Tag: salvation

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Salvation shall never pass away: art by Chris Powers

Posted on by elizabethprata

Full of Eyes is a support-based ministry of exegetical art that creates still and moving images intended to point people to the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Son. All art and animations are done by Chris Powers. Powers’ goal is to help people see and savor the faith-strengthening, hope-instilling, love-kindling beauty of God in Christ. And he does this by creating free exegetical art in the form of pictures, animations, and discussion guides. His work is at Patreon.com, Youtube, and his website fullofeyes.com

My Salvation Will Be Forever

Isaiah 51:6, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look to the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.”

This is one of those simple and yet profoundly beautiful and paradigmatic truths–the vastness and solidity of the heavens will pass away like smoke in the wind, and the depth and strength of the earth will wear out like the knees in my blue jeans. We live in a world of mist. As Paul said, everything that we see around us is transient (2 Cor.4:17-18). And God calls us to remember this, indeed, here in Isaiah the reason for looking at the heavens and earth is precisely to remember that they will not remain. YHWH intends for us to live with the ever present recognition that the world around us is not eternal, it is not forever, it will not always be as it is now, it is passing away.

But….the salvation of YHWH, the righteousness of YHWH–this is everlasting (because He is everlasting), this is sure, this is unshakable and will never pass away.

Oh, to get this into our heads and hearts and imaginations! The world is a tossing surf of change and uncertainty, but the strong rock of YHWH’s Name and Character and of the salvation He works for His people–that is where our hope is to be found, that is where we are to cling and hold and hide and hope. And note also that if the Lord’s salvation is forever, the implication is that those who are saved by this salvation will, in some way, be forever also. This is not a fully developed doctrine of the resurrection and eternal state of new creation (though I think that Isaiah does think in those categories), but it certainly hints in that direction.

And how will the Lord work this everlasting salvation? How will He reveal this never-dismayed righteousness? Through the Suffering Servant, through the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God, the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe because in it the righteousness of God is revealed. The surrounding passages in Isaiah introduce the Servant (50) and move into a foretelling of His suffering, death, and resurrection (52-53), this is how the eternal salvation of God breaks into the transient world of humanity…..And we cling to Him!…..we lay hold of this rock of salvation, this anchor of righteousness and are unmoved…….those who trust in YHWH–who trust in the crucified and risen Son–will sing songs of joy and see visions of beauty long ages after the sun has burned down and Everest has blown away in the wind.

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Have you ever been snubbed?

Posted on by elizabethprata

a snub is defined as-

an act of showing disdain or a lack of cordiality by rebuffing or ignoring someone or something.

Did you ever go into a store or pass someone walking or anywhere, and you know they saw you but they refuse to acknowledge you? That’s a snub.

I’m on the spectrum and I accidentally snub people all the time. Sorry. I tend to focus more on inanimate objects than I do on people and I literally don’t see you. Children are an exception. I always see them.

A hilarious quote I read from Kin Hubbard says that “some people are so sensitive they feel snubbed if an epidemic overlooks them.”

Remember the angst in High School when we walked down the hall and saw the boy (or the girl) and desperately hoped for eye contact, acknowledgement, or best of all, personal affirmation. Would he stop, look, chat? Oh, no, he didn’t look! She didn’t see! They rejected me!

It felt horrible and as adults if we care to admit it, it still does. Snubbing and his big brother Rejection are wounds that hurt. We’ve been snubbed when a friend is angry with us, We’ve been rejected by a spouse through adultery. We have been passed over for promotion. We crave affirmation and recognition, but when we’re being ignored through a snub or rejected through anger or hate, it hurts and the hurt takes a long time to heal.

Now bundle all the times you’ve been snubbed, overlooked, and rejected, and magnify that a billion times. Imagine how you might feel at the universe’s worst snub, its highest rejection.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32).

In the first case, the person being rejected thought he was a Christian. He labored, he preached, he rebuked demons. And he was rejected. In a stunning turn of events, the person will receive an eternal rejection to his face, and be banished from glory and the presence of Jesus forever.

In order to ensure that you, dear reader, are not one of those rejected and snubbed, having no place card at the Banquet, test yourself to see if you are in the faith. Is It Real: 11 Biblical Tests of Genuine Salvation can be read here.

In the second case, the person was an outright Christ rejecter. Whether they were a ‘spiritual person’ of another religion, or an atheist, agnostic, or other flavor of rejecter, in turn they will be rejected on the Day. Forever.

This is a hurt and a wound from which one does not ever recover. Make sure you are not rejected on the Day, and repent of your sins. Today is the day of your salvation. Don’t wait, don’t procrastinate. If you’re feeling feel drawn, investigate and examine yourself to see if you pass the test.

 

wise-man

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I Love Being a Christian video: Jesus Paid the Price

Posted on by elizabethprata

When you are released from the burden you sense but can’t define, (sin), when you are freed from the chains of slavery to it, when you are forgiven and loved perfectly by The Perfect, you will rejoice, as all Christians do. You will love being a Christian. Repent now, for the kingdom is at hand.

15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

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Praise for the Light

Posted on by elizabethprata

Before I was saved I breathed in the air of common grace, grace that is filled with the creation knowledge of Him. It was poison to my lungs. I flopped around like a caught fish on the deck, breathing grace but longing for the murky waters to envelop me once again, the weeds wrapping around my head, because I loved the darkness. (cf Jonah 2:5b)

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (John 3:19).

as it is written:

None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
(Romans 3:10)

And yet He loved me, a sinner, and set me upright, washed me, gave me common grace and and added saving grace to my soul.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.(Romans 8:2).

After salvation I breathe in the sweetness of special grace, the savor of Jesus and His sanctifying work of atonement. The Light came.

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

It was an ordinary day, and the woman was thirsty

Posted on by elizabethprata

The woman was a harlot. There was a moral code and the woman fell far below it. So far below that she couldn’t even see the underside of it anymore. Jumping from husband to husband, bed to bed, with or without benefit of divorce, man after man. She was a slut. Her sins were monumental, public, known to all, and she was regarded with disgust and hatred. She knew it. She didn’t care. She did care.

She was loathed, and also lonely, marginalized, and excluded. The other women in town didn’t talk to her, so that her taint wouldn’t infect them. There were cliques, all right, and she was definitely not part of any of them. She wasn’t invited to baby showers or to weddings or to sewing circles. She wasn’t even welcome at the well, at dusk when the other women went to draw in the cool of the day. The looks…the turned backs… the whispers. Once, even that fight when they said those nasty things. She never went back.

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