Saved at Last

April, 1 2009

Today's Reading: Deuteronomy 29-30 and Proverbs 10

I can’t help but wonder why I never brought up the subject of salvation before on this blog. I suppose it is because other devotionals probably bring it up way too much. Most people say that the gospel is salvation, but a lot of people believe that salvation is only the beginning of Christianity.

I realize that by definition, I take an irreverent take on all things godly, and I suppose that salvation is one of those things that I could take an irreverent take on. However, I just don’t think that I can.

I think the idea that we can all go to heaven is something that everyone wants, right? All of us could use that fire insurance. I mean the Bible actually says that if you believe Jesus is Lord, and believe that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.

Can we really take this to the ultimate degree? In other words, can we just sort of forget about life, since death and the hereafter is all “covered”. Interestingly enough, whoever trusts in God will not be put to shame. I would like to think that little rule applies for stuff outside of the afterlife.

I think the problem with salvation is once we have it, we take it for granted. We then start worrying about life so much that we forget that it actually has, for the most part, been taken care of.

It reminds me of the reading in Deuteronomy, when God tells the Israelites that in all their 40 years of sojourning, their shoes never wore out, nor did their clothes. I wonder why God reminded them of that. Is it possible that they never even noticed this blessing? No, chances are, they probably were remembering the “you ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink”. In short, they never realized the blessing they were given in the midst of a hard life.

Such is the same for all of us. I remember when I was in college, and I got a D on a test. I felt really bad, and a friend of mine said “in ten years, it won’t matter at all”. You know what, she was right. In fact, in ten months, I had almost forgotten the incident. Still, that advice did not minister to me at the time, because I want my life to matter in the next ten years.

The thing is that our lives do matter, and because of that, our death does matter with God controlling where we go.