If I could, He wouldn’t have.  “Find the secret passage”, said Jeremy, as they searched the office bookcase, looking for the way out of their dilemma.  Do you find yourself, sweating, stressing, trying with every ounce of your courage, intelligence and talent to get to a peaceful point?  Are you praying harder, memorizing, correcting faulty behavior and giving a bit more each week, hoping to rid yourself of your Christian shortcomings?  Is your windfall being withheld because of something you’ve done or aren’t doing?  Remember, “the wages of sin is death”.  So, the fact that every human being was/is a sinner immediately separated all of us from God with an insurmountable chasm.  Could not climb it, could never cross it, couldn’t repair it, fill it, ignore it or invent another paradise, we were left in utter despair realizing our inability to ever know God.  The Jews tried rule conformity, even finding themselves adding exponential refinements to God’s Law in hope of someday being good enough.  What then are we misunderstanding about God’s gift, God’s Love and Christ’s sacrificial victory that precludes us from accepting that we cannot “do” anything to reach heaven.  None of us is good enough to overcome the stain of sin, none is powerful enough or perfect enough to remove the judgment incumbent with sin’s price of death.  It took an incredible, angel astounding act of mercy on the part of God Himself in order to offer an opportunity for cleansing and repair to God’s intimate relationship.

Having given in I will never give up, because salvation and sanctification are acts entirely dependent upon God’s power, performance and will in their achievement.  Yes, achievement, but not reward based upon my piety, my effort, kindness, care or goodness, accomplishment completely founded by and rooted in God’s decision to save me.  I am trying with every ounce of my being to be a better person and not one measure of my energy has ever made me even a smidgen more like Christ.  Conversely, my surrender to Christ in repentance, faith and belief has transformed me to the point of nonrecognition by my family, colleagues and long term friends.  I cannot do what was never within my power to be done.  Have you accepted your impotence with regard to locating, approaching or entering heaven’s gate?  Don’t fail to see your own failure.

Surrender is for winners.  Accepting my status as a sinner with “no hope” of salvation without Christ, prompted the only logical decision available to rational men, choosing Christ and eternal life over remaining in my sin and death.  Of course, many will tell you if you study real hard, meditate every day until late, eat the right foods, go to the right schools or do the right deeds you will “eventually” be sent your invitation to join the after life.  If that were even remotely believable, then they would be able to show me, absolute proof of my predecessors having made that mark.  Oh, right, they want me to prove God and heaven exist but they cannot show me one fact of substantiated proof of one person ever being good enough to reacquaint themselves to God.  Why do you think God chose murderers, adulterers and peasants as heroes of the faith?  Pretty clear isn’t it that none could claim that they were good enough, smart enough or rich enough to deserve the blessings that they received.  Goodness, all the apostles were summarily dispatched as punishment for their works of goodness, leaving only John to live out his life in order to eventually pen the Book of Revelation.  How then can any hope to reach heaven by works if those who God chose as His Earthly Family failed absolutely?  They had hope, but not in their own effort or energies, but in the devotion of Christ to carry them to eternity.  It is not deed but rather belief that sets the captive free in Christendom.

I love my Brothers but they try way too hard.  They tell me their sins and then lay out their plan of action to rid themselves of character flaws.  I would laugh but it is usually the tears that take precedence for their character flaws require much less priority than their demonstrated misunderstanding of faith.  I want to be a better man, a better son, Father, friend, worker, disciple, thinker, giver, believer and servant to God.  God will achieve these things in me because He wants the same, in fact He wants even better than I can think or perceive.  So, I cannot do the work and in so knowing I am set free from the hopeless energetic expenditure in pursuing the Holy Grail.  I have drunken from the well of the living water and been refreshed to everlasting.  Being sober minded I am drunk with joy, the joy that comes with relationship through Christ to God.  I will try my best to be a good example to those around me as an ambassador for Christ, but as to getting in to heaven that battle is done, having been fought and won by Christ on Calvary’s Cross.

Praise God for His Righteousness and Faith.  My soul’s been saved, Hallelujah.  In Jesus’ Name.