“The one who says, “I
have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him;” 1 John 2:4
“Be
of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls
around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
Growing
up, it was no surprise that my brother and I attempted to “pull one” past our
parents. When they would go out on a
weekend night, we’d stay up later than we were supposed to. We’d watch TV, with all the lights out, until
we heard their car pulling up, then sneak off to our room, acting as if we’d
been asleep for some time. Late Saturday
nights meant sneaking out of bed to watch another exciting episode of Doctor Who (Tom Baker, aka The Fourth
Doctor, remains the best!). Then there
was Christmas time.
My brother had taught me the
fine art of carefully opening a present and resealing it, leaving no
traces. I had it perfected. I would slowly and carefully peel back the
clear Scotch tape, holding down the wrapping.
I would take my time in this process, as not to tear the wrapping
paper. Then, slowly pull back the layers
of wrapping to expose the treasure beneath.
After making the wondrous discovery, I would carefully refold the ends
of the wrapping, placing the tape down exactly
where it had been. It was undetectable! It was brilliant! Now, if my brother had taught me NOT to go
and grab that most treasured present to unwrap on our traditional “opening one
gift on Christmas Eve”, it would have been perfect!! But NOOOOOOOO! I had to give myself away by picking that
bigger gift to open! DOH!
In
these times, we live in a world where it is difficult to take things at
face-value. We’d like to be able to take
a person’s word on things, but it doesn’t happen that way. We even hear people exclaim to “know Jesus”
and “believe”. However, you wouldn’t
know it by their actions. 1 John 2:4
(quoted above) attests to the fact that God may hear those words, but knows
what is in the individual’s heart. They
aren’t getting away with it as much as they think. They will slip up. If we are doing it, WE WILL SLIP UP!
Sure,
I wasn’t meaning harm by peeking at my presents. After all, I was going to get them anyway,
right? That isn’t the point. The point was, I was sneaking around and
looking at them before the time that I was supposed to be given them. The gift wasn’t mine yet, until Christmas
morning, when it was proper for me to find out what was beneath all of that
wrapping paper.
That
brings up another point: having the gift in your possession when it isn’t yet time
to receive it. Jesus wrapped up a
perfect gift for us: an OPPORTUNITY to live forever! A chance to die from these earthly vessels
and continue in God’s glorious kingdom!
The other side of that coin is: the gift only works when the receiver is
truly ready for it, not before.
That
gift waits for me and every day I strive to do what I can to be an appreciative
recipient of it. I don’t get to see this
gift early. I don’t want to lose that
gift. No of us want to lose it. However, we are expected to uphold our end of
the deal; and that is to live as God instructs us to live on this earth. A gift can always be taken back.
This
is one present that is too powerful to be careless with. This is one present that costs more than
ANYTHING we could possibly purchase ourselves.
This present lasts through the sands of time. Can we earn
it, or deserve it? No. We
don’t deserve it, because we are sinful creatures that need God’s salvation
through His Son. We can’t earn it,
because there is nothing we can do that will ever be equivalent to Jesus’
sacrifice. So, what are we supposed to
do? Live by God’s commandments. As Hebrews 5:9 tells us, He is the source of
salvation to everyone who OBEYS Him.
It
isn’t worth attempting to “sneak” this gift early, “assuming” that it is
deserved. We need to set our sights on
following God’s path, being honest to ourselves and others in our hearts.
No comments:
Post a Comment