October 26.
The Journey Of A Soul

Galatians 6:1

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

You cannot board, in heaven while living on earth. You are going to be confronted with some things while you are down here. Salvation is a process involving three stages – penalty, power, and presence. Now you may be up at the second, you may think that you’re at the third, and you might be going through just the first stage. The penalty from sin means that I have accepted Christ as my savior. If I die tonight, I will go home to be with the Lord. I know I’m saved, but the tragedy is that I’m still struggling with sin. I’m still struggling with weaknesses and shortcomings. What’s happening to me? Why is it that I can’t do what you can do and can’t be as strong as you are or stand like you can? It’s not as easy as we say. We need power over sin.

There are some folk that ought to know better than to do the stuff they are doing. Sometimes when a person brags about how strong they are, they are just indicating to us how weak they really are. If you really think that you have passed the second stage, let somebody walk up and slap you real hard. You will discover you’re still being saved. If you say you don’t ever get mad, then I need to talk to you because there are some things that will get on your nerves. There are some things that will get under your skin.

Sometimes things will get next to you, but you have to look at the fact that there are three steps to salvation. I am being saved. Paul said, every time I have a desire to do good, evil is always present. Then you hear him make another statement, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” Before he could get to that statement, he had to experience a shipwreck; he had to be beaten; he had to experience jail. Salvation is a process of progressive growth. The Lord knows the best procedure for each of us.