Open Heaven 21 August
MEMORISE: “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” – (Matthew 24:13)
BIBLE READING: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (KJV)
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
Read yesterday’s Open Heaven Devotional here
Some theologians teach that once you are saved you are forever saved. This is the lie of the devil. The truth of the matter is that there is temporary (provisional) salvation as well as eternal salvation. One can be saved temporarily and be damned eventually if he falls out of the will of God, whereas God has also made provision for our eternal salvation if we abide by His word which is able to save us ultimately to the end (James 1:21). The Bible says: Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. – (Ecclesiastes 7:8)
There are examples of people who started well in the Christian race but fell by the way side, chief among whom was Judas Iscariot – one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. Beloved, do not allow yourself to be deceived, thinking that once you are saved, nothing can take away your salvation. If Judas – a disciple of Christ could fall and lose his eternal salvation, nobody should consider Heaven a certainty while living a life of sin. Heaven is guaranteed only if you live righteously to the very end.
Complete obedience to the word of God is a fundamental condition for eternal salvation. James 1:22,25 says:
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves…But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continued therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
In addition to obeying the word of God, another condition is our endurance of persecution to the end. Jesus Christ, in our memory verse of today categorically tells us that only those who endure to the end shall be ultimately saved (Mathew 24:13). Why persecution? The Bible says “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).
This Scripture corroborates what our Lord Jesus Christ said in John 15:19:
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore, the world hateth you. Beloved, let us endure to the end and we shall experience eternal salvation, in the name of Jesus.
ACTION POINT: Father, please help me to endure to the very end so I would receive eternal salvation. Don’t let me fall by the way, in Jesus’ name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Psalm 119
Thank you for studying today’s Open Heaven – You Must Cross the Finish Line – written by Pastor Enoch A.
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Open Heaven 21 August 2021
