Beautiful Picture

I like to take photographs with my camera.  I generally like taking pictures of birds, animals, and landscapes.  Sometimes I see something that would make a great photograph, but I haven't got my camera.  I had one of those experiences tonight.  I was taking pictures of hummingbirds eating at the hummingbird feeder that is attached to my kitchen window.  I had just put my camera away because it started raining really hard.  The rain drops were bouncing off of the pavement on the road that goes by my house.  Anyway as I am watching it rain a hummingbird lands on the feeder and he looks directly upward as the heavy rain falls on him.  The bird fluttered his wings under the drops of rain.  It was a wonderfully beautiful sight.

Sometimes we forget to look at the beauty of God's creation.  The world can be so dark and bleak at times that we forget that beauty still exists.  The Lord created everything seen and unseen.  He is the One that formed the earth and the universe and He placed the stars in their right places.  This God, the true living God made you and I as well.  God is good.

We live in a fallen world that is getting more wicked as the days go on.  We know that all people have a sin problem.  We have all sinned and we have all fallen short of God's high standards.  God made a way for you and I to be reconciled back to Himself by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to this world.   Jesus lived a perfect sinless life and He went obediently to the Cross where He bled and died for my sins and your sins and for the sins of every person throughout the world.  Jesus rose from the dead on the third day to show us that He is indeed God.  He is at the right hand of the Father and one day the Lord Jesus Christ will return to this earth and bring the Kingdom of God to the earth in full completion.

We must repent of our sins and place our faith in Jesus Christ and in Him alone for salvation.  We can't save ourselves.  We can't earn our way into Heaven.  There is not one of us that is good enough to obtain forgiveness of our sins on our own merit and there is no one good enough to earn their way into Heaven by good works.  Works will not save you and I.  Only Jesus Christ can save us, but we must receive Him as our Lord and Savior.

We are saved by grace through faith and that it is not of ourselves, but it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone of us can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Those who reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will be placed in a literal hell for all eternity because they refused to receive the forgiveness of their sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

It is a beautiful day in Heaven when a sinner repents of their sins and trusts in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  There is hope in Jesus Christ.  The world can seem like a hopeless place at times, but I tell you that you can have a true living hope by coming to faith in Jesus Christ.

We all face challenges and trials.  We may even have emotional ups and downs.  We may have problems at work and the stress nearly breaks us.  Sometimes we fall and we fail, but if we are trusting in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior God sees us as His child and that is a beautiful picture.

Lord,
I praise Your Name.
I am sorry for being foolish at times.
Have mercy on me O Lord a sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.
I pray that You would help me not to be discouraged when other people come against me.
Help our focus to be on You.
In Jesus Name I pray,
Amen.