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Hear the heart of God in the following Old Testament passage:

¹But now, O Israel, the LORD who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. ²When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. ³For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave [your enemies] as a ransom for your freedom. ⁴Others died that you might live. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.
                                               Isaiah 43:1-4 (NLT)

This passage speaks of how precious Israel (that is, the people and the country) is to God. They are His chosen people and he tells how He sacrificed their enemies to save them, how He gave up some lives to save Israel because she is so precious to Him. God even says simply “I love you.”

Don’t just read the words. Feel the emotion. Imagine that it is your husband or wife saying the words to you. How would you feel? Your spouse is saying that he/she paid a ransom for you – the life of someone else for your life. You must be incredibly precious!

But perhaps you’re a skeptic and think, “Well, they were Israel’s enemies that God gave as a ransom. It’s not like they were important to Him.” Au contraire, my friend. All life is precious to God, and those He calls enemies are those who have chosen to be His enemies. A message that sometimes seems to get lost in the Old Testament is that God called “His people” not only the Israelites, but all who chose to trust Him. Rahab and Ruth, for example, were not born Israelites, but they chose to align themselves with Israelites. As Ruth said, “Your people will be my people and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16).

God shows the same attitude in the New Testament toward His people as He showed in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, the Israelites have clearly rejected God.

¹⁰But although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. ¹¹Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. ¹²But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. ¹³They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan – this rebirth comes from God.
                                               John 1:10-13 (NLT)

God offers His love to everyone, and those who accept the gift of forgiveness and salvation that He’s offered began to be called “Christians.” It’s the term we still use today.

Let’s look at that first Old Testament passage again:

¹But now, O Israel, the LORD who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. ²When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. ³For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave [your enemies] as a ransom for your freedom. ⁴Others died that you might live. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.
                                               Isaiah 43:1-4 (NLT)

The concepts and words that stand out in my mind are:

• God ransomed us
• He will protect us
• He is our Savior
• Others died that we might live
• We are precious, honored and loved

Remember those concepts and words as you read the following New Testament passages. In this first one, Jesus describes why He came to earth:

[Jesus is speaking] “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”
                                               Matthew 20:28 (NLT)

Peter amplifies Jesus’ words in his first letter:

¹⁸For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. ¹⁹He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. ²⁰God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you.
                                               1 Peter 1:18:20 (NLT)

How precious we must be to God, for Him to pay a ransom, not of His enemies, but of His son! God’s own son is the price required to ransom us from the empty life we would otherwise have. What an honor! What love!

⁸But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ⁹And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment. ¹⁰For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. ¹¹So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God – all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.
                                               Romans 5:8-11 (NLT)

God has ransomed us through Jesus Christ. Praise God! He has delivered us from eternal punishment to eternal life!

¹¹And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
                                               1 John 5:11-12 (NIV)

I hope you have the Son! Because being in the center of God’s love is life!

How good are you? Let’s draw a scale to represent “goodness.” We’ll put God at the top of the scale. Scripture says that He is perfect in all His ways and that His goodness knows no bounds. He is the pinnacle of goodness.

Now where would you put yourself on the scale? Well, before you try to figure that out, let’s pick an easier one. Where would you put Mother Theresa on the scale? I’m guessing pretty close to the top. How about Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer, the serial killer and cannibal? Pretty close to the bottom I’d guess. Think of some other people you know and imagine where they would be on the scale. Now, where would you put yourself on the scale?

I’d put myself a little above the half way mark. I’m a little more good than bad, but I have a long way to go before I even approach God’s goodness. And that’s the point of the scale. Everyone on the scale, whether they are Mother Theresa, Hitler or you or me, experiences a gap between God’s perfect goodness and where they live.  That gap is what the Bible calls sin – the word actually means “missing the mark” of God’s standard.

Let’s look at a verse from the Bible:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
            Romans 6:23

This verse tells us a lot about that gap between us and God’s moral standard. Let’s look at some key words:

Wages — What we earn for something we do.
Sin — As I said above, it’s missing the mark of God’s standard. In this verse it’s what we’ve done to earn our wages.
Death — That’s what our wages are!

…in other words, we’ve earned death by sinning. Not a great wage, I’d say, but then it wasn’t a great work we did to earn it!

Gift — It’s something we receive for doing nothing – the exact opposite of wages!
God — The gift comes from God, it isn’t the result of our own actions.
Life — God’s gift is life, both now and throughout eternity. It is the exact opposite of death!

…in other words, the gift God offers to us is eternal life. It’s a pretty great gift that we cannot earn but we can surely accept.

Through Christ Jesus — Hmmm…God gives the gift, but it had to be paid for by someone. It’s a gift to us, so we don’t pay for it. This verse tells us that Jesus paid for it. We’ve already seen that the price, the wages, is death. So when Christ died on the cross, He was paying the price for our sins.

Our Lord — These two words explain how we receive God’s gift – by making Jesus Christ our Lord, by choosing to let Him be the leader of our lives.

The gap on our scale between where God is and where we are represents our sin.  Turn the scale on it’s side and you’ll see us on one side and God on the other. The gap between us and God represents our sin and the wages we’ve earned for that sin is our death. Praise God that He sent Christ, who willingly accepted those wages on our behalf! The free gift God offers to bridge the gap between us is the death of Christ. When we accept that gift by recognizing His leadership in our lives, we are reconciled to God – give life now and throughout eternity.

Are you reconciled to God? Or are you choosing to live your life your own way, earning the wages of death? Accepting God’s gift of eternal life is easy. It means agreeing with God – that you don’t meet His standards – that you have sinned and therefore earned death, and then choosing to accept His free gift of eternal life by following Jesus – by living your life and making your decisions based on His leadership.

It’s that easy…and that hard. Easy because all that’s required is talking to God conversationally and asking him to forgive you for choosing sin and telling Him that you want to choose life by following Jesus. Hard because it means choosing to let God be the Lord of your life. Fortunately, it’s a process. You won’t totally change overnight, but your thoughts and desires will begin to change and that change will increase exponentially you spend time with God by praying more and beginning to read the Bible. Try it! It means life…now and forever.

If you’ve made this decision for the first time, please e-mail me at sandy@ApprehendingGrace.com. I’ll help you get off to a good start in your new life with Christ.

Psalm 136 reviews Israel’s history and recognizes at the end of each sentence “His faithful love endures forever.” Verses 1 through 7, 10, 13, 16, 17, and 26 all begin with the phrase “Give thanks to” followed a name or description of God. So in 26 verses, 12 of them specifically say “give thanks” and all 26 of them remind us that God’s “faithful love endures forever.”

Has the writer made his point? When I look at society around me, and truly when I look at my own attitudes sometimes, I don’t think he has! How sad!

Significant snow has fallen early this year. I was watching a friend go out to his car after the first big snow the other day and he first had to brush snow off the doors before he could open them, then he had to scrape all the snow off his windows before he could drive away. As I watched him (from the cozy warmth of my house), I thought “I bet he’s annoyed about this.” That thought was quickly followed by “He’s going to spend the next five or six months in a cranky mood if he lets himself get annoyed by the snow on his car at the beginning of each day.” And that thought was even more quickly followed by the Lord whispering “so will you.” Yep. I don’t like having to go outside and scrape snow off my car in the morning, especially if I’m dressed for a meeting and not wearing proper “snow” clothes. I like to stay inside in the warmth and look at the beautiful snow outside!

‘Tis the season for crankiness, it would seem. As if the weather turning cold and snowy isn’t enough, it’s also the season for too many cars in the store parking lots, too many people pushing overflowing shopping carts in the stores, and too many people to have to wait in line behind at the check-out counter.

God has been speaking to me gently about attitude lately. The truth is He probably needs to be hitting me on the side of the head with a frying pan about my attitude because it hasn’t been very good lately. But He’s been dealing with me gently about it. (And for that I’m thankful.)

His faithful love endures forever…despite my tendency to focus on the negative sometimes.
His faithful love endures forever…despite the wrong choices I make.
His faithful love endures forever…despite…all that is my life that is not what it should be.

I am convinced that the change in attitude that I need, is one of increased thankfulness. And in order to increase my thankfulness, I must change my focus. That’s the example set by Psalm 136. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! He created all that has been created. And He did it really well! Give thanks to the Lord for He has repeatedly rescued us – even though we didn’t deserve to be rescued! Give thanks to the Lord for He provides for ALL my needs! Give thanks to the Lord because He is not like me…He is not prone to crankiness when He has to practice patience. (If He was, He would surely be cranky all the time because He shows incredible patience with me.)

For God so loved the world…He didn’t complain bitterly about it. For God so loved the world…He didn’t scold us or beat us up. For God so loved the world…that He loved us more! He loved us in a way that cost Him a great deal and in a way that we could identify with. He sent His son to make up for the difference between our behavior and attitudes and God’s standard of perfect righteousness.

‘Tis the season to set aside ourselves and to focus on the God whose faithful love endures forever. From eternity past when He created the world through eternity future when those who trust Him will live with Him forever. I hope you’re one of those people! Watch for my next blog series about what it means to be a Christian – what it means to trust God.

In the meantime, be thankful! Because God’s faithful love endures forever!

And have a blessed Thanksgiving day.

Many people love the book of John. It has never been my favorite. Today, the first chapter of John came alive to me as I read it. Other Scriptures flooded my mind to amplify each paragraph. I thought I’d share it with you. I hope you enjoy this amplification of John 1 through other Scriptures. All Scriptures are from the New Living Translation of the Bible.

John 1:1-5
¹In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. ⁴Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. ⁵The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Genesis 1:1-3
¹In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface. ³Then God said [spoke the words], “Let there be light,” and there was light. 

John 1:6-9
⁶God sent John the Baptist ⁷to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. ⁸John himself was not the light; he was only a witness to the light. ⁹The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world.

John 8:12
¹²Jesus said to the people, ”I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

John 1:10-13
¹⁰But although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. ¹¹Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. ¹²But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. ¹³They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan-this rebirth comes from God.

John 3:1-8
¹After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, ²came to speak with Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you.”

³Jesus replied, ”I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.”

⁴“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

⁵Jesus replied, ”The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. ⁷So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. ⁸Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

John 1:14a
¹⁴So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us…

Luke 1:26-37
²⁶In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. ²⁸Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

²⁹Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. ³⁰“Don’t be frightened, Mary,” the angel told her, “for God has decided to bless you! ³¹You will become pregnant and have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. ³²He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

³⁴Mary asked the angel, “But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.”

³⁵The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. ³⁶What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she’s already in her sixth month. ³⁷For nothing is impossible with God.”

Luke 2:6-7
⁶And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. ⁷She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn.

John 1:14b
¹⁴…He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. …

John 15:9-17 (Jesus is speaking)
⁹“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. ¹⁰When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! ¹²I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. ¹³And here is how to measure it – the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you obey me. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. ¹⁶You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. ¹⁷I command you to love each other.

John 1:14c-15
¹⁴…And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.

¹⁵John pointed him out to the people. He shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘someone is coming who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before I did.’”

John 1:1-2
¹In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. 

John 1:16-18 
¹⁶We have all benefited from the rich blessings he brought to us – one gracious blessing after another. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. But his only Son, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart; he has told us about him.

John 14:1-11a
¹“Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. ²There are many rooms in my Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. ³When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. ⁴And you know where I am going and how to get there.”

⁵“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We haven’t any idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶Jesus told him, ”I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. ⁷If you had known who I am, then you would have known who my Father is. From now on you know him and have seen him!”

⁸Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.”

⁹Jesus replied, ”Philip, don’t you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking to see him? ¹⁰Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. ¹¹Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.

Romans 5:6-11
⁶When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. ⁷Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. ⁸But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ⁹And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment. ¹⁰For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. ¹¹So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God-all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.

It is exactly six weeks until Christmas. Two weeks until Thanksgiving.

I know what you’re thinking…HOW did this happen? (Secretly – or not so secretly – my husband and I have decided that the holidays ought to come every other year! They just arrive too quickly when it’s every year.)

But this year I’m excited for the holiday season. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because I started reading Isaiah a few weeks ago and came across this passage in chapter 9:

⁶    For unto us a Child is born,

    Unto us a Son is given;

    And the government will be upon His shoulder.

    And His name will be called

    Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷    Of the increase of His government and peace

    There will be no end,

    Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,

    To order it and establish it with judgment and justice

    From that time forward, even forever.

    The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

 I’m reading through the Bible using the New Living Testament (NLT) this year – I like the change it provides from what I had been reading (New International Version, NIV). But what I quoted above is from the King James Version (KJV). I’m old enough to love the sound of this passage in the KJV. But let me quote it in NLT as well, for those who might not have the KJV voice in their head:

⁶For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷His ever expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David. The passionate commitment of the LORD Almighty will guarantee this!

When that verse is quoted, people usually stop in the middle of verse 7. But look at the last line – I had never noticed it before –The Lord’s “zeal,” His “passionate commitment” will accomplish  it, will guarantee it. What will it accomplish? What’s written about in verse 6 and 7a – the birth of a Son, Jesus. What, then, is God zealous or passionate about? Can it be anything other than fellowship with us? If Christ came so that we might have life (John 10:10), so that we might know the Father (1 John 5:20) – if that was his purpose in coming, doesn’t that reveal the Lord’s passionate commitment to us? I think it does. God was passionately committed to giving His son to us so that we might have eternal life with Him (John 3:16-17). Wow!

 How very much God loves us! For unto us a child is born. Thank you, Lord.

I’m praying that each Thursday between now and Christmas, God will give me a Christmas message to blog. Be sure to check back each week.

 His mom was a “Dissenter” who taught him Scripture before she died. His father married his stepmother, a woman in whose home he never felt welcome. He became an angry young man. Following in his father’s footsteps, he also became a sailor. His father was a man of reputation and integrity. He was not. He was insubordinate, a blasphemer, and a deserter from the British navy. He served on slave trading ships, even serving as captain seeking to buy his African slaves for the lowest possible price and sell them back in England at the highest possible price.

He also wrote one of the greatest hymn of the faith — “Amazing Grace.” His name was John Newton, and one night he became convinced that God had protected him “while he was yet a sinner.” He should have died, along with everyone on his ship. Instead he and his fellow shipmates lived. And John Newton became convinced of the reality of God and of His great love for sinners.

John Newton became a man with one purpose — serving God and helping others come to know Him. He also became a Dissenter. Dissenters were those who met outside the sanctioned Church of England. They were known for lively, non-traditional worship services. They preached a personal relationship with Christ. Eventually John became ordained in the Church of England and served church members, Dissenters and seekers alike for more than forty years.

He wrote hundreds of songs and books. He was innovative in finding new ways to help believers lead transformed lives. He continued to pastor and preach into his eighties. As age began to take its toll, his eyesight, hearing and memory began to fail. “Near the close of his life,” writes biographer Anne Sandberg, “he told a friend at his bedside, ‘My memory is nearly gone, but I can still remember two things: That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.’” (John Newton, published by Barbour and Company, Inc., Uhrichsville, OH)

We complicate it so much. John Newton got it right. We are great sinners. And Christ is a great(er) Savior.