What an Offer

Every week I get the Sunday Charlotte Observer, and at this time of the year it is twice the weight because it is filled with advertising. I have to wade through it all to find the newspaper I want to read. We got rid of cable TV many months ago and now I do not have to watch all of the infomercials touting the latest and greatest products. The pitchmen they use are amazing (there is probably a school for this), they really are hyped up aren't they?

So let me get to the point of this blog - several years ago one of the high school students we had in our church called me asking for a favor. In a class at her school they were writing comparative religions papers and her Jewish friend chose Christianity. Our student was stumped by some of the questions her friend was asking, and her call was to see if I would be willing to sit with the two of them at my house and answer these questions about Christianity. A couple days later (and having bathed this in prayer), the doorbell rang, I opened the door, and here was our student, then her friend, and then her Mom followed in after them. It quickly became apparent that the Mom didn't want me to try and convert her daughter in the midst of the conversation.
The questions were good ones, I think I answered them well and honestly, and used the Old and New Testaments, as well as outside historical writings to help explain Christianity. When we were all done the Mom spoke up. In essence what she said was this;
"You truly are sincere and enthusiastically believe in your religion and that is commendable, but why must you tell others about your beliefs all of the time?"
Good question I thought to myself, and at the same time I was asking God for help. Here is what I said; "if you find a new product you love like a detergent or phone, do you keep it to yourself or do you tell your friends about it?" She said "of course I tell them"; I then told her that I had searched many years earlier for what I thought was the best belief system involving God that made the most sense, seemed to be the most truthful and I jumped in. I told her that my life had changed so much because of this that I couldn't possibly keep it to myself. And that's still true today.
Here is the offer as simple as I can state it, are you ready?

1. God made us for a love relationship with Him, but in order for it to be the right kind of love, He gave us a choice instead of making us robots.

2. Our choice has been to have life on our own terms, that in many ways please us but displease Him, it's what we call sin, it's an archery term used a long time ago to signal a missed bullseye. If you missed it, the scorer would yell "Sin". The Bible says that we all have missed the mark, we have gone our own way. The result is death, both physical and spiritual. To prove my point that we were born with a sin nature (just go peek inside a toddler room), though no one taught them selfishness, if they see something some other toddler has has they go and just take it away.

3. God hated that we separated ourselves from Him so He sent His perfect/sinless Son Jesus to take our place. He willingly went in our place even though we were the ones who deserved it. Now that's love!!!

4. For everyone who puts their trust in what Jesus did for them, He forgives COMPLETELY! The Bible says God removes our sin from Him as far as the East is from the West and He sees it no more!

5. When we die, we get to spend eternity thanking Him for this gift of what we call salvation, freedom! Because we will want to, and not because we will have to. We even get to do some of that now when we sing praise songs and hymns, at home, at a church or with others in a small group.

6. None of us knows when we will die, but it will happen, the decision we must make while we are living is what to do with this gift of God. We can't make it after we die, the prayers of others will not help us once we are dead. Our good deeds and nice personalities will not help one bit, even the amount of money we give away won't help us either. Forgiveness with God cannot be earned. It's what separates Christianity from all of the other religions. God works His way toward us, instead of us trying to work our way toward Him! It all comes down to an honest and sincere belief about God. If we really get it, it can't help but change our life. Our actions are just the result and not the method!

As we enter Christmas, a holiday that every country in the world celebrates and has for over 2000 years, know this, we all are responsible for what we do with God's great gift of Jesus. You may get some great presents and give some away, but I know for sure that NOTHING will compare or outlast this simple, expensive, but free gift. What will you do with it?