ARE YOU SAVED

WORD OF WISDOM

SAVIOUR ~ One who saves from any form or degree of evil. In its highest sense the word indicates the relation sustained by our Lord to his redeemed ones, he is their Saviour. The great message of the gospel is about salvation and the Saviour. It is the "gospel of salvation." Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ secures to the sinner a personal interest in the work of redemption. Salvation is redemption made effectual to the individual by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Source: Easton's Bible Dictionary

ARE YOU SAVED?

Have you asked the Lord into your life? What pray tell does that have to do with being saved? First we have to look up the word saved.

transitive verb 1 a: to deliver from sin b: to rescue or deliver from danger or harm c: to preserve or guard from injury, destruction, or loss d: to store (data) in a computer or on a storage device (as a floppy disk or CD) 2 a: to put aside as a store or reserve : accumulate b: to spend less by 3 a: to make unnecessary : avoid b (1): to keep from being lost to an opponent (2): to prevent an opponent from scoring or winning 4: maintain, preserve intransitive verb 1: to rescue or deliver someone 2 a: to put aside money b: to avoid unnecessary waste or expense : economize c: to spend less money 3: to make a save

Okay, does that help, or confuse. Right there first thing a: to deliver from sin. But what does that have to do with being saved, or for that matter with asking the Lord into your life? Isn’t life interesting when we start trying to understand what we think we know?

Now we could go back to the Old Testament and look at the word saved there, but to keep it as simple as possible we will stay with the New Testament. Acts 16:23-33 23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: 24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. 25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. The two main scriptures we want to look at here are 31 and 32. The prison keeper asks the question “What must we do to be saved.” Paul tells him “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved, and thy house.”

We will explain the reason behind the keeper of the prison asking this, but first let’s look at what he did in fact ask. He did not ask what it was, the point being he wanted to know how to be saved. As simple as his question was Paul’s answer. “Call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now we will look at why the keeper asked how to be saved. He is in charge of all the prisoners, suddenly the ground shakes, the doors open, and this man knows two things; he will be held responsible for any one that gets away; and secondly whatever Paul and Silas has is more powerful then any thing he has ever saw. What can I do to be saved?

This has got to be this man’s lowest point in life. I try to put myself in his shoes, what was going through his mind at this point. I can just see him getting his light and looking at these two men. Were they anything other then ordinary looking men? No they appear normal, what sets them apart? Whatever it is, if it can open the doors of the prison for them, then surely it can save him also. Whatever it is he wants it. What can I do to be saved? The cost was of no concern to him, only that he be saved.

Being saved is asking the Lord Jesus into your life. Have you asked the Lord into your life? If so then you are saved. Does this mean you know all you need to know about the Lord? Of course not. What it means is you have taken the first step into the kingdom of God. Now that you are saved you want or should want to know what to do now. That should be an easy question. If you have asked God into your life, where do we go from here?

What does being saved mean now that we are saved?

God Bless

rECj/LJG