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"December 25, 2018"     What was the greatest gift you ever received?I know a lot of people are waking up today and receiving gifts. Whether one supports Christmas or not the entire world recognizes that December 25 is the date set aside for Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ. I won't bother to rehash why December 25 was chosen or the fact that it is a compromise with paganism. However I will recognize that a lot of people are receiving gifts today, which begs the question of "What is the greatest gift you ever received?" The greatest gift I ever received was the gift of salvation. God sent Jesus Christ to the world for one purpose: our deliverance from sin. God knew that any sacrifice for sin had to be absolutely perfect and without sin. He had said that the soul that sinned would die for that sin and that condemned all men to stand under a sentence of death as all have sinned. (Romans 3:23, Isaiah 64: 6 and others). Therefore man was condemned before God. God however is loving and merciful as well as just and holy. The just and holy aspects of God demanded that we die for our sin. The merciful and loving aspects demanded that we be shown mercy. The fifth aspect of God is that He is faithful to Himself. This means He had to carry out our death sentence while at the same time showing us mercy and forgiving our sin. To be faithful to Himself He became a man Himself, lived among men, and then died in our place. Essentially the Judge said "I find you guilty and sentence you to die." Then the Judge left His bench, strapped Himself into the execution chamber and said "Execute Me instead." Jesus' substituted His life for mine and died in my place. Due to His death I am guaranteed a home with God forever and ever. I do not have to die as the sentence hanging over my head stated. Yes I will die a physical death if Jesus does not return first. However I no longer have to die the spiritual death of eternal separation from God. The best part is that I did nothing to earn this "not guilty" status. There was nothing I could do. Man does not have it within him to be good enough to be the perfect sacrifice required for the forgiveness of sin. Therefore God Himself became that sacrifice. All that is required of me is to trust in that sacrifice and believe the word of God. Yes the word of God says some things that are difficult for a human to wrap their head around. It is difficult for example to believe that a teenage girl who had never had sexual contact with a man could become pregnant. It is also difficult to believe that the Son she bore could die and then raise from the dead three days later. However, when one considers that God by His very nature makes the impossible possible and that it was God who made the teenage virgin pregnant without the sperm of a man and that it was God who raised from the dead after three days, then the difficult to believe becomes fathomable. God can do anything He wants to do. The only things God cannot do is lie and be unfaithful to Himself. Anything is possible with God. If anything were impossible to Him He would not be God. He has no human limits. So when He tells me I have been forgiven I believe Him. When He tells me He became human and died, then rose from the dead, I believe Him. The only thing He requires from man for man to be saved from sin is faith. Faith essentially says "God, even though I can't see you or sense you with any of the five senses, I am going to trust that you exist and that you did exactly what your word says you did." As a man this seems too simple to me. I want to complicate it and add all sorts of conditions to it. However God has no conditions and it really is as simple as simply believing that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead. If you can do that you will be saved. Period. You will be with God in eternity. As a human I want to say "Yes. It really is that simple but... There are no buts! Yes God has things that He wants us to do after we are saved but these things have no bearing on our salvation. Once we are saved God declares us not guilty and writes our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. Nothing can change that. As humans we will sin again. When we do God wants us to confess it to Him. He knows we will sin again. His word tells us that we will sin again. However we are not going to lose our standing with God. He declared us not guilty when we accepted the blood sacrifice of His Son and all He sees when He looks at us is the blood of His Son. He no longer sees our sin. He forgave all of our sin. That means He forgave the sins of our past and any sin we will commit in the future. We are not guilty! Does that mean we are free to go and willfully sin all we want to? NO! It does not. It means that any sin we commit is forgiven but it also means that we will want to do God's will. God changes a person's heart when they are saved. Sin takes on a foul stench to the person who is saved. They no longer view sin the same way. Yes they still sin and fall short of the glory of God but now when they do so the Holy Spirit who dwells within them lets them know that what they did is wrong. He convicts them and leads them to repent of their wrongdoing. He gives them a desire to obey the will of God and avoid sin at all possible costs. The things that were "cool" before they were saved are no longer cool. Their desires change. Now sin is no longer attractive. Instead of committing sin their desire is to be pleasing to God. They develop a thirst for His word and a desire to be with His saints. Going to church is not something they have to do. It is something they desire to do. Being a Christian is no longer viewed as being drudgery and boredom but is now viewed as a privilege and an honor. God enters a new covenant with them in which He writes His laws on their hearts. In doing so He gives them a desire to keep His laws. Our identity changes and we develop a desire to obey God. We do not lose our sense of self but our sense of self changes to reflect the Holy Spirit who now dwells in our hearts. Our ideas of fun change. Those boring meetings on Sunday mornings become the highlight of our week. Spending time reading and studying God's word and spending time in prayer becomes the highlight of our day. Sin still exists in our lives. We will sin as long as we are wrapped in the flesh. However sin does not rule us now. God's spirit rules us. We do not see keeping God's word as "boring". God's word comes alive in us and we desire to keep His word. Some find that their desires change the moment they are saved. Where their hearts were once full of bitterness, anger, hatred, and malice they become full of love, goodness, mercy, and compassion. The change is instantaneous and everybody sees it. For others the change is a little slower. They don't seem to be any different. They are still cranky, mean, and sinful. However the fire inside them has been kindled. The seed has been planted and it will grow. I was like that. I started out very slowly. At first I had zeal but quickly fell away. In little time at all I was right back to my old ways. You would not have known I had ever converted. However God gave me a desire to do His will and slowly, ever so slowly, I began to do so. I was in bad shape. I was addicted to drugs and for the longest time I went to church so high I could hardly walk. I read the Bible even in drug induced blackouts. Eventually I fell away entirely and wanted nothing to do with God. God however was not abandoning me. He never left me. He stayed with me through my addiction and refused to let me go even when I walked away from Him. He stayed faithful to me and kept drawing me back. The seed He planted within me continued to grow. The Holy Spirit within me continued to operate and convict my conscience. No matter what I did God refused to give up on me. Remember now: His fifth aspect is His faithfulness. He remains faithful to His word no matter what. In His word He promises that if we are saved He will not leave us or forsake us. In my life He proved faithful to His word! I rebelled against Him. For awhile I actually hated Him. In spite of all of that He never left me. I put Him through hell. I was hideous in my actions just as the children of Israel were hideous in their actions under the first covenant. I did everything possible to sin even though I had been saved. I was horrible! My life sucked because there are consequences for sin. I evoked God's anger and He hammered me many times. Yes, there are consequences for sin. Even though our salvation is guaranteed we suffer horribly for sin in our lives. God will not be mocked. I mocked God and He was angry with me. I suffered badly. In the Old Testament we read about the consequences of sin. The children of Israel were under a binding covenant to keep God's law. When they were given the covenant they were told that rebellion against the covenant would result in their punishment. This is exactly what happened. They rebelled and God punished them by sending other countries against them to rule over them. Christians are also under covenant with God. When we sin there are consequences and God punishes us just as He did Israel. He gives us over to a spiritual ruler (Satan) who rules us and tries us severely. Then when we cry out to God God remembers His covenant with us and delivers us once more from the hands of Satan. He did that with me. I sinned. I committed every sin I could imagine. I was purely evil. God gave me over to Satan who ruled my life for the longest time. I was miserable! Addicted to drugs, hardheaded and hardhearted I refused to submit to God as I had agreed to do when I entered the new covenant with Him. My life sucked and was getting worse. When I cried out to God however and sincerely repented of my wickedness He did not hesitate to deliver me. He wants to enter a covenant with all mankind. It was for this covenant that He became man through the miracle of the virgin birth. It was for this covenant that He lived a sinless life and died on the cross. It was for this covenant that He miraculously rose from the dead because death cannot hold God. He has paved the way for you to be saved. Will you not be saved today? Will you not enter a covenant with Him? If you believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ is the greatest gift ever given and that He died and rose from the dead then you are saved! There is no other requirement. Your life, like mine, will change! Prompt: "Are there any elements of December or the holiday season that are hard or difficult for you? How do you handle them?"The whole holiday season is hard for me to handle. I am a Christian but I am not a fan of the Christmas season nor will I participate in any of the celebrations held by other religions this time of year. I find no authorization in God's word to celebrate the birth of His Son. If He had wanted us to do so He would have told us so in His word. It would have told us what day of the year Jesus was born and commanded that we celebrate on that day. Did He not tell the Jews specifically what day they were to celebrate Passover and all the other celebrations they were to hold? He was very specific about those dates and nobody had to second guess Him. If He meant for us to celebrate the birth of Jesus He would have specifically said so and given us the instructions on how to do so. Since we have no such instructions Christmas is an invention of man and I'd rather it fall by the wayside. Since it is an invention of man we have all the hypocrisy that comes with it. Bah Humbug! Each year I listen to Christmas songs that I've heard eighty million times until I'm ready to vomit. I listen to people who wouldn't step across the room to urinate on me if I was on fire the rest of the year wishing me a "Merry Christmas". I watch as businesses make money hand over fist exploiting the poverty of the poor. I hear all the "good cheer" that lasts for thirty days when it should be shown all year long. I want to vomit! I always look forward to one day each year. I look forward to January 2, when the holiday season officially closes and life gets back to normal! If you can't treat me right in June then don't wish me peace and goodwill in December! Keep your hypocrisy and shove it someplace! Bah humbug! Thank you Father that today is Christmas. That means that the hypocrisy and pretense that permeates this time of year will come to an end soon. Please repay those who exploit others this time of year with their own sin! Allow the hypocrisy they show others to come crashing down on their heads and thus bring them to their knees so they will know that you are God! Allow them to see your displeasure in their human holidays and bring them to repentance! In Jesus' name. Amen.    |
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