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Friday, July 09, 2004
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. What has value? When you look at the things you own, how do you know when you truly value those items? When they are borrowed? When you can't find them? What do you do and how do you react? If someone borrows something that you don't care about then if you don't get it back it's not big deal. But if someone borrows your favorite cd? Your first reaction is to not even let them and then you think about it and worry about it until you have it back again. To some degree it's like new car syndrome. You get a new car and you shine it, love it, and park it away from other cars. You may wash it each week. Enjoy new car smell etc. But eventually what was precious to you begins to not have as much meaning. Maybe you start looking at other cars; you don't wash it as much. When you used to not eat in the car, after that first great spill, you notice that it's not such a big thing. So what does all of this have to do with John 3:16? 2 applications: you and everyone else You--God viewed you as so precious that He gave His son for you. Now consider the value you have. I remind you of this because you either aren't a Christian and don't realize your value, or you are a Christian. But I wonder if from time to time we forget about the value we have in God. It's like the new car but it's different. AS people we may not think of a thing until we realize it's lost and then we seek it out. But Jesus said that HE seeks the lost like a man who leaves the 99 sheep to find the one that is lost. Like the person who calls their friend to rejoice over finding a lost coin even though the others were accounted for. Now if you lose a quarter and call me in the middle of the night to tell me you found it, you are about to have bigger problems. But that's because at least one of us realizes the lack of value of the coin. However, Jesus is clearly showing this: the value of the coin is recognized by everyone. God recognized your value and gave of Himself to have you. He gave Jesus so that He can have you. You are precious. Application of others: Now the second part this value is both for the individual and all individuals. So the person you have a problem with is of great value to God. To not value someone else, is take God's price lightly. Hear that again: when we don't value someone else we literally are trampling on the blood of Christ. He says that each person is of enough value that HE died for them. We say if that jerk at work says one more thing to me... Jesus left the 99 to find the one who was lost. We sayif I see that clown ever again... The value isn't based on what we think, it's what GOD establishes as the price. If you were handed a painting worth millions of dollars and you shred it because you don't really like the feel of canvas, you have many problems. Maybe it's because you didn't really know that the painting was valuable. However, that doesn't change the painting's value. Maybe you didn't really like the color of the painting but it doesn't change the value. Style, size, etc none of it matters because you still have destroyed a thing of value. It doesn't even matter that you didn't set the price or that you said I don't think it's valuable because you didn't set the price. Now if you had been at a gallery and destroyed the painting and claimed any of these things you would still be liable for the painting. And the same is true here. We are liable for the value of others whether we think they are valuable or not because God has already set the price. The life of Jesus. Finally going back to the car there is the problem of taking what is valuable for granted. The piece of junk car you hate might be a luxury to someone who has no car at all. I am not going to start a job that only pays 25,000 a year. When there are countries that have the population surviving on 300 a year. The danger with valuable things is when we forget their value. When we take the value for granted we take the price for granted as well. So to take our own life or the life of someone else for granted, automatically takes Christ for granted. We begin to say that He was a fool for He died for someone we consider to be without value. The problem extends to a country or group as well. We traveled to Africa and saw people who were so hungry for anything that they would gulp down what was offered without hesitation. The church there had the lights turned off at 9:00 am. The people who were not Christians would beckon us to come pray with them. The children would run and follow us. Now granted they might have done some of those things no matter who we were. But the reality goes back to this. Christ valued them and was looking for them. When He went looking for the lost sheep, there is little doubt that wolves and such were out looking as well. It didn't change the reality of HIM looking for them. Nor did it change the fact that a tremendous prices was paid. Friday, July 02, 2004
IF you come here directly and skip the main page, you may want to head back over to Hail Storm Central for a quick update on Africa. I plan to get back to writing next week with some Old Testament studies. Thanks for stopping by. Darol |
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