SoLo Lives! Ministry

I wake up every morning and find He hasn’t gone. I realize His awesome love and worship Him in song.

The just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4). Many times, this passage is quoted in the New Testament. Here is what it means: to “live” is to be justified by God. We, sinners, can only be justified with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from Christ, we cannot be declared “not guilty.” Apart from Christ, there is only death: separation from God.

Faith alone is what saves a person from death. It is what connects us with the Lord in a way that enables us to experience eternal life and a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. The just shall live by faith.

But what is faith? Have you asked yourself: “Do I have the right kind of faith? If not, how do I find it? What does it mean to exercise your faith?”

Faith is coming to Christ just as you are for forgiveness and grace. Eternal life He’s given me, peace of mind and heart. He’s part of me and will always be, never to depart.

Faith begins with a need. All of us have a “spiritual itch,” an emptiness. When we become aware of this itch, we try to scratch it with any one or a combination of these: careerism, pursuit of money, immorality, drugs, alcohol. The list goes on. Sometimes we scratch it even with things that the world esteems as good pursuits: like sports or community service. Yet we remain empty. The itch persists. Why?

Because we “have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This passage is square one for everyone of us. This is also where faith begins.

Faith begins with an awareness of our deep spiritual need. It is the acknowledgement that sin is present in our lives. Saving faith means coming to Christ just as you are: spiritually itchy, spiritually needy, spiritually empty. I’ll never be the same again since I first believed. What a precious day that was, salvation I received!

“All have sinned,” the Bible laments. Sin, that enticing, candy-coated poison that has an all-too-human appeal to our senses. It tastes good for a while, but it certainly leads to death (Revelation 21:8). So many times we throw our lives and our future away for a momentary pleasure. That is the destructive nature of sin.

Let’s read Ephesians 2:1-3. “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of God’s wrath, even as the rest.”

This is true for Pastor Vince Burke. At a young age, the Lord begun to call on his heart with love. But he regretfully admits to having not listened to God’s call. A rebellious prank against his grade school teacher cost him a promising start in life. This spiraled downward to involvement with bad company in high school. Soon, a dangerous dose of drug abuse and booze followed. Jesus Christ, the Son of God is love beyond compare. On Calvary He bled and died for sinners in despair.

“For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” Psalm 32.4 describes exactly how Pastor Vince must have felt. Where is salvation for him? Where will he find saving faith? The answer is: from God.

The psalm continues, “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, ‘I will confess my sin, my transgressions to the LORD’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.”

God’s forgiveness cannot be earned. It can never be deserved. Sins from the past cannot be made up for by doing “good” works. Salvation, God’s gracious offer of forgiveness for all our sins, is a gift from Him. That’s what the Bible says in Colossians 2:13 and 14:

“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

What love, what grace that bore my sin and nailed it to the tree! No words can say nor tears express this joy He’s given me.

Pastor Vince confesses, “By the end of my junior year in high school that list of sin was so long. It was piled so high; the stink was so incredibly putrid. I did not think I stood a chance before our holy God. Of course I didn’t apart from Christ. But by God’s grace He took those lists that all of us have and He nailed them onto the cross.

“Jesus bore them and took them upon Himself so that we might be forgiven. That is where saving faith starts: not by trying to make up or remove sin in our lives. When people, work their wage is not a gift; they deserve to receive it. But people who do not work – who come to God by faith – are declared righteous because of their faith. You trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ and you receive eternal life as a free gift. The just shall live by faith.”

At a low point in his life, Pastor Vince remembers wanting to be like his Christian friend Mark who seemed to have it all together. He began to wonder what it meant to be Christian. One day, he found a copy of the New Testament lying on the street. He decided to keep it as a good luck charm. By God’s grace, after some time he began to read it. He began to learn about Jesus.

His friend Mark then invited him to play volleyball at a center with a Christian youth group. There, a pastor shared the Gospel – the first time Pastor Vince heard it. “Jesus died for you, Vince. He paid for your sins on the cross.”

He prayed, “Lord, will You forgive me? Will You save me? Will You accept me? Will You open Your arms and let me draw near?” And God did by His grace.

From then on, he was never the same again. “I got home and that night I went to sleep having a peace and a joy I never had before. I woke up and the peace was still there.”

I’ll praise Him ‘til I breathe my last on this my present home. And then I’ll wake beside His throne and find He hasn’t gone.

Vince Burke, March 29, 2009