Please Accept The Gift

Every Easter season I am reminded of the wonderful gift of grace, forgiveness, and life I was given by my Saviour. However, often times I take this gift for granted, or even worse, I disregard it completely.

Do I deliberately push this gift aside? No, I don't. However, when we don't accept God's wonderful gift of the cross, we are doing Him and ourselves a major dis-service.

Think of it this way...let's say you see a young child in the middle of the street. A big car is coming toward the child. Out of impulse, you run to save the child. You manage to get the child out of the way, however you take the brunt of the hit. You live to tell about it, but you are permanently disabled.

You did this act out of love. You gave yourself up for this child you've never seen. The problem is, the child or the parents never thanked you for what you did. This child lives because of you, yet no one acknowledges your brave act. What you did was in vain, a beautiful act of love gone to waste.

Think of how you would feel if this happened. You would probably be hurt and angry. This event I described is on a much lower scale than God giving up His only son for us. He did it to save us from eternal Hell, to give us the freedom of being forgiven for our past mistakes, and to give us abundant life on earth. However, in many cases, this is another major act of love gone to waste. How do you think God feels when we don't acknowlege and appreciate this gift of love. How do you think He feels when His forgiveness is readily available, yet we toss it aside only to keep beating ourselves up over it. How do you think He feels when we neglect the power He freely gives, only to live in fear instead.

I think you get the point. I have chosen to accept God's wonderful act of love on the cross. I am far from perfect and will continue to make mistakes, but I will not live in bondage. Instead, I will live in the freedom of His forgiveness. Instead of living in fear and doubt, I will live with the assurance of His presence and power. I ask and challenge you to do the same. Please don't let this wonderful gift go to waste. Weather you believe it or not, you are worthy of accepting this gift and benefitting from it.

Remember, a life was given for you. If you accept this gift and live in gratitude for it, your life will never be the same. It will be the wonderful gift it was meant to be. Enjoy the blessings : )

Don't Say No To A Miracle

There are times when I will read a Bible passage that I've read countless times before, and something is brought to my attention that I never noticed before. I read such a story recently.

The story is in Matthew 9 about two blind men who asked Jesus to bring them sight. As soon as they see Jesus, they immediately cry out to Him for the miracle of sight. Jesus acknowledges them, but delays in His response. In fact, He even leaves them to go to someone else's house.

At this point the blind mind realize that Jesus has left them. They have a choice. They can believe that Jesus has passed them by and they are forever doomed to their current situation. Or they can pursue it further. These men were bold. They continued to chase down Jesus, and were even bold enough to enter the home where Jesus was. Their attitude seemed to be, "excuse me Jesus. We asked for your help, and we're not going to stop until we are healed." Was Jesus upset or angry that these men chased Him down? Absolutely not. In fact, his response was the opposite. He commended these men for their faith, and immediately healed them. It is from this story that a popular verse is located. Matthew 9:29 says "according to your faith it will be done for you".

I believe we need to have the same persistence as these men did if we want to see miracles in our own lives. If we do, we will be rewarded for our faith. One key thought is this...don't be discouraged if you don't see an answer right away. Jesus delayed with these men to test their faith. They passed with flying colors. In some cases we may see a miracle right away. However, we may be asked to wait as well. If so, keep persisting as these men did, and know that your faith will be rewarded at the right time.

Remember that Jesus will not be offended when you ask for His mighty works in your life. Just like He did with these blind men, He will commend your for your faith and reward you accordingly. Enjoy the blessings : )

WIJWH

You may be asking, "what's with the weird title?" What on earth does it mean? I will say that, no, I haven't yet learned to blog in code.

You may have heard the expression, WWJD. If not, it means "What Would Jesus Do?" The point is to think about situations in our lives and see them as Jesus would see them. We think about what Jesus would do, and do our best to be like Him. I believe it is a very helpful philosophy to live by, and one that can bring much success to all areas of our lives.

I was reading a book the other day that talked about ways to avoid worrying. It suggested that, when facing difficult situations, it is helpful to imagine Jesus as being right next to us. If He was there with us would we fear? I would think not. So I decided to create the phrase of the title. It stands for "What If Jesus Was Here?" Think about that for a minute. What if Jesus was right next to us and was with us for every situation we encountered in our lives: Our homes; our jobs; our church. We would move ahead with confidence in each and every situation, knowing any difficulties would be handled, and any necessary assistance would be available. Even miracles would be possible.

The truth is..Jesus really IS with us. He is with us in every area and every situation of our lives. They key is to constantly be aware of that. When we realize He is with us we can move ahead with confidence and know the difficulties are being handled. We can know that any necessary assistance is available, and we can even expect miracles!

Let us live our lives as if Jesus was right here with us. We can do that because He is! When we live this way we can live with confidence and power, and we can have great impacts on the world around us. I look forward to hearing your stories.

Have an excellent day : )