Good morning and welcome in everyone. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
In 1618, about 13 miles south of London England, a local cowherd was walking his thirsty cattle. There was a drought that summer, and he was trying to find somewhere to water his herd. After a period of time of searching, he finally stumbled upon a pool of water. As thirsty as his animals were, his cattle turned their nose up at it, refusing to drink the water. Upon tasting it, he found it to be extremely bitter. It had bubbled up from an underground spring in a city named Epsom. Henry Wicker had discovered a naturally occurring magnesium and sulfate mineral compound in the water, known as epsomite. It has become more commonly called Epsom salts, named after the town in which it was discovered.
Since then, gardeners have used these salts to help their plants and flowers to grow. Some people claim that magnesium is a main element in a plant’s enzymes. The combination of these two ingredients helps a plant to draw more nutrients from the soil, and if they have more food, they will obviously grow better.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
Just as people use this salt to help their plants to grow, God gives us a spiritual compound to help us grow. Grace and forgiveness.
2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Grace and forgiveness are like food and water for our soul. There are times when we need a little sprinkle around our roots, but when we ask for it, He abundantly gives it to us. God wants us to grow into Spiritual maturity. He wants us to become fruitful and convert into the person He wants us to be, but like a plant trying to get through a drought, we need His help to survive.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Grace is defined as unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification. Forgiveness is completely unmerited because we don’t deserve it. All of us are sinners who have come short of the glory of God, but even though we are sinful wretches, God reaches out to this world with a free gift for those who call upon the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. Each of us were born through our mother’s womb into our earthly fleshy bodies, a body that is filled with sin and has a short shelf life. It’s only lasts for a short period of time because it grows old and eventually decays and dies. For those who desire it, God offers a gift of eternal life in paradise, but it requires being born again spiritually. Unless we go through this spiritual rebirth, we cannot enter God’s kingdom.
John 3:3-7 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Being born of water means to be baptized by submersion into the name of Jesus Christ. We go underneath the water because it represents a water grave, a death to the old sinful person that we have been in our past. Just like we were born through the fluid of your mother’s amniotic sac, we are reborn by God through a birth in the water of baptism. This is the start of a new life. At this moment, all of our past sins are expunged, as if we had never committed them in the first place, and because we have placed our faith in God’s Son Jesus, He wipes our slate clean, and forgives us.
There’s a specific reason that a gardener puts Epsom salt on his plants. It’s to help them grow into maturity. God extends to us forgiveness through His son Jesus for that very reason, so we can undergo a transformation from the sinner that we used to be, into a saint.
Each New year’s Eve, people in their humanness attempt to turn over a new leaf. In the world, people will attempt something one time and then fail, causing them to give up, but in the Christian Life, we can boldly come to the throne of grace in our time of need, so that if we do make a mistake, we can get back up and keep trying until we finally overcome and achieve success; the performance of God’s perfect will.
God gives us Grace so that we can be regenerated which means to be formed or created again; or spiritually reborn and converted. The Apostle Paul is an example of a man who grew exceedingly in God’s grace, and was completely transformed from what he used to be, into an entirely new person.
1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Forgiveness is given for our sanctification. Sanctification is the action or process of being freed from sin or purified. This happens through knowledge and belief in biblical truth.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
It’s by faith in scriptural teachings that we are cleansed and freed from sin.
Ephesians 5:26-27 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Just like thirsty tomato plants, we want to thirst for scripture, reaching towards the Son so that we can grow up in our faith.
1 Peter 2:2 – As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
It is absolutely amazing how God’s grace can completely change people’s lives, giving us the ability to correct our course and take a new direction. Even while we were yet sinners, Jesus laid down his life for us at the cross, so that we could become born again and begin a new life. We don’t want to receive God’s grace in vain, but use it as a springboard to launch us into a new avenue of faithful obedience and love for God.
Like a new baby plant, God wants to begin growing a new person inside each of us by His Holy spirit. He is sprinkling our roots with his mercy. So when it comes down to spiritual growth, I say……
……. Pass the Salt.
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching tlkjbc, where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms, or by getting our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com, or I suppose, you can find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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