Today marks this anniversary and it is a good one because of what Paul wrote in his letter to the Roman church. We don’t have to give money to a specific church or doctrine or denomination in order for us to be saved. Jesus accomplished that for all of us on the cross by paying in full the debt which each person owes for their sins. Not just since His death and resurrection, but all the way back to Adam, the debt was paid and He led the captives free from bondage to sin or to an eternity in Hades or Abraham’s Bosom whichever you prefer.
Paul wrote the book of Romans to the church in Rome but so many have benefitted from its wonderful message over the centuries and it is because of the message contained within it. We are saved by the grace of God and not by anything which we do ourselves, period. Granted the beginning of that sentence is from the book of Ephesians, but Paul wrote that one as well. My point is that there is no amount of work or money or “Hail Mary’s” or prayer or lighted candles which will bring Heaven any closer to you or for your eternity. It is the power of God’s grace through faith in Jesus which saves your soul and nothing else!
Romans 5:6-8
“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus died for us, most of us, before we were ever born into this world! But, God knew each of us and our ability to serve Him and what we would do with Jesus in our hearts and it is for this reason that each of us who belong to HIm was called to become a Christian. Faith and belief in God and Jesus is what has brought salvation to many people through the ages, from Abraham on through the Old Testament, every person who was considered the least bit righteous did so because of their belief in God and His promises.
Belief and obedience to His Word was more important to God than all of the sacrifices in the temple. This is why believing in Jesus is so important for us today. The Bible is not just a book about the history of the Jewish people, it is God’s letter of love toward all people! Occasionally it is hard to understand, but with prayer and persistence it can be understood. Some of the concepts in the Bible are outdated today such as slavery but we do still have slavery in our world today, so it is relevant.
So many of our historical books are dated, yet the Spirit of God flows through the Bible and gives each person reading it a different message in their time of need. No matter what you are going through, there is a verse or chapter in the Bible which will give you comfort and direction if you will read it and pray for God to show you what He wants you to see in His Word for your situation.
The Protestant reformation brought about many good things, such as a printed version of God’s Word which any person who could read could also understand and believe in Jesus for salvation. Give God the glory for this accomplishment in our world and thank Him for calling you into His family.
Amen
But…what if you don’t believe this? What can you say about God and His love for you if you haven’t trusted Jesus as your Savior? If you are in that position, then I suggest that you seek Him out for your salvation soon. Because the time of grace which the world has enjoyed for the past two thousand years or so is coming to an end. I won’t be presumptuous or vain enough to even try to give you an idea of a date or year in which He will return, but He is coming soon.
Whether you have accepted Jesus as your Savior or not, the church is a family. An extended family, but a family nonetheless. Why do I call the church a family? Because we are linked to each other by the blood of Jesus our Savior! Through Him we are adopted into God’s family, 
What have you done with your 1,440 minutes today? A number of those were spent sleeping since our account resets itself at midnight, so depending upon how late you sleep or how early you get up determines how many of those minutes you have to do something with. There have been songs written about time and how it slips away from us or how we should be cherishing our time with those we love. What about the time which we have to serve God?
It is a scary thing to think that you are safe and then find out that you are not. When a gunshot goes off near your home or maybe someone breaks into your house and steals some of your possessions, your feelings of safety go away in an instant. Then what? Do you react to this and get a better door or a better lock for your door? Do you get a gun to protect yourself and your family? Should you get some training to use that gun in case it comes to that one day?
Jesus told His disciples not to worry about tomorrow or about things which you have no control over, so why do we do it? During my life I have noticed that we tend to worry about things which are just out of our reach and our control and it seems to be just part of the human condition to do so. Worry serves no real purpose except to spur us on toward attempting to fix different problems.
We are tasked with getting out of our comfort zones each day. Some of us more than others, but at some point we do step out of our “zone” during the day either at work or at the grocery store on an airplane or a bus. We will come into contact with a person who needs to hear something from us and that is where the voice of God speaks up and tells us to talk to that person or this one!
