Good Monday morning! Do you get up each day believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving the good news of his resurrection, and ready to apply His Word to your life? Yes, we do! But, there is another outlook on Jesus. Some folks are of the type that Jesus should just let them go along depending upon their ability and luck until things get a little hairy and scary. Then, like a drowning person throwing a life ring toward a person standing on the shore, they want to call out to God to relieve them of some immediate danger or even just a little pressure at work. Now of course we know that the person on the shore is supposed to throw the life ring toward the drowning person and not the other way around. However, calling out to Jesus only during a time of life-threatening danger is more like the drowning person trying to toss the ring. If you are drowning, you might find it difficult to put much of a trajectory on that life ring. We know this already; why state the obvious?
You, believer and friend of Jesus Christ our Lord, know it already, but the world at large does not. Many people still think that Jesus is nothing more than an end-of-life guard to be called upon only in times of mortal danger. Not to mention that any promises uttered during the adventure are optional when things return to normal. We might be take a step or two back from that too. A promise made to Jesus is optional? Not at all! How could they even think such a thing? Ah, but it does happen. And to the point of view of many lost in this world, God appears to let them get away with it. Some even look upon God as a big, jolly Santa Claus kind of fellow. "Oh, ho, ho, I sure like to hear those absurd promises my creations make when they see Death coming for them! Did you hear that one, Gabriel? Mission to the Congo! Oh, don't get me started. Ha, ha, hee, hee, heeee!"
While I do believe that God has a magnificent sense of humor, the Bible has a few words to say about taking vows to God lightly. We have this different knowledge and perspective than those in the world do. Before you think that God has not changed you at the cross, that you still sin too much and cannot possibly be saved, or that you have no hope of attaining that perfect state of grace you think you should have earned by now, you may want to look closer at your perspective. We know in Christ that calling out to Jesus is something we do constantly, not just a holler or two in a time of mortal danger. We know that a promise made to God had better be kept and we - here it comes! - call out to Jesus for his strength in keeping that promise. We know that God does not let anyone get away penalty free, and that each of us can decide to pay the penalty ourselves with eternity in Hell, or believe in Jesus and that He paid the penalty for us. I do believe that God laughs with us at many things, but sin and broken promises are not a part of those things that God finds laughable. Above all we know that Jesus saves us and that we have no hope of saving our own miserable lives with a well-timed shout in a moment of danger and fear. We spread the Good News during the good times, because, well, it's kind of hard for a lost person to hear the words of life when their ears are already under water.
Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ!
Bucky
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