Titus 3 5 He saved us because of his mercy, not because of any good things we did.

Titus 3 ⁵ He saved us because of his mercy, not because of any good things we did.

I love it when God speaks to me in powerful ways teaching me powerful lessons. One of the most prevailing lessons he taught me was on small compromises and I shared that when I spoke using the scripture  from Song of Songs 2 : Catch for us the foxes,
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards,  our vineyards that are in bloom. That was a life altering moment and changed the trajectory of my life, I know that with all of my heart . I wanted to share another  lesson God showed me and AGAIN  he used my criminal history to do it just as he did with the lesson on small compromises. He sure knows how to get my attention : ))

Before that life changing night in a small group when my eyes and heart were finally opened to the truth about Jesus I believed I would go to Heaven because I was , or thought I was, a good person. I was nice, compassionate, and caring  so I thought my destination was secure.  After that night God showed me something incredible. He took me back to when I was in Rockwall County waiting to go to court on my probation revocation. I wrote a letter to the judge sharing all I had been through and telling him I was a really good person hoping that might have an effect on my sentence and that he may be more lenient. It didn’t work , I didn’t think it was fair but I really had no say in the matter. I went to prison and served my time, it didn’t matter that I was good or had some tragic things happen. I did the crime so I did my time.

Anyhow God took me back to that time and I had a dream that I was standing in front of the judge again pleading my case begging for mercy but it wasn’t the Rockwall County Judge this time. It was God and I was standing before HIM as he sat in the judgment seat pleading my case telling him all the good things I had done but again it didn’t matter. The Bible is clear on this our salvation has nothing to do with good works  in  John 14 ⁵ Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.

Our  God is a loving God but he is also a  just God and HE has been very clear. There are consequences to our choices and he has given us free will and it is our choice whether to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior or not . He is the only way to the Father. Our salvation is not secure because we do good things .

You know I had a lot of tough things happen in my life and it was very hard, it probably isn’t surprising I turned to drugs but the key word is I turned and then I got caught. It didn’t matter that I had a tough life, there were consequences for my crime and they were just. God is not a respecter of persons , He is a just God.

That was a very powerful picture for me to see . I was so very thankful that I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior before my time was up . Thanking God for his amazing grace in my life and that my time wasn’t up before I made the choice that gave me eternal life because if I hadn’t I would be standing before God and he would probably agree that I did many good things but just like when I broke the law the consequence was prison , the consequence for not receiving Jesus is death where when you choose HIM you have eternal life. It is so simple and has nothing to do with being good. Thankful I made that choice that has given me eternal life and because of that I will be reunited with Alexis again. That brings me hope. And what is really cool is once I accepted  HIM and he began working in my life I wanted to be a better person , I wanted to be like Jesus . It is amazing how it all works .