Church Mouse

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
(Romans 3:21-24)

What do you do when you get news that you don’t want to hear? 
Do you get mad? Do you run away? Do you stick your head in the sand? 
Shoot the messenger? None of these actions will change the message. 

Here’s a story from the Old Testament about Israel. It’s from the book of Jeremiah, about Jerusalem while it was captivity, and under the rule of King Zedekiah. 

God gave Jeremiah a message to declare to Jerusalem: “Babylon will come down from the north and destroy the city… and unless you will to repent… there’s not a blessed thing you can do to stop it.”

Zedekiah, the King in Jerusalem didn’t like that message. And he didn’t want to repent. After all he was the King! He was the ruler; you know the guy in charge. He thought that he was invincible and he likely thought he was above the law. He also thought that he didn’t have to answer to his sins. Maybe l, thought he didn’t sin? So, King Zedekiah threw Jeremiah into prison and thought it would end the problem. WRONG! 

The only way to solve our problems is to give them to God!! 

However that also means that we must admit that we are wrong and that we have sinned. 

Therein lies the problem! We just like King Zedekiah we think we are able to take care of the situation on our own. 

We certainly do not want to admit we are wrong or that we have committed a sin! We are, after all Christians, therefore are above sinning. We attend church on Sunday morning and evening. We sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, and give to the poor. We never speed and if we get the wrong change back at the store we get the situation corrected. We are above reproach. 
No way could we be guilty of sin. 

This is same kind of thinking of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, here on earth, had. They were sure they were obeying the laws. The laws that they made, by the wsy

But, in Galatians 3, Paul tells us that we can not keep all those laws and even if we do, works and laws can not get us into heaven. Only our faith in the work of Jesus on the Cross will get us to heaven. That right the cross and nothing else will get you to heaven 

We must to ask forgiveness daily or even more often. You know “pray without ceasing.” 

There is a saying from a former Pastor in which he stated. 
“Be paid up, prayed up and ready to go up!” 

Prayer- 
Father God, thank you for sending Jesus to become a sacrifice for us, so we could get to live with you in heaven. Thank you Jesus, for loving us even when we don’t deserve it. Help us Father to strive to live for you. Help us to look to to in all our situations in life. We ask this in the name of Jesus. 
Amen. 

the Church Mouse 
Work hard; Pray Harder.