10-26-2023

Good Morning All,

                 2 Corinthians 5:21; “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

       I remember reading a story in the news a few years ago about some fishermen who had an interesting disagreement with their local game warden.  It seems that the various lakes that they were fishing in had size limits.  That is that the fish had to be a certain length or else they were to release the fish.  The fishermen had caught their fish and measured them with a ruler supplied to them by the state wildlife service in order that they could properly measure the length of the fish.  When they got to shore, the game warden looked at the fish and then measured them and all the fish were too short.  They should have been let go.  He issued a fine and the fishermen received an automatic 2-year revocation of their fishing permit.

    The fishermen were stunned.  They all declared that something was wrong.  Yet when they looked at the fish next to the game warden’s ruler; the fish were all an inch too short.  Everyone was perplexed.  The game warden was somewhat unaffected by their pleas of innocence.  The fish were all too short.  Then one of the fishermen took out the ruler that they had used, and the fish were legal length.  After some wrangling and arguing, it became apparent that the ruler they used was shorter than the ruler the game warden used.  The ruler they used was a couple of years old and apparently had shrunk while being exposed to the weather and elements.

    Often times in life, we too have to “measure up” and come up short.  The world and the devil try their best to make sure that we come up short.  The world piles onto our feelings of inadequacies and our doubts of self-worth.  The world screams at us that we don’t measure up.  The world tells us that we will always come up short.

    Yet Jesus came into this world and threw away the measuring stick.  There is no ruler for God’s love.  Because of Jesus, we are the righteousness of God.  We are the righteousness of God because Jesus is the one who measured up.  He then gave that to us.  He gave us the righteousness and then broke the ruler and threw it away.  The world can no longer show you that you do not measure up because you do.  God has saved you and given you, his righteousness.  The world and the devil can hollow all they want but the ruler is gone.  It is replaced by God’s love and grace.

    So, stop thinking you have to measure up to some standard; you don’t.  God’s mercy is our only standard, our only ruler.  He measures us and sees us with love, love of the Father who has forgiven your sins.    

Gracious and loving God, in you we find love that has no measure.  In you, we are not measured but we receive mercy.  Be with those who still feel they need to measure up.  Give them the certainty of your grace.  Free them from their pain and fear.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret