Christmas is over and I have been using a couple of my gifts at least once a week and sometimes almost daily. I got gift cards to McDonald’s and In-N-Out Burger…yeah, I love that stuff. I have an envelope where I keep my gift cards like that and I saw that I had a couple of others to a BBQ place that I had never used. I was pretty excited that I was going to experience the gift of BBQ as well as hamburgers this year. I tried to remember where exactly this BBQ place was and so I went online and found out that they had closed all their restaurants! Here these were, waiting all this time and I had just forgotten about them, assuming that I had all the time in the world to redeem them. And now I can’t get what was already paid for me! I remembered an article I had read about gift cards and they said that literally millions and millions of dollars of these will never be redeemed. I got to thinking about how that is so like the gift that God gives us at Christmas…the gift of his son, who is named Jesus, because he will save people from their sins. I’ve seen videos of guys who go on college campuses and engage college kids by talking about this Jesus of the Bible. And again and again kids will ask the question, “Well, if I do this or believe that…would God really not let me into heaven?” What they don’t understand from the Bible is that no one is going to heaven! At least not on their own or by their works. Every one of us has fallen short of God’s character and love. Nobody qualifies. But what he did, was that he gave everyone a gift card that makes you right in God’s sight. And all you have to do is to redeem it before you leave planet earth. That gift card declares that the holder has acknowledged that they have sinned and by submitting to God’s love and leadership and asking for forgiveness, has been freed from the penalty of their sins through what Jesus Christ did on the cross. God never forces anyone to be excluded from heaven…that has already happened by
our sin. The whole message of the Bible is God asking you to redeem your Christmas gift by putting your faith in Christ and following him. And that makes heaven your home when you draw your last breath. And tragically, most people will just say by their words and actions “Thanks, but I’d rather not”. In John 14:6, Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Don’t wait…because this offer expires when you do. Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Romans 3:23-24 NLT For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (24) Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
Remember I’m praying for you…
PJ
our sin. The whole message of the Bible is God asking you to redeem your Christmas gift by putting your faith in Christ and following him. And that makes heaven your home when you draw your last breath. And tragically, most people will just say by their words and actions “Thanks, but I’d rather not”. In John 14:6, Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Don’t wait…because this offer expires when you do. Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Romans 3:23-24 NLT For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (24) Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
Remember I’m praying for you…
PJ