GIVE AND TAKE

Give and take -- isn't that what life's all about? And isn't that what spiritual things are all about, too? Whoa! I hear someone saying! OK -- guess I'd better explain!

The church has given a wrong message to the world -- a message of "giving up" this, that and the other in order to become a Christian. But can you find any place in the Bible where God asks a person to give up anything, including sins? Or is that a new thought? We don't have to give up our sins, our rebelliousness, our wickedness or anything else! When Christ becomes our Lord and Savior, we find we don't want those things any more. In fact, the only things we have to give up are things that God would have no use for!

The truth of the matter is that God is the Giver. We are the receivers, or the takers. God has given us Redemption from sin with all its consequences.

Remember the story of Ruth and Boaz in the Old Testament? She didn't give up her poverty to become his wife, she received his wealth. She didn't give up her loneliness, but received his fellowship. She didn't give up her weaknesses, anxieties and fears; she received his plenty, his protection, his care.

So it is with us and God. According to Ephesians 1:3, God has "blessed us with all spiritual blessings . . ." All we have to do is receive them, or take them, in other words. God is the Giver; we are the takers! We had nothing to do with the plan of Redemption. Christ did it all!

John 3:16 plainly says that "God so loved the world that He GAVE . . ." All we have to do is RECEIVE, or TAKE. God doesn't ask us to give up anything. He just asks us to take His manifold blessings.

All God's blessings are gifts. When someone gives us a gift, we don't do anything to earn it -- we simply take it.

Salvation is a gift. Eternal Life is a gift. Jesus was a gift. The Holy Spirit is a gift. Etc., etc. We do not pay for a gift. We simply take it!

More on this thought tomorrow.

Preacher's Kid