Salvation | Wayne Stiles

Archives For Salvation

Posts related to salvation.

Your Motivation for Living for God

Before I had a family, I had a different car—a black Firebird with T-tops.

Sitting behind those eight cylinders, I could go from zero to too-fast in about five seconds (but, of course, I never did).

Your Motivation for Living for God Your Motivation for Living for God

(Photo by Photodune)

After Cathy and I had our first daughter, I decided I needed a family vehicle. Car seats don’t fit in Firebirds.

So I sold the car.

A few months later, I found a spare set of keys to the Firebird, and I thought: I need to get these to the new owner. Even though I could have kept the keys (as insignificant as it seemed), they really weren’t mine to keep. I had sold them, in a sense, when I sold the car.

Living for God is like finding a spare set of keys to a car you no longer own.

In fact, you have a whole lot of keys that aren’t yours.

The Jordan River—Your Place of Transition

Other rivers have more beauty. Many are longer. Most are cleaner.

But none has garnered as much affection as the Jordan River.

The Jordan River—A Place of Transition The Jordan River—Your Place of Transition

(Photo: The Jordan River, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

It wasn’t the beauty of the Jordan River that inspired centuries of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to include it in their verses.

Its significance began as a simple geographic barrier, which—practically speaking—represented a border (Joshua 22:18-25). In fact, the serpentine river still represents a border between Israel and the nation of Jordan.

In Scripture, however, the river’s presence on Israel’s eastern edge stood as an enduring metaphor of transitions.

Significant transitions, in fact.

Blame Shifting our Blunders

Finger pointing is hard-wired into our hearts.

In fact, it started early in human history. Like, really early.

Blame Shifting our Blunders Blame Shifting our Blunders

(Painting by Domenichino. Public domain)

In the Garden of Eden, God confronted Adam and Eve after they sinned, and their reaction set the course for an entire race of blame-shifters.

We’re still shifting the blame (and getting blamed).

The solution is the same today as it was then.

Did the Old Testament Offer Only One Way to God?

We can only approach God’s presence God’s way. But are there multiple ways?

The New Testament clearly reveals that only through Jesus can anyone come to God the Father (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 2:23).

But what about in the Old Testament?

Ten Commandments sign on Mount Zion tb010312633 Did the Old Testament Offer Only One Way to God?

(Photo courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

After King David conquered Jerusalem and secured it as his capital, he desired to bring the Ark of the Covenant up from Kiriath-Jearim into his new City of David. But in his passion to have God’s presence, David neglected to follow God’s principles. That negligence of improperly transporting the Ark cost a man his life (2 Samuel 6).

Three months later, David correctly transported the Ark into Jerusalem and placed it in a tent he pitched for its keeping.

In this experience, David gained a profound respect for God’s holiness.

This principle directly relates to the question: did the Old Testament offer only one way to God?

Good Friday Gives Your Shame a Choice

Good Friday wasn’t so good for Judas.

The guilt-ridden betrayer of Jesus hung himself and then fell headlong, spilling his innards. Hence, the residents later named the place where it happened, “Akeldema,” or “Field of Blood” (Acts 1:18-19).

Judas may have chosen this place to die for a specific reason.

Monastery of St Onuphrius traditional Akeldema entrance tb091306430 Good Friday Gives Your Shame a Choice

(Photo: Monastery of St Onuphrius, traditional Akeldema, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Today, the peaceful Monastery of St. Onuphrius at Akeldema offers no clue to the fact that Judas killed himself at that site—nor does it reveal the Hinnom Valley’s sordid history.

Horrific atrocities occurred in the Hinnom Valley during the days of Judah’s kings (2 Chronicles 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31).
In Jesus’ day, the city dump lay in this gorge. Some suggest that fires continually burned the trash, and so Jesus used the smoldering landfill of Gehenna as an illustration of hell’s eternal flames (Mark 9:43).

Because Jesus compared the Hinnom Valley to hell, one has to wonder if this is the reason Judas’s desperate regret led him to end his life in this ravine.

Like Judas, you have failed. But Judas’ shame doesn’t have to be yours.

Good Friday gives your shame a choice.

Peter shows us why.

How God Connected Passover, Redemption, and the Holy Land

God told the Hebrews when to observe the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. At first, to be honest, the command seems random.

The feasts were to occur at the appointed time of Abib, or Aviv (Exodus 23:15)—a Hebrew word that refers to the time in spring when the grain begins to ripen. The first Passover occurred on the fifteenth day of Nisan, which became the first month of the Jewish calendar.

How God Connected Passover Redemption and the Holy Land1 How God Connected Passover, Redemption, and the Holy Land

(Photo: Passover Seder cup, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

This timing occurred for good reason.

The Lord gave His people a plain explanation why the celebration should coincide with spring:

For [then] you came out of Egypt. —Exodus 23:15

God linked the Passover celebration with their redemption.

But why the springtime? There was a problem with the calendar that had to get fixed. Its fix offers a lasting lesson.

Even for Christians.

The Dominus Flevit Church—and a Triumphal Entry that Wasn’t

As I made my way down the Mount of Olives, I couldn’t help think about the day Jesus rode down the slope on the back of a donkey.

His words that day hardly seemed fitting for a “Triumphal Entry.”

The Dominus Flevit Church—and a Triumphal Entry that Wasnt The Dominus Flevit Church—and a Triumphal Entry that Wasnt

(Photo: Jerusalem from inside the Dominus Flevit Church, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

When Jesus saw Jerusalem, He wept over it:

If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. —Luke 19:42

I pondered the words. Why did He say: “this day . . .”?

The prophet Daniel penned a meticulous prediction of the very day when the Messiah would appear in Jerusalem.

It was that very day.

8 Tips to Maximize Your Holy Land Tour

In my previous post, I offered some suggestions for how to prepare for a Holy Land Tour.

After all, you’re investing a lot of money and significant time for this journey. It makes sense to prepare yourself beforehand so that you get the most from your experience in Israel.

Western Wall and Dome of the Rock tb092603105 8 Tips to Maximize Your Holy Land Tour

(Photo: Western Wall and Temple Mount, courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

But after you arrive in Israel, there are a number of ways you can ensure you get the most from your Holy Land tour.

The following 8 tips include both practical and spiritual ways to maximize your experience every single day you’re there.

Bethlehem—A Metaphor for Your Heart

Except for sporadic fistfights among the priests in the Church of the Nativity, we usually picture Bethlehem as a place of serenity.

After all, history reveals the city as the hometown of King David. It was the adopted home of godly Ruth. And of course, it was the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

Bethlehem from above tbs43109009 Bethlehem—A Metaphor for Your Heart

(Photo: Today’s little town of Bethlehem, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Christmas cards and carols venerate Bethlehem as an idyllic, quiet place with “silent stars” above it and “deep and dreamless sleep” within its walls. A pleasant picture, for sure.

But it wasn’t always so.

Jesus’ Birth in a Barn Had You in Mind

It must have seemed really strange. Honestly, it still does.

Two thousand years of waiting for the Messiah, and He is born in a barn and laid in a feed trough.

Shepherd with lamb in Negev riverbed tb010303618 Jesus Birth in a Barn Had You in Mind

(Shepherd in modern Israel, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

If it had been up to us, we would have given God’s Son a room in the finest five-star hotel in Bethlehem. But Jesus got only a one-star motel—and God had to provide the star!

When the shepherds hurried into Bethlehem to find the baby of whom the angels spoke, the wonder of God’s power must have seemed a strange contradiction to the conditions they found.