Good Monday morning! Are you separated from this world? Think about what you mean by "Thank God!" Do you have a genuine gratitude in your heart for God's providence? I believe you do. However, we hear that phrase fairly often in movies, books, and interviews around this world. I suspect that many of them could substitute thank luck, thank fate, or even "thank Pookie" and have the same feeling in their hearts. They use the name of God in their words, but they don't believe in Him.
The rescue crews in Haiti pulled a person from the rubble 11 days from the earthquake, still alive and probably very much ready to be freed from entrapment. You and I give thanks to God and pray that person realizes who saved a life for His purposes. Others in the world will say, "what luck! Go buy a lottery ticket." We are separate from the world, and not because we are excluding anyone.
Giving your life to Jesus is not like applying for a job. Jesus doesn't take only the best or most qualified candidates. He takes everyone, the more humble the better qualified to live for Him! We don't face a rigorous selection process, demands for more references, or even background checks. Jesus knew our background before we decided to give our lives to Him. No need to send out agents to check when our background is the same anyway - we're all sinners. No need to screen resumes when all of them show the same sinful and selfish lives; not one lived for the glory of God. Jesus wants all who come to Him.
Each of us has experienced the humbling process of applying or interviewing for jobs in this life. What if you had one employer who wanted all who came to him. This employer doesn't care about physical abilities or a perceived lack of any; is not prejudiced in regard to sex (or lack of.. just kidding), race, skin color, hair color (or lack... kidding again!), religion you were brought up in, education, talent, or experience. In fact he knows that none who come to him will have any real experience in his company. He also knows that not one is qualified to join his firm, and not one of the entire mob of applicants even deserves to have a job at his company. However, this employer takes every one who lays down his or her life at the foot of his company symbol.
You know that symbol; it is displayed prominently in the lobby of the company offices in Heaven. A great, wooden cross stained with blood, sweat, and other human substances left by the dying bodies of those it claimed. The cross has holes where spikes were driven through living flesh, splinters from rough handling, and probably a few dings where the hammer wielder missed now and again. Just the kind of corporate symbol that any earthly company would flee from. Yet this employer tells every applicant to lay his or her burden down right there at the foot of that cross, and then offers him or her a place in that great kingdom of God and His Christ. None are turned away, not one disqualified. All who seek find, all who answer the call are brought in. This employer knows that only the sick have come to Him, only those injured by the world will seek the healing found here.
What happens to those who hear about the great rewards this employer offers and try to gain it while holding on to their own lives? The athlete who thinks his strength is enough to overcome or leap any obstacle? The wealthy businesswoman who thinks she can buy her way in; or even the intellectual who can think his way around any problem? Do they find a way into this company? No and no. The doorman at this company cannot be bought at any price. He is backed by all the riches of Heaven, what good are earthly baubles? He is a stumbling block to those who would leap over Him, an immovable object to those who would try to overcome His might, and a simple, but unsolvable problem to those who think their own intellect is the way to eternal life. This Jesus is a tough customer, but He excludes no one. All who refuse to seek exclude themselves; those who put their trust in something other than Christ exclude themselves.
The door to this company is narrow. If a person depends upon money first; she can't shove those money bags through the door ahead of her. The strong cannot force the door, the intellectual cannot solve the riddle, and the world sees many doors that are both wider and easier than this one. However, to those who will set their own strength, wealth, talent, and time before the Lord Jesus, offering all to Him, repenting of their former life, and trusting only in Him, the door opens, and that uncompromising doorman becomes their Savior.
Praise God for Jesus, the Son!
Bucky
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