Acts 4:12–No One Else

Acts 4:12–"And there is no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

This verse says it all, everything that needs to be said at least.  To be sure, sermons upon sermons could be written about this passage but today it seems more appropriate to let the verse speak to itself.  In other words, I simply ask that you would read the passage again and consider the reality of what it says: Do I believe this?  Is it foundational for my life?

I urge you to spend some time considering the content of this verse today.  Think about what it means for you as a person.

John 11:25-26–Do You Believe This?

John 11:25-26–"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he will die, yet shall he live, and everyone who live and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?'"

To be quite honest, while anyone who has read my writing knows that I am more than willing to preach on about Scripture at a moment's notice, however, this passage in many ways speaks for itself.  As a result, I will only repeat the last phrase and ask that you would consider it prayerfully:

Do You Believe This?

God Helps those who Cannot Help Themselves

There is a common aphorism that's thrown around Christian circles with such frequency that many people have come to think that it is actually a biblical quote.  How many of us have heard this used in a devotional context: "God helps those who help themselves."  And, although there is a grain of truth to the statement, it is neither sacrosanct nor scriptural in nature.

For starters, this quote was not written by an apostle, a prophet, a pastor, or even a Christian.  It was written by Benjamin Franklin, an avowed deist who truly lived his life by this maxim.  The deists believed in God's existence as a transcendent being, the Creator and original cause, but they did not believe that God was imminent, in that, He never intervened in creation.  Therefore, Franklin and those like him felt that self-reliance was necessary as one could not depend upon God, who is transcendent and distant, to intervene on the human's behalf at any time.

The issue at hand is self-reliance and its biblical basis.  At the onset, a basic definition of self-reliance is in order.  Self-reliance refers to an individual relying upon their own strength, resources, guile, volition, intelligence, effort, or general power to achieve, sustain, and support themselves all while eschewing input, of resource or otherwise, from others.  Using this as our basic definition Scripture gives a remarkably unified indictment upon self-reliance, unequivocally indicating that self-reliance is not only unbiblical but is, in fact, disbelief that leads to outright sin.

The first instance of self-reliance, and a revealing example at that, occurs in Genesis 3, when Eve picks and eats of the forbidden fruit.  Eve did not trust God to provide her with wisdom and knowledge, but rather relied upon her own gumption, which led to sin.  Think of the Israelites wandering through the desert.  As they came to the Promised Land, they saw the giants and trembled in fear, believing that they could never defeat them and possess the land.  The result of their self-reliance was death in the wilderness and an entire generation failing to reach the Promised Land.  Or think of Saul, chosen to be king of all of Israel, but because he did not trust in God in patience, but rather relied upon his own will and assessment of the situation, sacrificed to the Lord in unbelief and the kingdom was removed from him for his self-reliance.

This is a minute swatch of biblical evidence but the point is clear: God does not ask believers to be self-reliant; He wants us to be God-reliant.  This means that we will rely on Him for our strength, for our resource, for our direction, and for our decision making.  Self-reliance is the very essence of pride, which leads to all sorts fo sin and debauchery.

However, and this needs to be heard clearly, to say that God does not want us to be self-reliant does not in any way, shape, or manner mean that God wants us to be lazy, lackadaisical, or unintentional in work.  He demands that we work.  Yet, the point at hand is that we would work for Him and through His empowering and in accord with His will.  In fact, God helps those who cannot help themselves, those who have no strength of their own at all, and have no resources of any sort.  This is the very essence of grace.  Let us then strive not to be self-reliant but to be God-reliant in all things!

Freedom from the Fungi of Sin

Armillaria Ostoyae, or Honey mushrooms, are some the largets living organisms on the earth.  They are parasitic fungi that spread across root systems with its lace-like stems that grow under the bark of trees and shrubs, robbing the plant of its vital nutrients, killing the host-plant as it grows.  Although the mushroom begins from a single spore they can spread for miles.  In Oregon's Malheur National Forest, one such fungi has spread for some 2,200-plus acres.  It is estimated that this particular organism is over 2,400-years-old.

Oddly, while this fungi is present, it is very difficult to trace unless the tree is cut into as the fungi grows primarily under the bark, tapping directly into the nutrient source.  The "hidden" killer.  Often times researchers are not even aware of the fungi's presence until a cluster of trees is found dead and, upon dissection, the fungus is found.

The story of the Honey mushroom is much like the story of sin, which hides just under the skin, stealing the vital nutrients of the host and eventually killing him/her.  Something so small, hidden just beneath our skin with tremendously devastating effects.  Sin, like the fungi, eats away at its host to eternal destruction, and prevents the nutrients of God's grace from transforming our lives.

Fortunately, we have an advocate in Christ Jesus who has cured us of our disease and has removed the parasite of sin.  Sin entered into mankind through one man just as the Honey mushroom spread form a single spore.  But Jesus, through His obedience unto death, made a way to cure us of the pervasiveness of sin so that we could be free from its parasitic pull (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:19-26).

God, by the work of His Son, has saved us utterly.  As a result, we can come to Him in faith so as to receive the perfect remedy for sin.  As Jesus enters into us, by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit,   God's holiness applied directly into us and the sin that had so destroyed the innards of our beings is removed wholly from our lives.  Let us then press into God in faith as to be fully cured from the fungi of sin that eats away at us from the inside out!

Saved from the Flood

Rodney, an average, middle-aged man was sitting on his couch in his living room watching the television as the National Weather Service warnings of flash flooding in his area were blinking across the screen.  He heard a knock on his door that he would have rather ignored it if it weren't for its persistence.  He labored to the door to find his neighbor, Edna, asking him to join her family's car in getting out of town to safety.  Rodney simply nodded and gently said, "Thank you, Edna, but God will save me."

The floods came and Rodney made his way to the roof as the waters rose to his gutters.  He was sitting on top in relative peacefulness as he watched one of his neighbors, Ned, in a boat coming towards him.  Ned called out to Rodney, "Hey, Rodney! Jump in the boat; the floods are still rising.  The water will be over your house in no time!" Rodney calmly replied, "No thanks, Ned.  God will save me."

The waters continued to rise and, before long, Rodney could no longer touch his roof and was swimming above his house in the newly-formed lake that was once his neighborhood.  Rodney had been swimming for a while when a rescue helicopter came to him and was hovering overhead.  A man strapped onto a pulley stepped out of the helicopter and was lowered down to Rodney.  The man reached out to Rodney but Rodney refused his aid, shouting over the splashes, "I don't need your help, God's gonna save me."  The rescuer tried to save Rodney a couple more times to no avail before eventually giving up, returning to the helicopter that flew away, no doubt to save someone more willing to be saved.

At some point, not much later, Rodney became too-tired to swim any longer and he slowly sank into the water and passed on.  In heaven he came to God and asked pointedly, "God, where were You?  I thought you would save me but you never came!"  God looked gently at Rodney and then spoke with a thundering resonance, "Rodney, I did come to save you.  There were warnings on your television;   Edna, came to your house; Ned in his boat; and the rescue helicopter.  I tried to save you but you refused my help."

While this is a fictitious story, it aptly describes how some people view salvation.  All humanity is in desperate need of salvation from our sin, from our flesh.  And God, in His infinite mercy, paid the price for our sin by concentrating it into the flesh of His very own Son, Jesus.  Now, upon confession and belief in the work of Christ, we are saved.  This all being true, many people still have a skewed perspective of salvation.  So, as God holds out Christ for our sake, we refuse Him either because we do not believe we are in need of salvation or because we think of salvation other than what it is, that it will come in a different form.  Both of these misperceptions are flawed and dangerous.  Therefore, let us cling to Christ in faith knowing that He alone can save us from the deluge of this sinful world!