Message summary: Let us thank God that we are saved and sound!

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"Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound" (Luke 15:27).

I returned from an out of town trip very late and quietly went to bed where Brooksyne was sleeping soundly. As I snuggled up beside her around 3:00 AM she mumbled in her half asleep voice, "Safe and sound". I was still a bit wound up and wasn't quite ready to nod off so I thought about the expression for awhile and the blessing of being safe and sound. But before I finally fell asleep I began to rejoice in my spirit that I am also "saved and sound."

Most people have probably heard and used the phrase, "safe and sound" but most are probably unaware that it originated from its use here in the daily text beginning in the King James Bible, which was translated over 400 years ago. In context it refers to the return of the prodigal son. It's interesting that all the standard Bible translations I typically study from use this exact phrase.

Today let us also consider the blessing of being saved and sound.

Saved. Indescribable peace fills the heart when a believer has the assurance of salvation. Many years ago I memorized this selection from Scripture, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:3-7).

Years ago we sang an old hymn:

Sound. Our greatest aspiration should be considered sound in God's reckoning, not man's and that is altogether different! The apostle Paul wrote, "Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away" (1 Corinthians 2:6).

The word translated "sound" means to "to have sound health, to be well in body; to be uncorrupt (true in doctrine): -- be in health, be safe and sound, be whole(-some). The word "sound" is used only twelve times in the Scriptures and nine of them are in the Pastoral Epistles.

Let us commit to:

Let us thank God that we are saved and sound!

B e encouraged today! Hebrews 3:13