Whispers From Heaven

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Author Nancy Bauer, Washington State

 

 

THE PERFECT BELIEVER?  THERE’S NO SUCH THING!

 

Christians aren’t perfect. We shouldn’t judge ALL Christians by the one that ISN’T A SAINT!

This is EXACTLY what I had done in the past.

Before I became a Christian, I had a relative that said she WAS a Christian and announced to all that she went to church often. A few words later, cursing and judgments came pouring out of the same mouth that had just claimed that she WAS A CHRISTIAN!

And so, to my family and I, ALL CHRISTIANS were hypocrites. We judged ALL by watching ONE!

Thinking about all this, I wondered how I could show you how the Bible says God sees the Christian.

My stuffed animal, Pumba, will help me to demonstrate.

    PUMBA has contracted the “WORTHOG-FLU”.

I don’t want what he has…his fever, his cough, his stuffy snout (one BIG stuffy snout!), nausea, vomiting, diarrhea…….and his….ahum…fluctuation.

So to guard against these things, I take extra vitamins, wear a mask, use disinfectant, wash my hands often with a sanitizer AND soap, try to keep a healthy distance from his “explosions”….ahh…I mean, his sneezes and coughs.

The only thing standing between me and Pumba’s WARTHOG-FLU are these tasks and remedies.

Well, it’s like that with God, too.

God cannot live with sin. In the beginning, He created man without sin. But we all know the “snake and apple” story. And so, sin was born.

When Jesus went to the cross, God put ALL man’s sins…every last one of them…onto Jesus. God had to separate Himself from His Son in order to take OUR sins away, for Jesus was dirtied with OUR SINS. (although He himself had never sinned).

That’s why Jesus cried out in agony, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” It was the first and last time that Jesus had ever been separated from His Father.

When Jesus took MY sins away, God gave me the opportunity and choice to ask Him to cover my personal sins and to live in my heart. I began to be a continual work in progress…to allow Jesus to live in me so I could live like Jesus. TO STRIVE FOR JESUS’ PERFECTION! And when I asked Him to live in me, Jesus STOOD between me and God our Father.

(1 John 4:9 And there is one God, and there is one who brings God and human beings together, the man Christ Jesus…)

Jesus is the TASKS AND REMEDIES that keep the SINFUL WORHOG-FLU from separating me from God my Father. God cannot see “sinful-sick-me” because Jesus stands between us.

BELIEVERS AREN’T PERFECT! But we are rescued by the One who is! We stand behind Him and He presents us to God.

We allow Jesus to “ward off” the “WARTHOG-SIN-FLU”. We can now have a personal, One on one relationship with the CREATOR! We can get close to Him because we WON’T MAKE HIM SICK BY OUR “WARTHOG-SIN-FLU”

I hope this helps you to see the Christian/Believer differently. It’s NOT the REMEDY that’s at fault here. It’s HOW the REMEDY has been presented!

Let’s pray… for us…and those of us with the “WORTHOG-SIN-FLU”.

Prayer: Wonderful Father,We come to You once again, showing how much we need You. We need Your mercy, Your loving-kindness and Your grace through Your Son, Jesus. We thank You for Your eternal forgiveness, and giving us another chance to come close to You. Thank You Jesus, for giving Your life for us. Forgive us for not walking rightly. For because You are inside of us, we should ALWAYS show You as our Light. You ARE our Light in the darkness, Lord. Show us now, we pray, how to go through our lives living rightly and not hurting Your name by what we do. Help us to up lift You by the way we live. Help us to change the way a Christian/Believer is seen my showing YOU in our ways of living. Draw us ever close to You, Heavenly Father, by Your Son, Jesus.

In HIS name we pray,

Amen……IT IS THE TRUTH!!

1Ti 2:5  For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and human beings together, the man Christ Jesus.

1Ti 2:6  who gave himself to redeem the whole human race. That was the proof at the right time that God wants everyone to be saved.

1Jn 4:9  And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

1Jn 4:10  This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

Nancy