Meditations

Read Luke 16

“If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon,
who will commit to your trust the true riches?”
(Luke 16:11)

Thoughts… It has been said that Jesus talked more about money than about heaven or hell. Many of his parables centered around the subject, as did his other teachings. That is because Jesus fully understood the death-grip money could have on the human soul.

Whether or not there was (or is) a literal god of money, I don’t know. Some have supposed that is what Jesus referenced when he spoke of “mammon”. But for sure, the love of money leads to all sorts of problems in this world, and in our lives: Greed, materialism, selfishness, worry, just to name a few.

Worst of all, the love of money always crowds out the love of God. That is why Jesus said in verse 13, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” In other words, we are to love God and use money—not vice versa.

But as critical as what Jesus said about God and money is, there is yet another facet to this teaching that you as a Christ-follower need to understand: How you use money now will have a direct bearing on the Kingdom authority God wants to release to you in this life, and in his eternal kingdom. That is what Jesus meant when he said if you can’t be trusted with wealth in this world, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?

How you are handling your wealth—your money, home, cars and possessions—is not just isolated to the here and now. It is, in reality, a test-run that will determine the extent to which God can trust you, bless you and use you in a realm much more important that the temporary one your money has enabled you to acquire—the spiritual realm.

Ask yourself this question today: Who has me? Money or God? Am I loving God and using money? Or in reality—and just take a look at your checkbook register or your Quicken summary if you are unsure what reality is—are you bowing at the altar of Mammon?

Prayer… Lord, help me to use my money, to the very last cent, to be pleasing to you. When I stand before you some day, may you say of me that I loved you and used money to store up wealth in the eternal kingdom.

One More Thing… “One verse in every six in the first three Gospels relates either directly or indirectly to money. Sixteen of our Lords forty-four parables deal with the use of misuse of money. A loving, joyful, liberal giving to the Lord’s work is an acid test of a spiritual heart, pleasing to God.” —William Allen

Read Luke 15

“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven
over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine
just persons who need no repentance.”
(Luke 15:7)

Thoughts… The message of this chapter is unmistakable: Lost people matter to God!

Jesus tells three parables that make up the entirety of chapter 15: The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each story features something lost—something of such value—that no expense and no effort are spared to see to their return.

At the end of each of these three stories Jesus uses a line to speak of the unmitigated joy expressed in their recovery:

“There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (Verse 7)

Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Verse 10)

“It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.” (Verse 32)

Again, the message is clear: God’s highest priority is the reclamation of lost people. They matter to God. And all of heaven celebrates their return.

Likewise, there is an clear application of utmost importance here for you and me: Since lost people matter to God, they ought to matter to us as well. No expense and no effort should be spared to aid in their recovery. And we ought also to celebrate what heaven celebrates—the return of even one sinner to God.

But with these stories comes a clear warning: Watch out for we might call the Elder Brother Syndrome (see verses 25-30). EBS resents the attention and effort made in the recovery and repentance of the sinner, and it is so easy to slip into it. It grows out of self-righteousness. It questions the authenticity of the sinner’s repentance. It refuses to rejoice at what heaven celebrates. And it couldn’t be further from what is at the very the heart of heaven, and our Father who resides there.

The call of chapter 15 must be our calling, too! What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when one finds salvation. Lost people matter to God; they must matter to us as well!

Prayer… Lord, use me today to lead some lost person to faith in you!

One More Thing… “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” —Charles Spurgeon

Read Luke 14

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and
he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
(Luke 14:11)

Thoughts… So here’s a good question for you: If you were clothed in your own humility, would you be scantily clad?

Humility doesn’t mean thinking less of yourself than others; nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts, abilities and station in life. It simply means freedom from thinking about yourself one way or the other at all.

Dallas Willard, one of the great Christian thinkers of our time, said one of the signs of spiritual maturity is all the thoughts that no longer occur to you. That would include all the thoughts in your head that keep you at the center of your universe. God does that for you, so you don’t have to.

Some time ago, I was with my spiritual mentor, Dr. Charles Blair, who had pastored the historic Calvary Temple church in Denver, Colorado for fifty-one years. We were with a small group of Christian leaders in Florida. Among them were Jack Hayford, R.C. Sproul, Reinhard Bonnke, and other high up mucky mucks, authors, media personalities and denominational leaders in the charismatic and evangelical world.

At one point, Dr. Hayford, our moderator, singled out and paid tribute to Charles in the presence of these other great leaders as the greatest example of pastoral perseverance and ministerial integrity in the last half century. I could see the high esteem in which these Who’s Who type leaders held Dr. Blair.

Yet at the beginning of the conference, when we were asked to introduce ourselves, Dr. Blair simply stood and said, “I’m Charles, from Denver.”

What humility! Unfortunately for me, I had just introduced myself right before Dr. Blair’s turn, and I hadn’t been quite that humble: “Yes, I’m the Right Reverend Ray Noah, Senior Pastor … Presbyter … President of the Blair Foundation…blah, blah, blah.”

I reminded myself of the pastor who was so humble that one Sunday his church presented him with a solid gold lapel pin that said “World’s most humble pastor.” When he wore the pin on his suit again the next Sunday, they took it away from him!

To truly enter into the kind of authentic humility that Jesus described, you’ve got to start thinking about yourself less.

I recently came across a little parable about man who was talking with the Lord one day and said, “Lord, I’d like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.”

The Lord led him to two doors. The Lord opened one of the doors and the man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of mouthwatering stew. But the people sitting at the table were thin and sickly; they appeared famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles, and each found it possible to reach into the pot and take a spoonful, but impossible to get the spoons back to their mouths. The handle was longer than their arms. As the man shuddered at the sight of their misery, the Lord said, “You have just seen Hell.”

They went to the next room and found the same large round table with a large pot of mouthwatering stew in the middle. These people had the same long-handled spoons, but unlike the first room, these were well-nourished and joyful people. The man said, “Lord, I don’t understand.” The Lord replied, “It is simple—it takes one skill: They’ve learned to feed each other, while the miserable think only of themselves.”

Let me give you a challenge this week: Forget about yourself! Try it. Practice being absent minded when it comes to you. Get you out of your thoughts, and replace them with prayers of blessings and plans for serving for other people in your life.

And see what happens. I suspect that if you allow the Lord to change your attitude, the simple joy of just belonging to him will be the result.

Prayer… Lord, you perfectly modeled authentic humility. Teach me to be just like you!

One More Thing… “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.” —Mike Show

Read Luke 13

“Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than
all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? … Or
those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed
them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all
other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but
unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
(Luke 13:2-5)

Thoughts… One of the sad realities of living in a world broken by sin is tragedy. We witness it all the time, and sometimes we are personally touched by it. An infant dies in her sleep, a teenager is killed when his car crashes; a mother looses her battle with cancer…a quarter of a million people are wiped out by a tsunami.

Out of these tragic events, like clockwork, we hear some shocked and grief-stricken person ask, “How could a good God allow such evil?” Of course, they are searching for some sort of answer that will make sense out of the insensible. They are trying to find some explanation other than the simple reality of living in a broken world where bad things happen to people—good people as well as bad people—and God gets the blame.

This is the equivalent to what Jesus was asked. A group of innocent Galileans had been killed while they were worshiping. Eighteen people left home one morning like every other day, but on this day a tower collapsed, killing them all. How could a good God? How do we make sense of this tragedy?

Did you notice Jesus answer? He didn’t really give them the answer they wanted. In a way, he brushed aside their question and went to the heart of the matter: sin. Sin kills. It brings death. And as long as there is life on Planet Earth, there will not only be these inexplicable tragedies, every person will die sooner or later. So far, the death rate for human beings is hovering around 100%.

So what is the explanation? There is really no explanation that will satisfy the “how could a good God?” question. But there is an answer—Jesus said, “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

The answer to the tragedies that occur in this broken world and the antidote to the tragedy of human sin that brings death to every human being is eternal life. Repentance trumps death, salvation neutralizes sin, and the cross has defeated the grave.

That’s how a good God has dealt with the tragedy of life in a world broken by sin.

Prayer… Father, thank you for the precious gift of salvation—and eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord.

One More Thing… “We want to reach the kingdom of God, but we don’t want to travel byway of death. And yet there stands Necessity saying: ‘This way, please.’ Do not hesitate, man, to go this way, when this is the way that God came to you.” —Augustine

Read Luke 12

“And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness,
for one’s life does not consist in the abundance
of the things he possesses.”
(Luke 12:15)

Thoughts… We don’t use words like covetousness or greed a whole lot these days, but we should. We Americans are a pretty greedy lot—me included. Our whole economic system is predicated on the hopes that you and I will grow dissatisfied with what we’ve got and go buy something newer, better, and bigger.

For instance, since Jesus told the story in verses 16-20 about a man who thought his property was too small, let’s just take a look at our insatiable thirst for bigger homes. Did you know, according to the National Association of Home Builders, that the average home size in the United States was 1,400 square feet in 1970. In 2004, however, the average size had grown to 2,330 square feet. I have a feeling that it is even bigger than that now. Where I live, it is no big deal for homes to be 3,500 to 4,000—and larger.

It was a whole different picture when I was growing up. My mom, dad, three other siblings and a couple of family pets all lived comfortably in a home that was 1,200 square feet, if that. We shared bedrooms, bathrooms, clothes, didn’t have a garage to park our car in, and only one TV—with no remote control! We actually had to get up and walk across the room to change the channel, if you can imagine that.

And we didn’t think any thing of it. We didn’t feel poor or cheated or even realize what we didn’t have. We were content! We spent a whole lot more time together as a family. We ate together. We all drove together in the same car, even when we were teenagers—a family of six crammed into an AMC Gremlin! We were as happy as a lark—we didn’t know what we didn’t know.

We were content—and emotionally healthy. We had discovered what G.K Chesterton said, “True contentment is a real, even active virtue—not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it.”

As a society, we Americans would do well to read Luke 12. It is a tough one, but what Jesus had to say about the deceitfulness of wealth, the debilitating worry over stuff, and our ultimate accountability before God for the stewardship of what we possess is much needed medicine for the greed that ails our society these days.

One day, sooner than you think, you will stand before God. None of the things you have collected during your earthly journey are going with you. As a pastor, I have performed more funerals than I can remember, and I have yet to see a U-Haul behind the hearse traveling to the cemetery. The only thing that will go with you into the next life that will do you any good is what you have done for God.

Jesus said of the rich man in the parable, “’Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

As the poet said, ‘Tis one life, will soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Prayer… Father, as the psalmist prayed, so also do I: Teach me to number my days aright that I may gain a heart of wisdom.

One More Thing… “If you cannot get what you like, why not try to like what you get?”

Read Luke 11

“If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he
give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him
a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will
he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
(Luke 11:11-13)

Thoughts… Persistence plus generosity—that is the equation not only for answered prayer, but for the life of abundance, fruitfulness and power God desires each of his children to experience.

That is what Jesus is teaching here. The context is a request from his disciples to teach them how to pray. They had witnessed first hand Jesus’ unusual connection with his Father and the amazing spiritual power that freely flowed it. And they wanted that for themselves.

So Jesus taught them his secret: Prayer. From that, we get what has been termed “The Lord’s Prayer.” But right after he teaches them this model prayer, he begins to talk about the need to persist in prayer.

He tells the story of a friend who goes at midnight to a neighbor’s home to ask for a loaf of bread in order to feed a guest who has just arrived. The lesson there was that the friend’s persistence overcame any reluctance the neighbor felt at that inconvenient hour to meet this need.

That is quickly followed up with Jesus’ admonition to therefore “keep on asking…keep on seeking…keep on knocking (verse 9, NLT) in prayer because you are not coming to a reluctant neighbor, or to an earthly father (verses 11-12) who, because of the limitations of his sinfulness, can only do so much. Rather, you are coming to a willing and generous Heavenly Father. And this Heavenly Father will not only provide what you desire (a fish or an egg in this story—symbolic of daily necessities), he will provide what you truly need—the Holy Spirit (the spiritual power to live as Jesus lived).

The secret to living as Jesus lived: We must learn to persist with the Father in prayer, not to overcome any reluctance on his part, but to overcome our own reluctance to come to him in daily dependence and tap into his willingness to provide what we desire and what we need.

Prayer, then, is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is accessing God’s willing generosity. Our persistence plus God’s generosity equals the release of divine provision and spiritual power—the kind of life God has planned for every one of his children.

Prayer… Lord, you have taught me how to pray. Now work within me by your Spirit, providing both the will and the power to connect daily to your willing generosity.

One More Thing… “Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His Name, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is.” —Charles Spurgeon

Read Luke 10

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are
worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is
needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which
will not be taken away from her.”
(Luke 10:41-42)

Thoughts… Jesus was a real champion of women’s rights—perhaps the first. The religious rules of that day prohibited a woman from being a disciple to a rabbi. But Jesus not only allowed Mary to “sit at his feet”, he praised her for it

Allowing her to “sit at his feet” was accepting Mary, a woman, as his, a rabbi’s, disciple. Jesus was giving her the same right as men to be schooled in his theology, to do his work and minister in his name. He was breaking with the long-held customs of the time, something akin to the emancipation of slaves to full rights of citizenship in the deep South in the 1800’s.

By welcoming Mary as his disciple, Jesus sent a clear signal that all the barriers preventing intimacy with God had been removed. Everyone in Jesus’ community of disciples now had equal freedom, equal dignity and equal access to God. Gender, ethnicity, background, or any other man-made qualifications aside, to “sit at Jesus’ feet” was to accept his invitation to a life of purpose and significance in his kingdom.

Not only did Jesus accept Mary as his disciple, he went out of his way to praise her: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her.” Literally, the text says that Mary chose “the good”.

Jesus praised Mary’s openness. She was demonstrating total receptivity to Jesus. While her sister Martha had received Jesus into her house, Mary had received Jesus into her heart.

Moreover, Jesus praised Mary’s daring devotion. She did what only men were allowed to do—sit at his feet to learn. Verse 39 says, “Mary…sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.” This wasn’t the only time Mary had done this. It was a pattern in her relationship with Jesus. In John 11:32 we see that Mary fell at his feet in prayer when her brother had died. In John 12:3 she fell at his feet in worship—an act, by the way, which cost her a keepsake worth a year’s salary as well as the criticism of the other disciples.

If you read those passages, you will notice that each time Mary fell at Jesus’ feet there was an associated fragrance: In Luke, the meal brought the fragrance of hospitality. When her brother died, it was the smell of death—and with her grief, the fragrance of unmitigated supplication to the One who claimed to be the resurrection and the life. When she fell at his feet and anointed them with outrageously expensive perfume, it was the fragrance of sacrificial worship. Each time she fell at his feet, Mary was demonstrating that she was a fully devoted follower of Jesus.

Along with Mary’s total receptivity and daring devotion, Jesus praised her for her outstanding courage. Her willingness to sit at his feet was a costly choice! In a Jewish writing called the Mishnah, a commentary on the Law of Moses that had been elevated to equal status with the Law, it was written, “Let thy house be a meeting house for the Sages and sit amid the dust of their feet, drink in their words with thirst, but talk not much with womankind.”

This was something a woman just didn’t do. Making Jesus a priority was sacrificial. It cost Mary not only Martha’s anger and the disciples’ criticism, but also the religious establishment’s ire.

Mary made the better choice, however. She chose the good, and her story was recorded not only as an eternal acknowledgment of her devotion to Christ, but also as a perpetual challenge to followers like you and me.

You see, at the end of the day, this story is about the daily choices we face to either carry on with our regular, and in most cases, justifiable routines, or to make following Christ our highest priority—to sit at his feet in total receptivity, daring devotion and courageous worship.

Your highest priority today will be to make the time to sit at Jesus’ feet. If you do, you will have chosen the good!

Prayer… Lord, throughout my day, keep me constantly aware of and fully connected to you. Help me to make you and keep you as my highest priority—because that is what you are!

One More Thing… “Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it.” —Corrie Ten Boom

Read Luke 9

“Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.”
(Luke 9:4)

Thoughts… I’ve got to tell you, I am more than a little bothered by the way we are doing Christianity these days! It seems a far cry from what Jesus had in mind. I think we are far more concerned with doing whatever it takes to attract people into our churches than in calling for the radical transformation of their lives, which among other things, requires total surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Just think of how the typical church in America today makes its appeal to the community: You’ll love our music—the band sounds just like Coldplay (I prefer The Doobie Brothers—alas, the title of the blog). Our pastor is great—he’ll remind you of David Letterman, only funnier. We got some great programs, too—your kids will think they’ve died and gone to Disneyland; your teenager may win an iPod—we have a drawing for one every week; and we will help you improve you marriage, make you more successful in business, show you how to make money, and help you to feel really good about yourself…oh, and we’ll treat you to a latte from our Starbucks’ franchise in the lobby.

No kidding, I was sent an advertisement this week for a start up church back east that promoted itself as a church for the really busy. The outstanding feature of their advertisement was the half-hour service—10 minutes of worship, 12 minutes of the word, 3 minutes of application, and 5 minutes of fellowship—flim, flam, thank you ma’am.

Nothing like rearranging your life around the priorities of the kingdom, wouldn’t you say? Maybe their mission statement could be, “If you’re too busy for Jesus, just come to us—we’ll fix that!”

That is a far cry from the plan Jesus gave the disciples for building his kingdom:

Then Jesus called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. (Luke 9:1-6)

Building the kingdom is not a matter of entertaining people into your church. The more we do that, by the way, the more the world finds the church irrelevant. Rather, building God’s kingdom is about invading your neighborhood, workplace, school or social circle—“whatever house you enter”—in the power and authority of Jesus Christ, casting out demons, healing diseases, and declaring to those who have been under Satan’s dominion that there is a new Sheriff in town.

Maybe I sound a little grumpy today, but come on, don’t you think it’s time we start depending on the power and authority of Jesus rather than being hip to build the kingdom of God?

Prayer… Lord, forgive me for entertaining people into the church. Empower and embolden me to call people to the radically transformed life that you offer through the preaching of the cross. Rather than being funny and likable, authenticate my witness with signs, wonders and miracles. Make me a true kingdom agent—for your glory I pray.

One More Thing… “[Jesus] was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three results—Hatred—Terror—Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild admiration.” —C.S. Lewis

Read Luke 8

And the disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying,
“Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose
and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.
And they ceased, and there was a calm.
(Luke 8:24)

Thoughts… Jesus and his disciples were in boat in the middle of a fierce storm. And the disciples were frantic, but Luke says that Jesus was sleeping. Sleeping in the midst of a raging storm!

Now that is an interesting detail the writer throws in. Why is that bit of information so important? Because Luke wanted us to know what Jesus knew about life in the hands of his Father: That given the care and the competence of his Heavenly Father, the world was a perfectly safe place to be, including a boat in the middle of a storm.

A raging storm is about to capsize their boat, and the disciples are screaming and struggling for their very lives. They think they are going to die. But Jesus is living in this settled assurance of the Father’s competence and care, so he sleeps right through it.

In their frantic state, the disciples went to Jesus, since they trusted him to be able to do something to help them. They had faith in Jesus—and that is a very important thing. But what they didn’t have, not yet anyway, was the faith of Jesus. They did not live in the settled assurance, like Jesus did, that they were safe in the hands of God.

The Apostle Peter, who was in that boat, came to know what Jesus knew. He later wrote in I Peter 5:7, “cast all your anxieties upon him because he cares for you.” He too, had come to know that when your life is in the Father’s competence and care, this world, no matter what is going on around you, is a perfectly safe place to be.

Do you realize that the Father cares for you? Sure you do! So why not practice a little casting today—especially if you are in the middle of a storm. Cast your anxieties back to the One who cares for you, and don’t be surprised if you fall asleep in the middle of your storm.

Prayer… Lord, you care for me more than I will ever realize. And you are competent to take care of all of my needs. So I cast my anxieties back to you, and in exchange, I receive your peace.

One More Thing… “With complete consecration comes perfect peace.” —Watchman Nee

Read Luke 7

“Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven,
for she loved much. But to whom little is
forgiven, the same loves little.”
(Luke 7:47)

Thoughts… It was a pretty dramatic seen: A woman of questionable character interrupted the dinner party of a high-minded Pharisee named Simon. Jesus had been invited to the party as the honored guest. This “woman” fell at Jesus’ feet and began to do something that made everyone there very uncomfortable: She started washing Jesus feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair, kissing the very spot that would soon be pierced and nailed to a cross for her sins. Finally, she broke an expensive jar of alabaster and anointed the beautiful feet of the One who had brought the Good News.

The people watching this “lady’s” drama were put off. How could Jesus allow this kind of woman to become so intimate with him? Why would he even give her the time of day? Didn’t he understand her background? She was a woman of loose morals—how could he…how dare she!

But Jesus not only knew what he was doing, he clearly knew what she had been doing. So he shot a little laser-guided parable at Simon:

“There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” (Verses 41-43)

Simon fell for it, and walked right into Jesus’ trap: “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”

It is not in the text, but I can imagine Jesus’ next words to Simon were, “Exactly! You’ve made my point, Simon. Case closed. Next!”

Have you ever wondered why people who have been so dramatically converted out of a life of sheer debauchery have such passionate testimonies—and why we are so enamored with them? This encounter between Jesus and the woman of loose moral character is precisely why.

Sometimes we who don’t have such a dramatic story of spiritual rescue often assume that we don’t have a testimony worth telling—so we don’t. We don’t seize opportunities to speak of our B.C. experience—life before Christ. We kind of feel left out in the testimony department.

If that is you, you have missed the whole point of this exchange. You see, you are that woman! Just as Nathan the prophet said to King David in a different dramatic encounter, “You are the man”, Jesus would say to you, “You are the woman.”

In fact, your sins had separated you from God. Your sins were no puny little matter—they had the power to send you to hell just like the immorality of the woman whom Jesus forgave. You, too, because of your sins, were offensive to a holy God, deserving of judgment, headed for a Christless eternity.

But God, in his mercy saved you and forgave you through the death of another, his Son, Jesus Christ. And when you stand before Jesus on that final day, you too will fall at his feet and shed tears even more rare and more costly than alabaster—tears of sheer gratitude for his grace.

You, too, like the woman, have been forgiven much. You just don’t realize it yet! Perhaps you would be wise to ask God for a fresh revelation of your true condition B.C., and the indescribable gift of amazing grace that he has freely given you.

When you come to the realization that you, too, have been forgiven much, you will love even more! So don’t be afraid to tell your story.

Prayer… I was once a sinner headed for an eternity without Christ. But you saved me, due to no righteousness or goodness of my own. It was your mercy and grace that lifted me out of my hopeless condition. I deserved hell, but you gave me heaven. Lord Jesus, I fall at your feet and offer you the best gift I have—my undying gratitude.

One More Thing… “Turn to God from idols. For the sword of His wrath that had been aimed at you has been sheathed into the heart of His Son. And the arrows of His anger that had been put against your breast were loosed into the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He has died for you, you were forgiven.” —Paris Reidhead