Covered in hay, the world unwrapped the greatest gift. To make the message plain, the Father sent His good news in the form of His only Son.
Yesterday I spoke to a man who was desperately looking for this gift. You see he has received no hope from his Cancer Doctors. A couple of weeks ago he was moving around like any other healthy man. Today he believes he is dying. After receiving permission to shut his “intensive care door” I quietly shared the most important words he will ever hear.
The first thing I did was remove religious confusion. Jesus did not come to this world so that people would listen to man’s opinion on salvation. Jesus said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mt.15:9).
I believe, with all my heart, that if we do what the 1st century disciples did we become what they became – Christians Only! That means I stop REFORMING from those who teach “commandments of men” and start RESTORING the Bible.
Jesus promised his disciples that in times of great turmoil they would be given opportunities to share His word. “This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:13). So, very gently and carefully I revealed the great Physicians testimony to this sick man.
Together we read what Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3:3-5). To see or enter the Kingdom of God you must be born again of the water and the spirit.
Next, after seeing that Peter was given the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt.16:19) we read how he unlocked the door in Acts 2:36-38. “Yes, I want this” said the very sick man. By this time a young nurse had moved back into the room. He was still hooked up to tubes and monitors. All I could do at that moment was ask him to speak to his Doctors and find a way to be baptized. I suppose I could have lied to him and taken his “death bed confession” or led him in the “sinner’s prayer”. But then I was not there to cheat him of his salvation by “teaching as doctrine the commandments of men”.
Jesus warns: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Mt.12:36).
Instead of sharing idle or empty man-made doctrines Peter says we should “… sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).
Friend, have you been given the wrong gift? Don’t settle for a cheap imitation. Every good and perfect gift is from above (James 1:17). It is critical that you turn your ears away from man and open them to the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul (1 Peter 2:25).
