MONDAY, APRIL 22

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

John 14:6 ESV

GOD'S ONLY RESCUE PLAN

Cemeteries can be spooky places. Pastor David Dykes tells a funny story about a guy in Scotland we'll call Ian McGregor. After a long evening in the pub, Ian took a shortcut to his house that took him through a dark cemetery. He accidentally fell into a freshly dug grave. Ian tried to climb out, but discovered the hole was too deep, so he just decided to wait until the morning when someone would come to help him out. So, he sat in the corner and covered himself with his coat, and went to sleep.Sometime later he was awakened by the sound of another guy who fell in the front of the grave. The second guy didn’t see Ian in the corner. Ian watched as the man tried and tried to climb out of the grave. Finally, Ian said, "Stoop your tryin’, Ya canna’ get out." But you know, that guy jumped all the way out of that grave! (David Dykes, Words of Life)We all need to be rescued from the penalty of sin. And as resourceful as we all may be we can’t save ourselves, no matter how high we jump or how many hoops we try to jump through. Pastor Mike reminded us yesterday that God only has one rescue plan. And that plan is repentance of our sins and faith in Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.” Romans 3:10 also teaches, “None is righteous, no, not one.”We’ve all been in difficult situations with others that we didn’t know how to resolve. At that point we may have said to a spouse, coworker or friend, “What are we going to do now?” When it comes to our sin problem, only God has the solution. That solution is to turn to Jesus and receive God’s grace. Every other religion in the world says try to work your way out of the grave. But Jesus came to rescue us out of the grave. What are you going to do now? Will you trust what Jesus did for you on Easter or will you keep trying to rescue yourself?