My family went on holiday up the coast from us to a place called Crescent Head - a beautiful place and lots of water, beaches, rivers, and sand - lots of sand and lots of walks - an amazing and beautiful place.
We went to join them just for the weekend, a truly lovely place and a great holiday - lots of swimming and lots of sunshine - magnificent.
While we were there, we all noticed that there was a sign on the beach that stated that a lady had lost her diamond ring either on the beach or in the river. How sad, we thought.
My granddaughter Elyssa went swimming with her brother Sam and sister Amelia, all on a blow-up raft, and they used to jump on the raft in the river and float down to the beach, magnificent. What a magical holiday. They all had a wonderful time.
Every day was a great day. They were all dragging their hands through the water as the raft sometimes hurtled down to the beach - lots of screaming, laughing, and falling off into the river. Dave, their dad, used to make sure everything was going well, and he used to swim and surf behind them to make sure they were all safe.
She couldn't believe it! She looked, and she looked again.
MUM, she cried out and jumped out of the raft and made her way to the shore, and couldn't wait to show her mum. Dad, who was following along behind, also jumped out of the water to follow her, thinking that something had happened.
She couldn't wait to show her mum and dad what had happened after letting her hand float in the water off the raft.
A diamond ring! Amazing. They were all gobsmacked.
They called the number on the poster about the lost ring and asked the lady to describe it. She did, and they returned it to her. You can imagine her surprise and delight, as well as the huge surprise Elyssa felt upon finding it.
In the Bible, in Luke 15:8-10, Jesus tells the story of the Lost Coin to the audience, once again a huge crowd, which included some of the Pharisees who really hated Jesus and were out to get him.
These particular Pharisees were letting forth about the people there and, of course, Jesus himself. The Pharisees were grumbling about the low moral quality of the people and all of his disciples.
Jesus was all aware of how these Pharisee guys were not only out to get him, but they actually hated the fact that Jesus was mingling with what, in their view, were low-quality people!
Jesus said to them, and you can read it yourself in the Bible in Luke 15, and verse 10 it says, "I tell you there is rejoicing in heaven in the presence of the angels over even one sinner who repents."
One sinner! WOW, that would have to be me, and it will be you if you repent of your sin and turn to Christ and ask him into your life.
Jesus then told the parable about a lady who loses a coin and then finds it. God is like that woman; he searches and keeps on giving us prods to come to him. He really wants us to follow him and become his loved one.
The story Jesus told is as follows. This is from the Good News Translation: Suppose a woman who has ten silver coins loses one of them - what does she do? She lights a lamp, sweeps her house, and looks carefully everywhere until she finds it. When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says to them, 'I am so happy I found the coin I lost. Let us celebrate!' In the same way, I tell you, the angels of God rejoice over one sinner who repents."
This is awesome to think that God and the angels rejoice when even one sinner repents. Is that you? I remember so well when I came to Christ a fair while ago now, and I was gobsmacked to think that the eternal God - the Creator of heaven and earth, rejoiced over me, a total sinner and a no-good, became one of his.
This certainly doesn't mean that we will live lives completely sinless and free from all of our worldly sins, but the wonderful thing is that when we do slip up, we can come to Jesus and ask him to lead us into his open arms of forgiveness, and all of our sins are obliterated for eternity.
That's truly awesome! God has immense love for all of us, which is incredible and truly incomprehensible to ordinary people like me, so prone to doing the wrong thing. Still, the amazing thing is that when we do come to Christ and when we do slip up and sin, God reminds us totally of where we are with him, and we so often have to come and ask his total and honest forgiveness.
God is so ready to forgive us if we truly come and ask him to. Of course, when we do come to Him and ask him into our lives, then we put Him first over everything and everyone. That certainly doesn't mean that we cease to love others - certainly not!
SueAnn and I have been married for years, and our love, as engraved on our wedding rings, tells us that 'love is eternal,' and it is, and we continue to love each other and also our family. But when we come to Christ, he then takes first place in everything and everyone. It certainly doesn't stop the love for our family or others.
God's love is actually ETERNAL, and even though our love for each other is the same, God's love will never cease, not ever. I know we all make mistakes, and I know deep in my heart that when we do, God is so ready to forgive.
All the hosts of heaven truly understand what a gigantic miracle it is that sinners, just like you and me, come to a realisation that we need to ask God for forgiveness and come to him, and then when we do, all of heaven then understands what a miracle it is that we are forgiven and accepted into the very arms of God eternal.
In the Good News translation of the Bible in Psalm 100 and verse 5, it says "The Lord is good, His love is eternal, and his faithfulness lasts forever," and praise the God of heaven, it is not what we do and it never will be, even if we think we are being good and trying hard to do every good thing we can think that alone will never get us into heaven.
It is only the amazing life of Jesus Christ and what he did for us on Calvary all those years ago. He paid for our sins with his life here on earth. And then, of course, he rose again and is eternally in heaven waiting for you and me if we decide to come to him and ask him to lead our lives.
Where are you in all of this? Do you want to give your life to Christ? Ask him to come into your life to lead you, to be first in your life at all times.
God bless you this week, and I hope to see you soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment