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A Father's Example
A
small boy was consistently late coming home from
school. His parents warned him one day that he must be
home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he
arrived later than ever. His mother met him at the
door and said nothing.
At
dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There
was a slice of bread and a glass of water. He looked
at his father’s full plate and then at his father,
but his father remained silent. The boy was
crushed. . . .
The
father waited for the full impact to sink in, then
quietly took the boy’s plate and placed it in front
of himself. He took his own plate of meat and
potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at
his son.
When
that boy grew to be a man, he said, “All
my life I’ve known what God is like by what my
father did that night.” *
Because
we ALL sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans
3:23), we ALL deserve the wages of sin: DEATH (Romans
6:23).
But
THIS is what God is like: He is a JUST God (Psalm
89:14), but He is also a LOVING God (1 John 4:7-8). Because
He is a JUST God, He must punish sin.
Because He is a LOVING God, He provided a way
for us to have forgiveness.
That way was through the gift of His Son,
Jesus, to die on the cross for the sins of the world
(1 John 2:2). A
wonderful exchange is made possible through Jesus
Christ: He took the punishment for our sins and He
offers us His righteousness. “For
He [God] made Him who knew no sin [Jesus] to
be sin for us, that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians
5:21).
The
“exchange” is activated when we: believe
in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), repent
of our sins (Acts 17:30-31), confess
Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized
(immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins
(Acts 2:38). Then,
as we continue to walk in the light of God’s Word,
the blood of Jesus will continue
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7-9).
In
the exchange of dinner plates, that small boy learned
the meaning of GRACE from his father.
Grace is something we NEED but we do not
DESERVE.
The boy’s example illustrates what the
Heavenly Father offers to YOU and ME.
We deserve DEATH, but He offers us forgiveness
and LIFE! That’s something we need but we don’t
deserve; that’s GRACE!
Won’t
YOU accept His grace
through your faithful obedience today?
God bless you!
David
A. Sargent, Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
* J. Allan Peterson
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