Day 2214 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Acts 15:19 NIV

I read this one last night and I think it's a perfect follow up to yesterday's post. As we discussed yesterday, the Gospel is for everyone. Not just people living in Israel a couple thousand years ago. Not just those who belong to some group or wear a certain kind of clothing. Christ died for every single person who has or will ever live. No exclusions!

As Christians we are called to love others with the same kind of love that He has shown us. No requirements. No limits. No questions. Just love and kindness. But that's not really the message that the church always shares is it? We say come as you are but that has to actually be how we feel not just what we say to make ourselves look or feel good.

Christ paid the price to build a relationship with each of us, but we've taken that and turned it into religion. Humans have brainstormed all these little rules that folks have to adhere to in order to be accepted and worthy of joining our club. But we've forgotten that our faith isn't a club it's a connection. We need to strip away all the hoops that we expect people to jump through and get back to the simplicity of faith.

The Gospel is about God bridging the gap to humanity that our sins and bad choices created. It's about Him wanting us to return to Him and leave our old way of life behind. The only requirement is a heart set on following Christ to His ultimate promise in Heaven. That's the message of the cross. It's not about making sure someone has the right key to open the door. It's ripping the doors off their hinges so that everyone can come in!

It doesn't matter what people look like. Doesn't matter what language they speak. It doesn't matter if they wear fancy clothes or live in the right place. It's never up to us to decide who is worthy of the opportunity of salvation. If it were only available to those who were worthy then none of us would have a chance. At the end of the day it's about growing in Christ not getting lost in a bunch of rules and requirements. Throw everything out the door and focus in on the open arms of our Savior!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 2016 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Matthew 6:20 NIV Yesterday I posed a very big question: have you ever thought about the vastness of eternity? I'm just afraid that so many people are living for these lives only, and that's going to lead to quite a shock when we reach the end of this leg of the trip only to find that something else really does come next. So I just want to encourage everyone to take today's verse to heart. This is one that my mom likes to quote and share quite often. And it's really a very important lesson that everyone needs to learn and always keep in mind. While we're surrounded by all kinds of messages, things, wants, and desires, we need to always keep our priorities in line. We can't afford to let ourselves become distracted by all the wares that our world offers up. The thing that I think we've fallen for is this idea of value. We're told that all this worldly stuff is highly valuable. Now if that's the case, then we automatically think that having it or going
Read more

Day 2018 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Luke 6:27 NIV I was presented the chance earlier today to experience one of those amazing opportunities to realize that I'd been wrong. You see my family and I had bought some Bibles to send to a couple of people, and we just hadn't gotten around to sending them yet. Since the time that we bought them, we kind of had this weird and unfortunate falling out of sorts with one of them. And I'm embarrassed to admit that it had me second guessing whether or not to send the gift.  Seeing as how this difference of opinion has gone, I had gotten it in my mind that I didn't want to send something to someone only for them to throw it away. But all along, my mom has been there saying no, we need to send it anyway. And today, we finally got them boxed up and sent out. But if anything, I may have ended up getting the biggest gift out of everyone involved. We don't get to decide who is worthy of our kindness. We don't get to pick and choose who we're going to do good thing
Read more

Day 3362 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Matthew 15:8 NIV It seems as though perhaps the distance from our heads to our hearts is, at times at least, much the same as the separation we so often feel between here and hope. For though our lips are geographically close to the hearts which pound inside a craving for more than we can say we need, say we know, yet sadly despite their being so near to our knowing what we need, we find that our mouths and our hearts are existing as if in two foreign places. Because while our heads may hold lips that let on that we know we need Heaven's hope as having come in Christ, our hearts remain among the ultimate deceivers as they lead us daily back into the brink wherein we break away all over again into disbelief as designed inside a heart’s desires kindling fires forsaking that faith which yearns only for a fellowship with He who is everything we could ever need. Indeed, it seems to matter not what our tongues here confess as our hearts head us always into following the path our mouths c
Read more