Meeting The Standard

March 6th, meeting the standard. How do you feel about failure? For many of us, it's so uncomfortable.

We'll pass up incredible opportunities just so we don't have to face that possibility.

We can imagine failure to look a lot of different ways, but in the end, it's us not achieving our goals, or the goals of others.

We want to succeed. We want to feel good about ourselves, so falling short can be humiliating.

But this mindset is all about us. We want to do well, so we can get the credit.

But if we fail, we have to shoulder the burden. You see the problem.

Doing this, as believers, is ignoring the one who's already carried our shame.

Today we'll meet Fred Krauss, a man whose life changed when he learned this truth.

Fred and his family were separated under Communist Germany until one fateful day.

But I'll let him tell it. He's here to share with us his true story. On this unshackled, daily devotional.

We escaped finally taking the train to the borders and finding a guide to smugglers past the guards.

I was 12 when our family was at last year united. 12 and I'd seen much evil and been taught to hate.

Having memorized the ten commandments as a boy, I knew there was a God.

But I also knew I could not keep his law, something that troubled me.

I never drank or smoked nor did I follow lust for pleasures. I read philosophical books trying to find the meaning of life.

These didn't satisfy, so at 19 I pursued material success and moved to Canada.

A year later, I had money, but still no peace.

Then one day, while walking through a park in Toronto, I stopped to listen to outdoor preaching.

I had never before heard about sin and salvation, heaven and hell.

But even so, I knew these men were speaking truth.

I went to their gospel meetings, but felt it hard to believe God would judge me severely since I tried so hard to be good.

Then I realized the truth. Without Christ, we are all separated from God and that is our sin.

Still, I hesitated fearing my inability to live up to God's call.

A friend explains that if we confess our sins, God forgives and cleanses us.

That night I prayed to receive Christ as my Savior and His Spirit living in me has kept me all these years.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 8 verse 3.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,

God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,

condemned sin in the flesh.

Friend, even as believers, we may doubt the finished work of Christ and the power of God at work within us.

Like Fred, we may be fearful of living up to God's call.

And it's true, we will fail.

But God, however, does not.

So let's continually turn to Him and place our faith in what He's accomplished for us.

Will you receive this truth today?

Unshackled, the longest running audio drama in history airs on over 3,000 radio stations worldwide.

Real people, real life stories, stirring dramatic accounts of hopelessness and the hope that changes everything.

This award-winning program grips the heart with compelling and relevant stories of transformed lives.

Without Jesus Christ, we are all shackled by sin, by our wrong choices, disobedience and selfish motives.

But God is at work and the power of Christ sets us free of our bondage.

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