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When Will We EVER Learn?
by Susan Gurney As long as I have been typing newsletters and other items on the computer, you would think I would have learned by now. I had been working on a major writing project--the first issue of a six page "family" newsletter. First I was working directly on a floppy disk, and forgot to make a back-up copy on the hard drive. Wouldn't you know it--the floppy disk went bad on me and the computer could no longer "read" it. Three full pages lost! Then I started over--this time saving the project each day on the computer's hard drive--but still not making a back-up copy. All went well until I reached the sixth page during a four hour marathon of typing. The program froze up!!! I had to turn off the computer to clear the problem--losing 2 full pages and 3 hours of work! I had failed to "save" as I had typed! I still had not learned! Many people in this world never seem to learn either. They want to change their ways--to get rid of a bad habit or to start going to church, for instance--but they just never seem to get it right. Each of them keeps on thinking, "Well, if I could just stop lying...or smoking...or swearing...or drinking...or doing drugs...or...or...or..., then maybe God will accept me--maybe I'll be good enough to go to church--maybe I'll be able to get into Heaven--maybe I'll be able to live with myself--maybe God will forgive me--maybe Jesus will save me. See what I mean? They just never seem to "get it"! Read through the Bible verses given at the bottom of this article. Jesus didn't come to earth, die, and rise again to "save" people who were able to change and "be good" all by themselves. He came to save the "sinners", to save the "sick", to save the "lost", to save those who just never seem to "get it right"--in other words, to save you...to save me...to save every single person in the whole world! Over and over again God's Word, the Bible, tells us that no one is perfect or sinless in his or her own right. The only way anyone can expect to go to heaven and be accepted as "sinless" is to say "yes" to Jesus and accept His love and forgiveness. You can say "yes" to Jesus wherever you are in life's circumstances--and He will accept you just as you are! After you ask Jesus to forgive you and live in your heart, He will help you change those things in your life that you could never change in your own strength. What a relief it is to know you don't have to change anything in your life in order for Jesus to accept, love, forgive and save you! And you certainly don't have to change to go to church...just think of church as a support group for "recovering sinners", and for those, like me, who just never seem to learn! What does God's Word, the Bible, say about this? Mark 2:16-17 "When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the 'sinners' and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: 'Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?' On hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'" NIV Romans 7:15b, 24-25 "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do... What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!" NIV Hebrews 10:22a, 24-25a "...let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another..." NIV Now read the following Bible passages in your favorite version of the Bible: Mark 2:15-17 Romans 6:1-14 and 7:14 8:4 Hebrews 10:22-27 Susan Gurney writes devotionals, poetry, short stories, memoirs, and nonfiction on family history, faith and nature. She has experience writing/editing church and family newsletters. Find Susan at http://ssimonsgurney.christianblogsites.com/blog/ Copyright 2013 Susan Simons Gurney Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |