10-31-2022

Good Morning All,

      Romans 5:2; “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

     Are you like me when it comes to passwords? I have a devil of a time keeping them straight. I will write them down but then either lose the list or forget to change the written one when I change it on the website. It is worse now that the computer “remembers” your password for you. I really had a time once when I was taking my seminary classes. They require you to change your password every few months.  Then one day I went to log onto the site to do my lessons and I couldn’t get on.  My password had expired.  My access to the website was denied.  What a headache that turned out to be.  I had to call down to their help desk (which had scheduled hours that were as strange as could be) try to talk to the head tech guy (his flunkies were not authorized to do anything) and get a new password setup.  I had to have my student ID number (my what?) and some other identification to get a new password so that I could have access to the website.  It was a couple of days project. 

    Losing access to some of your websites, like school or the bank or your marketing adviser can really cause a panic.  You keep typing in the password and the computer keeps blinking “access denied” over and over.  You feel the loss of control and the loss of power.  You feel that tremendous feeling of total frustration.  “Access denied” for some has become a way of life.  Even though it isn’t blinking at us when it occurs, we can feel our access denied when friends and loved ones reject us or turn away from us.  “Access denied” is a painful way to live.

     Because of our sinful nature, we received an “access denied” from God as well.  We turned our backs to God and because of our sins our access to God was denied.  Even as God kept calling us back, our access was denied because of sin.  In order for our access to be restored, a major undertaking must occur.  God sent His Son Jesus to pay the price for our sins, to redeem us from sin and the power of the devil.  Because of His love we have the gift, the gift of our access restored.  Because of His grace we can come to the Father in prayer, standing before Him as righteous.  Jesus has given us His righteousness that by faith in Him we have total access to God.

    With that access, we can rejoice in hope.  We can rejoice in the certainty of our salvation.  We can rejoice in the certainty of life eternal with Him.  And the best part is that our access is never denied.  Even if we fail to use it properly or in a timely manner, when we turn in faith to Him, we have total access to the blessings of the Father.  With God we will never have to see “access denied.”  We have been given, by faith, total access to God through Christ Jesus.

 Father in heaven, we often fail to use our access to you as we should.  We look to ourselves as our way out our hope for greater things.  Forgive us as we sin.  Give us that due confidence that we may boldly and assuredly come to you with all of our prayers and petitions, all of our wants and needs, trusting in You to grant those things which are according to your will.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret