The most unexpected thing happened last Saturday. My sister wanted to use the laptop and didn't ask permission from my parents, so she asked me. My parents were out so I was the "person in authority." Yes, kailangang naka-quotation marks. I allowed her on the condition that she only uses the laptop for 2 hours. She agreed.
More than 2 hours passed and she still wanted to use the laptop; she wanted to extend. Knowing her tendencies to get addicted, I stopped her. She got mad. I resorted to texting Mama, and she got even madder. To cut the long story short, she didn't speak to me for the rest of the afternoon.
By 4pm, we were talking again. If you have a sister, you'd know how these fights go. Meanwhile, I was still mad inside because she called me "liar" earlier when all I did was tell Mama the truth (long story). Still, God told me to show compassion to my younger sister, so I did - even though it was against my human nature.
(In hindsight, if I didn't listen to God then, I think the next events wouldn't have happened!)
That night, she asked for my help for her assignment. I was already fully recovered (much thanks to God's grace) and willingly helped. The assignment was to look for 3-5 Bible verses to turn into bookmarks. I thought to myself, "Oh, this might be a nice way to encourage her to read the Bible." But God has an even greater plan.
Since my sister is not much of a reader, I Googled websites containing verses that are made easy to understand for children. The page loaded and I allowed her to look for verses that spark her interest.
Lo and behold, this was the first verse she chose:
Acts 16:31When she showed it to me, it felt like I was bopped on the head. Well, it wasn't like that really, but I strongly felt God's urge for me to share the Gospel to my sister. It's like God was saying, "This is it, Maan. My divine intervention! Go for it! I'll be with you."
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
Wow, Lord. You continue to amaze me. I have asked for an opportunity to share the Gospel with my sister, and there it was, handed to me on a silver platter!
As if on cue, my ever-curious sister asked me, "Ate, anong ibig sabihin ng saved?"
Here it goes, Lord. You are so amazing! Of course, I quickly grabbed the opportunity to share with her the Good News.
Photo: http://lovelifepost.com/
You see, we are all sinners. Due to Adam and Eve's sin, we are all born sinners; it's part of our human nature. Unfortunately, God is all good and cannot tolerate evil. This means sin separated us from God.
Fortunately, God is a loving and compassionate God, and he looked for a way to reach to us wretched humans. How sweet of our Father, right? Now, the only way to do this is for Jesus to pay the price of our sins. Only someone as pure as God himself is qualified to do the ultimate sacrifice.
Mark 10:45Jesus, despite being God, became human and endured all the pain, trials, and suffering. For what? Just to fulfill God's will for the people. God's love is so, so immense that he sacrificed so much in order to bring us back to Him.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Here's the Good News: Jesus triumphed over sin, over evil, and ultimately, over death. His resurrection is not only His victory but ours! Because he paid the price, we are now free to come to God and be reconciled with him. Nothing needs to separate us from God's love again.
And guess what? The price has been paid IN FULL. We don't need to do anything to gain God's love. That would be an insult to the ultimate sacrifice done at the cross! No, the price has been paid in full. It's done. It's complete. All we need to do is know and trust that Jesus died on the cross to save us and to bring us back to God.
We don't deserve any of it, but God's love is so incomprehensible that he did it anyway. All we need to do now is believe, have faith, and live our lives for our Savior.
It's like being handed a gift. We don't need to do anything else. We don't have to cross oceans to be deemed "worthy" of the gift. We don't need to do rituals to make the gift open by itself! All we need to do is accept it, open it, know that it's for us, and use it.
Salvation is free. It's for everyone. It's for you. The ultimate sacrifice done by Jesus at the cross with our faces and names in mind. It's a gift especially and lovingly made for me and you.
That, my friends, is the Good News. Anyone can enter Heaven just as long as he wholeheartedly believes in Jesus as his Savior.
Of course, when one wholeheartedly believes in Jesus as his Savior, he would live for Him and make Him Lord of his life, right? He also needs to repent his sins and turn his back on his sinful ways. :-)
In reality, I had to share many stories with my sister just so she would "get" it, but I stopped when she seemed to have information overload hehe. God reminded me that all I need to do was plant a seed of faith in her (Matthew 17:20), and God will do the growing. Of course, I need to provide a stable environment to help her to grow! #pressure
I'm praying that you will also be blessed by the Gospel.
If God touches your heart now, feel it.
That's God speaking to you.
Commit to Jesus right now.
Stop living a life of sin that left you discontented and unfulfilled and got you nowhere.
Make a decision to commit to living a blessed life for Jesus right now.
Make Him the Lord and Savior of your life because He knows you, has great plans for you and have been waiting for you to offer your life to Him.
Jesus loves you.
Mindblowing, isn't it?
Psalm 40:10
I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
From the great assembly.
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