Bought with a Price



Just imagine. How many things have been bought and sold and bartered in the history of the world?  The number is almost infinite.  But there has never been a purchase like this purchase.  Because there has never been a price like this price.  If you are looking for a motivating reason to devote yourself to God afresh today, this is it.  If you are searching for a reason to get up in the morning and fulfill your Christian responsibilities, let this be your reason.  If you desperately need strength to love, serve, pray, fight, forgive, study, stand, preach, parent, witness, endure, and rejoice, here is gospel strength.  Because perhaps the only redemptive reality more powerful than the fact that you were bought is the height of the price that was paid.

 With the exception of Jesus Christ, no person is perfect. Sin is simply a fact of human life. The Lord's payment for our transgressions means that we can look forward to an eternity spent in God's presence instead of getting the punishment we deserve. On this side of heaven, though, we still have to contend with our tendency to do wrong--and we must also deal with the consequences. The Lord's admonition to seek daily forgiveness is a reminder to confess our sins and turn away from them because we are forgiven.

God's grace is not a license to sin; instead, it's a reason to pursue righteousness. Bad attitudes, thoughtless actions, and unkind speech do not fit who we are as children of light. We're new creatures in Christ, bought for a price and set free to live as partakers of His grace.
 
In a world where values, morals, and laws are always changing, we can find stability and security in our unchanging God. Hebrews 13:8 says God is the same "yesterday, today, and forever." Because God's nature is stable and trustworthy, we are free to follow and enjoy him rather than spend our time trying to figure him out. The God who appeared to Moses is the same God who lives in us today.

It is easy to get someone to talk about God, but try to talk about Jesus, and it is not so easy. People will often talk about "feeling close to God." But mention Jesus, and people start to get uncomfortable. Say that Jesus is the only way to God, and people get downright offended.

But Jesus says that if you accept Him, you accept God; and conversely, if you do not accept Him, you do not accept God. When someone talks about being close to God but wants nothing to do with Jesus, you can be sure he is not yet close to God.

Regardless of anyone's unbelief, here is the simple truth: Jesus is God the Son, and He is the only way God has provided for sinners' reconciliation with Himself.

We live in a fallen world, and odds are, we are going to have tough times over the years. So when the bad times come it doesn’t mean we have to dance around and be happy about it, you just have to remember that these moments won’t last forever. The bad things in our life cannot become what define us, instead, we have to trust God and remember the grace he has shown us. He will help us endure and won’t abandon us to sorrow or despair. So take a moment, whatever your situation, to be joyful. No matter how bad things get, God is with us.  

Blessings,

Raj Kosaraju




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rambabu – Testimony of Hindu Brahmin from Karnataka

Image
Rambabu – Testimony of Hindu Brahmin from Karnataka Rambabu comes from a very well educated orthodox Brahmin family. His father is a professor in English from a reputed College. His mother is also an English teacher. He has 2 siblings who are both lecturers in English. The family belongs to the highest Hindu caste of Brahmins. Since childhood Rambabu grew up listening to many mythological stories from his grandmother. She used to say that in olden days, it was known that because we cannot see God physically in the world, he has created Brahmans in the world. All the thousands of gods live in the Brahmins. Rambabu from his childhood would perform all religious duties in two different temples. He would pray and perform “puja” every morning and night. Rambabu knew all the religious traditions so well that other people would invite him to perform religious activities in their homes. He was such strict Brahmin that he would...
Read more

Mahatma Gandhi admired Jesus and His teachings but did not follow "Christianity"

Image
As Gandhi famously said, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” See, that’s a problem. And it’s not that I expect Christians to be perfect. Far from it. But if we’re ever going to be justified in claiming Jesus as the model for our lives, it might help first if there was more of a resemblance. Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most respected leaders of modern history. A Hindu, Gandhi nevertheless admired Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount. Once when the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him, "Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?" Gandhi replied, "Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ." Apparently Gandhi's rejection of Christianity grew out of an incident that happened when he was a young man practi...
Read more

The Law of Karma

Image
There is a lot of misunderstanding around this word. Karma simply means action. Every action has consequences. Conscious choice making is the most effective way of creating future consequences of karma. Karma creates the future, but it is also an echo from the past. Karma conditions our soul through memory, desire and imagination. Most people are prisoners of Karma, because it becomes a conditioned reflex and produces predictable outcomes in their lives. The goal of enlightenment is to break the in shackles of Karma. Every person is responsible for his or her acts and thoughts, so each person's karma is entirely his or her own. Occidentals see the operation of karma as fatalistic. But that is far from true since it is in the hands of an individual to shape his own future by schooling his present. Hindu philosophy, which believes in life after death, holds the doctrine that if the karma of an individual is good enough, the next birth will be rewarding, and if not, the ...
Read more