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“This is what the Lord says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances” (Isaiah 49:8).

Just before this passage, Isaiah was speaking about the Lord’s servant who would come not just to restore Jacob/Israel, but that He (Jesus) would also be a light to the Gentiles/nations. God promises to bring salvation and restoration to all people. Paul quotes Isaiah in his second letter to the believers in Corinth.

“For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Jesus came and did what God promised. And now there is an urgency. TODAY is the day of salvation. People always assume they have plenty of time to believe and/or repent. But it just isn’t so. Scripture gives us ample warnings not to put off repentance.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Psalm 95:7–8)

“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13)

I know it may sound trite, but none of us is promised tomorrow. That is why today is the day to take advantage of God’s grace and mercy. Today is the day to repent and ask God’s forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.

I mentioned repentance yesterday as well. It literally means “to turn.” When you are heading down the wrong path, you need to turn back to God. It does not matter if you have taken one step or millions of steps down that wrong path. Turn. Go back to the Father. He is not waiting with a scowl on His face. He is like the Father in that parable known as “The Prodigal Son” (Luke 15). He is waiting to welcome you home with open arms.

If you have wandered and strayed, it is not too late, as long as you are still breathing. Today is the day to turn.

Softly and Tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.

CHORUS
Come home, come home, Ye who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling
Calling, O sinner, come home.

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?
CHORUS

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
Passing from you and from me;
Shadows are gathering, death-beds are coming,
Coming for you and for me.
CHORUS

Oh, for the wonderful love He has promised,
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.
CHORUS

We all have the tendency to be hyper critical of those who sin differently than we do. We can quickly point out what other people are doing wrong while ignoring our own faults. It has been this way since the Fall. Jesus spoke of it this way.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3–5)

Even when our sin is much greater and more visible that our neighbor’s, we still focus on theirs. I recognize this tendency in my own life. I think we become comfortable in our own sins and dismiss them as no big deal, which allows us to justify being our critique of others.

The truth we know from God’s Word is that we all have plenty of sin in our lives.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

We need to be careful to not just think of other people when we read those words. I need to understand those words hit me hard. Like Will Smith slapping Chris Rock hard. They are calling me to pay attention, wake up and REPENT.

When we repent, we take the plank our of our own eye, trust in Jesus and are assured of forgiveness. Listen to a little more of the context of Romans 3.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23–24)

That is Good News for everyday.

A lot a attention has been paid to a biological male who identifies as a female winning the national championship in the NCAA 500 meter freestyle. The initial reaction of many is anger. “What’s this world coming to?” And I am guilty of that as well. But then I took a step back and asked myself whether or not I am looking at this person like Jesus would. Am I seeing him with the eyes of Jesus, someone that He loves and for whom He died?

I say “him” because that is the way God created. No one is denying this individual is a biological male. And Scripture tells us there are only two options.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

God declared everything He created good, and it was. Then man disobeyed Him and screwed it all up! Instead of living in harmony with God and according to His will, we think we know better and follow our sinful desires. He spoke about that after the flood when Noah offered a sacrifice to the Lord:

“The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21)

We all have those evil inclinations. We have our individual proclivities for pet sins. The temptations themselves are not sin. Acting on them is. That is what happens when someone who is biologically male identifies as female, or a biological female identifies as male. They are identifying themselves according to their fallen, sinful nature.

In God’s sight, sin is sin. If a person acts upon a temptation to lie, it is sin. If a person acts upon a sinful desire to be homosexual, it is sin. If a person allows anger to control them, like Cain did when he killed Abel, it is sin. To say, “That is the way God made me” is inaccurate. To say “This is the way I have chosen to live” is the reality. You have identified yourself according to your desires, your sinful desires.

Jesus sees that in people. But He still loves them. So much so that He came down to earth to be their substitute, to pay for the sin of everyone that we would not have to take that penalty. He wants everyone to be forgiven and saved from sin and death. He does not want anyone to continue to be controlled by the sinful nature or to identify themselves according to their sins. He has a better path.

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—” (Romans 6:6)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

God wants you to be the new creature that finds your identity in Christ. Receive the forgiveness He offers freely, let Him control you. When you slip and fall, admit it, and be forgiven again. You get to identify yourself as a forgiven child of God that has been declared righteous. Faith in Jesus claims the benefit He earned and offers.

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)

You get that for free because Jesus paid your admission price. Recognize and live with your identity in Christ.

For me to live is Christ (Philippians 1:21)

Genesis 3:1-7  Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'”  “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Did you ever think how good Adam and Eve had it in the Garden. God had created them and placed them in a place that was good. And they enjoyed a close relationship with their Father in heaven. Sure, they had some guidelines, rules intended for their good so that their life could stay happy. But they grew dissatisfied. They wanted more. They began to feel that God’s rules were restrictions. They thought they were being cheated out of some pleasures, missing out on something. So they took matters into their own hands and went outside of the plan God had for them. They ate the forbidden fruit. They disobeyed God.

What a surprise and shock that must have been. For the first time in their lives, they experienced guilt and the fear of punishment. They now knew what bad was. They knew the difference between good and evil, and it wasn’t pleasant. They didn’t know what to do, so they tried to hide. They wrapped themselves up in some leaves, longing to be back where they had been. What a sorry picture to see them standing there.

But that is not the end of the story. God came looking for them and found them in their guilt and shame and sin. They tried to make excuses, but to no avail. According to his perfect justice, God must punish them. They had done wrong. On that day, Adam and Eve began their life-sentences of pain, sweat and sorrow until they returned to the dust from which they had come.

Yet God loved them still. He would not forsake them. We see His Grace for His disobedient yet dearly loved children. The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.  God made clothes so that as they went through this world, they would be reminded of His continued care. Their clothing was visible proof that God still loved them. It would be a reminder of God’s promise of a final victory, of the Savior, who would one day allow them to go back to the warmth and comfort and joy of the Father’s house. That must have sustained them through life.

That is the good news for you. God has a covering for you to wear, a robe of righteousness.

“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:10)

That covering came to you through the life, suffering and death of Jesus Christ. He took your sins and paid for them on the cross, rising again so that you might live again with God for eternity in His presence.  Your faith and trust in Jesus Christ assures you of your forgiveness.

A song I learned from the Ongoing Ambassadors for Christ song book sums this up:

I am covered over with the robe of righteousness that Jesus gives to me…
I am covered over with the precious blood of Jesus and He lives in me…
Oh, what a joy it is to know My heavenly Father loves me so!
He gives to me my Jesus.
When He looks at me, He sees not what I used to be, but He sees JESUS.

Thank God for that!

When I was about ten years old, I had an old desktop clock radio that I bought at a garage sale with money I earned from helping my brother with his paper route and from mowing lawns in the neighborhood. It was analog, not digital. You had to manually turn the tuner to find a station. The clock had hands on it, not backlit led numbers or even the kind that flipped to change. It was old, in an off-white clamshell housing. The thing about this radio that made it fascinating for me was that it had a mechanical sleep timer button on top. Each time you pushed the button, it would add about ten minutes to the timer, so the radio would turn off automatically. I say about because it was not exact. There was a “tooth” on the end of that button that would engage a gear wheel and manually spin it to add time to the timer. Sometimes it slipped a bit, so the amount of time it added was not exact. It also had vacuum tubes inside. I know all of this because shortly after I purchased the radio, I took it completely apart. I wanted to know how it worked. And, yes, I was able to put it back together to where it was still operational. In fact, I figured out how to wire my bedside lamp to the timer as well, so that it would turn off when the radio did!

I’ve always been curious about how things work. Over the years I have learned quite a bit and tried to fix things when they break before just replacing them. I think I got that from my grandpa Mattil. I’ve had a lot of success doing so. But not always. There are some things I cannot fix, no matter how hard I try.

When daughter Bethany was about four, she had a toy that broke. She asked me if I could fix it. It was obviously beyond repair. I told her that I was sorry, but daddy could not fix it. By this time in her life, she had made a lot of visits to our doctor for ear infections and stitches and a wide variety of ailments. So she said, “Let’s take it to Dr. Rob! He can fix anything!”  He was a member of our congregation, and I told him what Bethany said the next Sunday. He thanked me for not bringing the toy to him.

I know I can’t fix everything. But I know the one who can. And, no, it is not “Dr. Rob.” It is the maker of all things. The Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier. The one who revealed Himself to us in His Word. He knows the inner workings of everything, including us.

“[God] forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,” (Psalm 103:3)

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” (Matthew 9:35)

“A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured,” (Luke 6:17-18)

That’s a pretty impressive resume. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. While we tend to focus on the here and now, Jesus was most concerned with eternity.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Jesus earned our eternal life. He paid for our sin so we would not have to do so. He gives us what He earned. That is the best news ever. But wait. There’s more. He was not one and done. He still cares for us and wants to help us. He provides the things we need for this life.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

While Jesus may not “fix” everything broken in your life the way you want Him to, He has fixed it so that you will have what you need, including eternal life with Him.

I once did a children’s message that involved a marker that only shows up under a black light. Before the service, I used that marker to draw a cross on my forehead. When the children came forward, I asked them if they could see the cross on my forehead. They were a little puzzled, because it was not visible to the naked eye. I assured them that the cross was there, even if they could not see it. Finally, I told them I would help them see the cross. I took out the small black light and shined it on my forehead, making the cross glow purple. Of course, the children were duly impressed.

I then shared with them that many people can’t see Jesus, even though He is real. I asked them what we could do to help those people see Jesus. One little guy had watched me shine that light on my forehead, and he said, “We need to shine the light for them.” What a perfect answer. In fact, Jesus spoke in those terms when He said, “…let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Because the children were responding so well, I decided to keep going with the analogy. I asked, “What can we do to shine the light of Jesus for people to see?” Almost immediately another little guy said, “Just take a light and shine it right in their eyes!”

After the laughter died down, I realized that what at first hearing sounded funny was actually a very good answer. If we want to show Jesus to those who don’t believe, we need to be living lives as followers of Jesus where they can see us. If Christians only hang out with other Christians, how will those who don’t know Jesus ever come to know Him? You cannot shine the light of Jesus for the world if the world does not ever see you.

Peter said it this way:  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (1 Peter 2:12). The word “pagans” is referring to those who are not Christians, not followers of Jesus. Peter says we should be out among them, letting our light shine.

The point is simple: If we truly believe that the only way to have forgiveness and eternal life is to trust that the death of Jesus paid for all sin and His resurrection guarantees us victory over death, dare we keep that to ourselves? We need to be out there shining that message into the eyes of those who still don’t know.

What can you do to shine the light in their eyes?