Monthly Archives: October 2012

Remembering

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“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”1

Ron Clarke of Tasmania tells the following story about the devastating Irish famine (1845-1849) that wiped out a million people some 150 years ago when many thousands left Ireland for the New World, or Australia and New Zealand searching for a new life.

“One of these was a penniless boy who hid as a stowaway on an immigrant ship bound for America. In the mid-Atlantic the ship began to sink, but there was enough time to get everybody into life-boats. Deep down in the bowels of the ship the boy wondered why the ship had stopped and as he emerged from his hiding place there was no-one around. He came up on deck just as the captain was about to step into the last seat of the last life-boat. In the highest tradition of the sea, the captain stepped back and put the boy in his place, and as the life-boat was pushed off, he said to the lad: ‘Never forget what has been done for you.’

“As the life-boat pulled away, the lad could see the captain standing on the deck, and that vision never left him. He became a successful businessman in the New World, and when people asked him about the secret of his achievement, he always told the story of the captain giving his life for him, and how he was urged to never forget what had been done for him. ‘Whenever I get discouraged and feel negatively about myself,’ he said, ‘I recall the vision of what has been done for me, and it gives me new courage to keep on keeping on to be worthy of such a price.’”2

To sacrifice one’s own life for that of another is without doubt the supreme sacrifice. But that is exactly what Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Creator of the universe, did for you and me when he left the ivory palaces of Heaven, laying aside his external robes of deity, and came to earth as a man to pay the just penalty for your sins and mine through his death by crucifixion on the insufferably cruel Roman cross. As today’s Scripture reminds us: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”1

May we never forget the overwhelming sacrifice that Jesus paid for you and me! And because Christ gave his life to die in our place, with God’s help, may we give our life to live for him always in all ways.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, how can I ever thank you enough for dying in my place on the cross at Calvary to pay the just penalty for all my sins, so that I can be freely forgiven and receive your gift of eternal life in your Heaven? Help me always to live a life that is well-pleasing and honoring to you. And help me to be ‘as Jesus’ in some way to every life I touch, and grant that they, seeing Jesus in me, will want you to be in their life too. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

Note: If you have never thanked God for dying for you and received his gift of forgiveness you can do that today. For help read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” online at: www.actsweb.org/christian.

1. Romans 5:6-8 (NKJV).

2. Ron Clarke, w4w2@bigpond.com.

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Show me. Don’t Tell Me.

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“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”1

“There’s a wonderful scene near the end of the movie ‘My Fair Lady’ in which Eliza Doolittle sings words that God must also sing. She says, ‘Words! Words! Words! I’m so sick of words…. If you’re in love, Show me!’”2

The reality is that words have power. However, if personal and are spoken only from the head and not the heart, they are meaningless. Or if they are used to impress, flatter, manipulate, or don’t mean a thing to the one who speaks them, they can be worse than useless.

It’s the same with our Christian witness. If we say we are a believer in Jesus Christ and don’t act accordingly, what does it mean? It means nothing.

I recall seeing a poster on the wall of the office where I attended college. It read:

The living truth is what I long to see,

I cannot live on what used to be,

So close your Bible and show me how

The Christ you talk about is living now.

As Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”3

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be a man/woman of my word in that I always do what I say I will do, and always live so my actions, which speak so much louder than my words, will always bring glory to you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. James 1:22 (NKJV).

2. Richard Drake, “Authorized Personnel” (sermon) .

3. Matthew 5:16 (NKJV).

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What You See Is …

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“Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?”1

You may have read about the young couple who moved into a new neighborhood and, the next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging washed clothes on the clothesline. “That laundry is not very clean,” she said, “she doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.”

Her husband looked on, but remained silent. However, every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About a month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice, clean wash on the line and said to her husband: “Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her how.”

The husband said, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.”

And so it is with life: what we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look. The reality is that we see things not the way they are, but the way we are. Furthermore, to the degree that we are in denial, we will see only what we want to see; will hear only what we want to hear; will expose ourselves only to what we want to be exposed to, and will twist what we see to make it match our distorted perception of reality. Only the truth—brutal self-honesty—will set us free from this self-deception.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please confront me with the truth about me so that I will see myself exactly the way you see me. Please reveal to me any log in my eye that causes me to have distorted vision. Help me to become like Jesus—real and authentic. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Matthew 7:3-4 (NLT).

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