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- Written by: Don Goulding
You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, along with all their multitude of stars, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You impart life to them all, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. (Nehemiah 9:6)
Our cat charged across the floor chasing an imaginary mouse. It was a comic burst of life from an otherwise inert pet. Thank you, God, for frisky cats. A lot of smiles would disappear from the earth without them.
A friend peeled back swaddling to show off her newborn baby. The ruby mouth stretched into a yawn all of one inch across. The elixir of life was doubly concentrated in this tiny masterpiece. Hallelujah, thank you, Lord Jesus, for babies. We’d be so much less without them.
A spray of water shot from the Alaskan ocean. It was the exhale of a thirty ton humpback whale. After several breaths, her tail fluke rose, then slipped down to a forest of kelp and sardines.
God, you didn’t have to create lifeforms in such wild diversity, but you did, and it is glorious. Thank you for whales that play beneath the waves. I can’t imagine the seas empty of our mammalian cousins.
On par with God’s incalculable gift of life is his second gift of reclaimed life. His initial invention was too brilliant to be discarded after mankind vandalized it. Nature lies defaced, but the heartbeat flutters. And Jesus has come with a plan of renewal.
We are given a window of time to participate with our Redeemer’s solution. Cats, new babies, all creation will be remade, and very soon. Until then, heaven and earth watch to see if we’ll champion his two mind-boggling gifts—birth and rebirth.
Prayer: Blessed Creator, thank you for the gift of life, and its reclamation.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Since all these things are to melt away in this manner, what sort of people must we be, conducting our lives in holiness and godliness, while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? (2 Peter 3:11, 12a)
God created me to live in paradise, to see his face, and to dance with angels. Instead, the Garden of Eden is torn from my hands, and I’m trapped in a corrupted land.
I can’t direct my outrage at God. He’s not the one who infects the world with evil. Fellow humans aren’t my targets either, because I, too, choose sin. Satan might bear the guilt, but he only abetted what my nature already wanted. Mostly, I’m mad at me, at my own darkness.
I can’t accept the world’s dysfunction for eternity. In its current state, this earth isn’t any kind of permanent home. I’m ready to slap away the sticky paws of temptation and run out the gate. Jesus is the only way out of this abominable curse.
Our fallen existence is proof enough, and I don’t need hell to convert me further. I’m fully convinced that self-rule is disastrous. Bring on the fire of God’s wrath against everyone who refuses to submit to Christ’s authority. The rebellion in my own heart needs to be the first to burn.
I can’t take life sitting down. I’m up, shaking off my corruption, and running through the gate.
Prayer: Saving Lord Jesus, may my life hasten your return.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)
If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23)
“If you were to die tonight and God were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into heaven,’ how would you answer him?” I asked a homemaker standing between the columns of her porch in Iowa. I entered her answer on the survey form and droned through my spiel. As I headed up the street, I checked the box indicating another convert had recited the sinner’s prayer. I thought I heard a deposit go into my heavenly account.
I’m repenting from that naively formulaic approach to evangelism. It degrades people into conquests and ignores the reality that salvation is as much a process as it is an event. I must shun easy open, microwaveable pitches. Instead, like Jesus, I need to love others as unique creations.
When he asked about salvation, Nicodemus was told to be born again. The rich young ruler was encouraged to sell everything, and the crowd at Pentecost was charged with repentance and baptism. Each response met the converts on their journey, then moved them closer to Jesus.
Hallelujah, I’ve crossed over to salvation. All the work for my pardon is completed by Jesus on the cross. However, I’m also being saved as I carry my own cross of self-denial. Thus salvation lives where the roads of evangelism and discipleship intersect.
Prayer: Jesus, use me to help others on this same journey I myself am on.