Salvation is Not Earned
I became a Christian about the same time I became a Boy Scout, and I made the assumption that God grades like the Boy Scouts do: on a merit system. Good scouts move up. Good people go to heaven.
So, I resolved to amass of multitude of spiritual badges. I worked toward the day when God, amid falling confetti and dancing cherubim, would drape my badge-laden sash across my chest and welcome me into his eternal kingdom, where I would humbly display my badges for eternity.
But some thorny questions surfaced. How many badges does he require? How good is good? And then I was corrected. Ephesians 2:8 (NASB) says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Unearned. A gift. Our merits merit nothing. So let grace happen, for Heaven’s sake.
人際關係之二
/in 每日親近神, 每日親近神-2026 /by meiling出埃及記20章15-17節 「不可偷盜。16 「不可作假見證陷害人。17 「不可貪戀人的房屋，也不可貪戀人的妻子、僕婢、牛驢並他一切所有的。」
在十誡中的第五誡到十誡裡，耶穌用一句話就把它們概括了：「你們願意人怎樣待你們，你們也要怎樣待人(路6:31)。」
你希望兒女孝敬你嗎？那你就要有好榜樣，先孝敬你和配偶的父母。你不想被殺嗎？或是被人蔑視或看輕，那你就不要恨人，也不要隨便罵人。你不想配偶背叛你，那麼你就要做個忠實的配偶，做一個手潔心清的人，給對方有安全感。
第八誡：「不可偷盜」。你喜歡人家偷你的東西嗎？若是不喜歡自己的東西被偷，那麼自己就不要去偷別人的東西。因為：「你們願意人怎樣待你們，你們也要怎樣待人。」
第九誡：「不可作假見證陷害人」。假見證除了說謊，還包括你知道卻不說事實，或是把事情說一半，留一半不說，都是假見證，因為會誤導人，間接陷害他人。所以不要以為沉默是金，在該說話時保持沉默，那就是犯了此誡。