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An
Outreach Publication of the Church of Christ at
Creekwood |
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$1,000! Imagine the following scenario offered by Keith Wishum… Suppose you heard me say, “I feel like giving away $1000 today.” Then, I walked up to you and handed you an envelope containing NINE crisp, new hundred-dollar bills. What would you say? Something like this? “Hey, you said $1000! This is only $900!” Or, “Where's my other $100?” Would you feel cheated? Would you complain that you had been shorted? Or would you be glad for what you were given? There is an interesting quirk of human nature at work here which keeps many of us from being as happy as we could be. Notice what was actually said. There was nothing about giving all $1000 to one person. And certainly nothing about who would get it. Couldn't I have meant all along to give $900 to one person and $100 to another? Maybe I actually intended to give $100 to 10 different people. In that case, how would you feel about getting $900? Like you'd gotten extra - more than your fair share? Same amount of money, but a very different perspective. That quirk of human nature is that we often tend to focus on what we don't have rather than on what we do have. We long for what could be, instead of enjoying what already is.
Truth is,
everything good that we have is an undeserved gift
from God. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17 The GREATEST GIFT that God has ever given to us is the gift of His Son Jesus. It’s the Greatest Gift because of our great need. We are sinners (Romans 3:23), separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-2), doomed to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14; Romans 6:23). But God loves us so much that He gave the Greatest Gift, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins so that we might have forgiveness of our sins and receive the gift of eternal life (John 3:16; Ephesians 1:7). Salvation and eternal life are GIFTS that come through Jesus. Therefore, we cannot earn them. However, we must accept them on God’s terms.
God will
give salvation and eternal life to those who accept
Christ’s offer by placing their
Everything good that we have is an undeserved gift from God. Everything! But the Greatest Gift of all is the gift of Jesus Christ and the salvation and life that are found in and through Him. “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” – 2 Cor 9:15 Won’t YOU accept God’s greatest Gift on His terms?
David A. Sargent, Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood To Subscribe to "Living Water" send a blank e-mail to:
HTML version: subscribe-livingwater@lyris.dundee.net Follow this link to locate the church of Christ nearest you: www.churchzip.com Archived issues of "Living Water" can be accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org
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