Published by admin on 10 Oct 2019 at 08:00 pm
MAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF
It sure seems to me that people put themselves through a lot of hard stuff, trying to win the goodwill of God, when all the time, God is trying to get us straight to the blessings. It is written in Isaiah 55:1-3,
1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Now, does that passage sound like God is trying to “make you earn your keep”? Or perhaps trying to make you “earn your salvation”? This generation growing up is hearing a lot about “free stuff”, meaning that which they put no effort into earning. Now there’s a time to earn stuff, and there’s a time to just receive it without cost. As far as the world goes, there’s no “free lunch”, and if it IS free, it’s only because someone else had to pay the price for it. As responsible citizens, we are supposed to earn our way in this world, not being freeloaders or lazy. In fact, our labors should produce enough, not only meet our own needs, but to have extra to help others in need.
It’s always a good feeling to be able to be a blessing to someone in need, and seeing how needy all of humanity is, it must make God feel pretty good to be the Benefactor of all mankind. He demonstrates His love toward us daily, even to those who are unjust. How? He provided His Son, Christ Jesus of Nazareth, to be our Savior. We can’t “earn” that free gift, but we can sure “receive it” for free by faith, and be born again into God’s Family.
And yet, many feel they must earn their salvation by good works because they feel unworthy to receive such an awesome gift, or else their pride won’t let them accept anything “for free”. Either way, the devil robs them of the joy of receiving the free gift of Salvation. Now don’t get me wrong; just because the offer of salvation is free to YOU, doesn’t mean it came without cost.
Actually, we cannot even comprehend how terrible and costly that investment in your salvation was to Christ Jesus. He suffered far beyond anything we have ever faced or imagined. That picture of Jesus hanging on the cross wearing the crown of thorns, with nails in His hands and feet, and a few spots of blood on Him is the largest understatement of suffering that has ever been produced by mankind. In Isaiah 52:14 it says: As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
He was tortured and beaten so severely that He was almost unrecognizable as a man. Why did He endure that? He did it so all the sins of mankind would fall upon Him, from Adam on till the end of mankind upon the earth, and by His sacrifice, YOUR sins are CANCELLED! That means you can stop beating yourself up every time you mess up. God placed YOUR penalty of death for sin upon Christ Jesus, and that makes you FREE!
I don’t think there’s anything that takes the joy out of receiving a free gift than someone saying, “Now here’s the bill for your free gift.” And yet that’s exactly what so many church people do to those who step forward to receive their salvation. They tell you that you must do things a certain way because that’s the way they’ve always done it. You must be Holy, you must give a certain amount to God, You must eat this, or not eat that, and you must worship on a certain day. That, my friend is the “BILL” for your salvation, according to the church. And yet they fail to tell you that “YOUR SALVATION IS PAID IN FULL BY CHRIST JESUS”, meaning, NO PAYMENT DUE!
It all goes back to people feeling they must “add” something to the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, to make their salvation valid, like what He suffered and died for was not enough. It is written in John 8:34-36,
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Once you have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and believed unto salvation and repented of your sins, it seems many churches IMMEDIATELY try to rob the joy of salvation from new converts by trying to put the yoke back upon them again. Instead of nurturing people in the faith and building them up with solid teaching from the Bible, they want the new Christians to be miserable right along with them. Why is it that they preach that they want you to be FREE, yet they’re afraid of you getting more free than THEY are? It’s because they don’t know THEIR sins are also “PAID IN FULL”.
If you find you’re in one of those churches, ask for a sign from God what to do. Most likely He will show you the sign right above the door that says EXIT. Use it.
Going back to Isaiah 55:1-3, stop laboring for that which satisfies not. God isn’t wanting you back in bondage again. He paid a very high price to set you free from all that. Come out from among those bent over from trying to lug their sins around, loaded down with a load of care and trying to earn their salvation by their works and be FREE! The gift of God is free and you can’t add anything to it to make it more free. Let your soul delight in the LORD, and be joyful! I can’t add anything to Isaiah 55:1-3 to make it any clearer that Isaiah did. FREE!! Come get YOURS! Make it easy on yourself, just do it God’s way. You’ll be so glad you did!
Kim Goebel on 11 Oct 2019 at 5:51 pm #
Jerry.
This is excellent. If I had a church. I would definitely invite you to teach and preach!!!