Deep down in our hearts, aren’t we all yearning to “feel special,” “be special,” and feel like our lives are significant to someone? Have you, like me, ever entertained the thought: “Does anyone really care to know me? Do I matter to anyone? Am I just scenery down here for people to glance at?
What would you and I feel like if your Prime Minister, President or King of England asked you to come to their home for tea or a latte? Let’s get honest here. I’d be thrilled out of my socks. If they gave me a date and time and provided free transportation, I’d be days trying to figure out what I’d wear, wouldn’t you. I mean after all, it’s not like you’re popping in to your local grocery store or going to the doctor. We’d want to look our best, wouldn’t we?! It’s not required that we buy something new, but we’d want to look our best while we’re in “their company” or in “their presence.”
Well, guess what — there is some One who loves us and brings “significance to our lives.” It’s our CREATOR-GOD. His name is Jesus. And He personally designed each of us in someone’s womb.
My mother adopted me at two years of age. Between the ages of three and five, I was taken to Sunday School.
I was learning to be social around other children, and I was introduced to who Jesus is. You see, that was the first time I heard about Him and why He came to earth.
At about five years of age, my mom remembers seeing me just outside the door in the backyard looking up and she heard me saying: “I know You’re up there; I just can’t see you.” After Sunday School was over, I was escorted to church. Even though I was young, I remember one lesson she taught me. It was to be “quiet.”
One particular Sunday she told me that I was quiet all right, but my body was moving. I kept turning around and smiling while quietly entertaining the people behind us.
Soon, I was re-positioned out of the pew, down the aisle, and outside the church where we had a “firm, but gentle hand-to-bottom” sermonette about how to behave in church.
I was in church most of my growing up years, attended a catechism class, and baptised as an infant. But around age 20, I didn’t feel the need for church. God was distant, and I felt very unconcerned about my life.
A next-door neighbor shared two significant truths. One, she told me the truth about Santa Claus (that he wasn’t real) when I was five years old. My mother was not impressed! The second and most astounding truth was that she “accepted Jesus Christ” as her personal Savior and that she had become a Christian. What was that she was talking about?
What I found incredible was that my neighbor and now close friend, never set foot in a church. And here she is telling me, a (former) church-goer and Sunday School attendee…that I wasn’t a Christian. My response to her comment was: “I’m a Christian too because I believe in God and, I’ve been in church most of my life.” That’s all you need.
She countered with a verse I was not prepared to hear at all. She quoted a verse that read: “You believe that there is one God, good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” James 2:19
Let’s get real here. I knew that Satan wouldn’t be in heaven; but yet He and his demons still believe in God? If he believed and wasn’t destined for heaven, what’s the missing piece of information here? It was shocking to hear a non-church attender share that. What my friend was not privy to is that I was so “afraid to die.” Not realizing my fear, she shared another verse that seemed to remove all the slats I was standing on: “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. Hebrews 9:27
Sin, I never liked that word (still don’t), but the truth is that “sin is in all of us. We’re born with a “sin nature in our DNA.” It’s like a cancer that we can’t get rid of ourselves. In all honesty, I found it difficult to admit that I was a sinner. I used to make fun of Christians who even used that term. But God knows all the facts about each of us.
It’s like God finally broke through my hard heart. I knew I was the awful term…a sinner. And I knew I needed His forgiveness and a fresh start in life.
Weeks seemed to pass and during this time relational events in my life turned sour. It seemed like life was crushing in on me. God used those events to show me I was not living the life He had planned for me. My friend’s words began to marinate in my thinking for weeks.
One Sunday morning I decided to turn on the television, and wouldn’t you know, I came across a pastor sharing all these truths. Within minutes, I realized afresh that I was a person who needed Christ and His offer of forgiveness for all my sins and a “fresh start” in life. It had been over twenty years since I looked up.
I got down on my knees and admitted I was a sinner like everyone else. I shared that I didn’t measure up to His holiness. I believed Jesus died for all of my sins and I wanted Him to come into my life and make me His child. I wanted a fresh start in life…like being born all over again. My life has never been the same.
None of us know when we will draw our last breath. But by accepting what Jesus did on the cross…dying for our individual sins, taking the punishment from God for those sins…and offering us complete forgiveness for everything; by this one act on the cross, He made it possible to be made “right with God.”
So, you see, Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection “paid in full…your death penalty and mine.” That’s the EASTER GIFT that’s been given, but needs to be received – and that’s our part. We don’t have to “do anything” to be right with God. It’s BEEN DONE! Why not take Him up on His offer! It’ll be a decision that will make a difference for your eternity too. Each of us must decide before we die here…and this will determine where you spend your eternity.
Receiving Christ means that when we draw our last breath here…our next breath is in heaven. Then, we begin living forever: no pain, no sin, no sorrow, no more good-byes. All perfection, joy and pleasures forever, like God intended in the first place.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John, chapter 14, verse 6
“In this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in Him is freed from all guilt and declared right with God.” Acts, chapter 13, verses 38 & 39
Cups of Cold Water 