Way of The Warrior- A Daily Devotional

Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.- Acts 16:30-34 ESV

Warrior:
This is the ultimate question, “What must I do to be saved?” Religion is a set of RULES, a WAY for MAN to be GOODNUFF to BE with God, LIKE GOD and for some religions- to become a GOD! IF you jump through enough hoops, do enough things, give enough money, eventually you will become acceptable to God! When we attempt to be GOODNUFF for GOD then we PLACE ourselves under a curse, a works based-judgment- it’s a losing proposition because NO ONE is GOOD ENOUGH, NO NOT ONE- EXCEPT JESUS! as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one. (Romans 3:10) We must understand our WRETCHEDNESS- apart from Christ! “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Leader, to those who are perishing and wrapped up in the EGO of this world, the CROSS IS FOOLISHNESS. The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. – (1 Cor 1:18-21) WE can’t be SMART enough, GOOD enough, WORTHY enough, HOLY enough and definitely NOT RIGHTEOUS enough to enter the KINGDOM OF GOD! Good thing, we don’t have to be! He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.(1 Peter 2:24)

Conduit, many have a tough time accepting the CROSS, and the PRICE- PAID IN FULL- of sin! For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) Jesus paid it all, all to HIM, WE OWE! Some feel that this is TOO EASY, just to TRUST ON THE NAME Of JESUS! It is easy for US, it wasn’t EASY FOR JESUS! Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9) We are CALLED TO BELIEVE and to LIVE LIKE IT IS TRUE! For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Cor 5:14-15) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:18-21) Today ACT AS IF, you believe in the LORD, Jesus! Amen.