Showing posts with label cup of salvation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cup of salvation. Show all posts

Monday, October 3, 2016

Which Cup will you drink?

In a moment,in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 

trumpet...

I Corinthians 15:52




I got knocked down the last week or two, but I'm not out. Preparing  for a craft show, running around helping people, and lack of taking good care of myself and suddenly I found myself nearly out of commission from a cold which turned into a sinus infection which turned into an asthma flare.  I shouldn't take good health for granted.

I did some thinking between blowing my nose and sleeping on the couch. Just why am I writing anyway? Does it even make a difference? Maybe just quit while I'm ahead.

This morning, though not better, I rethought that. Current events are downright depressing, if looked at from only a secular viewpoint. Current events through my life seemed to go along as they always had but not anymore. They are reaching a point of no return.

Without Jesus, without the Bible, how could I live with what I see happening on the news every day?
I would fall apart. How do people live without Jesus?

And so that is why I write. To tell people that there still is time to believe in Jesus before the things prophesied come quickly to pass.

Most if not all people who might read this already believe in Jesus. Great! But maybe, just maybe there might be one who does not? This blog is just a little thing, but if God could use it to reach one person it would be such an awesome privilege for me.

Because, if you don't know Jesus, let me tell you, things are about to get really bad on this earth. No matter who is elected America is in grave trouble. We can't deny it anymore. Nowhere is safe: not Europe, not America, not the Middle East. All the money in the world cannot fix the problems of hatred and man's inhumanity to man.

But there is really good news in spite of this bleak picture. Jesus came and made Himself available to do something about the tragic mess we are in.  2,000 years ago, He obliterated sin that ruins everything it touches. He paid for all the sins of all mankind, even the ones of those who don't believe in Him. Why? Because He was perfect love, and He made the perfect sacrifice.

We are out of human solutions. It is time to take the only one that works: the Divine one. It cost Him everything to give it to us, but He did it willingly because He loved us all so much.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. II Cor. 5:21

 Some may say that to believe the Bible is old-fashioned and doesn't keep up with modern science. I for one choose to believe it above what man's theories say. I believe it because it gives me hope for the future in heaven, a sense of destiny and especially it helps me today:

...to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.       I Thessalonians 1: 10
So dear friend reading this, wherever you are, why not take the cup of salvation the Lord is offering you? Then you too will not be looking for any kind of human way to fix the problems all over this earth. Instead you will look to Jesus, and in Him you will find all that your heart is longing for, all that you will ever need. Like the Psalmist so long ago, you can also say:

I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. Psalm 116: 13
After all, I would much rather have to drink from God's cup of salvation than the cup of wrath that will be poured out on the Christ rejecting world.

Two cups, two destinies. Which one will be yours?

If you are not sure if you have a home in heaven waiting for you, you can think something like this toward God in your heart: Father, I believe that Your Son Jesus came to earth to pay for man's sins and not just all men's, but my own ones too. I want to be with You in heaven so I believe in what He did for me that day, and that You raised Him from the dead. I take the gift of salvation and new life that He alone offers me. Amen.










Friday, February 27, 2015

Fill My Cup Lord

Psalm 16:5-8 5 ​​O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;You maintain my lot.6 ​​The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;​​Yes, I have a good inheritance.
​7 ​​I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.8 ​​I have set the LORD always before me;
​​Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

God will be with me today. Though I awoke in the "night seasons,", I can trust Him to fill my cup today. God's cup is filled with grace and today is the day to drink to the dregs the cup of salvation that He offers, while we are still in the age of grace. Both the believer and unbeliever are bid to come and drink from it.


Psalm 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;You anoint my head with oil;

Psalm 116:13 I will take up the cup of salvation,And call upon the name of the LORD.

This cup of grace swirls with endless tints of green, the color most psychologically pleasing to man. This is shown in the emerald throne in heaven in Revelation 4:3:"And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald."

Because Jesus drank a cup that we could never drink, the cup of God's holy wrath over the sins of mankind, we are able to freely drink of His grace and be with Him one day to behold the emerald throne. He drank the cup of wrath to the dregs so we would not have to ever taste it.

Matthew 26:36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.
44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”

On the other hand, there is another cup which also is quickly filling. Time on earth is running out. Today is the day of salvation.


II Corinthians 6:2:"For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you,And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (emphasis mine)

One day soon, the time will be up and the throne of grace will no longer be afforded. There will only be a white throne of judgment against unbelievers, and God will destroy evil completely.

Jeremiah 25:15 For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: “Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it."

Revelation 14:9-11: 9 "Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” (emphasis mine)

Salvation is provided courtesy of Jesus Christ when He was lifted high on Calvary's cross, not from anything we could ever do to earn it. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

A simple change of mind from unbelief to faith can change forever which cup you will drink from.