Non-fiction

Who’s Responsible????????

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

PAPER WITH THREE HOLES - textPAPER WITH THREE HOLES - text 2

Okay, now I’ve seen it all.  I’m so fed up with all this “politically correct” crap (and I use that word because there’s only one other that would do the job better, but I don’t use that kind of language).  I just bought a new notebook to record some Bible lesson notes in, and I have to admit that I didn’t read all the words on the front of said notebook before I purchased it. It looks like any number of others, with a colorful cover and 80 sheets of college-ruled paper inside.

But this morning, as I prepared to type the notes from it into the chapter of one of my books, I found myself reading the text in a little white box on the front. Here’s what it says: “Paper from responsible sources.”

Now just WHAT does that mean?????????

I’ll tell you what it says to me. It says that because society has gone bonkers about what they call “saving the earth,” and all of these “green” people insist on using only recycled materials, companies are now trying to look good in the eyes of those people. So I’m guessing that this company didn’t use recycled paper, so, of course, they can’t say “made from recycled paper.” But they want to sound to everyone as if they use recycled paper, so they say, “Paper from responsible sources.”

Now, I grant you that I may be totally wrong about this situation. I may have misjudged the company completely. But if I have, then I’d appreciate their telling me what “responsible sources” are. I mean, anyone who makes paper should be responsible for the paper they make. Any reputable paper manufacturer is responsible to provide good quality product and stand behind it.

So what’s the deal??????

And why am I making such a big deal out of it anyway?

Well, the answer to that last question is what I said in the first paragraph. I’m totally fed up with all this “politically correct” mania, and I think this situation just helps prove how totally ridiculous and also how worthless the whole concept is. Politically correct words and actions are hypocritical as often as they are genuine — no, actually, I believe they are hypocritical more often than they are genuine.  And if we don’t recognize that fact soon, we are going to end up being the most deceived society of people who have ever lived on this earth.

Well, I guess I might have one other reason for making an issue of this subject: It gave me something different to blog about.

 

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Rebel Without a Cause? I Don’t Think So

| Sandra Pavloff Conner
Photo Courtesy of Clker.com
Photo Courtesy of Clker.com

I generally post articles on this site that, hopefully, will be of interest to visitors and readers from all over the world, since I’ve been blessed with friendship by so many folks from other nations. That being said, I’ll let you know up front that this post is primarily addressed to the other citizens of the United States who visit here. However, what I’m saying about the removal of basic rights and freedoms in our nation is something that can be applied to every free nation on this planet. So, hopefully, even those of you who are not my countrymen, will find something here to make you think and/or encourage you to stand up for the rights of everyone in your own nation.

I came across a website last week (Dukes of Hillsboro) that is dedicated to and focused on clarifying and defending the Confederate battle flag and its display in both private and public venues. The group behind the site is also devoted to protecting the honor of those brave men who fought and died on the side of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War in the 1800’s. That protection includes seeing to it that their bodies are not dug up from their current graves and that their statues are not torn down or removed from public view.

These people are trying to explain that the Confederate battle flag does not currently represent racism or a division of people groups in this country. In fact, there are people of all races involved in this movement. But the flag, to them, represents their own heritage and history –and it honors their forefathers, who fought for what they believed America should represent. The Confederacy’s desire to protect the states’ rights against what they saw as a too-powerful and unfair centralized government was very similar to the desire of the original thirteen colonies as they fought to protect themselves from a too-powerful and unfair ruler across the Atlantic.

Some of the states’ rights the Confederacy fought for were moral and just, and some, to be sure, were quite immoral — specifically the right to own slaves.  (I think it’s worth adding here, however,  that the vast majority of Confederate soldiers who fought that war had never owned slaves in their lives.)  But the point is that they fought that war as Americans — who believed in a nation that was different from the nation the North (the Union) wanted and fought for.  Recognizing that fact, after the war, the United States government acknowledged every Confederate soldier as an American veteran — and has continued to honor those solders as such. The people whose forefathers were among those veterans have a right to fly the battle flag their ancestors fought under, and the constitution of the United States — specifically the Bill of Rights — guarantees them that right as part of their free speech.

Personally, when I see the stand the people at “Dukes of Hillsboro” are taking, I thank God we still have a few people in this nation with some backbone. We’ve almost come to the place where every citizen in this nation has the right to fly whatever flag he wants to fly — except one. Why, even Nazi supporters can fly and carry the Nazi flag all over the place, yet we have some government officials and several hundred other idiots now trying to tell us the people whose heritage includes having fought in the Civil War on the Confederate side do not have the right to fly the flag their forefathers carried bravely into battle.

Moreover, virtually every business that ever sold any items that even hint at being connected with Confederate history or that flag are banning all of those items and their use. There is no excuse for such attitudes or actions, and it’s clear to me — and anyone else with half a brain — that this whole “anti-confederate” movement is nothing but fools leading fools. (It’s the same kind of idiocy that has been displayed in the attempt to re-write Mark Twain’s book Huckleberry Finn to remove all references to racism, and the almost total ban in this country on the showing of Walt Disney’s  movie Song of the South.) We are not helping ourselves by trying to pretend these things are not part of our history. And as part of our history, they are part of us. Some of them, at times, may represent our baser selves, but they also remind us of how much we’ve changed and grown into something better.

As I mentioned in the introduction to this piece, the men who fought in the army of The Confederate States of America are — by law — identified as American veterans. But the point obviously needs to be made over and over in this country in order to beat it into the hard heads of these trouble-makers. The Confederate soldiers were fighting for what they believed America should be — but it was the vision of an America that differed from the vision the Union held. Nevertheless, their ardor and their efforts were genuine, and they committed themselves to pay whatever price it took to try to build that kind of nation instead of the one they believed had betrayed them.

As a result, to this present day, our United States government acknowledges them and honors them as veterans. And now we have some mentally twisted baboons who want to dig up the bodies of these American veterans and move them — and remove every statue of them off any public property. I can’t help but ask: would these baboons be just as willing for their own veteran forefathers’ bodies to be dug up and treated so inhumanely?

The whole attitude is insane. The flag — and the statues of Confederate leaders — have nothing — nothing — to do with racism today. They have to do with our history as a nation and, to a great extent, with heritage. But let’s be honest here: Even if they did have to do with racist ideas — we do still have freedom of speech guaranteed to us by the constitution of this nation. I don’t agree with racially prejudiced speakers, but I will defend to the death their right to say what they believe because I want the right to say what I believe.

Tell me: How much more racist can you get than the Nazi’s who tortured, mutilated, butchered, and murdered tens of thousands of people in an effort to destroy a whole race? Now that, my friend, is pure racism. Yet we allow citizens to fly and carry the Nazi flag whenever they want to — because we call it “freedom of speech.”

And why all this frenzy over the Confederate flag just because some lunatic who shot and killed people in South Carolina was seen in a picture that included a Confederate flag and a gun. What if he had been seen in a Batman uniform with a gun. Would we then have this almost maniacal movement to ban everything connected with Batman?  I don’t think so. And what if he had been pictured with a Nazi flag and a gun?  Would we make laws banning all Nazi flags from being flown and carried in the U.S.  Again, I don’t think so. Something else is at work here.

One news report described the behavior of the chancellor of the University of Missouri, who went berserk when he saw an old picture of some fraternity students holding three flags — the U. S. flag, the Confederate flag, and their own football mascot flag. First he insisted that none of the students in the picture were students from that university. He has now — according to the news story — publicly proclaimed that he will hunt down and investigate every student who was in the picture — which was taken at least three years ago at some fraternity activity.  Heaven help those students. I hope they have all graduated and moved far enough away he can’t find them, because it sounds a little like the Salem witch hunts to me.   Insanity.

But I find myself asking a rather unusual question in the midst of all this hullabaloo. Why would our government officials want to allow Nazi flags to be flapped around, but not Confederate flags? Could it be — now I’m not saying that it is — but you have to admit that it’s a valid question to ask — could it be that the Nazi flags don’t pose the threat to the super liberal centralized government that has taken over the Unites States in the last decade?  Could it be that the Nazi flag — being much more akin to the socialistic, central-government- controlled system that the liberals want — doesn’t frighten the “big-brother” regime that has managed to usurp power to an unconstitutional degree?

And could it be that the Confederate flag — on the other hand — represents the strong belief in states’ rights that were originally so carefully guarded and protected by the careful wording of our constitution — and also represents the willingness of a people to stand up and fight with everything in them to protect those rights and all their other freedoms?

And could it be that such a symbol does pose a threat to that socialistic regime, because it reminds people that it is possible to unite thousands of citizens to fight for their rights by taking on the centralized government that has become their enemy? And could that threat be part of what’s behind this insane move to try to wipe out everything that reminds people that there once was a group of citizens committed enough to take that stand?

I’ve already stated that some of the states’ rights the Confederate states fought for were moral and just, but some were very immoral — specifically the right to own slaves.  But the states’ rights that are being stolen away today — by the socialistic regime that has currently taken control in Washington D.C. — are not in any way connected with immoral actions.

Today, the rights we want to protect have totally moral and just foundations:  We want to safeguard the right of every state to protect its borders, the right of every state to refuse the legalization of abortions, the right of every state to refuse the legalization of gay marriage, the right of every state to refuse to allow the presence of multiplied mosques that represent and propagate a religion that butchers all people who stand against it, and the right of every state to protect the individual rights of her hard-working, innocent businessmen to decide with whom they want to do business.

Quite frankly, right now, when I look at the Confederate flag, I find within my soul a tiny flicker of hope that, just maybe, there will be some of us brave enough to take a stand again — and to do whatever it takes to reclaim the rights of our individual states.  In the eyes of some, that makes me a rebel. And maybe I am. But I’ll gladly wear that label if it identifies me as a U.S. citizen who is grateful enough for the blood-bought freedom this nation has always stood for — grateful enough to be willing to fight every enemy — foreign or domestic — that would destroy that freedom.

It’s time we got real, folks. It’s time we grew up and stopped standing around sucking our thumbs while our nation crumbles around us. It’s time for us to once again stand up for what is right and just in this land. We must stand up for the rights of these people who simply want equal “freedom of speech” rights concerning a flag that means something to them.

Perhaps you don’t agree with people flying the Confederate flag. Well, the wonderful thing about living in this country is that you have total freedom — you have the guaranteed right — to disagree with them and even say so publicly.  And you can do that.  But while you’re disagreeing with them, take a stand to defend their right to fly that flag you don’t agree with. If you do not stand up for their rights now — look out — because some specific rights that you care about will be taken away next!

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Dukes of Hillsboro Website

Doing Business in a “Free” Nation

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

CONSTITUTION & FLAG - CALIF STATE UNIV. - b&wThe people in my country are fighting again over who has rights and who does not. I keep asking myself why it is that when most people push for what they call “equal rights,” they usually mean that they want to get things all their own way, even though it means stomping all over someone else’s rights. Freedom is a two-way street, and any man or woman who wants to have the “right” to live his life in the lifestyle he chooses SHOULD also want every other man and woman to have that same freedom.

Not so these days. As many of my national and international readers know, we are in a battle over whether our government can force a private business owner to do business with every single person who comes to him, even if he has reasons of good conscience for refusing to do business with some people.

It seems very simple to me. Anyone who owns a business should be able to decide whom he does — and does not — do business with. And why should I, as a potential customer,  want to do business with some guy who doesn’t want my business anyway?  Why should I want to make him money?

But I digress into whimsy. Let me get back onto what I really have to say. This post is simply my way of speaking my own mind and trying to look at the issue sanely. My readers are welcome to read and comment — as long as comments are mature and kindly-spoken.  Or if you are the kind of reader who would rather not get into the heavier stuff, just breeze on by and look around the site for some of the lighter offerings.

FREEDOM IN DOING BUSINESS

So … What Is This Thing Called Freedom?

I have my own personal tutoring/editing business.  And when I, as a tutor/editor, do not have the right to choose to work with one person and not another — for any reason I deem important to me — then MY freedom has been taken away. And quite frankly, if I  am put in that position, I will most likely move to another country where I can still have that freedom. There are still some places in the world where they know the meaning of the words ‘freedom’ and ‘personal rights’ even if the United States seems to have forgotten the definitions.

I do not require other people to live the way I live. They can choose to live any lifestyle they want. But I should also be free to live any lifestyle I choose, and if I choose a lifestyle that includes quietly not interacting with some people — for whatever reason — then I have as much right to live my choice of lifestyle as anybody else.

And unless my business is connected to the U. S. government, I am the one — the only one — who has invested my money, my time, my blood, sweat, and tears into building that business and making it prosper. None of these other people have done one thing to assist my business. Therefore, morally, I am the only one who should have the right to decide with whom I do that business.

True freedom is a TWO-WAY street. but I’ve noticed over the past decade that our government seems to think that only gays, lesbians, and Muslims have rights worth fighting for. Certainly, they do have rights, but so do the rest of us. Where are the government interventions and legal battles on behalf of numerous Christians who have been robbed of their rights? It’s past time we started seeing a little fairness in our society. In fact, I’d just like to see a return to a little sanity period.

Let’s look at this situation more concretely. I once had an author request my editing services for his book. As I read the manuscript, I realized that his story was promoting, in depth, a demonic religion. The man actually had talent as a writer, and he was not offensive to me. However, as a committed Christian who tries to live every part of my life so that it agrees with and pleases Jesus Christ, I could not, in good conscience, devote my God-given talent, time, and energy to helping him polish and publish a piece of literature that I believe is a slap in the face of Jesus Christ  — and that will lead other people into deception and possibly a life of demonic practices that will take them into an eternity without God.

As kindly as I knew how, I explained to him what was in my heart and told him I just could not agree to do the work for him. I did not try to pressure him into believing what I believe, and I did not demean him in any way. He also acted in a manner befitting someone who wants equal rights for everyone. He did not take offense. He has his own beliefs, to which he is equally committed, and he willingly allowed me to have mine without trying to beat me into submitting to his beliefs. He simply found a different editor who did not have a problem with doing his book.

I also have a friend who is a lesbian and a very creative writer. I have done editing for her a number of times, but she knows that I cannot work on material that promotes lesbianism because of what is in my own conscience. Does she take offense at that or run off to find a lawyer to take me to court to try to force me to edit her pieces that include lesbian subject matter? Absolutely not. And why not? Because this person cares as much about me and MY individual rights as she does about her own. So I work with her gladly whenever I can, and she understands that her works that cover subject matter I’m uncomfortable with will need to be dealt with by someone else.

Now those two transactions are from my real life. So let’s take a look at a transaction that has not happened in my own life, but which represents some transactions that have come to light during this political battle. Let’s take a Muslim baker. Suppose I go into his bakery and order a cake for a special event, and I order these words for the top of the cake. “Jesus Christ is Lord! Mohammed is a Fake!”  Should that Muslim baker be forced by the U. S. government to bake that cake and write those words on the top of it? They go against everything he believes and lives for, and must, undoubtedly, grieve his own soul. Of course he should not be forced by anyone to bake that cake and write those words. He should not be forced to do business with me.

But here’s the real issue. I, as a person who genuinely cares about everyone’s individual rights, would never even think of asking that Muslim baker to do such a thing. I have more respect for him than that.

And my point is that he — and all gays and lesbians — and all illegal immigrants — and all other groups who keep shouting for “equal rights”  — should also have the same respect for me — and all other private business owners as well.

These two real-life transactions — and the imaginary one with the baker — are perfect examples of enactments of true freedom — not the hyped-up liberal, bulldozer kind of legislation that we’re seeing coming out of Washington, D.C. today.

It’s time to get back to the original concept of “equal rights” in this nation and to get on with the job of safeguarding true freedom the way we were intended to do it.

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Remembering/Mourning/Repenting/Praying We Really Do Care Enough To Prevent A Repeat

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

This video is part of an article by Joe Carter: “9 Things You Should Know About Auschwitz and Nazi Extermination Camps.”

A powerful and much needed article. But there’s something else we need to be reminded of. What they do not tell in this piece is that when Hitler began his take-over of the German people (In preparation for the carrying out of these horrible plans) almost every segment of society, including churches and religious leaders supported him. He convinced them — with his charismatic, persuasive verbage — that all the people would be much better off if he had more control of the government — and he gradually took over more and more of the daily life of the whole society, couching everything he did in “politically correct” language so that all the main components of society would follow and support him. When they finally woke up to what he was really doing, it was too late to stop him. Any of this sound familiar to anyone anywhere in the present-day world????

 

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You Have Another Chance, America. What Will You Do With It?

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

FLAG ON SHIP STRETCHED SHARPENED

I love my country with all my heart. I’m grateful beyond words that I was born here and have had the privilege of growing up as a United States citizen. And I am equally grateful for the outcome of yesterday’s election in our nation. Now that the conservatives have finally taken control of our Senate for the first time in 8 years, and have strengthened their control of our House of Representatives, we have another chance to stop some of the insanity that has been coming out of our nation’s capital the past 6 years and try to do things right for a change. I pray with all my heart that we will not throw away this new chance.

 

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Fight The Battle

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE CARTOON
In the United States, today is Women’s Equality Day — resulting from an act of Congress in 1971. It reminded me of something Susan B. Anthony said concerning battling for equality and rights. She said that sometimes a battle just needs to be fought, even when you know you can’t win it. Those words have come back to me more than once and given me encouragement when I was fighting battles that I felt sure I would not win on the first go-round. Regardless of the outcome, those battles needed to be fought.

It’s a truth that we would all do well to remember. There are times in life when the first time we fight a battle, we still lose, but the fact that we fought it to the end releases revelation and encouragement to others who will return to it in the future. And by the second, third, or fourth time that battle is taken up — perhaps even in another generation — the momentum gained has reached a level that ushers in the victory. If there’s something WORTH fighting for, don’t weigh the chances of victory or defeat — JUST FIGHT THE BATTLE.

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The End of WWII — The World Could Breathe Again

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

We celebrate Veterans’ Day tomorrow.   Let us never forget.

The following video has no sound, but it is the only film of the official Japanese surrender in existence. Since my dad and so many of those we loved sacrificed more than we will ever understand in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, this moment in history means a very great deal to me.

 

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A Real-Life Veterans’ Celebration

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

IN CELEBRATION OF VETERANS’ DAY IN THE U. S.

For those who lived that never-to-be-forgotten moment of learning we had won the war, and the world really did have a future —- and for those who never had to experience it but are truly thankful to the men and women who made it possible —- this video is a must. By Richard Sullivan, this video is his father’s real-life recording of VJ Day celebrations in Honolulu, minutes after the announcement that Japan had surrendered. Watch it with a box of tissues. 

 

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The Patriot Minute 11/10/13 — 60 seconds of meditating, re-evaluating, & re-affirming

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

If the United States would be a world leader for peace, then we must be a leader for righteousness first. So say many of our great leaders, who learned first-hand that righteousness begets peace, and peace then produces more righteousness.

But they did not discover this truth on their own. God Himself made it clear in His Word when He said, “ … He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, … yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
— Heb.12:10-11.

He also admonishes us with these words: “The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
— James 3:18.

And His ultimate declaration has been proven throughout history, not only in our own nation, but in a number of others as well:  “Righteousness exalts a nation.”
— Prov. 14:34.

SINGLE ROSE

“The Bible teaches us that there is no foundation for enduring peace on earth except in righteousness; that it is our duty to suffer for that cause if need be; that we are bound to fight for it if we have the power; and that if God gives us the victory, we must use it for the perpetuation of righteous peace.”
— Henry Van Dyke

“May it be among the dispensations of His providence to bless our beloved country with honors and with length of days. May her ways be ways of pleasantness and all her paths be peace!”
— Martin Van Buren

“The United States fully accepts the profound truth that our own progress, prosperity, and peace are interlocked with the progress, prosperity, and peace of all humanity.”
— Herbert Hoover

 

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English-Speaking Signs Say a Lot More Than Meets the Eye

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

I originally wrote this article on my “Happy Patriot” blog a couple of years ago, but tonight I found myself re-reading it — and feeling stirred up again to bring this troubling situation into focus once more. The problem has not gone away. It still exists and is still being forced down the throats of the American people. So I’m taking the opportunity to re-blog it on this site and thereby vent my anger and frustration without losing my temper.

In Answer to Questions Concerning My Personal Faith

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Over the past several of years I have been so privileged to meet and get to know many wonderful people through this blog. So many of you are from completely different cultures and have multiple interpretations of man’s spiritual destiny. I value each and every one of you, and I’m honored that you want to know about my personal religious faith. One of the best ways I can explain my faith is to re-post an article that I originally posted on one of my ministry blogs. The article gives the clearest explanation of what I believe concerning the human race’s situation with regard to it’s need of a God, a Savior, and a guarantee of a joyous eternity. So I am posting that same article here in the hope that it will help answer those folks who want to understand my faith more thoroughly.

CROSS - PLAIN, THICK - QUESTS.What Is This Thing Called ‘Salvation’?

“Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature (Greek: new species); the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. … Therefore, we … beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

“What’s it all about? This “being saved”? This being “born again”? What’s it all about? I just don’t understand it. And I could never get my life straightened out enough and cleaned up enough to fit in with Jesus Christ anyway.”

Ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that you might really like to turn your life over to someone stronger and wiser, who could get it straightened out and make some real sense out of it – give it some lasting purpose and value? But you just don’t think you measure up to God’s standards enough to come to Him?

Well, the good news – shouted loud and strong – in the scripture passage above is that you do not have to measure up to God’s standards – or anyone else’s. You don’t even have to get one little thing about yourself or your life made right before you come to God.

That’s right. I mean what I said. And I can say it with absolute confidence, because God Himself said it first. And He said it over and over again. The passage at the top of this article is just one instance, but, to me, it is one of the most important of those instances. I have two other favorite passages like it in importance: Romans 5:6: “Christ died for the ungodly.” 1 Tim. 1:15: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

Now, of course, if you don’t think you need a savior – if you believe you are holy enough to live in the presence of the holy God of the universe, nose to nose, eye to eye, breathing the same air He breathes for all eternity, without being cleaned up at all – then I’m not talking to you. But if you realize that you are not on the level of that holy God – that you are not righteous and pure enough by your own merit to live with Him – then I am talking to you – and so is He!

The simple truth is that the work has already been done for you. Jesus did it all. He gave up the privileges of being on the throne of Heaven, came to this earth as a man, and lived a perfect life for you. Then God laid all of the sinful nature (to which you are heir) and all of the rebellion, disobedience, ugliness, and hatefulness of all the sin in the human race on Jesus (2 Cor. 5 21), and put all the punishment for that sin on Him as well. He bore it all for you, and after His death on your behalf, He came up out of the grave – also on your behalf – with eternal life and the right to bestow that new life on you. We have “been crucified with Christ,” (Gal. 2: 19-20) and “even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up with Him.” (Eph. 2:5-6).

But when we decide we’d like to have that salvation and that new relationship with our Creator, we often hold back because we feel powerless to separate ourselves from sin or the world’s way of life – or even from our own selfish nature. We feel powerless to make ourselves “worthy” of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Well, if you feel that way, rejoice! Because that means you know the truth: We are powerless! But that is okay. Because the work of saving us is His – and His alone! And it’s already been done.

That’s what our beginning scripture is telling us. When God raised Jesus from the dead, He raised Him up as the head of a body – which would be made up of believers – everyone who would believe in that finished work. That’s what the verse in Ephesians means when it says He “raised us up with Him.” And that’s what the passage in 2 Corinthians means when it says that God was – in Christ – reconciling the world to Himself. That word reconcile means to bring back into original or proper position and make the relationship right again. That’s what the Word says God was doing when He crucified Jesus Christ and raised Him up again and seated Him in power and authority forever. He was bringing “the world” back into right relationship with Himself.

Now look at the rest of that verse: “not counting their sins against them.” Who is the pronoun “their” referring to in this verse? The church? The “good” people? The people who call themselves Christians? NO! The only plural noun in that whole verse that the pronoun “their” can refer to is the word “world.” Do you get it? God was – in Christ – not counting the world’s sins against them any longer. God was – in Christ (only in Christ) – forgiving all the people in the whole world for every sin counted against them. Can you grasp that exciting truth? In the mind and heart of God, it is already done. In the mind and heart of God, all of your sins are already forgiven – in Christ!

You see, that’s why there is no other way to salvation and eternity with God. There is no other religion, dogma, or program that has inherent within it the forgiveness of all sin and the eternal life granted by God. That forgiveness and that life are only in Christ – because He’s the only one who paid the horrible price of suffering and separation from God that was complete enough and perfect enough to buy freedom for the whole human race.

So, your next question is probably going to be, “Well if it’s already done, then what is my part?” Our part is believing and receiving. Even before Jesus’ crucifixion, when His disciples asked Him, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus told them, “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent.” (John 6:28-29).

Now, I do need to explain that the word “believe” from the original language means much more than mental assent. It means “yielding or surrendering to and obeying.” To truly “believe” means that you give yourself to it completely. But that is the beauty of it all. We do not have to do the work of salvation. We just have to surrender to that work and let it produce its fruit in us. How do we surrender? We simply pour out our hearts to this great, loving Jesus, who has done all the work. We simply tell him in our own words that we know we need what He offers and gladly give Him control in our hearts and our lives. (That’s what it means to make Him our “Lord.”)

Once we totally surrender, Jesus comes to reign on the throne of our hearts. From that position, He can begin to clean up everything else about us that needs cleaning up. You need never fear. Once He has the position of authority, willingly given to him by you, He knows how – and is well able – to do the rest of the work.

So what about that term “born again”? Go back to our original verse: “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature (Greek: new species).” When Jesus Christ comes in, our real man – the spirit man — is literally born again. A brand new species (the God-man species of Jesus Christ) comes in and generates its life in our spirit. (You must remember that man was created by a spirit God and therefore is primarily a spirit-being, having a soul and living in a body). Therefore the Word tells us again and again the we are to be aware of the fact that we are now “children of God.” (Romans 8:16, 1 John 3:2).

Now all of this work is done – finished. In God’s heart and mind it’s a “done deal.” But remember: it is done ONLY IN CHRIST. Therefore, it is only when we make the decision to yield ourselves to Jesus Christ and receive Him into ourselves and our lives that we get the benefit of this finished work. Although it is done, if we choose not to access it, we get no results from it in our personal lives.

You might compare it to the process of getting data from the Internet. You know there is data out there covering the subject about which you need information. But that data will do you absolutely no good at all unless you sit down, turn on your computer, take yourself to that site, open up the channel, and deliberately download that information. So — you must open up yourself to Jesus Christ and all He has done for you, and by believing (yielding, surrendering) download every single bit of it. It’s all yours. It has your name on it. But you have to hit the download (I Believe) button to receive.

So what is salvation? It is the free gift of a loving Father who has paid the deepest, truest, most sacrificial price to restore His rebellious children to Himself. It is the free gift of the brother Jesus, who has given Himself in our place and paid the full price, receiving brand new life to pass on to each one of us. The work of salvation has absolutely nothing to do with us. Our only work is to believe what He has done and surrender to it.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17).

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