"Through God"

"Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies." (Psalms 108:13)

  The Lord has really put something on my heart this morning, that we need to prepare ourselves and be ready. That is all I will say about that, because it is only through God that we stand a chance, any sort of chance, to make it into heaven. We sometimes take a lot of things for granted when it comes to this salvation, as we probably should; but to pretend that we don't have to say or do anything about this wonderful gift we have been given, that is an assumption I do not want to be found guilty of. The Lord put that parable of the ten virgins in my heart this morning, the five that were ready and five that were not. My heart grew rather sad thinking about the implication of the five and five; coupled with what He said about, "One shall be taken, and the other one left," I began to get the expression that there was only 50% of those who think they are ready, but will not be ready upon His return. It is pretty sobering when you think about that in that way, because 50% is a pretty big number, but on the other hand, it is not. I am pretty sure that the word "valiantly" has a lot to do with what makes the difference in the life of a believer. It is a word that speaks of many different virtues and abilities, the majority of which go hand in hand with what it might look like to be a son of the King. Would you consider yourself to be someone that has the virtue and wealth of a son of the King? It is not that hard to consider or figure out; we just need to be honest. A 'Ben Franklin Scale' might come in handy; you could list all the virtues on one side, and all the non-virtues on the other; maybe you stand a fifty-fifty chance. Just so you know, I am under the opinion that any virtue is enough, as long as that virtue is through God and not of our own. Looking through the list of all that word represents, the end of the list sums it up: "The strength of a tree, spoken poetically of its fruits"...

"I pass on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God's church. But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me -and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace."
(1 Corinthians 15:3-10) NLT