My name is Mike Stephens and here is my story of God's grace in my life...

My name is Mike.  Let me tell you about myself.  Growing up, I was a good kid.  I behaved better than my two sisters, and I didn’t really get into any serious trouble.  I had good, Christian parents who believed in God, went to church, and taught us right from wrong.  So, I went to church too, believed what I was told about God, and did far more good things than bad things.  So, I guess that meant that I was a Christian too, right?  I’ll answer that question after I tell you more about me.
My job requires me to be exposed to some of the worst filth imaginable – sewage.  Nearly every day I work with various technologies whose sole purpose is to treat this sewage and do the best job it can of cleaning it up before its put back into a river, a lake, or the ground.  Some of the best technologies can remove about 95% to 99% of the pollutants from the sewage.  Even with these advanced treatment systems, the small percentage of microscopic bacteria and viruses that may still remain can cause serious illness and death to those who are exposed to them.

Sin had the same effect in my life.  I could clean up my bad habits, my thoughts, and the words that I said, but the smallest sin still condemned me to death.  “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).  You see, I can change my behavior and think that I’m good enough for God to let me into heaven, but my heart has not changed – the smallest filth of sin remains.  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).
It wasn’t until I learned from the Bible that I must count on something other than my own deeds, that I found true salvation.  “For by grace you are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.  Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9), “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us” (Titus 3:5).  I found that Jesus Christ, in his love for us, took the punishment of death for my sin.  “But God demonstrates his love to us, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

So, as a six-year old boy, I was counting on the good things I did to keep me from the rightful punishment that I deserved.

1. Nice toward sisters
2. Clean Room
3. Obey Parents

Then one Sunday afternoon, I was convicted of the filthiness of my heart.  I realized that I could not clean up my life enough to meet God’s standard of perfection to enter heaven.  But Christ did, and I trusted that Jesus Christ paid the price necessary to save me from my sin.
So what filth are you trying to clean out of your life?  What sin in your heart still condemns you to eternal punishment?  Today, will you trust in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation?
But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  (Romans 10:8-10)


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