I’m Alive

We have made it to the end of the Week YES! As we ALL know today we are taking a moment to Celebrate what we know as Good Friday which is celebrate by millions. We are gearing up for what we know as Easter but to most Christians it's called Resurrection. As we reflect on this Week and preparing ourselves for Resurrection this Sunday lets take a moment to reflect on this. You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. —Ephesians 2:1 Laura Brooks, a 52-year-old mother of two, didn’t know it but she was one of 14,000 people in 2011 whose name was incorrectly entered into the government database as dead. She wondered what was wrong when she stopped receiving disability checks, and her loan payments and her rent checks bounced. She went to the bank to clear up the issue, but the representative told her that her accounts had been closed because she was dead! Obviously, they were mistaken. The apostle Paul was not mistaken when he said that the Ephesian believers were at one point dead—spiritually dead. They were dead in the sense that they were separated from God, enslaved to sin (Eph. 2:5), and condemned under the wrath of God. What a state of hopelessness! Yet God in His goodness took action to reverse this condition for them and for us. The living God “who gives life to the dead” (Rom. 4:17) poured out His rich mercy and great love by sending His Son Jesus to this earth. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are made alive (Eph. 2:4-5). When we believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we go from death to life. Now we live to rejoice in His goodness! —Marvin Williams I know I’m a sinner and Christ is my need; His death is my ransom, no merit I plead. His work is sufficient, on Him I believe; I have life eternal when Him I receive. —Anon. Accepting Jesus’ death gives me life. Bible in a year: 2 Samuel 3-5; Luke 14:25-35 Insight Twice in today’s passage, Paul affirms that our salvation is God’s gift, for “by grace you have been saved” (vv.5,8). He reminds us that we are saved so that we can do good works (v.10). In other epistles, Paul encourages us to be “zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14), to be “fruitful in every good work” (Col. 1:10), and to demonstrate “an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8). Martin Luther put it this way: “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.”