Ephesians 2:8-10  God saved you by His grace when you believed.  And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a gift for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  For we are God’s masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

Salvation is an interesting concept.  It’s not something we can ever earn by doing things or acts of service.  Granted we do these things, but rather these are a by-product welling up from the grace we have received from God.  We have been saved by this grace because God loves us.  Let no one brag of their salvation because of any act they have performed.  Let us instead brag of our Savior who bore all our shortcomings and sinful nature upon Himself so that we may have right standing before our creator.  Each one of us were created in the likeness of God.  He has created everything we see, but we are His masterpiece. Every artist works to create a masterpiece.  Van Gogh, Picasso, and (if I knew anything about art I would name more). LOL  The point is that just as an artist creates his latest piece to better those preceding, God created us in His own image knowing that we would be His masterpiece.  Therefore we try to live for Him and do His will accomplishing the things He planned for us from the beginning.  This does not mean predestination is how our lives are lived out.  Just because God planned good things for us to do a long time ago does not mean that we carry them out.  They are a choice and being human as we are, we don’t always do as God had planned for us.  Following the plan naturally results in the best results.  Problems arise when we think that we know best and therefore more that God.  We become like a Van Gogh that comes off the page to tell the artist that it knows best what it should become and by Van Gogh allowing the painting to become what it thinks it should, even though he knows better.  This is another great attribute of God.  He gives us the choice to decide to follow His way, the best way, or to paint ourselves into a corner of our own masterpiece which will never become His masterpiece that He set out to complete from the beginning.  Love you all.  Bless God!!

1 Peter 2:11,12  Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.  Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors.  Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when He judges the world.

People have been fascinated by the possibility of alien life forms for years.  All they really need to do is look to their neighbor, their relatives, even themselves for that matter.  We are all visitors to this place we call home, planet earth.  It’s really not correct to even refer to it as home.  It is more like the destination of a business trip.  We have business to conduct here before moving on to our actual, true home.  This business trip includes being trained, studying the owner’s manual, putting both into practice, and then to help others by teaching them how to do the same.  This trip/training lasts on average around 80 years.  Dwelling in our eternal true home where we are not visitors lasts for 1,000,000,000. . . years.  Ok, the concept of mathematics tells me that a ratio is determined by taking a numerator and dividing it be a denominator.  Therefore, 80/infinity equals basically 0.  The ratio of our stay on our trip to the stay at our actual home, is 0.  So we are on this business trip in our alien land for not even as long as you take a breath, yet we become so wrapped up in this life that we try to make it real.  As if it is our only chance to exist.  This is the BIG lie that satan wants us to believe.  If he can keep our mind on all the other tangents that exist on this business trip rather than on what our Boss actually sent us here for, then our actual true home becomes dwelling with him.  Hell is a total separation from God.  Whatever specific you believe about hell really doesn’t matter.  The one specific that does is that it is complete and total separation from God.   God is love.  Meaning hell does not contain love, grace, or mercy.  The separation concept alone is hell to me.  There are two planes leaving to take us home when our business trip concludes.  Which one will you be boarding?  Love you all.  Bless God!!