My three salvations starring...Fred MacMurray

Well, all right, Fred MacMurray is nowhere to be found, but I have been saved from the penalty of sin, I am being saved from the power of sin, and I will be saved from the presence of sin with or without Mr. MacMurray's portrayal of an aeronautical engineer trying to raise three boys. I have always known that the salvation that God has secured for me from the penalty and presence of sin was to bring me joy in the midst of suffering. To know that I was once hell-bound but, in trusting Christ as my Leader (Lord) and Forgiver (Savior) I have a future in heaven with him and the Father is an amazing thing and cannot be overstated. Literally, it can't. But I need to say that sometimes those past and future events seem pretty far from me especially when I am struggling with something. I know that is a deficiency on my part...just one more I need to add to the list. But then I got to thinking about something.

There is another salvation, namely that from the power of sin, that seems much closer to me here and now than the other two. It seems like this salvation is even a bit easier for me to meditate on as my life before Christ and after I have left this place seem pretty remote and even a little incomprehensible to me. But, the bad decisions I didn't make, the long walk in the opposite direction of where I should be that I have not taken, the temptation that I used to yield to - all of those things are much more clear to me than the "once was" or the "yet to come". The rich life I have, today; the great love that God has shown me, today; the character that He has built into my children in spite of who I am, today is a joy that I can see and feel, today.

I can't remember 20% of the words that I spoke or even wrote yesterday but I can lay my head on my pillow and know that the person next to me is a precious gift that God has given me to, in part, save me from the power of sin. I don't recall, and probably recall incorrectly, the conversations that He used to lead me to Christ but I remember the conversation we had last night as we counseled our son from the Bible as God looked to save both him and us from the power of sin. I don't even know how to articulate "eternity" let alone have any sense as to what my experience in it will be like. But I do know that my suffering, whatever form that takes today or tomorrow, can't hold a candle to how God used my feet, hands, and lips to talk about the virtue of honesty with the church's children during last Sunday's service.

My present salvation is enough a source of joy for me without even bringing in the past and the future. This life, this life and a life more glorious to come? There is no one like our God.