Are you still a servant to sin?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

The rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is servant to the lender.
(Proverbs 22:7 (NIV))

Do you owe anyone anything?

Are they pressing you for payment?

I know that in today’s society, it is impossible to do anything without owing someone. You need to have a job to earn money to live off of. In order to get to work, you have to have a car. Most people have to borrow money to buy a car. You need someplace to live. you either rent because you are borrowing a place to live, or you pay monthly payments because you borrowed money to buy a home. I could go on and on.

Is this biblical? Are we borrowing against our future and paying it back over time so that we become indebted to those whom we borrowed from?

If we plan our personal budgets, we can make it work, but what happens if we over borrow? Can we go on borrowing and never expect to pay it back?

Think about this from a different perspective.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
(Romans 3:23 (NIV))

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 (NIV))

If we have all sinned and the wages of sin is death, then all of us, until we accept Jesus, are living on borrowed time!

Think about that. Humanity, in its sinful nature, owes a debt that we could only pay with our lives.

Jesus paid that debt for all who would simply ask for forgiveness of their sins. Jesus is now that one that we are indebted to. We should be proclaiming this wonderful gift of grace every moment of every day. We are no longer bound by our indebtedness to sin and death. Our debt has been paid. Jesus has set us free.

Are you still a servant to sin?

Are you living on borrowed time?

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery

I am the way and the truth and the life

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
(Matthew 7:14 (NIV))

How many ways to heaven have you heard in your lifetime?

If you truly stop to think about it, there have been countless opinions and philosophies that you have heard and countless others that have made so little sense that you didn’t even pay attention to them.

In today’s society, it has become acceptable to believe that there are as many different ways to heaven as there are people. Stop to think about that statement. Let’s compare this to a shotgun blast. A shotgun blast scatters and only a very few of the small shot actually hit their target. To be more precise, I would venture to say that not a single shot actually hits exactly where you aim. If there are as many ways to heaven as there are people, what does that say when compared to a shotgun blast?

The word “sin” is an archery term that literally means to miss the mark. There is no shotgun blast mentality in archery. There is no shotgun blast mentality in getting to heaven. Just like in archery, if we miss the mark established by God as what we have to hit to get to heaven, then we have sinned. We will not be allowed in.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
(Romans 3:23 (NIV))

If we have all sinned, then how do we gain eternal life?

and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
(Romans 3:24 (NIV))

Jesus hit that mark. Through His steadfast aim, we are redeemed.

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

Jesus is the way! Jesus is the only way. He is that gate.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(John 14:6 (NIV))

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
Subscribe to daily email delivery