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No One Else

DATE: April 24, 2019
TITLE: No One Else
TEXT:  Acts 4:12  - -ESV - 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Most of us have spent more than a few minutes pondering how it would be to walk in someone else’s shoes…. No,  make that sandals. 

That was what happened to a 19-year-old College student. The only difference between us, is he went out and tried to find an answer.  

Like St. Francis, the college student went begging for food; he washed with melted snow; he dressed in a simple brown robe, talked to the animals, and the like. 

What he discovered was this: people whispered behind his back, they called the police, and they stared at him as if he were a nut—pretty much the same way St. Francis’ contemporaries had treated him in the 11th-century.

The animals weren’t much better.  “I tried to talk to some birds,” said the student.  “They flew away.”

No matter how desirable or advantageous we might think it would be to be like somebody else, we don’t have the ability to make ourselves into somebody different. 

We have to be ourselves with all of our sins and shortcomings. That’s not any kind of revelation,, is it? What might be surprising is this: in spite of our sins and shortcomings, the Lord still loves us and wants to save us.

That’s why Jesus was born into this world. It is why He lived for us; why He resisted temptations to sin; why He sacrificed Himself for us. It is why He rose on the third day.

Now, all who believe on Him find that they have indeed become somebody different. In Jesus they are forgiven and saved.
And that’s a person worth being.

THE PRAYER: Dear Savior, for loving me as a sinner, I thank You. For giving Yourself so I might be changed and saved, my eternal gratitude. May I, this day, reflect Your grace to others who don’t know how You can transform them. In Your Name. Amen.

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html