Good Works Can't Save

If we were meant to earn salvation by our good works, the Lord would have told us what they should be, how many, and for how long.  We find no such formula in scripture.  When we try to earn God's favor, outside of Christ, our good works are like filthy rags to Him.  Our good works become trying to please God on our terms.  Attempting to earn forgiveness of sins through our righteousness, is showing hostility towards God because we are shunning God's provision for the forgiveness of our sins.  We are attempting to earn God's favor, our way.  When we turn from our sin and call on Him to clothe us in the righteousness of His Son, accepting His sacrifice for sin on our behalf, His death on the cross as payment for our sin, and that alone, our good works then become beautiful and pleasing to Him.

Let the Lord give you His righteousness, and then love Him with all your heart with your good works and kind deeds...this is well-pleasing in His sight and brings Him honor.

Little Buddies

These are the latest pictures of Daniel and Charlie, taken today.  Daniel is eighteen months old and Charlie is four months old.  I think they are going to be the best of buddies, don't you?  Daniel is very sweet with Charlie, only it comes out more like "Cha-chi", when Daniel says his name.   

Charlie left with his mom this morning for Viet Nam.  Mai is taking him to meet his other grandparents.  As I write this, they are somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.  Charlie will have his own little basinet to sleep in, thanks to Asiana Airlines!  They should arrive in Ho Chi Minh City at around 8 am Monday morning, West Coast time.  

Please pray for Mai and for her parents.  She wants her parents, who are Buddhists, to come to know the Lord as she has.  Pray she will be a light and that her parents will be drawn to the Lord by her changed and tender heart.  

Mai has a wonderful testimony of how the Lord drew her to Himself.  When she was in jr. high school, a friend found a back pack with a picture Bible in it.  She read it from cover to cover, over and over again, drawn to its stories.  In high school, the Lord blessed her with a believing friend, even though she still didn't know Him yet.  In their science class, when they were in the unit on evolution, her friend whispered in her ear, "Don't believe it, it is a lie."  She met my son then three summers ago when they were both up working in Alaska.  Ben brought her to meet us before she returned to Viet Nam at the end of the summer.  I gave her a Bible.  I encouraged her to read the book of John.  We began to email and she would ask me all kinds of questions.  Well, the Lord opened her eyes during that time and she turned from her sin and gave her life to Christ.  That day rated among the top five most wonderful days in my life!  I have come to love Mai greatly.  She is a precious daughter-in-law, a good wife to Ben, and a sweet mother to Charlie.

Thank you Lord for blessing my life with her...please bless her with the joy of seeing her entire family come to know You too.

Pain

Before the fall, Adam and Eve didn't experience pain but when they walked away from God's counsel they stepped into both emotional and physical pain and suffering.  The principle still remains, when we choose to sin and not heed the counsel of God, we end up suffering, often bringing others into it.  I don't know anyone who likes pain but the reality of life is that it is all around us and every human being on earth has experienced it, whether it be because of a sinful choice we have made, someone else has made, or simply because we live in a fallen world.


Jesus has endured the most pain of any human being.  The difference between us and Jesus however is that He experienced emotional and physical pain not because of any wrong doing on His part, but because of ours.  He experienced physical pain from the beatings and lashings and piercings when He went to the cross to shed His blood for our sin.  And because He became sin for us, He experienced the severest emotional pain anyone could endure - His Father turned His back on Him.


Do you have someone you love being with?  Do you have someone you know who loves being with you?  Jesus loved being with the Father and the Father loved being with the Son.  But the Father chose to forsake His Son.  He no longer could look at Him because His perfect Son became sin.


Imagine the one you love so much and you know who loves you so much no longer desiring to be with you.  How crushing would that be?  Jesus never stopped loving the Father, but for a moment, the Father stopped loving the Son and poured out His wrath on Him instead.


Why was Jesus willing to suffer in such an emotional and physical way?


Because of His great love for us...


I hope that leaves you stunned and then gives your heart flight.


All pain and suffering is going to come to an end because sin is going to be done away with.  In the meantime, there will be suffering and we will face trials.  There will be pain.


Here's a question we need to ask ourselves...what does pain, or trials produce in our lives?  Does it produce sin in our lives or does it produce a stronger faith and endurance?  If in trial after trial we begin to turn away from God, we need to question the genuineness of our faith.  But if in trial after trial our faith is strengthened, we can have assurance that we belong to the Lord because He has said that nothing will ever separate us from His love.  When He begins a good work in us, He brings it to completion.  I have seen affliction upon affliction in a person's life cause them to eventually walk away from the Lord and I have seen affliction upon affliction bring a joy and a trust and a sweetness of character into another's life.  Trials prove the quality of our faith.  Trials also put God's work of salvation on display.


When we don't remain steadfast under trial and pain, when we sin because of pain, physical or emotional, we have taken our eyes off the One who loved us so greatly.  The purpose of His suffering should give us strength and endurance in the trial.


May we never question the goodness of God even in the deepest pain.  May we always place the blame on suffering where it belongs, because of sin.  May we ever keep our eyes on Him and may we remember that the suffering we experience here cannot be compared to the glory that awaits us.   

What the West Would Look Like with Shetland Ponies...

This post is strictly because laughter is good medicine and, I love a good western!

Without truth...

...there can be no growth...

Ephesians 4:15 - "but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,"


I am thankful for the biblical teachers and those who speak truth into my life, aren't you?  Sometimes it hurts, but I'm glad for those that don't place how I may feel or react over knowing that truth produces growth, and then God is glorified.  We have got to be placing ourselves in the path of truth for the growth to occur.  It should be with a body of believers on a regular basis and during our own personal time.  Just like a plant can't grow without the sun, we will not grow unless we are exposed to the truth of God's Word.  May we be in its warmth, every day. 


(Hmm...I just tried to post a link to this from Facebook.  Said the content was abusive so it wouldn't allow it.  What do you think?!)

Welcome to the World...

Ethan Kai San (Victorious) Cheng!

Born 1/11/11, on his mama's 26th birthday, he arrived at 8 pm exactly, weighing in at 7 lbs. 12 oz.  Stretched from head to toe he is 20 1/4 inches.

Ethan is my great-nephew, my twin sister's first grandchild, and Daisy, Daniel, and Charlie's second cousin!  (Oh, I can only imagine the mischief those three boys will get into at family reunions...)

I love your middle name, Ethan.  My prayer for you, is that you will grow up to be a man after God's own heart.  In Christ, we are victorious!

Congratulations, Garry and Eva-Karin,

...and so happy for you, Karin - there is a joy all its own in being a gramma!

Winter Snow Song

This is a really beautiful song that I came across for the first time today...



The Lord did come quietly at His first coming...

It won't be so, when He returns...