SAVED BY GRACE
John relates in Revelation 7:9-14 that, after seeing the 144,000 sealed from all the tribes of Israel, he looked and there before him was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:
"Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes - who are they, and where did they come from?"
I answered, "Sir, you know."
And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
The redeemed are in heaven not because of their merit but because of God's grace. Some of them were murderers, adulterers, fornicators, thieves, liars; others experienced broken relationships. At last, they are in heaven. They are there not because of they have done but because of what Jesus has done on the cross of Calvary; they are there not because of what they are but because of who God is. A timeless, self-existent, loving and merciful God. The only thing they did to be in heaven was to accept God's white robes, a symbol of God's immaculate character to cover their filthiness. My dear fellow pilgrim, do not yield to discouragement due to the sinful plight you are in now. Jesus is on the front porch waiting for you. He wants to offer you a white robe washed in His blood. He wants to change you and count you among the multitude of the redeemed from all ages. Now is the time to accept Jesus' gracious offer. Tomorrow may be too late! Saved only by God's grace!
Samuel M. Ntawiniga
Your fellow pilgrim
Has Wall Street become a four-letter word? The headline for Jeff Cox’s report on CNBC’s home page earlier this week caught my eye: “As Bailout Looms, Fear is Market’s Biggest Problem.” His piece opened with these words: “The government rescue plan may help cure some of the ills that are afflicting the banking industry, but it’s unlikely to remedy Wall Street’s greatest malady right now: fear. . . . ‘People are confused and they are scared. Baby boomers are remembering what their parents told them about the Depression and they’re afraid they’ll be next,’ says Kathy Boyle, president of Chapin Hill Advisors in New York. ‘Everybody’s worried about their money, everybody’s worried about their future, everybody’s worried about whether their retirement is safe.’” (http://www.cnbc.com/id/26942317/)
Just four letters long, but how iron-fisted its grip: f-e-a-r. Unfortunately, however, the alphabet soup of this nation’s and world’s financial crisis is about more than fear. Truth be told, that four-letter word is the byproduct of a five-letter word: g-r-e-e-d. Nearly to a man and woman, commentators have recognized that what has driven us to the brink of this credit market crisis has been the wanton scramble for fees, pay-backs and quick profits from the credit industry’s calculated generation of toxic subprime “wink and nod” mortgages, sold to gullible first-time buyers, who played the same silly game by inflating their own financial worth in hope of acquiring that coveted “American dream,” their own home.
Thus we all have been led straight into the lair of this six-letter reality: c-r-i-s-i-s. Let this crisis go on long enough and we shall eventually reap its baleful seven-letter harvest: d-e-s-p-a-i-r. And that is the stuff of our grandparents’ once-upon-a-time Great Depression sagas.
But enough of this toxic alphabet soup. For in an ancient prediction Jesus made are both the poison and the remedy. He prophesied the toxin in the human stream just before his return: “‘People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.’” But as quick as his prediction comes his promise: “‘Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near’” (Luke 21:26, 28 NRSV). For the toxin of fear Christ offers the promise of hope—two poles-apart four letter words.
We’ve been getting plenty of the first through the news media of late. Isn’t it the right time that we imbibe on hope instead? Hope in Bernacke, Paulson, Bush, McCain and Obama? No. Hope and confidence in this same Jesus who promised that in an unraveling world of fear we would find the compelling sign of his soon return. And who better to be looking for than the Savior who wrote the alphabet of hope in the first place!