Saved Sinners

Well today, as many days, I wake up in the early hours of the morning and the Holy Spirit begins speaking to me in that soft, muted voice to my spirit not audibly more like a perception…and these thoughts I will share with you. You can believe, or, not believe, but I know if you are a child of God you will know it was Him speaking to me.

God: I want you to talk to sinners.

Me: But what about Christians?

God: Yes, well that’s what I want you to write about; the “Christians” they are acting just like the sinners.

Me: What about in your word where you say, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God? (FYI…I didn’t quote him the book or chapter and verse.) Romans 3:23

Me: I’m a sinner, saved by grace. Isn’t that right? Of course I am.

God: Silence.

So I get up to have coffee and breakfast and these thoughts keep nagging at me.

WOW…this is a difficult assignment….

So I’m going to write, and I hope you will understand I do not want to condemn but to obey what I believe is God’s assignment for me today. And if it convicts anyone please go to Jesus about it and pray. I’m only delivering the message…thanks in advance for your love and understanding. This is between you and the LORD…

So, I’m going to talk to the sinner today…because after all we are all sinners…some are saved by grace through faith, and some are not saved. But the saved sinner is who I’m going to address. You will simply be addressed as the Saved Sinner, not, Christian, for the sake of this message.

If you are a brand new saved sinner, everything is fresh and exciting, you probably don’t know the books of the Bible yet or the protocol for “Saved Sinner life” yet. The Saved Sinner has their own language and set of dos and don’ts. It’s a totally different world now for us saved sinners. We are in this world but not to be of it. Although we may dress the same and eat the same foods and drink the same drinks and watch the same television shows and go to the same amusement parks and enjoy the same entertainers, movie stars etc. We may cheer for the same sport-stars and befriend the same Facebook friends…we may even speak the same language and use the same familiar words we hear everyone else use. After all, we are saved now.

If you’re an old Saved Sinner which means you’ve been around many years and can quote scripture, you know all the famous stories in the Bible, and you sing all the church songs, go to church often and give your tithe and be at every function the church offers…shake hands and hug people and raise your hands to give praises to the Lord in Church…you may be on this team and that team and others look up to you as the pillar in the Church…You may even know the preachers personally…

All of that is not going to save you.

I think what God’s message is to us Saved Sinners, is this…

We’ve forgotten our first love…Oh we talk a good talk about him…we pray and sing and read his word…

But if we stood before God today, face to face, would He know us as his child? Would he see the blood of his son upon our hearts and lives…?

Would we be different from those who don’t know Him, the unsaved sinner?

Does our life reflect who He is? Do the places we frequent show that Jesus lives in our hearts so that the unsaved sinner would clearly see there goes one of the saved…?

Do the words we speak edify Him and others…or do we sound just like the unsaved sinner…words that hurt and pervert…?

Is our dress modest, does it cover all the places that would cause someone to lust…? I’m not talking about legalism…I’m talking about being modest, clean, appropriate. Someone God would be honored by.

Are we truly transformed from who we used to be?

Yes we all sin…but for the saved sinner, we are forgiven…but there should be a change things should be different.

Yes it’s important to know the word of God but not so we become prideful and a know it all…we should know it because it’s Him, His words to help us live better, speak with love and not judgment and so we won’t be deceived by false teachers. We should go to church because we need fellowship with other believers, to bless and to be a blessing not for show…and yes we should always pray…

Not to be heard for our wonderful prayers…but to communicate with our loving heavenly father from our heart a heart that is truth and obedient to Him. He longs to communicate with us. And not to be known as some great spiritual authority but so that we humble ourselves before Him knowing we are nothing without Him.

The Saved Sinner, saved by grace, through faith…should be an example, a reflection of Jesus and His love…

We sin, but when we sin, we have an advocate, Jesus to whom we confess our sins and to know that He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Not self-righteousness…but God-righteousness…what He says is right!

Me: God, I hope you are pleased with this assignment. I gave all that I believe would be pleasing to you. Not for me LORD, for I am nothing…I am a sinner, saved by grace. You are my Father God…and I love you, because you first loved me.

God: Smiles…

~Marla Shaw O’Neill June 22, 2017

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 New King James Version (NKJV)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. Romans 8:1-5 New International Version (NIV) Life through the Spirit 

Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way: 

“I’ll live in them, move into them; I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people. So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good,” says God. “Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for myself. I’ll be a Father to you; you’ll be sons and daughters to me.” The Word of the Master, God. 2 Corinthians 6:15-18The Message (MSG)