Your Paycheck {Why You Might Not Want This One}

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life

 in Christ Jesus our Lord."

~Romans 6:23

Powerful and humbling. Think of this: We all sin. 
Sin's paycheck is death. 
(This isn't looking so good..) 
If the payment for sin is death, and we've all sinned, then the only thing that we all deserve is death. But, that word "but" changes everything. The gift, the GIFT, of God is eternal life. He gives the gift of salvation freely to anyone who will open hands and heart and humbly give thanks for the precious gift we obviously do not deserve.

I wonder to myself, Can it really be that simple? Is God that good that He would really just give eternal life to anyone? And I know that the answer is YES! YES! YES! 

Yes, He is and yes, He does. Since He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith, He can cancel sin's paycheck, our paycheck, of death- and give us gifts!

The best gift of all? 
The One and Only God gave 
His One and Only Son, the most valuable of all gifts. 

I open hands and heart and utter a quiet "Yes." 
Yes, I am a sinner, dirty, deserving of only one thing. But, there's that word again, BUT, He gives His Son on that cross- the one I deserve to die on- and He takes my place. He gets thorns into his scalp and whips on his back and nails hammered through his hands and feet. He gets spit in his face and mocked and beaten and betrayed and killed- death- for me. In my place. And I'll never be able to earn eternal life, but I can open these hands and heart, not to be pierced with the nails and betrayal, but to receive this gift of salvation. His love- the deepest, widest, highest, wildest, most wonderful love of all.

I'm the one who should be locked in prison, burning forever, but His great gift saves me and cancels that paycheck. He offers me freedom. I'm so thankful for that gift and all gifts that my Father gives. I will not just give thanks, but live thanks. I will live thanks to God who didn't "withhold His own Son" from me (Romans 8:32).

How could I ever tire of this thanksliving...


Feel free to comment below and express your thanks to Him, who gave His very Son.. for you!

Lost and Found in His Word

Reading my Bible has always been kinda hard for me. I read the whole New Testament when I was younger, but since then... I’d say days would go by and I wouldn’t even think about it. I’ve always been a reader, though- so I had no idea why reading the Bible was so hard. I read good, uplifting books, yet the Bible would just sit there.

Part of what contributed to my lack of interest in the Bible was that I thought I knew it all already. (Pride, that’s a tough one.) I thought, how could I learn anything else? Growing up in the church, sometimes makes you think you’ve seen God in as many ways as possible already. Sometimes you’re almost less amazed at the awesomeness of God because you’ve seen it for so long.

The time came for me to pray for some people. What I felt God wanted me to pray into their lives was His promises. I thought I knew them, but when I opened my mouth to claim the promises, I had nothing. Sure, I knew the phrases, (“I’ll never leave you or forsake you”, “You’ll call and I’ll answer”, “I’ll bind up the broken hearted” etc) but I couldn’t tell you the reference. This, for some reason, bothered me. Knowing the lingo wasn’t good enough, I wanted to SEE it.

So, it was when I went promise-hunting in Psalms, that the desire to read the Word of God was activated inside of me. I began to realize that I was headed towards a dangerous place. I had to decide that I didn’t want to limit God to doing what He’s always done. I wanted to be amazed constantly by my amazing God. 

So I went searching. I found what I was looking for. I found promises, guarantees of God’s goodness. I found the hope, the amazing Hope that is there for all who believe.

And more than that, as I read more of God’s Word, I learned more. I saw verses as I never have before. God showed me that no matter how long I’ve been saved, He always has some new and crazy thing to show me. Sometimes to see, you have to go looking.

No, I don’t have a reading plan. No, I’ve still never read Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy (yet!). I jump from Psalms to Hebrews to Isaiah to Romans - and am always surprised at the “new” verse I discover. Always a promise and always a wake up call.

I’m in Romans today. Chapter 5, verses 6-8. 

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Message says in verse 8, “But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”

And though I’ve read it before, today I see. 

I see the pure beauty of God’s love. 

I see Christ’s world-shaking sacrifice. 

I see how incredible it is, that Jesus would die for people who were of no use to Him. Can I honestly say that I would give up my life for a murderer, liar, thief, and gossiper?  Christ did. For me and for you. While we were still in sin, He died for us. He died for us! Not because we were holy, but because He is.

So there you have it. God is again stretching me and remaking me. He is opening my eyes to my imperfections, but showing me that it is then that His mighty power will be displayed. Because an imperfect person needs saving- I need saving. We all need saving.