She hurt my Feelings

I received a letter from my sister who was attending Teacher’s College in Sydney, and boarding with some people in the suburb of Ashfield. My sister and I had always been good friends, but in this letter she had pushed the boundary of friendship too far. She said she had been attending Ashfield Baptist Church and had become a Christian and I was a sinner and must become a Christian too, or I would go to Hell. I was dumbfounded by this. (and found her “bedside manner” most offensive), because I was brought up in a Christian country, went to church occasionally and lived a reasonably decent life, so I considered that I was already a Christian, certainly not a Sinner.  So why on earth did my sister, write and tell me that I was a sinner, and needed to become a Christian”?  I put this question to my Dad and he replied that “she has probably got mixed up with some Religious Fanatics.” So I threw her letter in the Garbage Bin and shook my head in disbelief.

 

 However, she had also sent me a little booklet, and out of curiosity I read it. A quote from the New Testament struck me, where it said: “All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” and “The wages of sin is death” (meaning eternal separation from God), “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord.” Well then if that was the case, I figured that I had better look into this more closely as there just might be something in what Anita had said, and in John’s Gospel I found that Jesus Himself had said: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have Everlasting Life.” His implication being that those who don’t “Believe” in Him Do Perish! “So the Good News was that the Son of God, (Jesus Christ), paid for our sin by dying on the cross and rising again, Therefore, He can offer forgiveness to anyone who truly repents and asks to be forgiven. And I can assure you I was delighted to know that, as it was more like the assurance that I wanted to hear.

Just as these sheep had come under the shelter of the tree for protection from the sun’s heat. I had also come under God’s protection from ultimate heat.

 

It was then that I realized why most people, who have accepted this forgiveness, want to go to church and pray and read the bible and so on. It is not in an effort to gain salvation, (as I had previously thought), because if they believe in Jesus they already have that Salvation, but they do these things in order to get to know Jesus, and God, more intimately and find out how they should behave as God’s children now that they are under His protection.

Possibly there are more people around the world who do not understand Christianity than there are who do understand it. This is because some churches perform too much ritual which causes many people to look on Christianity as a religion, when it is really not a religion at all, but is an intimate relationship with a person.  That person being the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In the mind of many people there seems to be the idea that in order to please God, or should I say, to “not fall out” with Him, or to gain His forgiveness, they must religiously perform certain rituals, (Nothing could be further from the truth, and is absolutely untrue). Nevertheless, some religions, require their followers to face in the direction of a particular shrine, and pray a certain number of times per day.  Others have to burn incense or turn prayer wheels, or repeat certain phrases, or make certain sacrifices and ritualistic prayers. The idea being that if they do these things consistently they will somehow earn themselves a good place in the next life. Well, I am sorry to say that they are wasting their time because the Bible points out that “it is by Grace that you are saved through faith, and that not of your selves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2: 8) The Apostle Paul, commenting on this, said that in the light of all Jesus did it was reasonable for us to accept His forgiveness and change our ways. Thus we are given help right away, and a “Complimentary free ticket” to Heaven when the need arises, with no strings attached, Wow! How about that for a great outcome?

However, Jesus knew that Sin had to be “Erased” from our “resume” though, and He, being the sinless Son of God, was the only one who had the qualifications to achieve that, and, praise God, He did it. How dreadfully He must have suffered to achieve that for us though, and how loving of Him it was to make it so easy for us? Unfortunately, some of us are still too proud to accept that forgiveness. I know this, because I even hesitated for a while myself.  

Christians are believers in Christ, the one who paid our entire debt and has done all that could be done for us.

As He knocks at our heart’s door then, it is now up to us to accept Him by opening our heart to Him.

Of course, we can also reject the one who died at terrific cost to purchase our Salvation, if we choose to.

The decision is ours, not God’s. So think it through, because the Almighty God who designed these flowers and looks after them, wants to reinstate you as His child and look after you too, and thankfully He actually said that we are much more valuable to Him than they are. Best wishes, Tom.