John Newton wrote the song Amazing Grace in 1779. By his own words he was a vile and wretched man until he gave his heart to Jesus and followed Him the rest of his life. Mr. Newton knew of the amazing grace of God, and every true Christian has also a personal experience of that same amazing grace.

We were all vile and wretched before knowing Jesus as our Savior and Lord, but then He cleaned us up and put us on a new pathway to follow Him.

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18)

But thanks be to God “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.” (Romans 4:7-8)

To understand just how awesome God’s grace really is, perhaps we should stop and consider the utter hopelessness of our predicament without Him. Every man, woman and child (past the point of accountability) is doomed for an everlasting hell, a place apart from God, in absolute darkness and fiery torment.

The common thought among fallen man is that our good deeds will outweigh our bad deeds and we will be accepted into the Heavenly realm upon our death. Also, I am convinced more and more than many today believe that it doesn’t matter that we live in sin, we still to go Heaven. Several well-known people have died over the past years that have lived a life in the sewer, but because they are loved by family, friends, and fans it is believed by these same people that the deceased will be welcomed in Heaven.

Now before you open your mouth, I am completely aware that there is only one thing that can be done to reward us with Heaven when we die; i.e. true belief in Jesus Christ. Works do not save anyone. Nothing can save but the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By Him we are saved and Him only. He is the only way period. Now that that is settled, I’ll move on.

Having faith in Jesus or believing in Him, both are the same, is more than a movement of the mouth based on a half-hearted response to the Gospel. Anybody can say, “I am Christian.” Since only God knows for sure who is and who is not, we’ll certainly leave that area up to Him. I’m sure that’s not in my ‘pay grade,’ and most certainly it is not in yours either.

The point is, I’m hearing more and more say or imply that they are Christian, but other than that, nothing is evident in their lives that this is true. Again, we’ll leave the final determination to God. It is in His ‘pay-grade.’ The Bible does however make it very clear that when you plant an acorn you will get an oak tree. I’m not seeing many oak trees. Are you?

Sins do not send anyone to hell, except for the sin of rejecting Jesus Christ. Works, good or bad, do not get us to Heaven. Jesus is the only way to Heaven. He is the door, the life, the light, the only pathway. So no one should be flippant about claiming to be a Christian when their very life proves they do not believe in the only one sent of God for salvation.

The power of God in a man, woman or child is a life changer. God changes lives. All through our lives He is sanctifying us, bringing us to our final perfection once we arrive in Heaven. Since we have nothing within us to make us righteous on earth, we are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In Him we are always righteous, clean without spot, from the day of our salvation to all eternity. So obviously Christians, in our mortal bodies, still sin, but we strive through the power of the Holy Spirit within us to follow Jesus simply because of our ever growing love toward Him.

Think about this. Jesus said on numerous occasions, “Follow Me.” I repeat, on numerous occasions He said, “Follow Me.” Jesus is not going to lead us into sinful thoughts and actions. For example: Jesus is not going to lead us into homosexuality, adultery, illicit drug use, child abuse, fornication, lying, greed, lust of money, jealousy, murder, theft, pride, etc. He will lead us away from them.

When a person is truly saved, Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, will lead that person out of that sinful state. Jesus will not lead us into sin folks. He will help us flee from it. Will we still sin occasionally? You bet your sneakers we will, but a Christian knows what sin is, is miserable in sin, and runs from it. We may get snagged in it again, but again our goal is to run from it once more with the power of God on our side.

So if your life is consumed with sin (disobedience to God’s will) and you have no desire to repent of it, don’t try to convince me that you know Jesus. The only way you will ever know Jesus is that He will be your judge at the white throne judgment.

If you identify yourself as clergy and homosexual in the same breath, you have no business behind that pulpit. You need to be on your knees in repentance before God and get saved.

When people who claim to be a Christian are lying, stealing, gossiping, murdering, on drugs, alcoholics, homosexuals, adulterers, hateful, greedy, etc. it is no wonder that people are confusing a lie straight from Satan with real bona fide Christianity.

Now for the Good News of God’s Amazing Grace: Anyone, I repeat, anyone can be saved and thereby a true Christian by really trusting in Jesus. That person can say, “Here I am Lord. I believe you and will follow you, and I trust you that when I fall you will pick me up.” No matter what you ‘were,’ God can change you.

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such WERE (emphasis mine) some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Notice that Paul says, “Such WERE (emphasis mine) some of you.” God changes lives. Now that’s grace folks. God can take our lousy messed up lives and completely turn us around. It doesn’t matter what you were. God can change that. However, if you think you can just claim the name of “Christian,” but have no desire to follow Jesus, you’re just fooling yourself. You may call yourself a sheep, but you’re still a pig, continuing to wallow in your own sinful slop.

Jesus will never lead anyone to the pig sty. He will only lead us to be holy.

“For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44-45)

“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16)

Have you ever tried to change your life from bad to good? Have you ever tried to stop a sinful action? You can’t do it can you? That’s because it’s a heart problem, and only God can mend a heart. Only God can truly change a person. When a person legitimately comes to Jesus to be saved, they will be changed. It may not happen overnight, and it will be slower for some than others, but it will happen. But for those who have not changed, and don’t want to change, stop identifying yourself with Christ. You don’t know Him, and until you do, you are not one of His.

Now consider what God can do if you are willing.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

God is holy and does not walk in sin. He will lead us in righteousness away from sin. He makes us holy by His righteousness. So let us not claim his holiness, when we live in sin and refuse His gracious gift of grace through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Grant Phillips

Based from multiple sources on the Internet, adults make roughly 35,000 ‘conscious’ decisions each day. With children, we’re looking at 3,000 each day. Time magazine stated in an article that the number is in the thousands. Actually, there is no way to measure how many decisions we make each day. There are just too many variable factors among us humans.

Do you realize that 35,000 ‘conscious’ decisions per day equals just under 40 ‘conscious’ decisions per minute (subtracting eight hours daily for sleep) which is just under 2,200 ‘conscious’ decisions per hour?

When I was working I encountered many people who just did not like to make a decision. Maybe they were afraid of making the wrong one. I can understand that, simply because we’re not all the same. Our personalities are different. Our gifts and desires are different. Anyway, even with the timid, they are making thousands of ‘conscious’ decisions a day and just haven’t realized it.

So … over a lifetime we make about a billion ‘conscious’ decisions give or take so many million. We all make decisions and some are more important than others. There is one that has an eternal consequence. I’ll come back to this one.

A very interesting exercise for us all would be to think back over our life about some of our decisions. “Since I made a certain decision I am now in this particular situation. Where would I be if my decision had been different?” I’ve done this many times, and my guess is that many of you have too.

Some of my decisions have worked out so well, all I can do is just thank God over and over for being so gracious to undeserving me. For example, I made several decisions in the past that brought me to my current situation of being so blessed in my marriage. Getting here involved changing my resident location and changing jobs, among many other large and small decisions I didn’t even consider at the time. Little did I know that God was leading me during the whole process. I also made wrong decisions, but He forgave my ignorance and returned me to the correct path.

There are also decisions I have made in my life I wish I could undo, but that is impossible. Can anyone relate with me here?

(Let me say something very important about bad decisions. If it is a decision that needs to be confessed to God, then do so, don’t repeat it and move on. Put it behind you and don’t look back, as did Lot’s wife. Satan will want you to keep bringing it up in your mind, so he can keep you from being useful for the Lord. Don’t let him. Forget it, and go forward with God.)

Decisions are very important. The wrong one can get us killed on the highway, put us in prison for life, destroy a family, and one can even damn our soul to hell.

Abraham made the wrong decision with his wife Sarah regarding her handmaiden Hagar, and the world is still dealing with the mess.

David made a wrong decision with Bathsheba and it cost her husband Uriah his life. It also brought down much grief upon David and his household.

Judas made the wrong decision concerning Jesus and he will pay for eternity in hell for rejecting the very one he followed for three years.

Out of all the millions and millions of decisions we make in a lifetime there is one I said I would come back to, and that is our decision about the Son of God, Christ Jesus.

We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Because we are all corrupted with sin our sentence is an eternity in the lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Romans 6:23; Matthew 25:41). Why an eternity, because unlike the animals, mankind is an eternal being. Once we are born, we will live forever, first in this earthly body, then in a new body designed for either Heaven or hell.

Joshua told the Hebrews, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)

Which will we serve? We have to make a decision. Will it be our gods of today; humanism (love of self), materialism (love of money), and hedonism (love of pleasure) or will it be the one and only true God? Each of us has to decide. There are no exceptions.

Someone may say, “I’ll just remain neutral,” but that won’t work either, because Jesus said, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” (Matthew 12:30)

Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if out of all the millions and millions of decisions we make in a lifetime, we get this one wrong? Many of our decisions we make in life bring heartbreak, suffering and sorrow while upon earth. Many will bring us happiness while upon earth, while still others won’t matter too much in our earthly sojourn, but the decision of what we do with Christ will go with us for an eternity. This is the only decision that reverberates all through an eternity that never ever ends. What am I going to do with Jesus?

Many have made the wrong decision and have nothing to look forward to but the judgment of an eternity in the lake of fire that burns forever. Others have been wise and made the correct decision by putting their faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and have an eternity of indescribable joy.

Decisions, decisions, we all have to make them. What will your decision be concerning the only one that lasts for eternity?

Grant Phillips