Last week our team was in Wilmington, NC at Grace Baptist Church and Grace Christian Academy. We came in knowing that it was going to be busy and exhausting because it was going to be different from our normal schedule. What made this week different was the chapels for elementary and high school every day plus, our regular responsibilities for the week which include: a Cola War, Irish Concert and this week a Bluegrass and Barbeque night too. Talk about a crazy week! Despite our weaknesses, God was working…
Our team came into the chapel services every day before the invitations so that we could council kids that responded. What we didn’t expect was the number of kids that did respond. Even the first day we all had about 2-3 elementary kids for the first service and then we talked to about 2-3 high school kids each after the second service! All week we had kids from elementary to high school and even adults in the regular evening service respond to the Gospel and many were saved. There were some who got an assurance of their salvation and some who had questions about their spiritual walk. At the end of the week, we had all given the gospel multiple times. I personally got to talk with 14 kids this week about the gospel and it really has opened my eyes. What I mean by that is that God was even working in my heart as I was giving the gospel to these kids! For one thing, it is God who saves, not us! And two, I was growing in my knowledge and most of all confidence in what I believe and what Christ did for me on the cross. The Holy Spirit works! The Gospel works! We are saved by the grace and blood of Christ alone!
Most of all, the point of this article is to encourage and for all us to realize that we who are saved through the blood of Jesus Christ have an imperishable inheritance. I was reading just this morning in 1 Peter 1 (ESV) that “[God]has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” As soon as I read that I was thinking of a few girls that I talked to this week who were not sure of their salvation. They were not sure if they understood it when they first asked Christ to save them. I, of course, could not assure them of salvation only the Holy Spirit can do that. So I took them to Romans 6 and shared with them that sometimes we may have sin struggles in our lives that we feel we are a slave to and that makes us think we are unsaved when really we feel guilty and we don’t think God is big enough to cover those sins. However, once we are saved “we are not under the law, but under grace.”(v. 14) Sin has no more power because we have Christ in us. “For Christ also suffered once for sin the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit!” (1 Pet. 3:18 ESV) Christ has died once for sins and He doesn’t have to die again. Christ and His salvation are alive in us and so we don’t have to sin.
The last part of that passage in 1 Peter 1 says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Though trials, pains, and temptations may rise throughout our lives, we can have joy that we have Christ who has given us an imperishable inheritance with God in Heaven for eternity!
Beyond the Road Less Traveled 