I’m going to
start something new. On Tuesdays I’d
like to post about something God has been showing me lately, either through His
word – The Bible, or through answered prayers.
This morning
during Children’s Church we had a really good devotional. Roen remembered that recently somebody
jokingly told him that when her child was naughty, she put her in a cage. I
asked him if he thought naughty children should be put in cages. He said yes.
I told him no, because children are not animals, children are gifts from
God. Then I quoted Psalm 127 to him,
“Lo, children are an heritage from the LORD…”
Then I
remembered the parable of the talents that Jesus shared. Here it is:
"For the kingdom of heaven is
like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and
delivered his goods to them. "And to one he gave five talents, to another
two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately
he went on a journey. "Then he who had received the five talents went and
traded with them, and made another five talents. "And likewise he who had
received two gained two more also. "But he who had received one went and
dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money. "After a long time the lord
of those servants came and settled accounts with them. "So he who had
received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you
delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides
them.' "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you
were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter
into the joy of your lord.' "He also who had received two talents came and
said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more
talents besides them.' "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and
faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you
ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' "Then he who had
received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man,
reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered
seed. 'And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look,
there you have what is yours.' "But his lord answered and said to him,
'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and
gather where I have not scattered seed. 'So you ought to have deposited my
money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with
interest. 'Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten
talents. 'For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have
abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
'And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.' (Matthew 25:14-30 NKJV)
I likened
this parable to God giving us children.
The talents, a piece of money in Bible times, I likened to children that
God has given to us and commanded us to look after, nurture, teach, and train
them to recognize and answer their God-given desire and love to serve Him. It says in the parable that God gives to us
“to each according to his own ability.”
God would never give you more than you can handle, and that also goes
for children. Whether God gives you 5
children, 2, or 1, you are responsible for the nurture and admonition of that
child. They are not ours, just like the
money, but they are His. We are simply
stewards of them, until He calls them back to Himself, and He will. He expects us to have something to give back
to Him, just like the master expected his money back plus more. I think sometimes we forget how fragile life
is and how short it can be for some. We
think that the children we have are ours forever. We never know when their time will come, when
God will call them back to Himself. Just
like the servants had no idea when the master would return and ask for an
account of his money. What will we have
done with our children that would be pleasing to God – the Master?? Will we have let them go, do their own thing,
raise themselves while we seek after our own selfish desires? Will someone else have raised them for
us? Will we have taught them Truth? Or will we have filled them with the world’s
lies? Will we have taught them to multiply
by loving and serving others, and spreading the love of Jesus Christ? Or will we have taught them to sit and
stagnate by loving themselves above all else?
Nowadays the world is so set on me, me, me. That is not God’s plan for His children. He expects us to take what He has given
freely and to spread, and spread, and grow, and grow. Above all else, He expects us to teach our
children His commandments, and to teach them about the selfish desires we are
all born with, and how His Son, Jesus Christ, was born very humbly as a baby,
lived a life free of sin, and willingly was nailed to a cross, a very gruesome
and painful death, and had the wrath of God poured out on Him, when it was
supposed to be poured out on us. His own
Father in Heaven had to turn His face away from His only Son while He suffered
and died because the sins that He bore that day on that cross where too
horrible for a Holy and Just God to look upon.
Now, when
the weight of this hit me, 5 years ago, it hit hard. My eyes were opened and I realized that Jesus
died for ME… He took the place where I
should have been. He bore the sins that
I would commit, even though I wouldn’t be born for another nearly 2000 years. He also died for YOU and He bore the sins you
would commit. And He bore the sins of
your mother, and your father, and your children, and your friends, and you
cousins, and your grandparents, and your aunts and uncles, and your neighbors,
and the guy you saw at Wal-Mart whose name you don’t even know, and the man
living in the jungles of Africa, and the terrorists in Al Qaeda, and the gay
man and the lesbian, and the atheist college student, and the abortionist at
the Planned Parenthood Clinic, and so on and so on and so on. Every human being that has ever been
conceived…Jesus Christ died that that person might live. Not just in this life, but for eternity in
Heaven. Do you realize that we’re all
going to one of two places when we
die? There is no third option. It’s Heaven or Hell, my friends. And God has given some very clear
instructions on how we can avoid what awaits those who have rejected His
Son. We are not commanded to worship
Jesus just to avoid Hell.. we’re commanded to worship Jesus because He alone is worthy of our worship!!!
What would you prefer? To lay down your life for… Buddha? What has Buddha done for you? Does he give you your every breathe? Did he create the heavens and the earth and
everything in between? Does he freely
offer his life as a ransom for your own?
No, he does none of those things for you. Would you rather lay down your life for.. the
environment? And worship the creation
rather than the Creator? How about.. sports? Because athletes have proven to be of very
high character and deserving of praise for the things they can do. But wait, weren’t they GIVEN those wonderful
abilities that they are paid big bucks to show off? How about… politics? Because..
politicians and their personal agendas have no flaws.
Consider
this.. Jesus Christ. Humble and lowly. Of a meek and gentle spirit. Sinless.
A part of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Love in the flesh. Have you ever considered that, but for Jesus
Christ, we wouldn’t know what love is?
He was betrayed by one of His own disciples for you. He was humiliated and stripped of His
clothing in front of many for you. He
was beaten and had His beard ripped out for you. He had a crown of thorns pressed into His
head for you. He was whipped until the
flesh on His back was flayed off and then forced to carry a large wooden cross
for you. He was laid on his back on that
cross with His hands and feet stretched out for you. He received nails, more like stakes, into
those same hands and feet for you. He
was lifted into the air to hang on that cross for you. He was forced to support His weight on those
feet with stakes hammered through them has He struggled for every suffocating
breath for you. He was forced to look
down on His mother, crying in agony for her Son, as He suffered a very slow and
agonizing death for you. He watched as
the sky turned completely black in the middle of the day and He knew that His
Father, God in Heaven, had turned His face away from His son for you. As He hung on that cross, He bore all your
sin, for you. And after nine hours of
this torture, He cried out “It is finished.”
And He died for you. And Satan
smiled. And all those who loved Him
wept. And He was placed in a tomb to
rot. But… Death could not hold Him, the
grave could not keep Him from rising again for you. He defeated death so you would never have to
know it. After three days He ascended
from the tomb and was seen by many hundreds of people. He revisited His disciples and told them to
tell the world of His love and of His payment for their debt. He did this for you. He offers His life for yours, free of
charge. Every other religion this world
has to offer requires much from you. All
He asks for is obedience. Lay down your
life and take His. I did it. How about you?
Today Derek and I got to go alone to get our taxes done. We do this in the small town of Rowan, IA. Tax time is always an exciting time of the year! :] Grandma Kerri and the girls spent the afternoon with the children for us. She took some adorable pictures of Hannah. I had to steal them and repost!
Just the sweetest little girl ever! SO smiley! She makes her mommie and daddy proud. So do Brother and Sissy :] 
