Do you know who the richest person in the world is? Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft? Or Warren Buffet, the multi-billionaire investor? Actually neither one. If you are a born-again Christian, the richest person in the world is...YOU! That’s right, YOU. Let me tell you why...
Listen to this scripture:
“You know how full of love and kindness our Lord Jesus Christ was. Though He was very rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty He could make you rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)
Is anyone richer than God? Of course not. He owns the Universe and more besides. And if this same God calls you rich (by His own standards), and makes you so, you better believe that you are!
Now listen to this:
“How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.” (Eph.1:3)
Notice it says ‘EVERY spiritual blessing.’ Every means the same as all. In other words, nothing has been left out. In the world people say, ‘You can’t have it all.’ But if you’re a Christian, you really do have it all!
Perhaps the greatest spiritual blessing is the forgiveness of sins. To be forgiven of sins is probably the most valuable benefit you can have in your spiritual wallet. Think about it: the Bible says that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Why is that? Because God Himself is Life, and the author of all Life, and when we sin we separate ourselves from Him and from the Life that He has.
Sin is deadly. It will kill you. It’s more deadly than any poison, and more dangerous than the most powerful weapon. Yet why do we treat it so lightly? Those things can kill the body, but sin will kill the soul, banishing it eternally from the presence of God into a lake of fire. It’s far more terrible than we know.
But if your sins are forgiven, then boy are you blessed! In the world people say ‘If I can just get rich and have everything I ever wanted, then I’ll be happy.’ But the Bible says:
“Happy is the man who’s disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.” (Ps.32:1)
The Amplified Bible describes ‘happy’ as ‘blessed, happy, fortunate and to be envied.’ Sounds like a rich person to me!
To be forgiven from sins is nothing less than life from the dead. Some people don’t believe that God still does miracles today. But if you’re a born-again Christian, you yourself have been raised from the dead!
You could be a multi-trillionaire and own half the GDP of the entire world, but if your sins are not forgiven you will lose every last penny you have, and then your own soul too. But if you’ve been forgiven then even if you own nothing and can’t even afford to pay for dinner tonight, you get to keep the thing that’s most important – for all eternity – your life itself.
As Jesus said:
“How do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose or forfeit your own soul in the process?” (Luke. 9:25)
When God forgives, He does a proper job! He literally has the power to forget what you’ve done and never bring it to mind again! The Bible says ‘He has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.’ (Psalm 103:12) How far is that? To infinity, and beyond!
So today if you’re a Christian, never forget that the grace to be forgiven of sin makes you hands down the wealthiest person in the world. Really! Let us thank God for His amazing grace poured out in Christ Jesus.
And if you’re not a Christian run quickly to the Saviour today! Ask Him to forgive your sins, and let Him save your soul from the terrible punishment of Hell. Then you will be truly rich.
Friday, 14 August 2009
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Taste the Joy!
Recently a friend asked me for some music lessons. This is not something I usually do, but he seemed serious and determined about it, so I agreed. He asked what my rate would be. I hadn’t thought about that, so I decided to do some research first, and discovered that a qualified music teacher can charge up to £25 p/hr!
However something didn’t feel right about charging such a high price, so I waited for several days and pondered the idea. Finally, in a moment of clarity (yes they do happen!), I knew what I should do. I should obey the words of Jesus in Acts 20:35: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ I was to give my friend lessons for free, not charging a penny.
So I did. I give my friend lessons nearly every week and don‘t charge him a dime (as the Americans say), and even purchased the learning materials myself.
The remarkable thing is that I have learned one of the reasons why Jesus said to give is more blessed than to receive. Of course this seems counter-intuitive to the natural mind, but so do most of God’s ways, so we must just do them anyway, and in the doing we learn by experience why His ways are right and the world’s ways are wrong.
But here is what I discovered: joy!
The joy of giving is much greater than the joy of receiving.
I can’t deny that if someone gave me a million pounds, the keys to a fast and flashy sports car, and my own private yaught, it would make me happy. I could certainly find ways to enjoy those things. But the joy you experience when giving is much greater, and surpasses anything you can experience by receiving.
If I had charged my friend for music lessons, I would be grateful for the extra money and could no doubt find good use for it. But by giving him lessons for free when I have every right to charge for them, I get a joy that cannot be easily explained! It feels so much better, so right and satisfying.
And now I understand why God chose to give us salvation as a free gift. Just think: He had every right to charge us full price for it. And what a price! It is far greater than any of us could every pay. But thank God there is One who could pay it, and did pay it for us, so that we could have it for free. His blessed name is Jesus!
God knows that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and this blessedness is not just the reward you receive for your giving, but they joy you experience when you give. Since God created us in His own likeness and image, and since we are his very own children who partake of His own nature in Christ Jesus, He desires that we too experience the same joy He experiences when we give. In this way we are able to understand our God and Father, to live as He lives and to fulfil His desire to share Himself with His own creation. Hallelujah! What a joy and honour!
So give something to someone in need today. Do for free something that you have every right to charge for. Give away something that you own to bless someone else, and taste the joy! I promise, you’ll not be disappointed!
However something didn’t feel right about charging such a high price, so I waited for several days and pondered the idea. Finally, in a moment of clarity (yes they do happen!), I knew what I should do. I should obey the words of Jesus in Acts 20:35: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ I was to give my friend lessons for free, not charging a penny.
So I did. I give my friend lessons nearly every week and don‘t charge him a dime (as the Americans say), and even purchased the learning materials myself.
The remarkable thing is that I have learned one of the reasons why Jesus said to give is more blessed than to receive. Of course this seems counter-intuitive to the natural mind, but so do most of God’s ways, so we must just do them anyway, and in the doing we learn by experience why His ways are right and the world’s ways are wrong.
But here is what I discovered: joy!
The joy of giving is much greater than the joy of receiving.
I can’t deny that if someone gave me a million pounds, the keys to a fast and flashy sports car, and my own private yaught, it would make me happy. I could certainly find ways to enjoy those things. But the joy you experience when giving is much greater, and surpasses anything you can experience by receiving.
If I had charged my friend for music lessons, I would be grateful for the extra money and could no doubt find good use for it. But by giving him lessons for free when I have every right to charge for them, I get a joy that cannot be easily explained! It feels so much better, so right and satisfying.
And now I understand why God chose to give us salvation as a free gift. Just think: He had every right to charge us full price for it. And what a price! It is far greater than any of us could every pay. But thank God there is One who could pay it, and did pay it for us, so that we could have it for free. His blessed name is Jesus!
God knows that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and this blessedness is not just the reward you receive for your giving, but they joy you experience when you give. Since God created us in His own likeness and image, and since we are his very own children who partake of His own nature in Christ Jesus, He desires that we too experience the same joy He experiences when we give. In this way we are able to understand our God and Father, to live as He lives and to fulfil His desire to share Himself with His own creation. Hallelujah! What a joy and honour!
So give something to someone in need today. Do for free something that you have every right to charge for. Give away something that you own to bless someone else, and taste the joy! I promise, you’ll not be disappointed!
Sunday, 24 May 2009
From Rags to Riches
“You know how full of love and kindness our Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was very rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty He could make you rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)
What an amazing verse!
Think of it: Jesus was and is the Son of God. Who in all of creation was richer than He, besides God Himself? The angels who serve Him were rich, but not nearly as rich as the Son. They were and are blessed to be able to enter the Presence of God, to serve and minister for the Almighty Creator Himself and to behold His great glory. But Jesus, being a Son, was an heir of God. This means that everything that belongs to God, belongs also to Him. Talk about rich!
As Jesus said, “All that the Father has is mine.” (John 16:15). Imagine, He could walk through all of Heaven and the entire Universe, put His finger on anything and say “This is mine.” To any of the angels He could have said, “You belong to Me.”
Yet when humanity, made in His own likeness, fell into sin, He lost something He loved very dearly. Adam and Eve, who were also rich, sold themselves out to the devil, and became in an instant very poor. Through the trickery of the devil, we traded our privileged place in God’s dominion and shook hands with death.
But because of God’s overwhelming love for us He sent His only Son to rescue us from our terrible and eternal plight.
Jesus too traded His great riches, for a poverty greater than we will ever fully know. As the Scripture says: “Though He was God, he did not demand and cling to His rights as God. He made Himself nothing; He took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form He obediently humbled Himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8).
He who knew no sin, became sin for us. He endured the punishment meant for our wrongdoings. He took the hit that divine justice had aimed at us. On the cross, the greatest transaction in all of history was taking place. Through the intense suffering of His loving sacrifice, He was liberating mankind. He volunteered to take our sentence, so that we could walk away free!
And not just free, but rich!
When we accept Christ as our Lord and Saviour we trade our poverty for His riches. We exchange our death for His life. We trade our sin for His righteousness. We swap our misery for His joy. We exchange our sickness for His health. We trade our fear and anxiety for His peace. We trade our darkness for His marvellous light. We trade our citizenship in Hell for a free ticket to Heaven. We trade our utter hopelessness for the never-ending hope of an eternal life. Jesus has completely turned the tables on our poverty and made us truly rich in every way.
Not only that, but in Christ Jesus we have become the adopted children of God. And if children, then also heirs: “For His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we will share His treasures – for everything God gives to His Son, Christ, is ours, too.” (Romans 8:17).
And again: “And because you Gentiles have become His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are His child, everything He has belongs to you.” (Gal.4:6, 7)
So no longer think of yourself as poor. Call yourself rich! Anything less than that is a dishonour to the work of Christ. Make it personal today, know that Jesus did this for you because He loves you. You mean so much to Him that He would suffer as much as He did to help you. In Christ Jesus you have been rescued, redeemed and restored to God, whom you can now call Father, and whose all is now yours!
As Christians, we have the ultimate rags to riches story. Because of the love of Christ, truly we are all slumdog millionaires!
What an amazing verse!
Think of it: Jesus was and is the Son of God. Who in all of creation was richer than He, besides God Himself? The angels who serve Him were rich, but not nearly as rich as the Son. They were and are blessed to be able to enter the Presence of God, to serve and minister for the Almighty Creator Himself and to behold His great glory. But Jesus, being a Son, was an heir of God. This means that everything that belongs to God, belongs also to Him. Talk about rich!
As Jesus said, “All that the Father has is mine.” (John 16:15). Imagine, He could walk through all of Heaven and the entire Universe, put His finger on anything and say “This is mine.” To any of the angels He could have said, “You belong to Me.”
Yet when humanity, made in His own likeness, fell into sin, He lost something He loved very dearly. Adam and Eve, who were also rich, sold themselves out to the devil, and became in an instant very poor. Through the trickery of the devil, we traded our privileged place in God’s dominion and shook hands with death.
But because of God’s overwhelming love for us He sent His only Son to rescue us from our terrible and eternal plight.
Jesus too traded His great riches, for a poverty greater than we will ever fully know. As the Scripture says: “Though He was God, he did not demand and cling to His rights as God. He made Himself nothing; He took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form He obediently humbled Himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8).
He who knew no sin, became sin for us. He endured the punishment meant for our wrongdoings. He took the hit that divine justice had aimed at us. On the cross, the greatest transaction in all of history was taking place. Through the intense suffering of His loving sacrifice, He was liberating mankind. He volunteered to take our sentence, so that we could walk away free!
And not just free, but rich!
When we accept Christ as our Lord and Saviour we trade our poverty for His riches. We exchange our death for His life. We trade our sin for His righteousness. We swap our misery for His joy. We exchange our sickness for His health. We trade our fear and anxiety for His peace. We trade our darkness for His marvellous light. We trade our citizenship in Hell for a free ticket to Heaven. We trade our utter hopelessness for the never-ending hope of an eternal life. Jesus has completely turned the tables on our poverty and made us truly rich in every way.
Not only that, but in Christ Jesus we have become the adopted children of God. And if children, then also heirs: “For His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we will share His treasures – for everything God gives to His Son, Christ, is ours, too.” (Romans 8:17).
And again: “And because you Gentiles have become His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are His child, everything He has belongs to you.” (Gal.4:6, 7)
So no longer think of yourself as poor. Call yourself rich! Anything less than that is a dishonour to the work of Christ. Make it personal today, know that Jesus did this for you because He loves you. You mean so much to Him that He would suffer as much as He did to help you. In Christ Jesus you have been rescued, redeemed and restored to God, whom you can now call Father, and whose all is now yours!
As Christians, we have the ultimate rags to riches story. Because of the love of Christ, truly we are all slumdog millionaires!
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