4-GIVN
A few weeks ago, I received a piece of junk mail from a car insurance company whose headline read, “You are pre-forgiven”. Further down the page was a picture of a license plate that read, 4-GIVN. Since it was just before Easter, I thought it would be a great intro to my Easter article. As I thought about it, I pictured a Teen Gospel rally with the kids wearing “4-GIVN” T-shirts! Why not tees for everybody…Moms working out at the Spa, Dads mowing the lawn, families on vacation, and even the senior Mall walkers?
After that brief flight of fancy, I looked over the ad again and was really heart-touched by the words, “You are pre-forgiven”! THAT is the real Easter story!
The Bible says, “But God commanded His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Hence, we look BACK toward the Cross at what Christ did and realize that we were “Pre-forgiven” and all we have to do is believe and receive!
Jesus paid the ultimate price for our acceptance into the family of God. He not only provided a potential “Get out of Hell Free” card, but His name is on our “New-birth” Certificate. Jesus came to this earth to do that very thing; to increase His family…this is how God reproduces! He went through the agony of ‘giving birth’ yet God’s kids have the freedom to decide if they WANT to belong to Him or not. When a woman goes through child-birth, she endures hard labor, and water and blood gushes forth in the process. When Jesus died in ‘Church-birth’, water and blood gushed from His precious side, right under His heart. The Word says life is in the blood. Jesus purchased us with His own blood, which cost Him his life.
Not only are we redeemed from Hell, but every promise in the Book is ours. As my blessed Pastor/Teacher always said, “Our triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) wrought a three-fold salvation (Justification, Sanctification, Glorification) for His triune creation (Spirit, Soul, Body)”. Now, that is quite a mouthful and a deep study in and of itself. Suffice it to say, Jesus did more for us on that hideous cross than save us from Hell, which would have certainly been enough. Additionally, Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, moved us from under the Law into Grace, Praise His Holy Name!
Although He possessed the power to create a universe, Christ voluntarily gave Himself to His captors, and to the cross. That decision was made in the garden, even before the betrayal of one of His own. In fact it was made before Jesus came to earth, in the throne room with His Father. When soldiers came for Him, Jesus was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7). Our Lord had long before, told His listeners that no one could take His life from Him, that He would lay it down willingly (John 10:18), and so He did.
After three days and nights Jesus completed His assignment, and came forth from the tomb. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the gory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).
Happy Resurrection To All,
Pastor Moser
April, 2010
W. O. W.
Jesus redeemed us and died in our stead;
In Him we died and rose from the dead.
No longer is death a thing that we dread;
The old is behind us, and the new is ahead. (D. De Haan)
In : 2010.04 "4-GIVN"
The Home Place Mission had a former site and the time came where we had to switch web site hosts. Our email had to be changed as well. In transferring the articles over, every effort was made to correct any inferences to the old email address (the new one is on the home page). Also, all articles containing hyper links were needing updated too. Please forgive us if some things may have been overlooked. Because this page is in a blog format, the date we transferred each article over is what shows under the title when opened. The correct date each article was written is beside the title under the category column. We apologize for the blog format, as it is not as "user-friendly" as our old site but we do hope you find the articles encouraging and are blessed by the insights shared! Thank you for reading!
