A Gift for you!


 It’s that time of year when we basically hold Christmas gifts hostage to the good behavior of others. If you’ve been a good boy or girl you’ll get those presents you’ve really been wanting but if you are bad then you will get a lump of coal! You’ve probably seen this in some car commercials where the person declares they have been really good and they deserve a new $75 thousand dollar new truck or suv. 

We are conditioned as children to think this way. We are setting up our kids and grandkids to think this way as well. We relish the idea that somehow we have earned this or that sometimes for being good and sometimes for just not being as bad as we truly could be! 

This kind of thinking has crept its way into our spiritual lives as well. People declare that once they clean up their life they will come to church not realizing that church is a hospital for broken humanity and not a shrine to saints! The big problem as I see it is that when God showers down his love and forgiveness we have the idea in the back of our minds that somehow we earned it and that we must have been really good to deserve it.

Nothing could be further from the truth. We could never earn it by our own frail and feeble attempts at righteousness (being good). When we simply believe that Jesus is the Savior and that he rose from the dead and we turn from our sins and seek his forgiveness we are transformed by his love.

There is no room for boasting or bragging about how good we are to have received so great a salvation. No one could ever be that good! There is however plenty of room for being grateful and it flows out as a life of worship. Worship Christ today for your free gift of salvation. It’s the best gift you’ll ever receive.

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