Saved to the Uttermost!

Friday 7-10-15 (Home in Modesto)

Scripture reading:    Micah 5-7    Heb 7

S=Scripture O=Observation A=Application P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  Heb 7:25  Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save* everyone who comes to God through him. He lives forever to plead with God on their behalf.  (Footnote: *completely) NLT

Heb 7:25  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.  KJV

O.  The New Living Translation places the word “completely” as a footnote.  Some translators are so smart they eliminate needless words from the text.  Perhaps they think “If a person is saved, he is saved.  If he is no longer lost, he is saved.  So why add the word ‘completely’?” But I know some people that like that word in there right where it belongs.  They have been saved “completely.”  I always go back to the King James Version when in doubt.  Back then, they weren’t smart enough to leave out words.  They say, “save… to the uttermost!”  Yeah!  I like that.

A.  It was 1964.  I was in the classroom in an interdenominational language school for missionaries in Costa Rica.  We had been studying Spanish for about 6 months.  Now we were, in the hearing of our professor, trying to discuss issues among ourselves using our limited Spanish.  One very brilliant young minister in my class of five students was from a very liberal, modern church organization.  So he lashed out at me, “All you Assemblies of God people do is try to save people’s souls.  You never try to feed them or put shoes on their feet.”  Obviously he did not know much about the Assemblies of God.  Not only that, this smart boy did not know much about the “uttermost” part.  He just thought we were busy yanking people from the flames of hell.  Well, yes, we did a lot of that.  But we had discovered that when God transforms a life, He changes everything.  He saves “completely” “to the uttermost!”  I have seen it multiple times.  For decades a family has been locked in poverty.  Now the curse is broken.  They are set free.  Bad decisions are replaced with holy wisdom.  That family may not get a “life-long-hand-out” from the church or from the government, but Jesus saves them “completely”“to the uttermost.”  Here and now… and then… forever, too. 

P.  Good going, God!  I praise You this morning that You saved me “completely” “to the uttermost.”  You even allowed me to be saved in a family that was on the bottom of the heap financially, but through Your salvation, I watched You lift us up into the next social category.  We never became rich by USA standards, but after living overseas for half of my lifetime, I more clearly see how truly wealthy I am.  Father, I thank you that our Assemblies of God is doing all it can to help the needy, the hungry of this world, but I cry to you: “Never let us… and never let me, lose my fervor to save eternal souls.  For I have a Savior that saves “to the uttermost!”  Amen.

Ralph