact that they are who they say they are.

The Bible tells us that we can be sure that Jesus is who He claims to be. That He cannot—and does not—ever lie. His Word assures us of who He is and that we can truly depend on Him to do what He says He will do. He keeps His promises. He never fails. He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

One day, believers will meet Him in Heaven. We will see Him “face-to-face.”

We are not waiting to see a phony. We are looking forward to seeing our God, our Savior, our Lord. The true and Living Word…in all His Glory…our Bright and Morning Star!

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