GOSPEL NUGGET #366

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

There is a growing movement circulating around in the internet, especially Facebook, about finding a cure for ALS or Lour Gehrig's disease. It is a fatal neurological disease that has no cure.

It is called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Famous celebrities in their symbolic support to find a cure to freeze this disease would be poured water on using an ice bucket.

You know, a similar thing happened 2000 years ago. Unlike the symbolic gestures of these celebrities, the Lord Jesus actually poured His blood on account of our sins. He took the "challenge." He died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin.

We are incurably sick spiritually and are in dire need of salvation. Anyone who trusts in Him and what He did on the cross alone for salvation will be spiritually cured...saved.

GOSPEL NUGGET #365

Who Are Actually Saved By God?

God sent His Son into the world to save sinners. As such, the Lord Jesus Christ is the potential and the provisional Savior of all sinners. However, salvation does come with a condition.

Here read it for yourself:

Joh 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER BELIEVES (trusts) IN HIM should not perish but have everlasting life.

1Co 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached TO SAVE THOSE WHO BELIEVE (trust in Jesus).

1Ti 4:10 For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO BELIEVE (trust in Jesus).

The Lord Jesus is the potential and the provisional Savior of all, but He is only the actual Savior of those who trust in Him and what He did on the cross for salvation.

GOSPEL NUGGETS #364

The Hole In Our Hearts

I remember a story about a man who went into a doctor's clinic for his severe depression. The doctor told him to go into a certain theater where a very funny clown would perform regularly. The doctor guaranteed him that it would surely help his depression.

The man replied: "Doc, I am the clown."

Nothing in this world satisfies. There's this eternal hole in our hearts that only an eternal God can fill. The things of this world are only mere temporary distractions to make you forget about the hole for awhile. In the end, when you are by yourself, you know that it is still there.

It's like a famished and dehydrated man who dreamed that he was in a banquet house. He stuffed himself full. He drank to his heart's content. He had a good time. Only to wake up to the sad reality that it was all a cruel dream.

As they say: "There is this God-shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill." Let's be tired and weary already in chasing substitutes. Come to Christ.

He died for our sins and rose again from the dead.

GOSPEL NUGGETS #363

Mt 18:2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them,

Mt 18:3 "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Lord Jesus is not teaching us here to be childish but to be childlike in our attitude. One must become like a little child for him to enter the kingdom of heaven.

What is it to be like a little child? It is to be marked by humility. Humility is seeing ourselves as to who we really are in the eyes of God nothing more, nothing less and nothing else.

Just as a little child has no exalted opinion about himself, so a humble person does not view himself highly in the eyes of God. He knows who he is and acknowledges the fact that he is a sinner, worthy of God's judgment and condemnation.

He takes the lowly place. He does not look up and say to God: "Look, I did this and I did that. I have been a good person, and so, therefore, I now have earned the right to be saved by You."

No, a humble person simply submits obediently to the terms that God has laid for a sinner to be saved. Just as a little child is dependent on his parents for sustenance, so a humble person depends and relies on Christ and what He did on the cross for salvation.

Have you become as a little child?

GOSPEL NUGGET #362

State Of The Soul Address

Just recently the president of the Philippines gave his annual state of the nation address (SONA) to millions of Filipinos watching on TV and to those listening on radioland.

It is important to us as a nation to be updated about the condition of our nation, where we are heading and what we are doing about it.

It is even more important to know and realize our soul's condition before God. Knowing who we are in the eyes of God is an essential step towards salvation.

Read ye God's address about the condition of our souls:

Ps 14:2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men...
3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.

In His eyes, we are all sinners. We have not been walking in God's way. Our moral condition is depraved and corrupt. The spiritual economy of our souls is bankrupt. There is none who does good.

We all need to come to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in Him alone for salvation.

GOSPEL NUGGET #361

John 21:9 Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread.

John 21:12 Jesus said to them, "Come and dine."....

The disciples were busy when the Lord Jesus invited them to eat breakfast. When they came, everything was completely ready for them. All they had to do was eat and enjoy what He prepared for them.

If you allow me to apply the principle to salvation, it was He who prepared for us the blessing of salvation. It was He who made it ready for us when He died on the cross of Calvary.

We don't have to work and prepare and make it ready ourselves. The salvation banquet was already done when He said: "It is finished." Now, He simply offers it to us freely saying: "Come and dine."

In love and grace, He condescended to become our spiritual cook and waiter. If salvation were a dish, we don't have to cook it ourselves. No, the dish is already cooked and laid ready on the dining table. Look and behold! Even the chair is already pulled out for us! We only have to sit down and eat.

Will you come and simply receive by faith and enjoy and be satisfied with the salvation that He prepared for you? Will you come and dine?

GOSPEL NUGGET #360

Hazing In Fraternities And Salvation

A lot of young people desire and long for acceptance so much from their peers that they are willing to undergo physical torture just to be accepted. We often hear of college students being mauled to their deaths far too many times in a hazing session.

By the grace of God, salvation is not like that. God can and will accept any sinner who will come to Him through faith in Christ Jesus.

It was Him who underwent a "hazing" session for us when He was scourged, spat upon, beaten black and blue and then crucified on the cross of Calvary.

Come to Christ, trusting in Him and what He did on the cross and you will be accepted by God as His child and you will be welcomed into His "fraternity" as one of the brothers in His family.