Alive Day

1 Cor. 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

I watched a segment on the evening news recently about Alive Day.  For those of you (like me until now) who don't know, each seriously injured war veteran recalls the day when, involved in fatal circumstances, they didn't die but miraculously managed to stay alive.  Some even choose to celebrate it like a second birthday.  And it makes perfect sense because on that day, they were essentially (re)born.  Given a new life.  And I'm sure these individuals are thankful beyond words.  Determined that their new beginning has special purpose.

Well, most of you can probably already guess where I'm headed with this blog.

We all have an Alive Day to celebrate.  The day we accepted and confessed Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  For until that day, we were involved in the fatal circumstances of our sin (Rom. 6:23).  But by grace and through faith (Eph. 2:8), God miraculously saved us.  Our spirits were reborn.  We were given a new life.

When was your Alive Day?  How are you celebrating?  Does each day find you thankful beyond words and determined to live a life of purpose?


Sock Monkey Snippet:  Celebrate your salvation by living each day with thankfulness and purpose.

Spacious, Free Living

Ps. 37:39  But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord...

When I think of salvation, I think of being rescued.  God rescued me from some end and to some end.

The Message Bible interestingly translates the word "salvation" in this verse as spacious, free life.  The spacious, free life of the righteous (a believer) is (a gift) from God.  So then, we can understand that we were rescued from a small, confined, limited, even imprisoned life to a great, boundless, limitless life of freedom because of the righteousness we have in and through Jesus Christ.  God intended for us to enjoy the freedom, fullness and abundance of His kind of (zoe) life and Jesus confirmed it (Jn. 10:10)!

Try replacing the word "salvation" in other Scriptures with the words "spacious, free life".  Here are just a few to consider:

Ps. 68:19  Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our spacious, free life (salvation).

Ps. 91:6  With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My spacious, free life (salvation).

Rom. 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to spacious, free life (salvation) for everyone who believes...

It is amazing to consider that not only has God rescued us by giving us His only Son, but He also gave us a new and better life!

Jn. 3:16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting (zoe) (spacious, free) life.


Sock Monkey Snippet:  The gift of our salvation is a spacious, free life.

Reflecting Absence

Jn. 10:10  "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I have come that they may  have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Next week, the 9/11 memorial is scheduled to open in New York City.  It's design features two square voids, where the World Trade Center Towers once stood, each carved thirty feet deep into the earth.  Surrounding these voids are bronze panels on which are inscribed the names of the 2,983 victims whose lives were tragically taken.  The memorial is appropriately named "Reflecting Absence".  Visitors are to be reminded of what once was.  They are to forever take note that something is missing.  Abundant life that was intended to be was stolen away by evil.  The sin of a few men caused the death of so many others.

Paul explains in his letter to the Romans that through one man, Adam, sin entered the world (Rom. 5:12) also causing death to all men.  To all of us.  The abundant life God originally intended for us was voided by sin.  BUT, the Father loved us so much that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).  So just as by one man's disobedience we were made sinners, so by one Man's obedience we were made righteous (Rom. 5:19).  Jesus restored to us the abundant life that was always intended to be.

Be reminded today of the abundant and eternal life once stolen away from all of us, reflect on it's absence, and then rejoice in knowing it has been forever restored through Jesus Christ our Lord.


Sock Monkey Snippet:  Jesus restored to us the abundant life that was always intended to be.

Now and Forever

Mt. 5:5  "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

What does it mean to be meek?  Today, I think most of us picture a meek person as being overly submissive, a doormat that is continually trampled upon by others.  One who has little or no control over his own condition.  We confuse meekness with weakness.

Let's understand meekness by first understanding what it is not.  A meek person is not proud, impatient, quarrelsome, cruel, vengeful or quickly prone to anger.  A meek person, therefore, is humble, patient and enduring, agreeable, kind, forgiving and slow to anger.  Rather than having no control over his condition, he has complete control over it.  Meekness is having or exercising self-control based on humility.  I've read that meekness is absolute power under perfect control.  I like that.  Paul exhorted Titus (Tit. 3:2) and all to be meek, "to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men."  Jesus Christ, our perfect example in all things, was meek (Mt. 11:29).  We should be, too.

The inheritance promised to the Jews was the land (earth) of Canaan.  They considered Canaan to be a type of heaven under the special blessing of God.  As I understand it, the Jewish people also came to commonly refer to any great blessing as "inheriting the earth."  So then, Christ tells us that the meek will possess and enjoy the special blessings of God.  Now and forever.  For certainly now, while we are on earth, we as believers can see God's blessing in our lives and His promises to us fulfilled just as the Jews did entering Canaan.  But we can also look forward to the day when we will inherit a new earth (Rev. 21) and forever experience God's special blessings there.  Perfect health, complete happiness, joy and eternal life.

Meekness is rewarded by God with His special blessings.  Now and forever!


Sock Monkey Snippet:  In meekness, we shall inherit the earth.

Even More Powerful

Rom. 5:20  The Law came, so that the full power of sin could be seen.  Yet where sin was powerful, God's kindness was even more powerful.  (CEV)

Laws are not made for righteous people (1 Tim. 1:9).  They are made for the unrighteous.  Think about it.  If everyone in our society, any society, behaved perfectly, laws would be completely unnecessary.  They exist only in order to identify to the unrighteous where they transgress or sin.

And so it was with the Law of Moses.  Through it an unrighteous people could see the full condemning power of their sin and the hopelessness of their situation.  Because no matter how hard they tried, they could never fully satisfy or live by it's requirements.  They could never earn their own righteousness.  Their sin was just too powerful.  And the sobering judgment due them, the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23), was death.  An eternal separation from God.

But, we are told that as powerful as the grip of sin was on their lives, God's grace (kindness) was even more powerful!  He provided, through Jesus Christ, the only perfect, sinless and righteous Man by whom we all have been made righteous (v.19)  and in whom the Law was fulfilled (Mt. 5:17).  By God's grace and through our faith (Eph. 2:8) we are saved.  We have eternal life and victory (1 Cor. 15:57) over sin and death because of something even more powerful.  God's amazing grace.


Sock Monkey Snippet:  Sin is powerful, but God's grace is even more powerful.

Into His Hands

Ps. 31:5  Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

While faced with adversity, David said it (Ps. 31:5).  While being stoned to death, Stephen said it (Acts 7:59).  While breathing His last breath on the cross, Jesus said it (Lk. 23:46).  Was it a coincidence that they all said the same thing?  What was so significant or special about these words?

"Into Your hands I commit My spirit."

In each case, there was a surrendering of something special to Someone special.

First of all, a surrendering was made.  A willing act of submission.  A voluntary choice.  The spirit was never taken but always given.

Second, something special was being offered.  An eternal spirit.  That which is the most valuable and should be our primary concern even more so than our temporal bodies.  Man can kill the body but not the spirit (Mt. 10:28).

Finally, it was entrusted to Someone special.  The One most worthy to receive it.  The One who redeemed us and purchased us with the blood of His only begotten Son and who is perfectly able to care for us.  The One who fashioned us and the heavens and earth, too.

All of us have that "something special".  An eternal spirit.  And we have a free will that allows us to decide to whom we will entrust it.  It will never be forcibly taken from us but rather must be given by us.  The highest price was paid (Acts 20:28, 1Cor. 6:20) and the greatest love was shown (Jn. 15:13) by Someone special who has an eternal plan, destiny and home for us.  Someone who is most worthy and who longs to receive us.

The words of Psalm 31:5 should rightfully come from our lips as well, freely and willingly giving ourselves to the One who gave everything for us.  Giving ourselves completely and for all eternity.  Into His hands.


Sock Monkey Snippet:  Surrender something special to Someone special.

We Smell Good

2 Cor. 2:15  For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

Everyone likes to be told that they smell good.  The smell of a perfume or fragrance is meant to attract us.  But, in some cases, it can have the complete opposite effect.  Something meant to attract can actually repel or be offensive.  The same fragrance can produce entirely different results.

The Gospel is like that.  The message of truth we bring to people, like a fragrance, will be attractive to some while others will find it offensive.  In either case, however, it is still the truth.

Paul writes that God uses us to saturate and attract the world with the fragrant, sweet-smelling message of our Savior Jesus Christ.  The end result will produce literally (eternal) life or death to those who hear it.  Some will find it attractive and receive it while others will find it offensive and reject it.  It is so very important, therefore, that what we say be spoken in sincerity (v. 17), never for our own personal gain, but rather only with the purest of motives or intentions.  In a manner that is well-pleasing to God.  Always being mindful of the life-changing potential of our message.  We are not responsible for the results, God is.  We only need to willingly allow Him to work through us.  When we do, I think that we smell good!

Sock Monkey Snippet:  We are the fragrance of Christ.

Our Shining Faces

2 Cor. 3:18  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, we are told (Exod. 34:30) that his face shone.  It literally shot out rays (horns) of light like the sun.  The Israelites realized that Moses had been in communion with God Himself.  Moses was being transformed into God's image just by being in His presence and his very countenance displayed God's glory.

After Moses spoke to the people, he veiled his face.  The glory of God visible on him may have been more than they could bear.  The Bible says the people were afraid, in awe perhaps being convicted by their own sin, making the veil necessary.  Or maybe he veiled his face concealing the decreasing brightness of it since we are not told it was of constant intensity.  The fading light was foreshadowing the old covenant of the law passing away (2 Cor. 3:13).

The veil created separation and it concealed.

Nevertheless, when we turn to the Lord, in repentance and faith, the veil is taken away (2 Cor. 3:14, 16).  Jesus Christ has taken away the veil of separation between God and us that our sin necessitated and that the law, the Ten Commandments, confirmed.  He took away the veil, revealing a new and everlasting covenant of mercy and grace.

Now having restored communion with God, we are being transformed, transfigured (2 Cor. 3:18) into His image, just as Moses was.  The glory of God, increasing in brightness, is being displayed (unveiled) in us for all to see our shining faces.  Let our light shine before men (Mt. 5:16)!

Sock Monkey Snippet:  Jesus took away the veil.

Free Indeed

Jn. 8:36  Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

Until the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary, we were not free.  We were dead in our sin and due it's wages, death (Rom. 6:23).  Destined to be eternally separated from God.  We were held captive, bound in slavery to our sin.

Then His death and resurrection changed everything.  It provided a freedom, a (the only) Way (Jn14:6), for us we could by no other means have obtained.  Our old, sinful man (Rom.6:6, 7) was crucified with Christ freeing us from bondage to sin.  Jesus made (set) us free.  God's gift of an eternal life to be spent with Him was (and is) provided through His Son.

As we celebrate our nation's freedom today on the Fourth of July, let's also remember the ultimate freedom from sin and death that was made available to us through the precious blood of Jesus.  We are free indeed!


Sock Monkey Snippet:  Jesus made us free.

A Free Gift From God

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

Whenever we see a free gift offered in the newspaper or on television, we are wary and automatically become suspicious.  Because, in most cases, there are actually strings attached to it.  There are terms and conditions that we must meet in order to receive it.  So, the "free gift" is really neither free nor is it a gift after all.  We had to earn it and we deserve it.  Just like our paycheck or wages.  Wages are earned, gifts are given.

One man's (Adam) sin (Rom. 6:18) earned us death, condemnation and eternal separation from God.  But another man's (Jesus) righteous act gave us the free gift of eternal life with God, something we could never earn.  The free gift came to all men!

Being created with free will, we can choose our eternal destination.  We can choose to deny Christ and thereby accept the consequences (wages) we deserve (have earned) or we can, by faith in Christ, receive the gracious, merciful, undeserved and unearned free gift of eternal life.  No strings attached.  It seems like a no-brainer to me.  Life and death have been set before us (Dt. 30:19).  Therefore, choose life, the free gift from God.


Sock Monkey Snippet:  Eternal life is God's free gift to us.