Freedom For The Guilty

            Perhaps you saw the local news reports recently regarding the man who was released from jail after serving 15 years for a crime he didn’t commit.  New evidence cleared him of the charges that kept him behind bars for the last decade and a half of his life.  It’s difficult to even imagine paying such a high price for something you didn’t do.  Imagine the anger you would have toward the injustice of it all.  Imagine the despair you would feel after a while when you realized that your professions of innocence were useless.  Imagine the gratefulness you would feel for those who kept trying to help you.  Imagine how good it would feel to be free once again.

            Now imagine getting off the hook for crimes for which you WERE guilty.  Let’s say you were on death row waiting to be executed.  You knew as well as anyone you deserved everything you were going to get and never maintained otherwise.  I’m not talking here about getting released because of some technicality or because of the unscrupulous trickery of your defense team.  In this case, someone who wasn’t guilty of your crimes volunteered to take your place on death row and receive the lethal injection instead of you.  The guard unlocks your cell and escorts you to the main gate of the prison.  Your shackles are removed and you walk away -- free from the penalty of your crimes.

            Friend, this is what God through Jesus Christ has done for you.  As the Incarnate Word, He was executed in your place for your crimes (sins).  You didn’t deserve it because you were guilty.  But He did it anyway.  He died for YOUR sins (1 Corinthians 15:3).  He gave Himself for YOUR sins (Galatians 1:4). He bore YOUR sins in His body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24).

            As you breathe the crisp air of freedom, are you grateful for the One Who took YOUR place?  Always remember that your freedom came at a great price and live as if you believe it.

God loves you!

Mike

Virulent Dangers

World attention has been focused recently on the coronavirus outbreak. The BBC shares these facts about the problem: “The human race is locked in a battle against something five million times smaller than us. The novel coronavirus that has emerged from the Wuhan in China has gone from an unknown enemy to feared worldwide, in a matter of months. As it continues to spread around the world, bringing panic with it, scientists are striving to develop ways of fighting this previously unknown threat. Sophisticated computer modelling is being used to track and predict its transmission, while virologists are attempting to engineer a vaccine. Others are seeking drug treatments that can help those who fall ill with the infection. But this is not the first coronavirus scientists have encountered, and defeating them is harder than you might think. Even after decades of trying, coronaviruses are formidable foes. Some of the most common and challenging diseases are caused by coronaviruses. One of the viruses that causes the common cold is a coronavirus, and we have yet to find an effective vaccine or cure for it despite years of work. Both the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) outbreaks were also caused by coronaviruses.”*

            I’m grateful for all those who are working hard to protect us from this physical threat. Wouldn’t it be great if the same level of world attention and resources could be focused on an even greater threat -- SIN?  As deadly as a physical virus can be, the consequences of sin are even worse.  And yet, rather than raising an alarm, most of our world celebrates and promotes sin rather than seeking a way to eradicate it.

In the case of the sin virus, the antidote has already been provided and is readily available to anyone who accepts God’s gracious offer of spiritual healing by faith. Thank You, Father, for providing all that is necessary to defeat this epidemic through Your Son!  May our world see the danger and get the help they need.

God loves you!

Mike

*https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200h210-coronavirus-finding-a-cure-to-fight-the-symptoms

Teamwork

“Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,...” (Galatians 1:1–3).

Paul begins most of his letters in the New Testament with an affirmation of his apostleship. His letter to the churches in Galatia is no exception.  He especially highlights the divine origin of his calling in these verses.  Those who were causing trouble among the congregations were attacking his apostleship, apparently claiming that Paul had less authority than the other apostles or that he was under their authority.   He strongly denies such claims and spends much of the first two chapters in Galatians disproving them.  Paul’s apostleship came from Jesus Christ and God the Father and the facts back him up.

But Paul also affirms something else about his apostleship in these verses that is easy to miss.  We learn that he was an apostle who was part of the team.  “Paul, an apostle....and all the brethren who are with me.”  Yes, Paul received his apostleship directly from heaven but that didn’t  preclude him from working with others in the kingdom of God.  Paul’s gospel certainly wasn’t second-hand, but he was always quick to credit others for partnering in the efforts to spread the good news.  For Paul, apostleship didn’t mean he had some sort of special standing that elevated him over others

The mark of a good Christian leader is not the ability to lord it over others but the ability to work alongside of them.  When His own disciples were fighting over positions of authority, Jesus had to remind them that a leader should be a servant (Luke 22:24-27).  Paul wrote to the Corinthian church that he and his mission team weren’t lords over their faith but “...workers with you…” (2 Corinthians 1:24).  Teamwork is about participation, not position.

God loves you!

Mike

Waiting On God

“I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; my eyes fail while I wait for my God (Psalm 69:3).

Can you relate to the words of the psalmist?  Have you experienced your own season of waiting on God?  If so, you likely know just how difficult it can be.  What does “waiting on God” even mean?  Is it sitting back and doing nothing?

Abraham had to learn how to wait on God.  Early on in the story of the Bible, God promised him that he would be the father of a great nation (Genesis 12:2).  Exciting stuff, right?  But as time wore on and the promise remained unfulfilled, Abraham began to have his doubts (Genesis 15:2).  He began to run ahead of God in his own efforts to facilitate God’s plan (Genesis 16).  Soon, the chimes of his own biological clock began to ring in his ears.  Abraham pleads with God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” (Genesis 17:15-18).  But God’s answer was still “not yet.”  Waiting on God can be so hard!

The time finally did come when God fulfilled His promise to Abraham. “Then the LORD took note of Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had promised.So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him” (Genesis 21:1–2).  And to his credit, Abraham maintained his loyalty to God in spite of his own doubts and failures during the interim.  He remained faithful.

G. Campbell Morgan shares some wisdom for those who are waiting on God: “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort.  Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”

Waiting on God is anything but passive.  It is an active and enduring patience.

God loves you!

Mike