“then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”” - Acts 4:10,12
If I didn't know any better, I would think that I was the man that Peter was talking about in the scripture passage from Acts 4. I have been healed and transformed by Jesus. I am able to stand before you today (at least figuratively as I write this) as one who has been cured of disease, freed from imprisonment, released from bondage and given new sight by the power of Jesus.
Peter is speaking in defense of healing a man who had been crippled from birth and had spent his life begging at the temple gate called Beautiful. The religious leaders of the day had brought Peter and John in to question them about this healing and Peter speaking boldly in the Spirit gives the credit to whom the credit is due. This has happen in and by the name of Jesus Christ.
We can't heal ourselves and we can't save ourselves. So, why is that so many of us try so hard to do both of these things on our own? Healing, true healing, God's healing is done by God. It is by God's power that we are healed. It is in and through Jesus that our lives are made beautiful, whole, well. It is in the name of Jesus that we freed and released from those things that imprison us and hold us captive. Not by our doing but by the power of God.
I know this not because I read it in a book but because I have experienced it first hand. I spent many years trying to "heal" myself. Trying to "fix" myself. Trying to safe myself. I discovered that I could not do it. It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth who was crucified and God raised from the dead that I am able to stand today. God alone gets the credit because it is what God did. I am so very grateful for what God has done in my life and through my life. The credit is all his. I am saved by Jesus I can not save myself. There is no other name by which we must be saved. Did you notice that Peter used the word must. I must be saved. We are all in need of a savior and there is only one that is capable of being able to save us. It is not us. It is Jesus.
Give God credit today for what he has done and who he is. Don't try to do what you are not capable of doing. let God do what only God can do. Are you in need of healing? Turn to the one who heals. Are you in need of a savior (Peter said we must)? Turn to the Savior.
Love today.
In Christ Love and mine,
Doug
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