salvation

Buying the Hat

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Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.             1 Peter 1: 18-19 ESV

While shopping at Walmart with my wife we happened to pass by a display of hats that caught my eye. So for a just a moment I paused to try a few on. First I glanced in the mirror and after I discovered one I liked I asked Nancy what she thought. But no matter how much she or I liked that hat, it still didn’t belong to me until it was paid for

My browsing the hat section is a lot like people treat the church. They like what they hear and maybe even try the Christian hat on for size; but then they put it back on the shelf, walk out the door. What is missing is that a transaction has never occurred. In order for salvation, to become ours someone must pay at the register. That someone is Jesus Christ. He stands waiting by the door for us to come to him so that our transaction can be completed. Today is the day to do more than try on the Christian hat for size. This is our time to meet with Jesus Christ and know for certain that everything we will ever need has been paid for in full with the precious blood of Jesus Christ!

 

Knock – Knock

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Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7 ESV

“Knock knock – who’s there?” go the opening lines of some of my favorite childhood jokes but I almost never could guess what the person asking me was going to say. In the Bible Jesus says two things about knocking that leave me scratching our heads for answers.

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He begins talking about prayer as if it were like a visit to a friend’s house. It all sounds great in the Bible; that all I have to do is ask, or go looking for something or knock on a door and boom…I get what I want. But what about those times when we asked and nobody answered. What is God telling us when we sometimes seek for years and still don’t find. Or does he even hear me when I have struggled just to find the door and when I got there it seemed to be locked?

But the teaching of Jesus is true. God always listens to His children, but His pause before the answer is usually longer than we like. He has been watching as we looking in all the wrong places; waiting patiently for us to come to Him. He has not locked us out, and in fact He has left His own home and stands outside our door knocking. He has made it our choice to open to invite Him in to stay.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20 KJV

Have You Been Adopted?

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Have You Been Adopted?

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.  Ephesians 1:5 NLT

“Have you asked Jesus into your heart Madeline?” I asked our grand-daughter as she sat on my lap.  P1030885

“Oh yes Poppy. Just last week.” she answered

“Then do you know what to do next?” I asked with a smile.

“Get baptized!” she said with a big laugh. And I’m getting baptized this Sunday.

Madeline is special to us because she is adopted and because after six grandsons she became our first granddaughter. I was so excited to learn that Madeline has accepted Jesus and become not just a part of our family but a part of the family of God. She is now adopted into both our family and into the family of God. In fact the only way for any of us to get into

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God’s family is to be adopted. He only had one Son born in the manger, but the rest of us get in by adoption. Becoming a Christian is such a simple thing. Jesus never said we needed go through any mysterious or complicated process. Instead He invited us to enter into His kingdom like little children. Just like Madeline all we have to do is to believe and ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior!