But God....

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Romans 5:6-8 says, “ For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

     Every now and then something takes place that is a complete surprise.  I opened the door a couple of years ago when there was a knock and found a man holding up a bag of frozen fruit.  I inquired as to what he wanted and he replied that he was my neighbor and that he had too much of this fruit and wanted to give me a bag of it.  I took it and soon made a couple glasses of frozen fruit in the blender.  Not too long afterwards, I baked a fresh loaf of wheat bread and took it down to my new neighbor who had given us the fruit.  Since that time, that neighbor had become one of our closest  friends  and has helped us out many times with surprise after surprise.  He was the only one to get me off the floor after sliding out of the bed when I was sick and that was two o’clock in the morning.  

     Life is filled with “but God” phrases in it such as the one that is in the above passage from the Word of God.  It is one of those surprises that we wouldn’t have expected had we not seen it in the Word of God.  People often think they have to get  their lives in order before they can come to God.  They might want to quit smoking, or quit drinking or get off drugs or whatever else they are doing before they can come to God.  Unfortunately, that will never happen.  As the hymn says that Billy Graham used so much, “Just  as I Am.”  I am surprised and marvel at the phrase, “even while we were yet sinner, Christ died for us.”  Time is of the essence when it comes to the call of God for salvation.  There should be no delay in getting peace with God as soon as possible so there is no time to clean up your life and you come as you are and as the man said in the Scripture, ,”God, be merciful to me a sinner.”  That ‘s what we are and before we come to God, we are not allowed to enter heaven but after we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, we are ready to go to glory and what t a time that will be. You may be going down the road of life thinking you are doing okay, and then you come across the words, “but God…”  God will intervene with circumstances that force you to turn to Him.  God will be your only resource.  Don’t delay and when you come across a person who needs to turn to Christ,  be ready to point Him to the Only One Who can save, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Praise God for such a wonderful salvation.