Good
Morning All,
Daniel 9:9; “To the Lord
our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him”
There
was once a class of school children who loved to go outside and have recess.
Their teacher was very generous. If the class had been good and finished their
work, the teacher would let them go outside for a few extra minutes. Usually
the class was very good. They always finished their homework, always tried to
be good and always looked forward to their reward. But one day the class was a
bit unruly. Paper airplanes were flying. Hair was being pulled. Talking was
nonstop, and homework was simply not getting done.
All of a sudden, the teacher called
everyone to attention and said, “Time to go out.” All of a sudden the students’
eyes fixed on their teacher, their mouths dropped a bit, and almost in unison
said, “But why? We don’t deserve to go out. We’ve been terrible. We haven’t listened.
We haven’t finished our homework. We don’t deserve to go out.” “I know,” said
the teacher, “but I want to show you that sometimes in this world things are
given to you even when you don’t deserve them. Sometimes things are given to us
especially when we haven’t earned them.” And with that, the students
slowly stood up and walked outside, still a bit confused and unsure about the
new world they had just stepped into. For the first time, some of these
students experienced what grace, what a gift, truly was. They were given
something that wasn’t earned or deserved.
This is the story of our life. If we received what we deserved, we would
die. We would suffer horribly for all
that we have done. We never really
behave well enough to deserve any blessings.
We are always misbehaving, even worse than the children in the
story. Ours are not childhood
inappropriateness; ours are acts of anger, hatred, selfishness and greed. Our actions destroy life.
Yet, incredibly, God has chosen to forgive
you. His love for you surpasses all
else. He made a way for our
salvation. All of our punishment was
poured out upon Jesus; because of this, when God looks at us, he only sees the
righteousness of Jesus. Because of this,
he pours his love out upon us. We receive
the good things which we do not deserve; we receive the wonderful blessings of
salvation, the comfort of today, the healing of now, the restoration which we
seek and need. We receive, undeserved as
they are; all these gifts and more from God because of his love, because of his
nature. God blesses us every day even
though we do not deserve it.
Father of all mercy, in you
we have eternal hope. We go through life
never deserving the wonderful gifts ad blessings which you pour out upon
us. We give you thanks for these and all
the love that you graciously give us.
Move us to share this love with those around us. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.
God’s
Peace,
Pastor
Bret
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