Your company is holding a
mandatory daylong seminar (at a local hotel) on organizational profitability. During
lunchtime, a woman on the other side of the room holds up a $100 gift card high
in the air to your favorite Italian restaurant, and loudly proclaims “This free
gift card goes to the first person to come up, and grab it.”[i]
You wondered what the
gimmick was your company was doing because no one does anything for free. In
the split second you thought about the situation, a guy sitting in front of you
takes the card as he did his own victory little dance (while the room broke out
in applause).
The above illustration can
also apply to God’s free gift of salvation. It costs you nothing, but it cost
Jesus, God’s Son, His life (everything).
There is no promise of
tomorrow. Why not spend eternity with the Almighty in the perfection of Heaven
instead of the other alternative in the place down under (and I’m not referring
to Australia) with Satan where the temperature is unreasonably hot?
God needs you to reach out,
and take what He’s offering you. Stop thinking about all the ramifications of
why He is doing this; and just accept it - now. [ii]
Romans 6:23 (MSG) makes
this declaration: “Work hard for sin
your whole life, and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life,
eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.”
Like any parent, your
Heavenly Father wants gratitude and love for all the blessings you have
received from Him. These actions should always play a prominent role in your
life.
“Thanks be to God for
His gift (too wonderful for words).”[iii]
“This is the day the
Lord has made. We will rejoice, and be glad in it.”[iv]
“Love makes sacrifices. It willingly goes the
extra mile, pays the higher price, or endures the greater pain if that is
required to meet the deeper need of another...Commitment requires
sacrifice...Love inspires us to sacrifice what we want, in order to give
[someone else] what they need.” [v]
No matter how good you are
(or others think you are). Our world is full of imperfect people that cannot
obey every mandate in the Bible.
In yourself, there is no
spiritual “merit badge you can earn that will you get into Heaven by your own
goodness (or holiness)? Would you not agree that we all desperately need a
Savior to rescue us from ourselves?
James 2:10 (MSG) makes
this observation: “You can’t pick and
choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God’s law,
and ignoring others.”
“When
we accept Jesus as our Savior…We decide to turn away from sinful
behaviors...and live our lives pleasing God… [He] will
never push Himself on us. We have been given a free will, and it must be our
choice to want to know Him…
That
is why He made our relationship with Him possible by allowing His only Son to
die on a cross for us…I cannot resist His love. I want to turn to Him. Which
direction are you going? There is a [choice available to you].”[vi]
[i] A
“free-for-all’’ is an argument or fight (involving multiple people)
[ii]
Inspired by the sermon, “Carpe Diem: Seize the Gift,” Installment Two, Sunday,
November 13, 2016, Pastor Dave Jansen,
CenterPoint Church Gahanna, Gahanna, OH
[iii]
2 Corinthians 9:15, NLT
[iv]
Psalm 118:24, NLT
[vi] Sign Me Up by Elizabeth A. Bishop,
“U-Turn”
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