They Gave. What Have You Done?

Abel gave an acceptable sacrifice.

Enoch gave absolute commitment.

Noah gave manual labor.

Abraham would have given his only son.

Joseph gave up his hopes, dreams, and plans.

Moses gave strong, Godly leadership.

Joshua gave good council, both in war and in peace.

Rahab gave shelter to the spies, by faith.

The Judges gave justice and guidance in troubled times.

Ruth gave unconditional love.

Elijah and Elisha gave healing, judgement, and hope.

Nehemiah gave up time and personal safety.

Esther gave deliverance to her people.

Job gave everything precious to him.

David gave mercy to his enemies and passionate praise to God.

Solomon gave of his wealth.

Isaiah gave prophecies of the coming Messiah.

Jeremiah gave truth where truth was not wanted.

Ezekiel gave God's Word, though everyone hated him for it.

Daniel gave his whole heart, mind and strength.

The three Hebrew children gave their bodies to violent death rather than disobey God.

Hosea gave to those who were not worthy.

Jonah gave under protest.

Matthew gave up his dishonest livelihood.

Mark gave his service.

Luke gave his talents.

John gave humbly.

Paul gave writings, time, and strength.

The widow gave two mites, all her living.

Mary gave precious ointment.

Martha gave her skills.

Zaccheus gave back four times as much as he took.

The little boy gave his loaves and fishes.

Peter gave bold deliverance of The Word.

Barnabas gave compassion and support.

Dorcas gave help to widows.

One of the ten healed lepers gave God the glory.

The woman at the well gave her testimony.

Timothy gave behind the scenes work and encouragement.

Philemon gave undeserved forgiveness.

Onesimus gave up his freedom.

All of them gave their lives.

And One Jesus Christ of Nazareth gave more than all of these. He gave His perfect, holy blood. He gave His ALL. He gave so we could live. He gave matchless grace.

What have you given?

Sunday Snippets: The Simple Truth

Romans 10:13 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Today will probably be a short post. I just want to take the time to thank God for the beautiful simplicity of His great Salvation. As I was falling asleep last night, I was thinking about this concept. There are more aspects and facets to the salvation of a soul than I will probably ever understand. The doctrines of imputation, justification, sanctification, etc., while all true and wonderful to think about, does God require someone to fully grasp and understand each of them before He allows them to be saved?? Of course not!

How precious is it that the God of the universe sent His only Son to do what no human could ever do (For all have sinned…), and though the act of fulfilling the covenant and fully keeping the law was something that we would never completely grasp, He still made His salvation so perfectly simple that even a child could understand it. Even myself as a 10 year old girl, steeped in the blackness of my own sin, had only to turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus Christ, and my life was altered forever! 

I feel like I’m not being very coherent here, but I guess all I’m trying to say is that I marvel at how complex and yet infinitely simple it is for us to be saved. It is the easiest and hardest thing you will ever do, to let go of your pride, selfishness, fear of man, and anything else standing between you and God, and simply ask. Ask to receive the free gift He has offered. Ask Him to save you. Call on the name of The Lord! It is so amazing to me that He has done so much…He has literally done everything for us except for the action of reaching out to take the gift!! Who could reject such an offer? Why would you want to? 

I think one of Satan’s greatest tricks is overcomplicating salvation. He wants it to seem like we aren’t good enough, don’t know enough, haven’t done enough…since when was salvation about any of that? We need to be careful when we present the Gospel that we tell it as it is—Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection paid the fine for the law we have all broken. All we have to do is turn from sin to God. That’s it. He hears the cry of our hearts and answers us! Praise God for His mercy in making such a priceless gift free for the taking. <3

Mykaela