A PERFECT SACRIFICE
“You keep saying Good News and talking about a Kingdom and changing the world. What else can you tell me?” Evol knew his street smarts would only get him so far. Peter, Andrew, James and John seemed to talk to Jesus about this Kingdom.
“Here it is in a nutshell - God, the Creator of the world, my Father, sent Me here; if you believe in Me, ask forgiveness, put your faith in Me and do what God wants you to do, you will have eternal life.”
“God is your Father, ok I got that. After that is when it gets fuzzy. What ARE You doing?”
"Ahhh," Jesus' eyes lit up, "That is a great question and so glad you asked. The short answer is, I have come to be your Savior. See, a long time ago, shortly after the world was created, Satan, the deceiver entered the world. He lies to everyone, saying sin is a better life and that sin gives you happiness. I have come to bring the Truth. The Truth is sin takes away life. It may bring brief happiness but not joy. Joy is only from within; when you are being who my Father created you to be. That is spreading love and the Good News. There is more and you will learn all of it the more you follow and trust in Me.”
“Yeah, I’m getting it now. That deceiver guy sounds scary.”
“He is, he’s the enemy and you don’t want to fight him alone. I’ve got a trick for you, if you ever feel him around, just say my name and that makes him feel cowardly.”
“What does Savior mean?”
Jesus looked at Evol with such love in His eyes, he wanted the moment to last forever. Jesus broke the warm silence, “It means I will bring salvation to the world.”
“How?”
“A perfect sacrifice”
HAPPY ARE THEY...
Jesus began,
“Happy are those who are humble and modest, for they will feel right at home in Heaven.
You have joy, when you know the grief here on earth is only temporary; the only tears in Heaven are tears of joy.
You will have perfect peace when you realize everything you have, everything you are is because of God; be generous with both and you will gain a feeling in your heart that can’t be bought.
If you long for what pleases God, not for what's popular, you will be satisfied.
Forgiveness is a requirement to enter into Heaven. You must forgive those who have wronged you and your Father in Heaven will forgive you. If you can’t forgive here on earth, what makes you think you’ll be able to forgive in eternity?
Take delight when you are living the way God wants you to live. That means not keeping in bad company and doing wrong but loving, encouraging and building up for the Kingdom - a Kingdom of which the gates will open wide when you approach.
You will be at peace if you spread peace. If people argue or gossip, do you fuel the argument or continue to spread the insult or do you try to bring people together, try to cooperate and crush the evil-minded talk? If you do, you will show yourselves to be children of the Creator of the Universe.
Be overjoyed, not angry or desire to take revenge, if you are mistreated or tormented for the sake of being My follower. You may not see your prize here on earth but it will be waiting for you the second you reach Heaven.”
The Kingdom of Heaven is like…
a landowner who went out to the center of town at sunrise to hire workers to harvest his field. They agreed on the amount to be paid for the day and the laborers went into the field, happy they found work. The landowner found more workers a few hours later and offered the same amount to these workers. They agreed. He continued to find more laborers at noon and mid afternoon and sent them to his field as well. The original workers were glad for the help. At the end of the day, the owner asked his manager to call in all the workers and pay them, beginning with the last hired and end with the originals that were hired. The manager paid each set of workers. When the first group saw they were paid the same as the last group that was hired (it was the amount they agreed upon but they expected to be paid more, since they worked longer). They went to the landowner, protesting, ‘Those that worked less hours, were paid the same as us, who worked all day, it isn’t fair!’ The landowner answered them, ‘Why is it, you were happy with the wage when we agreed earlier today but now you have seen that I am generous with what I have, you are ungrateful?’
Later that evening, Jesus went over to Evol. “What is it, what's on your mind?”
“I know Your story about the workers is about mercy and I’m glad but I do not understand about the people who worked all their lives for You as opposed to those who repented at the end. How can You compare the two? I am grateful for Your mercy because of what I had done and have no quarrels about that but I would understand how those who worked all their lives would be upset about the others.”
“Yes, what of the others? You never know what others have been through. Like, still using the story, what if the people who showed up at noon were lame and had difficulty getting to the center of town for work or the one who showed up at the end of the day had a sick child to look after. One never knows the difficulty that someone else is facing or has faced. These are not excuses for sin but mercy.”
“You think of everything - and everyone!”
“Yes, I do.”