Amazing Grace
A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 10th of May 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament, to Ezekiel 33:11:
“I (says the Lord) have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
And then Ezekiel 18:32, again the Lord says:
“For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
You know, many of us are dead. We are walking around, our hearts are pumping blood but we are dead in our spirits and the Gospel of Luke says:
“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:7
Jesus came for sinners, just like me and just like you. You know He is known by many titles but the title I love the most is the “Friend of sinners.” Some of the greatest sinners have become God’s greatest ambassadors. Therefore, we must never give up on a lost sheep... on a lost soul. One of them was Saul of Tarsus, that’s right! Remember he became Paul the apostle when he was knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus while he was seeking to murder Christians. And the Lord Jesus said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus.”
You know, after that conversion he went on, Paul the Apostle, to write almost two-thirds of the New Testament. He took the Gospel all over the world. Another lost sheep who found Jesus, was a man who wrote probably, the most famous of all hymns, Amazing Grace:
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
That’s right - his name was John Newton. What about Charles Carson, one of the most brilliant minds in the world. He was President (of the United States of America) Richard Nixon’s right-hand man. He was an evil man. They called him 'The Hatchet Man'. They said he would walk on his own mother’s grave to get to the top. Well, he was found out. He was sent to prison and there he met Jesus and he started The Prison Fellowship, where tens of thousands of prisoners all over the world came to Christ. Remember, good people don’t go to Heaven, believers go to Heaven.
“if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:13
Jesus bless you today and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.