BBD 10.29.21 Salvation then Works (Classic)

#1 · October 29, 2021, 12:09 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on October 29, 2021, 12:09 pm
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Classic from 2003

The Burning Bush Devotional

29 October 2021

(My back
surgery went well and I am now beginning to do a little work. Thanks for all of
your prayers!)

Salvation then Works

For by
grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:8-10.

Marine
Lance Cpl. Jose A. Gutierrez of Lomita, California was a “green card
soldier” who had volunteered to fight for his adopted country. Sadly,
Cpl. Gutierrez died during the first three days of the Iraq war in 2003. The
United States has now granted posthumous citizenship to Cpl. Gutierrez who was
from Guatemala where he was orphaned as a young boy. He entered the U.S.
illegally in 1997. Why would someone not even a citizen join the
Marines? According to Gutierrez’
foster brother, Gutierrez joined the Marines “to pay back a little of what he’d gotten from the United
States.” There are now (2003) 37,000
non-citizens serving in the armed forces of the U. S.

The
Bible makes it clear that you cannot be good enough or do enough good things to
make you worthy for Heaven. Why? The Bible says in effect that
if we could do that then we would all be boasting about all the good things we
had done when we arrived in Heaven - “it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Why
then would anyone want to do good works as a Christian if it does not save you
or work to facilitate your entrance into Heaven? It is much like the story of
Lance Cpl. Jose A. Gutierrez. Gutierrez was not serving in the United States
Marines because he was compelled or because of a legal obligation. Gutierrez
was serving in the Marine Corps because of his great gratitude for what the
United States had done for him - “to
pay back a little of what he’d gotten from the United States.”

After
receiving freely, the gift of eternal life from our God through Jesus and being
adopted into the family of God with all of the privileges of belonging to the
royal family of the King of kings we feel great gratitude. As a result of that
great gratitude of the unmerited favor we have been granted - good works begin
to flow out of our lives. We have a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17) that
desires to please our Lord. It is not forced labor. Instead, it is a labor of
great love and gratitude for the sacrifice of our Lord that resulted in our
salvation.

Have
you been trying to work your way to Heaven? It will never happen. Have you been
trying to do more good things than bad things so the scales will tilt in your
favor bringing you salvation? You have been deceived. Turn to the Lord Jesus
and receive the free gift of salvation and then do your good works out of the
great gratitude for His wondrous mercy toward you.

Copyright © 1998 - 2021. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998, the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of
those first devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent
to prison facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush website:

www.theburningbush.net

The Burning Bush websites are
celebrating 23 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the
Burning Bush Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to subscribers
across the world. At one time there were 18,000 subscribers in more than 70
countries to the devotional but that has now shrunk to around 9,000.

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right-hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the Devotionals at
the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of the home page.
Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Please pray for comfort and
peace for those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and healing for the
wounded. Please pray for the Americans and others left behind in Afghanistan. May
they all look to the Lord for help….

Please pray for the people
of Afghanistan and the people of Haiti. Pray that America would turn back to
God. Please pray for protection of our troops wherever they may be and help for
Americans and others who have been left behind and those who are fearing for
their lives there in that place. May God help them all!!

Please pray for those
affected by the hurricanes!

Please pray for God to touch and
bring about His will in these lives: Georgia Bronnert; Caleb Freeman; Pat S.; Buck
& Barbara Wright; GWEN PRUET; James Perkins and his wife; Vonnie; Evi
Porter; Kinsey W; Addison; JoJo, Bailey and Nicky; Ralph and De Chapman;
Hilary; Cody Stahlman; Patsy M.; Brandy and Jadyn’s Dad; John W.; Patricia
Rohman and Lisa Butler who has had a stroke; Scott J.; Karla W.; Clayton T. and
Sarah; Clark S.; Lana Bass; Matthew Collins; Marjean C.; Bradley E.; Fern
McVey; Nannie R.; Larayne S. and Shonda Hutson.

Please pray for the coronavirus
COVID19 pandemic to come to an end. Pray for treatments and a cure for the
virus to be rapidly found and deployed. Pray for all those afflicted to be
healed and for our leaders to have supernatural wisdom and ability to lead us
through this pandemic.

Please pray for an end to the
rioting, looting, wanton destruction, and the racial hatred in the USA and that
it will be replaced with peace and love. May God help the USA! Many prayer
needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page. You
can also post your prayer requests there (Of
course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. Having back surgery in a few weeks. 03.18.18
I accepted the call to be the pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Elk City,
Oklahoma. Please pray for me and for this church.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com

If you enjoy the devotional please
recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time constraints
the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a blank email
to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

--

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org

Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Classic from 2003

The Burning Bush Devotional

29 October 2021

(My back
surgery went well and I am now beginning to do a little work. Thanks for all of
your prayers!)

Salvation then Works

For by
grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:8-10.

Marine
Lance Cpl. Jose A. Gutierrez of Lomita, California was a “green card
soldier” who had volunteered to fight for his adopted country. Sadly,
Cpl. Gutierrez died during the first three days of the Iraq war in 2003. The
United States has now granted posthumous citizenship to Cpl. Gutierrez who was
from Guatemala where he was orphaned as a young boy. He entered the U.S.
illegally in 1997. Why would someone not even a citizen join the
Marines? According to Gutierrez’
foster brother, Gutierrez joined the Marines “to pay back a little of what he’d gotten from the United
States.” There are now (2003) 37,000
non-citizens serving in the armed forces of the U. S.

The
Bible makes it clear that you cannot be good enough or do enough good things to
make you worthy for Heaven. Why? The Bible says in effect that
if we could do that then we would all be boasting about all the good things we
had done when we arrived in Heaven - “it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Why
then would anyone want to do good works as a Christian if it does not save you
or work to facilitate your entrance into Heaven? It is much like the story of
Lance Cpl. Jose A. Gutierrez. Gutierrez was not serving in the United States
Marines because he was compelled or because of a legal obligation. Gutierrez
was serving in the Marine Corps because of his great gratitude for what the
United States had done for him - “to
pay back a little of what he’d gotten from the United States.”

After
receiving freely, the gift of eternal life from our God through Jesus and being
adopted into the family of God with all of the privileges of belonging to the
royal family of the King of kings we feel great gratitude. As a result of that
great gratitude of the unmerited favor we have been granted - good works begin
to flow out of our lives. We have a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17) that
desires to please our Lord. It is not forced labor. Instead, it is a labor of
great love and gratitude for the sacrifice of our Lord that resulted in our
salvation.

Have
you been trying to work your way to Heaven? It will never happen. Have you been
trying to do more good things than bad things so the scales will tilt in your
favor bringing you salvation? You have been deceived. Turn to the Lord Jesus
and receive the free gift of salvation and then do your good works out of the
great gratitude for His wondrous mercy toward you.

Copyright © 1998 - 2021. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998, the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of
those first devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent
to prison facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush website:

http://www.theburningbush.net

The Burning Bush websites are
celebrating 23 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the
Burning Bush Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to subscribers
across the world. At one time there were 18,000 subscribers in more than 70
countries to the devotional but that has now shrunk to around 9,000.

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at http://www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right-hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the Devotionals at
the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of the home page.
Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Please pray for comfort and
peace for those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and healing for the
wounded. Please pray for the Americans and others left behind in Afghanistan. May
they all look to the Lord for help….

Please pray for the people
of Afghanistan and the people of Haiti. Pray that America would turn back to
God. Please pray for protection of our troops wherever they may be and help for
Americans and others who have been left behind and those who are fearing for
their lives there in that place. May God help them all!!

Please pray for those
affected by the hurricanes!

Please pray for God to touch and
bring about His will in these lives: Georgia Bronnert; Caleb Freeman; Pat S.; Buck
& Barbara Wright; GWEN PRUET; James Perkins and his wife; Vonnie; Evi
Porter; Kinsey W; Addison; JoJo, Bailey and Nicky; Ralph and De Chapman;
Hilary; Cody Stahlman; Patsy M.; Brandy and Jadyn’s Dad; John W.; Patricia
Rohman and Lisa Butler who has had a stroke; Scott J.; Karla W.; Clayton T. and
Sarah; Clark S.; Lana Bass; Matthew Collins; Marjean C.; Bradley E.; Fern
McVey; Nannie R.; Larayne S. and Shonda Hutson.

Please pray for the coronavirus
COVID19 pandemic to come to an end. Pray for treatments and a cure for the
virus to be rapidly found and deployed. Pray for all those afflicted to be
healed and for our leaders to have supernatural wisdom and ability to lead us
through this pandemic.

Please pray for an end to the
rioting, looting, wanton destruction, and the racial hatred in the USA and that
it will be replaced with peace and love. May God help the USA! Many prayer
needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page. You
can also post your prayer requests there (Of
course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. Having back surgery in a few weeks. 03.18.18
I accepted the call to be the pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Elk City,
Oklahoma. Please pray for me and for this church.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com

If you enjoy the devotional please
recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time constraints
the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a blank email
to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond to the
confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org