ROMANS 5:8-10 “8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
Romans 5:8 “while we were still sinners [enemies], Christ died for us”
”You never so touch the ocean of God’s love as when you forgive and love your enemies.” Corrie ten Boom
DON’S COMMENTS: Lent is a wonderful time of year. We are not all caught up in buying presents and decorating and going to parties like we are during Advent, but we see God beginning to decorate our surroundings with increasingly warmer weather and frequency of birds singing in the morning. Leaves are starting to be noticeable on trees and flowers and blossoms are starting to form as life begins to be evident all around us. Snow and frost become less common and slowly, or quickly at times, disappear before our eyes. The power of spring begins overpowering the cold winter. I often state during the winter when we are spared a snow storm or when temperature warms enough to melt the snow, “I love it when God shovels!” Spring is the time when we are reminded God is still in control demonstrating His love and mercy. GOD DOES THE DECORATING FOR EASTER INSTEAD OF US PUTTING UP GLITTER AND LIGHTS LIKE WE DO FOR CHRISTMAS. But Easter is the time we look to the cross and resurrection, reminding us the Love Christ demonstrated for you and me and all people by facing and enduring the punishment we deserve for our sins. That is the message of Easter – the message more and more of the world does not want to hear and working harder to prevent others from hearing or sharing. Living in the U.S., we take for granted the freedom we enjoy to live and share our Christian faith. Most of the world does not enjoy such freedom and privilege. To be a Christian carries a badge of shame and persecution in most countries and growing evidence is showing up of that becoming the future in the U.S. and other democratic countries. That evidence is gaining traction. The U.S. was able to be established by God’s grace and obedience of faithful Christian pilgrims who came seeking religious freedom and a desire to share the Gospel to native people they would meet. Yet their motives and work was tarnished by evil motives and actions of others that also came as well as those corrupted by their motives and actions. Yet good has prevailed in spite of the evil over history. Yet evil still remained and gained strength in each new generation. My parent’s generation suffered great sacrifice due to the evil reign of Hitler in Germany with it’s aggression along with it’s primary AXIS allies, Emperor Hirohito (Japan) and Mussolini (Italy). My children’s and grandchildren’s generations are quickly forgetting the destruction they reigned on the people they conquered and threat they posed on the free world that remained. What would it be like if they had conquered the world? What blessing we enjoy because my parents generation prayed and fought and stopped this evil!! Likewise, American history sharing the Christian faith of the Pilgrims and early Americans and founding leaders and miracles God demonstrated enabling them to survive and our country to be formed and blossom are not being taught.
Our Christian heritage has empowered them to transform their world for good and leave a legacy our grandparents and parents and us and our children and grandchildren have enjoyed.
Well, today’s devotion reminds us what our heritage is, popular or not, and positive impact Christ had on that heritage. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. He motivated our forefathers to sacrifice without any guarantee their work would succeed or survive or if they would survive to see it succeed. What mission would be that important? What work would be worthy of such sacrifice? Christ, as God’s Son, knew His work – His mission – His sacrifice would be worth the cost because we were that precious to Him! He could have destroyed us and started over but then we would have been lost. He cared too much for us to allow that. We love our pets enough to care for them even though it would be cheaper to dispose of them when they are sick and get another. Aren’t you glad God didn’t do that with us when He could create new with the blink of an eye? Stop and think – it did cross His mind when He gave Moses the 10 Commandments on Mt. Sinai. Moses persuaded Him not to. Read Genesis 19-31 and then Ch 32-33 revealing Israel’s sin and how Moses convinced God not to destroy them even thought he didn’t realize fully the extent of Israel’s sin. Then in Ch 34 God remakes the commandment stones for Moses (and us), replacing the stones Moses broke when he did learn the extent of Israel’s sin. I’d encourage you to take some time to read the whole story.
Corrie ten Boom is in heaven now but her message and story lives on. She faced terrible persecution and pain and suffering under the rule of Hitler. Her entire family was tortured and killed and she nearly was.
The evil man is capable of doing, under satan’s influence, is unbelievably terrible but what man is capable of doing with God’s help is even more amazing.
Christ sustained and empowered Corrie’s family with hope and sustained her too during WWII and after. Her message of hope and salvation was put to the test years later when she faced one of the Nazi guards responsible for the death of her family and her suffering at the altar during a revival service she lead. That guard came seeking God’s forgiveness and her’s too. She struggled for a few minutes because the cost to her for his sins was great. She wanted to hate and condemn, but God worked in her those minutes until she finally showed him mercy and forgiveness and led Him to Christ at that altar. WHAT GREATER DEMONSTRATION OF GOD’S LOVE AND MERCY? WHAT GREATER LOVE CAN WE DEMONSTRATE? How could she do that? How can we? IF THAT DOESN’T CONVINCE US WHO GOD IS AND THAT HE EXISTS AND IS STILL IN CONTROL, I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE WILL?
I think this Easter is a good time to do some self examination and personal reflection and see what God’s vision – His plan – His dream is for you and me. What changes does He want to do in our lives, and who does He want us to forgive and who do we need to seek forgiveness from?
FORGIVENESS SHOWS STRENGTH NOT WEAKNESS. HATE SHOWS WEAKNESS, NOT STRENGTH!! You see, compared to His righteousness and example of Good, we are as bad as that Nazi guard and just as sinful. We have sinned and failed Him and in just as great a need of His mercy and forgiveness and transformation He wants to do in us. Even if we have already received His forgiveness and are living for Him, we have so much more growth and maturing and carnality He still wants to address and cleanse us of. Sanctification is what happens when we surrender our wills to Him and allow the Holy Spirit to come into our heart and change us. But even after that, our wills and sinful nature still impact our motives and actions and thoughts as long as we in our human flesh.
That is why establishing and maintaining a daily walk – a daily relationship with Christ – sustained by prayer, bible study, fellowship with other Christians, and being obedient in showing by example and witness the love He showed us, is the beginning of becoming like Him. The Christian life is easy to begin but takes a lifetime of work and determination. It is more than difficult – it is impossible. But until and unless we put our hand in His and keep it there, we can’t possibly succeed. But if we do that, we will not fail!! Afterall, we serve the Creator and Sustainer of everything and He paid dearly so we can have a one with one relationship with Him. THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS OF EASTER!!
OK, enough preaching. I get exciting about that message and hope you do too. There are a lot of less important things we get excited about. About time we get excited about Him. It’s His turn. It’s EASTER!!
donsdevotions 