THE REFUGE DEVOTIONAL

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:40 NASBS

Dear Reader, I pray to God for your salvation. If you have never surrendered to the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, I beseech you to not wait one minute longer. I desire for you to comprehend the grace that God has granted to mankind through the death of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. The scriptures inform us about the natural state of man, saying, “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God,” and “There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Their feet are swift to shed blood; And the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The Bible presents a vivid depiction of the state of humanity from birth, as depicted in Romans chapter 5, “Just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” The microscope of God’s word is a lens that allows you to peer deep into the heart of every individual where the moral decay of sin is eroding their conscience. Due to this, every person on earth is corrupt and will be judged by God. One might rise up and retaliate against this gesture of truth saying, “Well, I’m not corrupt. I’ve done many good deeds within our community.” Indeed you have. I’m not suggesting that our moral conscience is incapable of motivating us to perform good deeds. My point is that sin has affected every inclination of our deepest affections, which is in line with Biblical truth, and corresponds with human nature. The sins of adultery, infidelity, immorality, murder, anger, lying, lasciviousness, coveting, mischief, slander, and other fallen passions are seeds of corruption in all people, just waiting to be exasperated. Upon investigating these truths, it is very clear that something is wrong in the heart of man. If you examine your deepest thoughts thoroughly, you can easily understand the truth behind what I am telling you. You will see the secret sins that you are ashamed of hidden inside your deceitful heart, and this is true of everyone born of a woman. For it is written, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any twoedged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Because of this, we need a divine miracle. You see, the soul and spirit of man are darkened by sin, and are inclined to indulge in its corrupt passions. To say that man has hope apart from a Divine Deity, Jesus Christ, Who has set the standard of absolute perfection, reduces the understanding of man’s disease, which is sin. Man is incapable of finding a set of moral absolutes to govern his life without Jesus, because inwardly He has broken God’s eternal law, and his conscience testifies to it. Understand, apart from God, man is “darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” “Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” Reader, there is salvation in no one else but Jesus Christ; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. May this word draw you to Jesus today.