I Finally Get It....

PAID IN FULL

Sacrifice...

My sweet husband works overtime at a factory near us-just so I can stay home. He doesn't have to do it. We talked it over and he wanted to let me stay home after I finished homeschooling our son. I love him for doing this for me, but I would love him anyway. He is just himself, and I love him. That's all. But I am thankful for his sacrifice of his own time, for working when he's tired, for getting up and driving in rotten weather-all that stuff that he does for love.

And speaking of sacrifice, I am thankful for what God did for me. He paid a price for me with Jesus' blood. He knew all the sin I would commit even before I was born-He knew and yet He died for me.

I finally get what this has all been about-this awful thing I have been through these months. If I could get up on the roof of this house right now and shout it out to the world-I would, because that's just how sure I am.

The Apostle Paul was a pretty bad guy before he saw Jesus, and had an incredible encounter with God's forgiveness. Read about it in Acts chapter 9. Paul was not required to make good for all the Christians he had killed. How could he have repaid for his sins? It was not required of him. He wrote in Galatians 2:21 "I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." KJV

I finally get it because my salvation does not depend on someone's opinion of me-it depends on what was done on a cross by a Man that didn't deserve to die-by God Himself, who had taken on the form of a man for 33 years, and who never sinned-though He knew what we were all tempted by and knew our hurts and pain. God did it for me and for everyone who was born before Him, and who would be born after He had died and rose again. He said, "It is finished" when He hung there. Not-"Well, I did this, but you guys just have to be good too, and follow some rules. You can make them up as you go along." It makes me shudder to write that.

I thank God for Paul, for all his wonderful letters-full of Grace, full of hope. Because he knew.

And so do I.