Zig Ziglar and the Daily Inspiration of Salvation

I love inspirational quotes. I feed on them daily. They help me gain context and purpose each. Zig was good at these. Really good.

So good, in fact, that “Zig” is considered a common name.Common in the sense that we readily recognize his name and associate it with the inspiration that he shared. Zig Ziglar.

Pretty original, right?His real name was Hilary Hinton Ziglar.Zig passed away recently, at the age of 86.He’s noted on Wikipedia as an author, salesman and motivational speaker. That’s pretty much all that I know about Zig.I like Zig.I like Zig for what I know about him, that he inspires me. Zig feeds me with goodness.Few things define us more than our presence, or the way we live our lives. I don’t know every intimate detail of Zig’s life… and, to be perfectly honest, no one else really knows mine, except for God and me.

The same would be true for each of us. You see, there is a lot to a person’s story, their background, personality, experiences, in addition to their outward appearance, or persona.

It’s Zig’s persona that I love and enjoy. Our persona is a reflection of our presence, and the deeper components that make up each of us as a person.

Do I really need to know the rest about Zig to benefit from the part that I do like?

Not really.

It takes a long time to really get to know someone. You have to spend lots of time together, and experience a variety of situations, to even begin to get to know someone and what they’re all about.

Our presence is just a part of our purpose. I think of our purpose as more like our calling – as a Christian, I think of this as living out my salvation.

Or, think of it as our “progressive salvation” or journey between the time we turn to God in faith, and the day we stand before Him at the gates to heaven.

When I think of Jesus I think of someone who lived His life with a purpose. I’m pretty sure that every single step was God’s will for Him.

However, to many people who saw Him, I’m sure that He appeared to move about like a feather carried by the wind, sort of like a wayward carpenter, or drifter.

Certainly, many of His day and time probably thought of Him as a non-productive member of society… until? Yea, you know the rest of the story. He lived out His salvation.

Plus, it’s through a relationship with Him that we find deliverance, or redemption from our sins.

The thing about Jesus is this: I think it is a part of our purpose to live out our salvation and this is enabled through Jesus.
Here’s how:

• Learn everything we can about Him.
• Be as much like Him as we possibly can.

I also think that Jesus should be a part of our presence.

Granted, many people don’t dig the idea of being like Jesus.

Believe it or not even Jesus had His pundits and critics in His day – many criticisms and questions of his ministry endure today.

Plenty of them, in fact. That’s okay, if that’s their choice. We can love them anyway. That would be our choice, as followers of Jesus.

Did Zig have any critics? Not sure.

Maybe if I dug deep enough I would find some. With the advent of the Internet finding information is easier than ever.

Some information, that is. I’m not going to go looking for the negative though, because for me, I’m getting exactly what I am looking for from Zig. Inspiration… motivation… and love.

I get the same from what Jesus brought to the table, too, and a few other good things, as well.

It’s through Jesus that I have the opportunity to believe and live out my salvation. I like that. I love Jesus!

Question: What one thing could you focus on doing in this year to bring you closer to fulfilling your purpose here on earth?