Today we will look at a number of haikus
about Salvation.
The
Sprinkler
Refreshing
and cool
This
hot day the Sprinkler calls
Salvation
is here
Salvation
is like a sprinkler on a hot day. The warmer the day gets the more we realize
the joys of the sprinkler. God provides the Sprinkler of Salvation. He made the
Sprinkler (through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus); we did not make
it. The sanctified water shoots from the Sprinkler of Salvation that God has
provided. You and I are invited to come towards that Sprinkler of Salvation. As
we respond to that call we become more and more drenched by the water of Jesus’
love which sprays from the Sprinkler of Salvation. The day remains hot and the
hotter it gets the more the Sprinkler beckons (in this analogy, the day does
not cool in our lifetime). At times many of us wander to and from that
Sprinkler and thus experience more or less the joy of the Sprinkler of
Salvation that is available to us all. It is my hope, and indeed the Lord’s
desire that none of us should suffer outside of the relief of the Sprinkler of
Salvation now and forever.[1]
The Parcel
The perfect present
Is everything you’ve wanted
Salvation is here
Salvation is like a parcel delivered to
you on your birthday or other such occasion. In this parcel is something that
you have always needed. It was ordered for you at great expense by someone who
loves you (Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour). It is yours. As you open it
your whole life will change. Joy will fill your heart. If you never open it you
will never experience it; if you put it away and stop using it you will no
longer experience its joy. Your friend who loves you not only offers it to you,
they have already given it to you. It is wrapped and sitting in your hands
today. All you need to do is open it.
Abandoned House
Joy beyond belief
Abandoned, left desolate
Sad apostasy
Apostasy
is an abandoned house. Once it was beautiful. Once it was loved. Once it was
lived in. Once it was alive with love and with life. People were raised here,
memories were formed but now the people have left. The love has left. The life
has left. It is only a shell and that shell is crumbling more and more each day
until someday it may come down.[2] 2
John 2:8, Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you
may be rewarded fully.
Restored House
Joy, lost and now found
Twice as sweet as it once was
Forgiveness is love
When
an abandoned house is repaired brick by brick or plank by plank, the house
begins to come to life. As the repaired house is repainted it becomes inviting.
As the invitation is accepted, love, life, family, friends and joy return. This
is forgiveness. This is Salvation. As we forgive others, our healing becomes
like a renovated house, as we accept the Lord’s love and forgiveness, His
Spirit dwells in us.
The Book
The book is a jacket
Until it is read and then
It’s an adventure
My
family loves reading: my kids, my wife, myself. We all enjoy our books. I think
every wall in our house that can have a bookshelf against it, probably does. We
have everything from children’s books, to cook books, to music magazines, to
theological treaties, to historical documents, and much more. Between us we buy
a lot of books. Susan gets a lot of books from Amazon. Every once and a while,
I find a classic at the Thrift Store or a used book store for next to nothing.
Sometimes I find two or three books at a time. I can only read so many books at
once so if I find that when I have
purchased or received more than that at a time, I can put them on a shelf or
somewhere else and never read them. The whole time they sit on the shelf they are
nothing more than a piece of artwork, a title. It is only when I pick them up
and read them that I learn and discover and live what the author wrote for me
to experience.
Salvation
is the same way. When we open the cover of our relationship with God through
prayer and turn the pages of Salvation through Bible study and read the words
through listening to and obeying Christ we are filled with all the joy and
strength of the book but until then our Salvation is no more experienced than
an unread book in a jacket upon a shelf.[3]
Marriage
Not just a wedding
and big party, but a life
A real marriage
Salvation
is not just saying some words. Salvation is not just uttering a prayer.
Salvation is not just getting baptized or taking communion. Salvation is a life
that one spends with the Lord for Eternity.
It
is like the difference between a wedding and a marriage. A wedding is an event.
If the last time that you saw your spouse was on the day you said, ‘I do’ than
you may be wed but you certainly never experienced the joys of life with your
spouse: you do not have a marriage. But when you and your partner grow together
through all of life’s struggles, trials, and celebrations; you become more like
your spouse and even know their thoughts.
This
is like Salvation, our life with the Lord. The more time we spend with Him the
more we experience Him in our life, the more we turn to and rely on him, the
more we love Him, the more we experience our salvation.
A Walk with a Friend
A walk with a friend
This is true Salvation
A means not an end
Salvation
is not merely a state to be obtained. It is a relationship. When we are in
relationship with our Lord we experience the joy of Salvation. When one is not
in relationship with our Lord one does not experience all the the joys of
Salvation. As we continue to walk with the Lord we continue to experience
Salvation through all the joys, trials, tribulations, and exhilaration of life.[4]
True
Salvation is not merely a heaven that you walk to with
your Lord and Saviour. True Salvation is the heaven that you experience while
walking with Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour both now and
forever.
The Good News of Salvation: Doctrines 9
&10
It can continue
The Good News of Salvation
As we walk with God
All
of these analogies are true and more. Jesus gives us many metaphors of
Salvation in the Gospels. There are some key things that we should probably
know and realize in our lives:
1)
Salvation
is not merely a final destination; it is a relationship, a journey with our
Lord and Saviour. Salvation is us living with and serving our Lord, starting
now and with the option to continue forever.
2)
Salvation,
Christianity and Holiness are not distinct from each other. They are based on
the same word - Hagios; they are one in the same. If you are saved, you
are a Christian (Saint), and if you are a Christian (Saint) you are holy. The
Bible is very clear that as we spend more time with God, the Holy Spirit makes
us more like Him. God changes us; the world doesn't necessarily change, we do.
3)
When
we are experiencing the Lord's salvation in our life it does not mean that we
will have the perfect life in the sense that nothing troubling will ever happen
again. Until Jesus returns, bad things will still happen; sad things will still
happen; mad things will still happen; as will perplexing and vexing things.
What our Salvation means in the here and now is that in the midst of real life
we can experience the peace of Christ and the Joy of the Lord in all our
circumstances. And as we do we can be employed by Him to offer the same peace,
love, and comfort to all we meet in Jesus' Name. So, let us do just that and…
Let
us pray…
SELECTED RELEVANT SCRIPTURES
2
John 6-9 (NIV):
And this is love: that we walk in
obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is
that you walk in love. 7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not
acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world.
Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not
lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who
runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God;
whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
Philippians 2:12&13 (NIV):
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you
have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my
absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it
is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good
purpose.
Proverbs
10:16 (NIV):
The wages of the righteous is life, but
the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.
Romans
6:22-23 (NIV):
22 But now that you have been set free
from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness,
and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
2
Corinthians 6:1-9 (NIV):
As God’s co-workers we urge you not to
receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favour I heard
you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of
God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s
path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of
God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles,
hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work,
sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness;
in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power
of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8
through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded
as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on;
beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet
making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24 (NIV):
May God himself, the God of peace,
sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept
blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is
faithful, and he will do it.
------------
[1]Cf. The
General of the Salvation Army. Salvation
Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine. (London, England: The Salvation
Army International Headquarters, 1998), 73: "...our God-given free will is
itself flawed by sin. It cannot operate in true freedom without the grace of
God.”
[2] Cf. Samuel
Logan Brengle, Heart Talks on Holiness
(Atlanta, Georgia: The Salvation Army Supply and Purchasing Department, 1988),
97, 109: “it was for [holiness] we were born and to fall short of this will be
infinite, eternal loss, and doom us to an everlasting night of shame and
contempt.” “Our walk with Him must be constant…or else we will seek for Him
some day and not find Him.”
[3] Cf. Cf.
Richard B. Hays, Galatians, in NIB,
Vol. 11, ed. Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000),
328.And James Montgomery Boice, The
Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Galatians/Exposition of
Galatians/III. The Call to Godly Living (5:1-6:10)/C. Life in the Spirit
(5:13-26)/1. Liberty is not license (5:13-18), Book Version: 4.0.2
[4] Cf. The
General of the Salvation Army. Salvation
Story: A Handbook of Salvationist Doctrine. (London, England: The Salvation
Army International Headquarters, 1998),85-86: Salvation is neither a state to
be preserved nor an insurance policy which requires no further investment. It
is the beginning of a pilgrimage with Christ.
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