The Highlander

 I never can seem to get enough of the gospel!  When I look at my life and just how many times I fall flat on my face,, I am reminded why Martin Luther said that we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day!  I need to be reminded just how much I am loved by Father and that ALL of my sins have been forgiven and are gone forever!  I need to stand afresh at the foot of the cross and look up at my Savior and remember how much value He placed in me, because He paid the ransom price with His own life for my soul.  I must hear the good news that condemnation is gone, gone forever, and will never exist towards me again because I am in Christ.

The gospel tells me that I am a free man.  I am free from the guilt and condemnation my sin brought me.  I am free from the tyranny of the past and the anxiety of the future, because I now belong to the One Who controls it all, and He has given me His absolute word that He will never leave me, fail me, or forsake me.  I am free from the bondage of the evil one because my Redeemer has crushed his head beneath His heel, and transferred me from the power of darkness into His glorious Kingdom of light and life.  I am free from the Law and its harsh judgment, because Jesus fulfilled the Law for me as my substitute.  He lived the life I could never live, and died the death I deserved to die.  Now I live by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and I only have one law to live by…love!

I was dead, but now I am alive.  I am a new creation.  Old things have truly passed away and everything has become new.  Now I live by His life within me, and I am free to experience life…real life, abundant life!  I no longer hear the Law screaming at me demanding me to “DO!”  Nope.  I hear the gospel shouting victoriously, “DONE!”  Rather than tuning in to the frequency of “religion” and listening to the tune of “work, work, work”, I have fixed my dial on the station of “grace” and enjoy the smooth sounds of “rest, rest, rest”!

Wow!  Just writing this is getting me stirred deep within!  And to think that being born from above is just the beginning!  It only gets better from there!  There is so much more waiting for us.  That’s what the Scripture tells us.  Our eyes have not seen, our ears have not heard, and we cannot in our wildest imaginations, conceive of all that God has planned for us!

I know that life can throw some real curves at us all.  Things happen to us almost on a daily basis that can bum us out and get us down.  We can all “step in it”, regularly and become depressed and discouraged.  When those times come, preach the gospel to yourself.  Shucks, you may get so happy and encouraged that you’re ready to take up an offering (well, maybe not that), but you get my drift.  The gospel is good news, it really is.  Not just for the world, but for me and you!

The Highlander

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 5:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.