Devotionals from Jon Bauer

Devotional #1 from Jon Bauer & Robert Noland (Come and Save Us)

If someone gave you proof that in six months you would be given a million dollars, how would that change your life? Would you put the house on the market? Start running up the credit cards? Make a list of all you want to buy or maybe where you would give money away? How would this knowledge of future blessing change your thinking about your money and possessions?

Well, we stand to inherit something far more valuable and eternal than a large bank account. As Christians, we know we will one day go to Heaven to be with Jesus. But the trick is we don’t know when. So, that puts us in the humble position of daily obedience.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. —Matthew 24:42-44 NIV

Every few years, a “prophet” announces that God has told him the last day of life, as we know it, that he has received a revelation of when Christ will return. So far, those predictions have come and gone. We see clearly in Jesus’ words in Matthew that we do not know the hour or the day, but that we need to live in a state of readiness for Him. So when He comes and we see Jesus face to face, we will hear these words . . .

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” —Matthew 25:34b NIV

Our world, more than ever, our world is so desperately in need of a Savior! “Come and Save Us” cries out to God for His return and also a prayer that our hearts and lives would be ready for that day.
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Devotional #2 from Jon Bauer and Robert Noland (Come and Save Us)

An amazing thing about us as humans is how incredibly strong we can be at times and then how seriously fragile we can be as well. We can be on top of the world one day and at the bottom of the barrel the next. Whether we realize it or not, we are a dependent people. We get in messes on a regular basis and require rescue. We need God to come and save us from ourselves.

We live in such a fallen world. It is both fallen and falling at the same time. Yet we have the Answer to help us get up and walk in righteousness.

. . . let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. —Hebrews 12:1b

Jesus came and died for our sins to provide salvation, so that when we believe that He is truly the Son of God and ask Him to be our Savior, we can be rescued forever. Each day, we can thank God for sending His Son to save us, and in the same breath, ask Him to give us the strength to help us overcome the sin of our world today. Pray that He would come and save us every day and use us to rescue others!

As we recognize that we are hurting and broken, it's from this humility and understanding of dependence that God will rise up and show His strength in our lives each day as we call out to Him to "Come and Save Us."

Make this your prayer today:
I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. 
From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. —Psalm 18:3-6