Category: Gospel

Refunds and Exchanges

01/03/2014Gospel, Sharing the Gospel, , 12 Comments

Don’t you just hate the refund and exchange lines after Christmas? Sometimes it’s easier to keep something we don’t like rather than stand in that line. Maybe that’s why we work so hard to find the perfect gift for those we love.

Although, there are moments when we fall victim to a great marketing plan, salesman, or impulse and pick up the worst possible gift. Then we pay for it twice: once at the cash register and again when we stand in the returns line.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, made a purchase that I’m sure they’d like to return.  When they succumbed to the serpent’s persuasion and ate the fruit sin and death entered Eden and remains with us today. They would one day physically die, for the wages of sin is death. (Genesis 3)\

“When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.” – Romans 5:12

They also experienced spiritual death. When they chose to sin, they were separated from God who is holy and cannot abide sin. We are born spiritually dead, separated from God, and living under the influence of our sin nature.

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins… By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.” –Ephesians 2:1-3

It may look fun, living apart from God, after all, who wants the continual conviction of falling short of God’s holy standard? We all want freedom to do what we want. But true freedom is not being able to do what we want; true freedom means not living with fear, guilt, worry, or shame. True freedom is being able to stand in the presence of God cleansed and forgiven.

We can’t return to Eden, nor can we return the sin nature that’s born in each one of us, but we can exchange it! And, amazingly, the line is not long, nor is the process difficult.

Actually, you are the only person in the line, and Jesus is waiting for you to step up to Him. When you come to Jesus, it’s as easy as saying “I have nothing to bring, I cannot clean myself up, nor change my own heart. I believe that you are the One and only way to the Father, and I ask you to wash away my sin and enter into my very being. I freely choose to submit to you as my Lord and my Savior.”

You were dead because of your sins and because your sin nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.” – Colossians 2:13-14

What a way to start the year! Cleansed. Forgiven. Spiritually alive. Freed from sin’s power. Freed to live for God. Have you made the exchange? If not, why not today?

Decorating the Whole Tree

12/17/2013Gospel, Holidays, Sharing the Gospel, Spiritual Walk, , , , , 5 Comments

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 When our grandsons, Jacob and Matthew, decorated their Christmas tree all the ornaments were hung on the bottom. When they decorated our tree, with help from their taller cousins, Abby and Emmy, they reached a bit higher, but the top third was still bare.

After everyone went home, Brian and I moved the ornaments over the entire tree so that it was balanced and perhaps more pleasant to look at.

Christians don’t just decorate trees; we have ornaments with which to decorate our personalities. God calls us to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love.

Colossians 3:12-14 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

We enjoy putting these virtues on, and like ornaments they are nice to observe; but are they balanced? Do they cover every bit of our lives?

Sometimes, like Matty’s ornaments (all on one branch in the back of the tree), we reserve kindness and compassion only for those who are the closest to us.

And, like Jake’s ornaments: Our gentleness and patience abound, but we only interact with people directly in front of and close to us and we don’t consider those who are out of sight.

Occasionally, we’re like Abby and Emmy’s ornaments, we are humble, loving and forgiving for the most part, but there are some situations and people just beyond our reach and we don’t really want to go out of our way to touch them.

In the grocery store, at church, at the mall, on the phone with customer service, in the morning before coffee, at the end of a very long day, in the hospital room, in the office, in the classroom, or on the road, would you say you reveal these virtues all the time? Are they spread throughout your life evenly and consistently?

Acting Godly in every situation is difficult and exhausting. And some might even say it’s hypocritical or fake. It surely isn’t natural.

And that’s true, it isn’t natural; but when we trust God for salvation, by believing that God came down at Christmas, died on Good Friday, and rose on Easter morning to save us from our sins, he begins the process of changing us from the inside out. He changes us from who we were to who He created us to be.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Is this Christmas season the time to believe, to be born again, and let God change you from top to bottom and enable you to live a life that displays his Godly virtues throughout your entire life? You can’t do it on your own, but with God, all things are possible.

A Home for the King

12/03/2013Gospel, Holidays, Sharing the Gospel, , , 6 Comments

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My brother, J.R., built this stable for me many years ago. It’s very special to me not just because he built it, but also because all of the materials were collected from our grandparent’s farm in North Carolina.

If you look closely, you’ll see that it’s just a few twigs, some bark, moss, twine, a few tacks and some glue. Things you’d find lying around. But when the right person sees these things; a person with an eye for creativity, and a plan to put them together just right, these pieces of debris become a work of art: a Christmas Stable.

Each year, when I take out my nativity set, and place the baby Jesus in this stable, these pieces of twigs and bark become sacred and command respect. Even children know to be careful. When our grandsons are over, they know not to touch. We hold a flashlight so they can look into all the corners and see everything that’s there.When God made man, he looked at the dust with an eye for creativity and a plan to fashion a human body. So God made man and woman in the image of God, and blew life into them.

Genesis 2:7 “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. But God made man in his own image, and man was special because of that.

We are made from dust and when we die, we will return to dust. But our hearts cry out for more! We want eternity! We want real life! We don’t want to exist as an ‘empty stable’; we yearn for purpose.

There is only one thing that can fill our hearts, give purpose to our lives, and make our ordinary bodies a sacred temple; and that is the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in us.

We forget that, though we are made in God’s image, we are born sinners in need of a Savior.   At some point in each of us will face a decision: Do you believe that the baby in the manger is indeed the man on the cross, the eternal Son of God, who died so that you might live?

John 3:17-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

If you believe that Jesus died for you, and invite him into your heart as your Savior and your king, you will be saved and you will have purpose.

As you set up your nativity this year, if you have not yet done so, will you invite the Lord Jesus to take up residence in your heart and experience the true meaning of Christmas: Emmanuel: God with us!

Beyond the Dash

11/01/2013Death Grief and Mourning, Gospel, Sharing the Gospel, , , , , 4 Comments

Wednesday was my dad’s birthday. October 30, 1934 – June 14, 2013

His arrival date – dash – his departure date.

It is said we live our lives in the dash. Dad lived almost 80 years worth of life in the dash. There was joy and happiness, pain and sorrow, frustration and fear, love and laughter. Lots of laughter. There was misunderstanding and error, sin and forgiveness.

The Bible says a man’s life is like a breath of air – that puff that lingers on a cold morning – and then it’s gone. I think God tells us this, not so much that we will make all we can of this short time, but so that we will understand and grasp the reality of eternity.

This life is short; but only in light of eternity. We will all live for eternity. The choice we have is: where? Heaven or hell.

There is only one way to heaven: You must accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who is, was, and always will be God. Jesus left heaven, as God, and came to earth in obedience, to die on a cross (as God, he is immortal- he was/is eternal, always existing) for the forgiveness of sin. When he died, he carried your sin on his shoulders.

It’s sort of like a ‘balance sheet’. On one side is your sin. On the other is Christ’s righteousness. The books must balance. You cannot pay off your sin. Jesus paid it all. All. Every bit. He died in your place. He paid your penalty. And, therefore, God transfers Christ’s perfect righteousness to your column, and your sin to Christ’s column,

When you accept Jesus’ sacrifice on your behalf you receive his righteousness. You stand before God, justified. God is judge and he, in that moment, judges you fit for his perfect heaven. Then, nothing can separate you from his love. Nothing. Not even your own self, and your sinful actions. Your sin has been removed. And your sinful actions have been forgiven.

When Jesus is your Savior, He must also be your Lord. You commit, in gratitude, to get out of the driver’s seat of your life and let him take over.

One of the last things dad said to me the Saturday before he left was, “If I survive this, my house will be a beacon of light for Jesus!” He meant it! Dad was, and is, saved. He bore spiritual fruit. He reconciled with God and with people.

There were a lot of things ‘in the dash’ that may be hard to understand, or even reconcile — but God knew dad’s true heart. And, in dad’s true heart, he loved Jesus. He had the Holy Spirit living in him. Dad told me once that he pushed the Spirit down for a lot of years — and one can only do that if one knows what he is doing. But, in the end, dad let the Holy Spirit have free reign.

Dad is living beyond the dash. Dad is alive. Dad is singing praises. He is free. He is able to be the child he never could be in this life… he is God’s adopted son. He is co-heirs with Jesus. He is alive.