Let me tell you something about me. I'm often indecisive. Even if I make a decision I think about all the what ifs and wonder later if I really should have made it or not. Now let me tell you something about being saved. Salvation: letting Christ be a part of my life and the whole of my heart: accepting His gift: choosing my Lord over myself: is the only decision I've never wanted to turn back on. Not once have I wondered if I really should have made that decision, or pondered lustfully the life I would have had if I didn't. I know, more securely than with any other I'll ever make, that I made the right decision. I chose the right path. And, oh! I want to rejoice! You know what? I think I will.
You want to know what happened to me when I got saved? How I let myself get so brainwashed that I believe I couldn't survive without trusting in an invisible, all powerful, all knowing, everywhere-all the time God? Listen up!!
You know what happened? God was creative, and imaginative, and beautiful, so He wanted to create something else that was creative, imaginative, and beautiful, that would glorify Him by displaying His handy-work. So He created humans, and He loved them with a love that nothing else has or will ever compare to. He gave them everything they could desire, and made their lives perfect. He gave them power over everything else He created, He gave them the ability to build, create and grow, they lived in the perfect home, and they got to walk and talk with Him whenever they wanted. He gave them everything.
But what happened? They rejected Him. They rejected all God's promises and goodness for satisfying themselves. God should have destroyed them, and started over. There was no reason He should want any more to do with such selfish people, but He loved them too much. He let them live, and while they didn't have all the blessings of their original home and were not allowed to see Him anymore,
He let them live in the world that, even though it was cursed, was beautiful and abounded in blessing.
And he never completely left them.
AND He promised that one day He would give a way for them to come back to Him.
Generation after generation, years upon years, God walked with their descendants. He taught them, fought for them, lead them, loved them, and cared for them. And generation after generation, year upon year, they rejected him, even though every time they did they found out that they really should have listened to Him. God loved them, and wanted them to return to Him, and nothing they did could stop Him from loving them or change His mind.
So you know what He did next? He honored His promise. Jesus came to earth to be with His unruly people, to spend time with them, heal them, and teach them. God came in the flesh to be literally with His people again. He finally told them all what they had to do to escape the sin-cursed world they lived in forever! You know what it was? Believe. All they had to do was believe in Him and they could escape and be with Him forever.
And what happened? They killed Him for it. They didn't just kill Him. They tortured Him. Humiliated the King of Kings that loved them more than anything else. They didn't want to give up making themselves happy 'right now' to let God make the happy forever.
I killed Him.
I rejected Him.
I tortured Him.
I didn't want to belong to God; I wanted to belong to myself! My heart did all these things.
But it wasn't over! The grave couldn't hold Him. Death couldn't keep Him. He rose from the dead victorious!
And more than that, He said that the offer still stood. That even though I'd done all those things to Him, He still loved me too much, and if I only confess my wrong and believe in Him, I didn't have to do anything, He would still freely give me eternal life away from the curse if I wanted it because He loved me too much to let me go without a way to come back to Him. How could He offer grace like that to save a wretch like me!? I would be nuts to not accept an offer like that.
So I did.
But wait! There is STILL MORE! Not only did he offer me: immortality, perfection, everlasting love, and pardon for every crime I'd ever committed and would commit in the future, He promised that He was going to come back again, and next time He'd put the curse to an end forever. He'd conquer it in war so that no one would ever suffer it again, and if I accepted Him, I'd rejoice in victory on the winning side!
I celebrate Easter because I know He conquered death and still offered me a promise, and because I'm looking forward to His return! I celebrate my Salvation Birthday because I know my future's secure in that promise, and because every day I have HOPE and will never wonder or be alone again.
You want to know what makes me think I know all that's really true and He really exists?
Even if you couldn't see proof every single place you look in what He's created; even if you couldn't see the evidence in my life that I'm not living for myself, I have purpose, and peace and joy beyond anything you could possibly imagine; let me tell you this: I know God exist's because He lives inside my heart! And I hear His voice every day! He wrote me a special love letter that never changes and never get's old that I can read whenever I want!
I lived for myself and was never satisfied. I live for Christ and can only desire less. I live out of gratefulness for a gift that I could never imagine giving, that I could never pay for, and want to bring Glory to Him for it every single microscopic moment of every single day!
If I am brainwashed, it is only by the truth. If I am insane it is only because I know the right choice and will not stray from it.
So here it is: I AM a Christian. I identify with Christ, and not the things of this world. I believe the BIBLE: Every Word In It. I believe the person of Jesus Messiah is living, holy, GOD, and I live for Him. I KNOW that He came to earth as a man, lived my life, with my sorrows, my happiness, my love, and my hate, and that He died to save me, a sinner, so that I could be FREE of sin forever and Live as He Lives.
HALLELUJAH! AMEN!
Happy Birthday to me! I've been saved 7 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment