Analogous

We are all criminals, living on deathrow. We are all inflicted with a dread disease.

As prisoners on deathrow, the Judge has offered us a conditional pardon. You see, another person has already paid the price for our heinous crimes. In order to claim the pardon, we first have to admit we are guilty and accept that there is no other hope of release. If we go on thinking that we can "beat the rap" on our own, we will never see the reason to accept the pardon. If we remain blind to our guilt, we will cling to a hope that the verdict will be rescinded. If we accept the pardon, then we realize that we owe our lives to the one who paid the price. The best way that we could honor that sacrifice is by attempting to live our lives the way He would want us to.

Further, there is a time limit on accepting this pardon. At some point in time, a point that we do not know, that offer of a pardon will be closed. For each of us, that time may be different. But it is inevitable. Accepting the pardon means that many of our fellow inmates will mock us. Some will face far more and be beaten and even killed for accepting the pardon.

This is where the analogy breaks down. The execution is the only true death. Only those who refuse, or fail to accept, the pardon will face the true death of the execution. We have all the way up until our physical death in this world to accept the pardon. A student asked a wise Rabbi, "When should I seek atonement?" The wise Rabbi replied, "The day before you die." He paused for effect before continuing, "Since we do not know if we will die tomorrow or not, then today is the day we should seek atonement." What the student and the wise Rabbi failed to understand was that there is only one way to be forgiven... that is to accept the pardon offered by the sacrifice of the death of Messiah Jesus on the cross at Calvary.

The doctor came into the room, after analyzing the results of the test. "I have very grave news", he said as he sat down. "You have a disease, that is 100% fatal." The doctor paused as the words sank into reality, the mind of the patient whirls as it attempts to understand the implications. The doctor finally breaks the silence, "There is one cure..."

What do you think the patient does at this point? Well, if he is like some of us, he gets mad at the doctor. "What do you mean there is only one cure! That's narrow-minded and bigoted!" When we should be, "Well what are we waiting for, give me the cure!"

The cure to our fatal disease is the same as the pardon for our crimes. Our crimes and our disease is sin. Sin is missing the mark of perfectly following God's Law and Will. The penalty and natural result of sin is death. We are all guilty, we are all infected.

The cure is Jesus Christ. He paid the price so that we might not have to do so. And He arose from the grave to prove that He has the power to give eternal life. The power to pardon us and cure us. Declare Him Lord in your life. Ask Him to give you faith, true saving faith. There are many who have taken the "sinner's prayer" inoculation. The "sinner's prayer" is worthless unless you have true life-changing faith. If you spoke the sinner's prayer in a bout of emotionalism, but your life has not changed, then you need to seek God still. Cry out to Him, He is faithful.

Tag(s): Gospel

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Having too little self-esteem is not possible.

For too long has the old saw been repeated; "today's kids just have too little self-esteem." Well that's just tripe! The problem with all of us (not just any particular generation's children) is that we have too much self-esteem!

Self-esteem is setting our "value" by our own standards. If you set your "value" higher than even the worst criminal, the lowest person you can think of, then you esteem yourself too highly.

The true "worth" of an item is the amount that someone is willing to pay for it. Likewise we should set our own sense of worth on our value; our value to God. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down His perfect life for you and me. Our true worth is based in the value of His sacrifice. We have worth only because of His ultimate worthiness. This is far more than any sense of self-worth that I can imagine. God, from before time began, planned to sacrifice Himself, His only "natural" Son, so that we might be redeemed.

I can esteem myself no higher that I esteem anyone else, if I base my worth on His worthiness. We shouldn't esteem ourselves, but rather we should remember the value of everyone else to God. When asked what is the great commandment of the Law,the Lord Jesus replied that it is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength; but He didn't stop there He continued saying the second is like the first and it is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You cannot love your neighbor as yourself if you esteem yourself more highly than him. You cannot love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength if you believe that you are better than any other person on the planet.

If we base our sense of worth on our selves, then we become overly concerned with what other people think of us. It becomes very easy to fall into the trap of man-pleasing. But, if our sense of worth is based on what God thinks of us...! How freeing, even when I was at my lowest, God loved me more than I can even imagine. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." I don't have to earn God's love, it's not even possible to earn God's love, it is given to us as a free gift! Out of a deep sense of gratitude I should try to thank God by trying to be a God-pleaser, doing what He says is right, no matter what my fellow man may think.

Tag(s): self-esteem

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