🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
“But when God our Savior revealed His kindness and love, He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life.”—Titus 3:4-5
🌿LIVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
Tick tock. Tick tock. Time running amok. Fire ablazing and flames alighting out of control. If there is a building on fire and you had to pick someone to rescue, it would most likely be someone you know, like a family member or friend.
But who would Jesus decide? The good one, the loyal one, the intellectual one, the lovely one, the faithful one? What makes us worthy enough to be clutched from the anguish of distress and the agony of death?
In our humanity, many of us may choose to retrieve our loved ones first. But in His divinity, Jesus wouldn’t select some to liberate and some to leave behind.
Jesus would seek and save everyone.
By entering into the pulsating fire, enduring the punishing flames, and extricating the petrified figures. Jesus would sacrifice his life than leave us consumed in the fiery furnace. That’s exactly what Jesus does on the cross for all of us.
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A little boy in Vacation Bible School this week. One of my VBS partners tells me she reported him to the church staff because he is saying awful things about God. What kind of things? Her reply: God doesn’t exist, is a fake, isn’t real. At this point, he shows up on my radar. I begin to talk to him about his words. What I see is a hatred for God I had not seen in a child at VBS before.
So I initiate short conversations with him during the day. “Jesus loves you. Jesus cares about you. Jesus has a plan for you.” His responses are extremely hostile. Finally, my older kids pull me aside, urging me to halt discussions with him about God because his behavior is so rude. My reply: Seeds. We’re planting seeds. He’s not going to be saved now, but God can do something with these seeds later.
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On the last day of VBS, two things occur. First, this little boy gets into an altercation with a youth volunteer. My suggestion: If you put up the free bracelet you picked up from the church counter as our class walked through the hallway, you can keep it. Agreed.
Secondly, he asks me for an extra snack he sees on the volunteer desk. I ask if he is hungry. Some of the kids come to VBS without any breakfast. So, I give him the two cookies. On one condition: How fast can you eat these cookies? Can you finish it before we go to the Big Show…….I can eat super fast. Agreed.
We arrive at the Big Show. I situate myself adjacent to my children and some of our VBS kiddos. All of a sudden, I spy the little boy weave in and waver out, making a beeline. Straight. For. Me.
He squeezes himself next to me and plops down. My children and I are stunned. While waiting for the VBS show to begin, my older kids take selfies of our family. The little boy asks to be in our family pictures. We welcome him.
Perplexed, I didn’t understand. Why the change? Then I got it. 1 bracelet + 2 cookies.
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Truth + Kindness goes a much longer way than alone.
God saves us because of His deep love and mercy for us, sprinkled with kindness. Not because we are good, loyal, lovely, intellectual, and faithful enough. Not because we fulfill “enough” requirement to receive salvation.
This kindness that He graces us with, we can gift to someone else. Kindness is the gift that helps us remember the truth.
Diverse roles, dual relationship.
Truth is a precious seed we can plant. Kindness is the sunshine that brings warmth and light. Ask God for opportunities to sow seeds of the Real Truth and sprinkle kindness over it.
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Copyright 2019