The Free Gift

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~ Romans 6:23

The imagery here is so powerful. We get paid in death for our sin but God gives eternal life as a free gift.

So often we work to try to obtain the results we want, but this verse reminds us that God is the ultimate gift giver. Why do we strive to attain so much when the gift has already been given?

We just need to accept and say thank you.

Just a reminder today that we don't need to earn what God has already given us for free.

God bless,

J.W.

Why Bad Things Happen To Good People (Part 7)

We are in a battle - a battle between two kingdoms: 1) the Kingdom of God and 2) the kingdom of evil. Earth is the battlefield and the goal of each kingdom is to take territory.

Don't believe me? Look at the creation story in Genesis.

1. Adam: God, the King of Heaven, colonizes the earth by reproducing His image on earth in the form of the first man (Adam) (Genesis 1:26-27). He then tells man to have dominion, and multiply on the earth (Genesis 1:28). In other words, He directs man to colonize the earth.
2. Sin: The enemy then comes and attacks the colony by introducing the virus of sin into the earth (Genesis 3:13-14). Sin not only turns people away from the Kingdom of God, it kills God's colonizers (Genesis 3:19). 
3. Second Adam: God then fights back. Instead of simply reproducing a carbon copy of Himself (Adam), God sends the original, Himself, in the form of Jesus (the second Adam) (Romans 5:12-15). 
4. Death of Sin: God sends Jesus to become the virus of sin itself (2 Corinthians 5:21). Thus, by dying on the cross, God kills the virus, and frees His colonizers from its bondage (Romans 6:23). 
5. New Creation: God then resumes the process of reproducing Himself on earth by sending the Holy Spirit to live on the inside of us (John 14:15-17). That is why Jesus says it is good that I go that the Holy Spirit might dwell within you (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit is now the way that God reproduces Himself on the earth (2 Corinthians 5:20). God then tells His colonizers that, with the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to go out and make new disciples (take more territory) and colonize the earth once again (Matthew 28:19). 

Make no mistake. We are in a battle for territory. The King of Heaven and the king of hell are seeking to colonize the earth.

Which side are you on?

God bless,
J.W.