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The Importance of Salvation

• Categories: Religious Conflict

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Published: Jun 13, 2024

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Table of contents

Introduction, theological perspectives, psychological and emotional impact, social and ethical dimensions, body paragraph 4: comparative analysis.

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The Model Short Story

On "salvation" by langston hughes.

Matthew Sharpe

“Salvation” is the third chapter of Langston Hughes’s memoir The Big Sea , but this two-page tour de force of prose is also a compact and complete story. Here are five things I like about it:

• The control of time.  As the story opens, time breezes along in the weeks leading up to the revival meeting at twelve-year-old Langston’s church. Time then slows down paragraph by paragraph until, as Langston’s decisive moment approaches, it creeps.
• The control of space.  Sometimes we see close-ups from twelve-year-old Langston’s point of view of “old women with jet-black faces and braided hair, old men with work-gnarled hands”; other times we see long shots, as if from up in the church’s rafters: “Suddenly the whole room broke into a sea of shouting. Waves of rejoicing swept the place.” And, as the church does, the author imbues with enormous significance the ten feet of space between the front row of pews and the altar, which the boy must cross to be saved.
• The doubleness of the narrator.  His diction and sensibility move fluidly back and forth between the man’s and the boy’s.
• Polyphony.  Not only the two Langstons’, but his Auntie Reed’s, the preacher’s, and his friend Westley’s voices are heard, as is the voice of the church via the liturgy.
• Irony.  The verbal irony of the title, “Salvation,” is a kind of shorthand for the dramatic irony of the plot, wherein the more lost young Langston feels, the more his fellow congregants are convinced they are saving him.

“Salvation” by Langston Hughes

I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved. It happened like this. There was a big revival at my Auntie Reed’s church. Every night for weeks there had been much preaching, singing, praying, and shouting, and some very hardened sinners had been brought to Christ, and the membership of the church had grown by leaps and bounds. Then just before the revival ended, they held a special meeting for children, “to bring the young lambs to the fold.” My aunt spoke of it for days ahead. That night I was escorted to the front row and placed on the mourners’ bench with all the other young sinners, who had not yet been brought to Jesus.

My aunt told me that when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to you inside! And Jesus came into your life! And God was with you from then on! She said you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul. I believed her. I had heard a great many old people say the same thing and it seemed to me they ought to know. So I sat there calmly in the hot, crowded church, waiting for Jesus to come to me.

The preacher preached a wonderful rhythmical sermon, all moans and shouts and lonely cries and dire pictures of hell, and then he sang a song about the ninety and nine safe in the fold, but one little lamb was left out in the cold. Then he said: “Won’t you come? Won’t you come to Jesus? Young lambs, won’t you come?” And he held out his arms to all us young sinners there on the mourners’ bench. And the little girls cried. And some of them jumped up and went to Jesus right away. But most of us just sat there.

A great many old people came and knelt around us and prayed, old women with jet-black faces and braided hair, old men with work-gnarled hands. And the church sang a song about the lower lights are burning, some poor sinners to be saved. And the whole building rocked with prayer and song.

Still I kept waiting to see Jesus.

Finally all the young people had gone to the altar and were saved, but one boy and me. He was a rounder’s son named Westley. Westley and I were surrounded by sisters and deacons praying. It was very hot in the church, and getting late now. Finally Westley said to me in a whisper: “God damn! I’m tired o’ sitting here. Let’s get up and be saved.” So he got up and was saved.

Then I was left all alone on the mourners’ bench. My aunt came and knelt at my knees and cried, while prayers and song swirled all around me in the little church. The whole congregation prayed for me alone, in a mighty wail of moans and voices. And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting, waiting – but he didn’t come. I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me. Nothing! I wanted something to happen to me, but nothing happened.

I heard the songs and the minister saying: “Why don’t you come? My dear child, why don’t you come to Jesus? Jesus is waiting for you. He wants you. Why don’t you come? Sister Reed, what is this child’s name?”

“Langston,” my aunt sobbed.

“Langston, why don’t you come? Why don’t you come and be saved? Oh, Lamb of God! Why don’t you come?”

Now it was really getting late. I began to be ashamed of myself, holding everything up so long. I began to wonder what God thought about Westley, who certainly hadn’t seen Jesus either, but who was now sitting proudly on the platform, swinging his knickerbockered legs and grinning down at me, surrounded by deacons and old women on their knees praying. God had not struck Westley dead for taking his name in vain or for lying in the temple. So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I’d better lie, too, and say that Jesus had come, and get up and be saved.

So I got up.

Suddenly the whole room broke into a sea of shouting, as they saw me rise. Waves of rejoicing swept the place. Women leaped in the air. My aunt threw her arms around me. The minister took me by the hand and led me to the platform.

When things quieted down, in a hushed silence, punctuated by a few ecstatic “Amens,” all the new young lambs were blessed in the name of God. Then joyous singing filled the room.

That night, for the first time in my life but one for I was a big boy twelve years old – I cried. I cried, in bed alone, and couldn’t stop. I buried my head under the quilts, but my aunt heard me. She woke up and told my uncle I was crying because the Holy Ghost had come into my life, and because I had seen Jesus. But I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church, that I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn’t come to help me.

“Salvation” from  The Big Sea by Langston Hughes. Copyright © 1940 by Langston Hughes. Copyright renewed 1968 by Arna Bontemps and George Houston Bass. Reprinted by permission of Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. www.fsgbooks.com

Langston Hughes  (1902-1967) was a poet, novelist, playwright, columnist, memoirist, and short story writer. The author of more than 30 books and a dozen plays, he was extremely influential during the Harlem Renaissance and in the decades beyond; he also had a profound influence on a younger generation of writers, including Paule Marshall and Alice Walker. “Salvation” is taken from his memoir,  The Big Sea .

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“Salvation” Essay by Langston Hughes Essay

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Introduction

Works cited.

The Harlem Renaissance, a period spanning roughly the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, is frequently referred to as a literary movement, but the movement also encompassed a great explosion of African-American expression in many venues that celebrated the unique heritage, art forms, sights and sounds that were the African-American experience.

One of the literary artists that gained the most recognition during this period was Langston Hughes. Hughes came into his professional years just as the Harlem Renaissance was becoming recognized on a more national scale and had the courage to both take inspiration from and yet disagree with his mentors such as W.E.B. DuBois by writing about the positive and negative aspects of black life. One of these experiences is included in his essay “Salvation,” in which he talks about an experience he had as a 13 year old boy in the kind of church revivals that were at the center of African American social life.

There are several clues within the essay that it was written from the reminiscent perspective of an older man rather than the more immediate perspective of the boy he was including his choice of words, his more developed understanding of human nature shown through his sarcasm and his greater understanding of his own reactions.

Hughes includes several clues throughout his essay that he is writing a memory by the words that he uses. He starts his essay by stating that “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen … It happened like this.” This is clearly a sign that what is about to be discussed is a memory and not something that has just happened. He talks about how he was ‘escorted’ to the front row and how the preacher preached a “wonderful rhythmic sermon,” words and phrases that do not seem completely comfortable within the mouth of a young teenager unsure of what is going on or hurriedly attempting to capture his confused feelings on paper. As the church celebrates his ‘salvation’, Hughes describes the “hushed silence, punctuated by a few ecstatic ‘amens’.” Here again is the voice of an older man with a greater vocabulary and the leisure to carefully chose the words he wants to use instead of the confused 13-year-old still stinging from his experience.

Hughes also demonstrates that he has a much higher understanding of human nature in his descriptions of the people of the church and his slight addition of sarcasm within the essay. Describing his own anticipation of the event, Hughes describes how his belief in the concept that Jesus would come to him was fostered by the descriptions his aunt and others had given to him, indicating his natural childlike inclination to believe what his elders said. His description of the minister’s sermon, though, “all moans and shouts and lonely cries and dire pictures of hell,” carries a hint of sarcasm as he points out the now obvious way in which the minister and the rest of the church manipulated the children into pretending they ‘saw’ Jesus at the revival. As he describes the way in which his aunt reacted at the church, seeing that her nephew was the only child left who was not called to Jesus, he seems to understand more why that kind of pressure worked on him and how it reflected back on her, both that he was slow to ‘see’ Jesus and that he was willing to do whatever he was supposed to do in order to save her from embarrassment. His description of the hysteric behavior of the church members, praying, singing and making a fuss over him as they did, hints at a touch of anger that they would put so much pressure on a little boy.

Finally, the essay demonstrates that Hughes has a much stronger understanding of himself and his own reactions throughout this experience. He describes how he felt ashamed at holding everything up and keeping all the people there so late. Although he seemed to have realized, even at 13, that God would not strike him down because he lied in church, this is a realization that he seems to have long ago accepted rather than just now accepted. The depth of his feeling at that time, that caused him to cry the only other time he had cried in his (semi-) adult life, would not come out on paper in such a thoughtful, coherent format as expressed in this essay. Hughes also understands the reason why he was crying so deeply, “I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church, that I hadn’t seen Jesus, and that now I didn’t believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn’t come to help me.” In the way that he has written the essay, Hughes no longer seems contrite and sorrowful about lying, but perhaps a little angry that the church members made him feel this way.

Although there is nothing in the essay that suggests it couldn’t possibly have been written by a 13-year-old Langston Hughes; it is much more likely that he wrote the essay at a much older and more mature age. There are numerous hints throughout the essay, such as in his sophisticated word choice, his subtle understanding of human nature and his own understanding of his earlier reaction. If this essay had been written at the time that Hughes had this experience, the essay would have been much more emotional and less organized.

Hughes, Langston. “Salvation.”

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IvyPanda. (2021, December 14). "Salvation" Essay by Langston Hughes. https://ivypanda.com/essays/salvation-essay-by-langston-hughes/

""Salvation" Essay by Langston Hughes." IvyPanda , 14 Dec. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/salvation-essay-by-langston-hughes/.

IvyPanda . (2021) '"Salvation" Essay by Langston Hughes'. 14 December.

IvyPanda . 2021. ""Salvation" Essay by Langston Hughes." December 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/salvation-essay-by-langston-hughes/.

1. IvyPanda . ""Salvation" Essay by Langston Hughes." December 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/salvation-essay-by-langston-hughes/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . ""Salvation" Essay by Langston Hughes." December 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/salvation-essay-by-langston-hughes/.

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Depression In The Military

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God’s Simple Plan of Salvation

Romans 10:5-13.

May 26, 2006 | Ray Pritchard

Listen to this Sermon

This is a very familiar passage of Scripture. Most of us know certain parts of it by heart. I have asked the Lord to do me a favor and not let me say anything new. I don’t want to say anything you haven’t already heard. All I want to do is reinforce a truth that you already know to be true so that you will know that it is still true and so that you believe it more than you already do.

Many years ago I learned a simple presentation of the gospel called the Romans Road of Salvation. It is one of the most popular means ever devised for sharing the gospel because it consists entirely of verses taken from the book of Romans. There are four stops on the Romans Road.

Stop # 1: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Stop # 2: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Stop # 3: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Stop # 4 is part of our passage for today–Romans 10:9-10.

Before we jump into the passage, let’s begin with a simple theological quiz. Here’s a multiple-choice question: How good do you have to be to go to heaven?

A) Pretty good B) Really Good C) Better than Uncle Joe D) Perfect

The answer is D. If you want to go to heaven, you have to be perfect . And I don’t mean “sort of” perfect, “mostly” perfect, or 80% perfect. Being 80% perfect is like being 80% pregnant. Either you’re pregnant or you’re not. Either you’re perfect or you’re not. The kicker in all this is that 99.9% of the world believes the answer is either A or B or C. Most people would say it’s A. If I’m pretty good on the relative scale of goodness, surely I’ll go to heaven. And most people are quick to compare themselves to Uncle Joe or Aunt Jane or those punk kids down the street. That’s always an easy comparison because we usually only compare ourselves to someone who isn’t as good as we are. But that’s not what God does. When God makes a comparison, he compares us to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We all fall short of his divine glory (Romans 3:23).

God demands perfection . That’s a shocking thought. Because we live in an imperfect world, the very idea of perfection is hard to grasp. If you ask people, “Do you have to be perfect to go to heaven?” most will answer no. But the answer is yes. God is perfect and he will not allow imperfect people to join him in heaven. If you want to go to heaven, you’ve got to be perfect from the moment of birth till the moment of death with no failure at all in between . God’s standard is absolute perfection in thought, word and deed 100% of the time. That means we are left with only two options if we want to go to heaven:

1) We’ve got to be perfect ourselves. 2) We’ve got to find someone who can be perfect in our place.

Since we’ve all blown #1 years ago, the only thing left for us is #2 . But someone might say, “I can’t change the past but I can be perfect from here on out. Won’t that be enough?” First of all, you couldn’t do it even if you tried, but if you could it wouldn’t work. Future obedience cannot overcome past disobedience. You can never do enough in the future to cover what you did in the past. The result of living by the law is guaranteed frustration. The harder we try, the more we fail. That’s what Paul means in verse 5 when he talks about the righteousness that is by the law. If you could truly be perfect in thought, word or deed from the moment of your birth till the moment of your death, you would go to heaven. But most of us can’t even get out of bed without committing a sin. We’re sunk before we ever get to the office. And that’s just one day.

Is it possible to be saved by keeping the law of God? Yes, but there is only one catch, and it is an all-important catch. In order to be saved by keeping the law, you must keep it perfectly in thought, word and deed from the moment you are born until the moment you die. If at any one point in your 70-80 years of living, even for one microsecond, you should in any way fall short of God’s standard of perfection, then you have blown it completely . You can be saved by keeping the law, but it demands something that excludes all of us. The only person who is not excluded is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Either you keep all the law all the time or you’ll never get to heaven by keeping the law . God doesn’t grade on the curve. It’s a simple Pass/Fail. Keep the law perfectly 100% of the time and you go to heaven. Mess up just once and you go to hell. That doesn’t leave a big margin for error.

Swimming to Hawaii

Perhaps an illustration will make things clear. Suppose an eccentric rich man offers $1 million to any person who can swim from San Diego, California to Honolulu, Hawaii. The rules are simple. You have get in the water in San Diego and you can’t get out until you reach the beach in Honolulu. And you can’t stop or rest or have anyone assist you in any way. You can’t use any mechanical or electronic devices to help you. You have to swim straight through without stopping. If you do, you win $1 million. If you don’t make it or if you don’t follow the rules, you get nothing. On the appointed day, no one shows up because the challenge is impossible to meet. So the rich man raises the prize to $10 million. Still no takers. Finally, he raises the total to $100 million. On the appointed day 10,000 people show up because that’s a lot of money, and even if you can’t do it, you never know what might happen. The gun sounds and everyone hits the water at once. A few people turn back after 200 yards because they can’t swim and just wanted the money. A few others drop out after five miles because they’ve been bitten by sharks. Still others get tangled in seaweed and have to stop. By the 20-mile mark only 150 swimmers are left. By the 50-mile mark only ten are left. Five others drop out in the next 30 miles. At the 100-mile mark two swimmers are in still in the water. Then only one is left—a woman who won two Olympic medals for distance swimming. Finally she gives out after swimming an amazing 215 miles. When she is pulled into the boat, she tells the rich man that she deserves the money because she lasted longer than anyone else. When he refuses, she says he should give her a portion of the money representing the distance she swam. He refuses again, citing the rules of the contest. It was all or nothing . It doesn’t matter to him if she dropped out 100 yards from the Honolulu beach. In this case, missing by a little is the same as missing by a lot. The only way to win $100 million is to swim all the way from San Diego to Honolulu. There is no partial payment.

The same is true in the spiritual realm. While it’s true that some sinners are relatively better than other sinners, that doesn’t make any difference . Suppose a person could somehow be good enough to end up six inches from heaven when he dies. Where does he go? He goes to hell because if you’re outside the gates, you’re not inside and being inside is all that matters. Close counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. It doesn’t count at all when it comes to going to heaven.

I. The Proximity of Salvation

Verses 6-8 explain what God has done to provide salvation for us:

But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ’Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ’Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 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.

This passage contains a quote from Deuteronomy 30 where Moses gives his final message to the people of Israel. Knowing that he would never speak to them again, he reminds them that God had already revealed himself to them on Mount Sinai. They could never say they didn’t know what God wanted. Not only that, but Moses had proclaimed God’s Word to them for forty years. No one had any excuses. No one could say, “I wish God had done more to make himself clear.” God had spoken, and he did not stutter. If you have any doubts about what God wants, just read the Ten Commandments. That’s clear enough. So Moses is telling his people, “The Word is near to you, not far away, it is in your mouth and in your heart.” Paul takes these words of Moses and applies them to the gospel message. If God had spoken through the law, how much more has he now spoken to us through Jesus Christ.

No one needs to say, “I want to bring Christ down from heaven,” because he’s already been here.

No one needs to say, “I want to bring Christ up from the dead,” because he rose from the dead 2000 years ago.

When it comes to providing salvation, God has already done the hard part . He sent his Son from heaven to earth, allowed him to live among us and be crucified by wicked men and then buried in the ground. On the third day God raised his Son from the dead. Forty days later he ascended into heaven. You don’t have to go to heaven to try to bring Jesus down; he has already come down. You don’t have to go digging around in the ground as if you have to raise Christ from the dead. God has already done that. What is the result of what God has done for us? The word is “near you.” What word? The word of the gospel. The Good News of salvation has drawn near. Jesus is now near to you . He’s not far away, as if you had to take a trip or climb a mountain or fly into outer space in order to find him. He’s not hiding from you, but you may be hiding from him. Lots of very religious people trip up on this very point. They work hard, do good works, pay their bills, go to church, and in general play by all the rules. They think that Jesus is far off so they have to work all their lives to make sure they can find him in the end. But that’s not what the Bible says.

God has come near to us. He is as near as your heart and your mouth . How near is Jesus to the sinner? Just open the door and let him in. It’s like going to the refrigerator and getting a drink of living water. It’s like having a slice of living bread. Like drinking, like eating, like hearing the knock and answering the door. Do you know what that means? You can be saved in just 30 seconds. Jesus is so near that you can be saved in one minute or two or three or five. God has done the hard part, and therefore Jesus is very, very near.

How near is Jesus to the sinner? He is as near as these words spoken from your heart: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner, for Jesus’ sake.” It does not matter what sin you have committed, Jesus is not far away. It does not matter where you have been sleeping this week, Jesus is not far away. It doesn’t matter what the record of your past is, no matter how bad it is, it doesn’t matter, Jesus is not far away. That is what our text is saying. Not only has God done the hard part by sending his Son to die for our sins and then raising him from the dead, but God has brought his Son very near to everybody on earth and all you have to do if you want Jesus is reach out the empty hands of faith, and in the act of reaching, he will come to you . That is what verse 8 means. It is an overlooked verse, but it is the heart of the gospel message. God has come near to us through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not far away. Therefore, anyone can be saved, any time, anywhere, under any conditions. It doesn’t matter what their sins have been or what they have done in the past.

II. The Simplicity of Salvation

Now we come to the last stop on the Roman’s Road.

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 (vv. 9-10).

Think about that phrase, “Jesus is Lord.” It means he is God incarnate, the Son of God dwelling in human flesh, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. May I encourage you to stop reading this sermon and say these words out loud:

Jesus is Lord.

We forget how revolutionary those words were in the first century. In the Roman Empire if a man stood up in a crowd and shouted, “Jesus is God,” no one would pay any attention. But if he shouted, “Jesus is Lord,” he could be stoned to death. In those days declaring anyone but Caesar as Lord was considered treason.

These words could not be simpler or plainer or clearer. If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. You may say, “Pastor Ray, you are making it too simple.” I am not the one who made it simple. God made it simple.” Then in case we miss it, Paul repeats it in verse 10: “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Verse 9 says confess first and then believe. Verse 10 says believe, then confess. Why is that? Because it is possible to say “Jesus is Lord,” and not mean it in your heart. But no one is saved simply by repeating a few words. It’s the heart that matters to God because out of the heart flow all the issues of life . First you believe in your heart, then you confess with your mouth. Confession means nothing unless it is backed up by deep heart belief in Jesus Christ.

Recently someone asked me how I reconcile verse 4 which says that salvation comes to all who believe with verses 9-10 that mention belief plus confession with verse 13 that talks about calling on the name of the Lord. Here is my answer: The one thing that must be true is that Paul does not contradict himself in the space of just a few verses. Whatever he means in verse 4 must be consistent with what he means in verses 9-10 and also in verse 13. Paul’s theology is Romans is entirely consistent in that salvation always comes by faith wholly apart from human works or any form of merit. Righteousness is always a gift . It’s always by grace, not by works. Paul hammers that point home in so many different ways that no one can miss it. When he gets to Chapter 10, he’s dealing with Israel’s failure to believe the message that was preached to them. Their problem was not knowledge. They had plenty of knowledge, but they either ignored it or used it to establish their own righteousness apart from the gospel. So Paul’s general point is that salvation now comes to everyone who believes–Jew or Gentile. It is a gift we receive by believing from the heart in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That belief expresses itself in calling upon the name of the Lord (v. 13). To call on the Lord in Paul’s mind is the same as believing in him. For Paul belief is never mere mental assent to facts. You believe on Jesus when you see your desperate condition and cry out to him for mercy based on his death and resurrection . You reach out and take God’s free gift. As you believe in your heart, you openly affirm that Jesus is Lord, which was a revolutionary statement in the Roman Empire. So it all goes together–believing and calling and confessing. The one leads to the other leads to the other. Confession is the end result of calling which comes from a heart that truly believes.

John Piper has a helpful word on this point:

Now be careful here: the mouth is not at odds with the heart. And the heart is not left behind when the mouth speaks. Paul doesn’t mean: Just believe that God raised Jesus from the dead but you don’t have to confess he’s Lord with the mouth; and he does not mean you must confess Jesus is Lord but you don’t have to believe it in the heart. No. The point is: The mouth confesses what the heart believes, and what the heart believes when it believes that God raised Jesus from the dead, is that Jesus is Lord!

God has already done the hard part when he brought Jesus near to us so that any sinner can be saved, anytime, anywhere. Our part is simply to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths. When we do, we will be saved.

III. The Availability of Salvation

Look at God’s promise in verse 11. “As the Scripture says, anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” Eugene Peterson ( The Message ) offers this excellent paraphrase: “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” You will be disappointed in your friends and loved ones. Husbands and wives are disappointed with each other from time to time. Children are disappointed in parents, and parents are sometimes disappointed with their children. Friends leave us, family members forget us, and business partners double cross us. But no one who trusts in Jesus will ever be disappointed. Let me say it to you very clearly. If you put your trust in Jesus, you will never regret that decision. Ten thousand years from now, you will still be glad you trusted in him.

Paul draws out a further implication in verse 12: “For there is no difference between Jew or gentile.” God doesn’t play favorites . No group or race or culture has a special claim on God’s grace. We might say today that there is no difference between black and white, between Hispanic and Asian, North American and South American, no difference between Australian, Malaysian, Japanese, Chinese, Cambodian, tall or short, young or old, rich or poor, educated, non-educated, literate, illiterate, male or female, there is no difference. “The same Lord is Lord over all and richly blesses all who call upon him” (v. 12). If you meet a person whose skin is not the same color as yours, it doesn’t matter. If he’s not of your ethnic background, go ahead and share the gospel. Show him Jesus. He doesn’t have to look like you, sound like you, walk like you or talk like you. He doesn’t have to be from your culture, because God’s salvation isn’t limited to people just like you . He saves anybody who comes to him through Jesus Christ. He is so rich in mercy that he can show mercy to the whole world and still have plenty of mercy left over. Suppose you happen upon a crash and find a man who is obviously near death. What will you say to him? Do you have any good news for a dying man? You can’t say, “Come to church,” because he doesn’t have time. You can’t say, “Read Pastor Ray’s sermons,” because he’ll be dead soon. You can’t say, “Let’s get you baptized,” because he will be gone a few seconds.

He doesn’t have time to give any money.

He won’t live long enough to be baptized.

He can’t walk the aisle.

He is like the thief on the cross. He is going down fast. Jesus said to that dying thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). This is the same principle. The same Lord is Lord over all who call on him. Do we have any good news for the dying? Yes we do, for God does not play favorites. He is rich in mercy to all who call upon him, and he will do it in 30 seconds, too.

Finally, verse 13 says, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” I like the King James Version, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Whosoever. It doesn’t matter who you are. God opens the doors of heaven and invites the whole world to come in. Anyone who wants to can be saved.

Here is the whole sermon in just one paragraph. Salvation is of the Lord. God has done everything necessary for you to go to heaven. He sent his Son who died on the cross and rose from the dead. You have to believe that, trust in it, stake your life on it, rest everything you have on it, and confess that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, and you will be saved .

I have a friend who said, “I don’t know why you ask people to pray a prayer at the end of your sermon, that feels uncomfortable.” This sermon is my answer. I pray the prayer because God has made it so simple, so easy, that anyone can be saved.

God made it simple; I want to make it available . Maybe you are religious, you probably are, you have probably gone to church before, but the question is, “Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord?” Here is a prayer that can help you express your faith: “Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I have sinned in thought and word and deed. Heavenly Father, I have not loved you as I ought. I have not loved your Son Jesus Christ as I ought. Thank you for loving me in spite of my sin. Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. Thank you for raising Jesus from the dead for my salvation. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and be my Savior. Thank you for coming in. Make me the kind of person you want me to be. Amen.”

That’s a simple prayer, isn’t it? Remember, there is no magic in saying certain words. It’s believing in the heart that matters with the Lord. God has made salvation simple so that people who are lost can be saved . He made it simple so that people who are guilty can know they are forgiven. He made it simple so that those with many doubts can have full assurance. He made it simple so that folks like you and me can know we’re going to heaven. That’s God’s simple plan of salvation. It’s good for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Amen.

Do you have any thoughts or questions about this post?

Critic’s Notebook

The Constitution Is Sacred. Is It Also Dangerous?

One of the biggest threats to America’s politics might be the country’s founding document.

Credit... Photo illustration by Ben Denzer

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By Jennifer Szalai

• Aug. 31, 2024

The United States Constitution is in trouble. After Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, he called for the “ termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Outraged critics denounced him for threatening a document that is supposed to be “sacrosanct.” By announcing his desire to throw off constitutional constraints in order to satisfy his personal ambitions, Trump was making his authoritarian inclinations abundantly clear.

It’s no surprise, then, that liberals charge Trump with being a menace to the Constitution . But his presidency and the prospect of his re-election have also generated another, very different, argument: that Trump owes his political ascent to the Constitution, making him a beneficiary of a document that is essentially antidemocratic and, in this day and age, increasingly dysfunctional.

After all, Trump became president in 2016 after losing the popular vote but winning the Electoral College (Article II). He appointed three justices to the Supreme Court (Article III), two of whom were confirmed by senators representing just 44 percent of the population (Article I). Those three justices helped overturn Roe v. Wade, a reversal with which most Americans disagreed . The eminent legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, worried about opinion polls showing “a dramatic loss of faith in democracy,” writes in his new book, “No Democracy Lasts Forever”: “It is important for Americans to see that these failures stem from the Constitution itself.”

Back in 2018, Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley’s law school, still seemed to place considerable faith in the Constitution, pleading with fellow progressives in his book “We the People” “not to turn their back on the Constitution and the courts.” By contrast, “No Democracy Lasts Forever” is markedly pessimistic. Asserting that the Constitution, which is famously difficult to amend , has put the country “in grave danger,” Chemerinsky lays out what would need to happen for a new constitutional convention — and, in the book’s more somber moments, he entertains the possibility of secession . West Coast states might form a nation called “Pacifica.” Red states might form their own country. He hopes that any divorce, if it comes, will be peaceful.

The prospect of secession sounds extreme, but in suggesting that the Constitution could hasten the end of American democracy, Chemerinsky is far from alone. The argument that what ails the country’s politics isn’t simply the president, or Congress, or the Supreme Court, but the founding document that presides over all three, has been gaining traction, especially among liberals. Books and op-eds critiquing the Constitution have proliferated. Scholars are arguing that the Constitution has incentivized what Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt call a “Tyranny of the Minority.”

The anguish is, in some sense, a flip side of veneration. Americans have long assumed that the Constitution could save us; a growing chorus now wonders whether we need to be saved from it.

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A very good place to put them - Monument Shurik and Lidochka

• Europe    
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• Monument Shurik and Lidochka

Cute statue of boy and girl characters in popular Russian movie. Located in beautiful park near... read more

Since I was a kid I loved Shurik movies! So when I saw thing monument I was thrilled. All I wanted... read more

A very good place to put them

Just in front of the University. This sculpture is from a USSR movie. [I would highly recommend you to watch it!] it is all about student life. You can also walk in the street with amazing views.

This is a great statuary spot as you walk down the main walkway in Krasnodar Day and night you see people here posing with the statue looking over the shoulder reading the book or in our case keep trying to keep that guy from reading that girl's book ! it was fun

you wll remember the film and smile)maybe you will remember your being a student and also smile)really cute)

This is the movie from my childhood, so obviously, it brought warmth and a smile to my heart. There there were. studying for their exam, ignoring the word.

Krasnodar Krai, Russia Satellite Navigation - Smart Sulutions

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