REDEEMED

Redeemed: how I long to proclaim it.

This wisdom was given by my 77 year old momma, Linda Short. 

Titus 2:3-5 “The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”          

Redeemed: how I long to proclaim it!

            I have recently been reading a book by Billy Graham and it has been impressed to me to write and share some of my thoughts gained from his writings and references from his book and from the Word of God.

God is the giver, and we are the receivers.  If we reject the gift, we turn our backs on the gift and the giver.  This is extremely detrimental.  God has a gift for the world and because of this there is hope.  The reason for my hope is salvation.  Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10, KJV Bible).  He is the very hope that lies in me.  He is earth’s only hope.  Lamentations 3:22-23 says this is the very reason for my hope, found in God’s salvation.  The Psalmist said, “My flesh also will rest in hope” (Psalm 16:9).  Hope will accompany us through our uncertain tomorrows if we will receive, by faith, the God of hope.  Hope builds faith.

When we are rescued from something, we are also saved for something.  What is your story? Have you been saved?  John 5:33-34 says, Ye sent unto John and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say that ye might be saved.  What makes a great story?  In Billy Graham’s book, he notes that movie analyst say redemption makes a great story.  Redemption is a word filled with hope and promise and involves a giver and a receiver.  We understand the meaning of redemption to be buying something of value; exchanging one thing for another.  But there is always a price to pay for redemption.  More valuable than any financial redemption is the hope of a redeemed life.

Redeeming the soul is a story that loops back to the first man and woman.  This man and woman had no parents.  Their heritage was directly from God’s perfect creation, and he gave them each a soul.  He made the soul for a purpose and that was to experience the joy of a relationship with God that would last forever.  Genesis 2:7 says, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.  The soul is the real you and me.  The very breath of life comes from God.  The Bible says, but there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding (Job 32:8).  Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, were made in God’s image and placed in a perfect environment and could love one another and communicate with God. But they willingly chose to do the one and only thing God had forbidden them to do which was eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  God wanted to protect them from evil.  The truth is when Adam and Eve turned their hearts away from God in disobedience, they set their desires on Satan’s deceitful ways.  Their relationship with God was marred by sin and they fell into Satan’s trap, which is right where he wanted them.  That’s when the fall of man occurred. 

Don’t listen to Satan’s lies.  Adam and Eve quickly discovered that they had made a deadly transaction, exchanging God’s perfect standard for Satan’s lowest blow.  God had handed them a gift, paradise, and they had turned their backs both on the gift and the giver.  The story of Adam and Eve reveals the wickedness of the human heart that turns its back on God.  They paid a price for their disobedience and were driven out of the paradise of God, the very presence of God, and into a world they had chosen.  A world where God’s enemy, Satan, works in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).  But that is not the whole story!  Genesis portrays not only the beginning of the human race, but the start of God’s redemptive work in history.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).  God made a way through the work of the cross, for us to be able  to come back into his presence and live with him forever.  If we accept this gift of salvation, this gift of eternal life, we can prepare to meet him face to face one day. We must prepare to meet God (Amos 4:12). God sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross, was buried, rose from the grave and now is ascended into heaven to prepare us a place with him one day. 

God has not failed in posting warnings to mankind.  They are in his word, the Bible.  In mercy and grace, he’s held back his hand of judgment on a wicked world so that many might forsake sin and follow the Savior.  So, the warning flashes for us to prepare to meet God.  The time is near.  What a great and mysterious revelation.  The events leading up to the glorious return of Jesus Christ to this earth.  His final judgement of sin, and the beginning of eternity.  The question is where will we spend eternity?  Are we ready for his return? 

The presence of God in his glorious splendor blinds us.  Without Jesus as our guide, we cannot fully grasp who God is.  But in Jesus, the Lamb of God, we see all of God we need to see.  Jesus was not just a good man.  He is God and the Son of God.  In John’s vision we see the Father through the life, death and resurrection for the Son.  The third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit of God, makes all of this known to us.

As we all faced with storms at times, storms bring struggles and struggles often stir passion and perseverance. Billy Graham emphasizes some very strong and bold points in his writings that really stood out to me and I wanted to share further in the following thoughts below.  He states that the church should not be pampered but rather prepare for, and expect persecution, for it is Christ’s body on earth.  Jesus told us that we would be persecuted because of His name.  Church is not for pretenders and performers.  Church is a place for Pastors to preach principles of the faith to prepare believers to face the storms of life on the stage of an unbelieving world.  We are after all, the light of the world, Christ shining through us.  Church is not the place to promote programs but to profess faith.  The church is not to be pliable but principled.  The church is not to be preoccupied but prevailing.  The church is not perfect but predestined.  The Church is not philosophical but predetermined.  The church does not pressure or pollute but pronounces and protects.  The church does not prey on the lost but prays for the perishing.  The church does not pollute the mind, it provides food for the soul.  The church does not profane the truth, it possesses God’s word.  The church is not passive or progressive, it is purging and possessive.  The church should not reflect pop culture but portray Godly attributes.  The church should not seek pleasure but seek after God.  The church should bot be prideful but princely.  We are children of the King.  The church should not promote anything but preach Christ only.  The church is not a playground but the place of proclamation.  The church is not to reflect the world but to be a portrait of Jesus Christ.  The church is not a public institution.  Christ purchased it with his purifying blood.  The church should not work for its profit.  It is Christ’s priceless possession.  The church’s lectern is not a politician’s prop but a preachers pulpit.  And finally, the church is a place to pray for those who do not know Christ and to praise the Savior for making a way of salvation, if they will only believe.  He went on to say the church is in turmoil today.  It has an identity crisis.  We are in the same predicament as the early churches of John’s day.  Every true believer should be on his or her face, before God, interceding for those who make up the church of the living Christ.

Graham also points out that persecution is coming if you live Godly.  The book of Revelation was designed to close the New Testament revelation and to be the final inspired statement from God until the return of Christ himself.  It’s our duty to protect it from being infiltrated by false prophets.  Savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.  Let’s don’t be decepted.  Jude is a fitting introduction to Revelation.  Jude wrote, I felt I had to write to urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.  Build yourselves up in your most holy faith (Jude 3:20).

What is your story?