Prisoner of Sin

Ephesians 2: 8-9 - “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” I got to share this with the crowd at the B.E. Taylor Christmas Concert on December 6 and my daughter started us off with a quote from Haniel Long, “So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of family, that it remains the measure of our stability because it measures our sense of loyalty. All other pacts of love or fear derive from it and are modeled upon it.”

In these unstable times, it is important to know where our stability, loyalty, and true family come from. It is also just as important to know that those who are without Christ have stability, loyalty, and family ties that help them endure. Our mission as believers is to preach the word because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17) so that those that hear may experience His grace and be forever changed.

I, Matt Nance, could have been a tragedy. I was a wicked man that had no respect for authority, stole what I wanted, and had no remorse for putting my fellow man in the hospital or even trying to take a life. As Clint Eastwood said in the movie Unforgiven, “It’s a heck of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he’s got and all he’s gonna have.” Thanks be to God that a mom prayed, a preacher preached, and godly men stood in the gap.

This Christmas, turn off the news and make your own news by giving that gift we received from our heavenly Father who set the captives free.

Matt Nance