Redemption

I don't know what has triggered my memories, but the last few weeks I've been bombarded with nostalgia. 

One morning I found myself remembering S&H Green Stamps. I once loved going to the store with my grandmother or my aunt or my mom and collecting these stamps. I was the "licker" and was given the task of putting them into the books. Oh, how the excitement built until books were filled and saved to be redeemed for something one just wouldn't buy for himself.

Another morning I found myself thinking about cola bottles. Our childhood mornings were often filled with searches for empty bottles that could be redeemed. Some bottles were worth three cents; some were worth five or more. If I found a 5-cent bottle, I felt rich.

That five cents would fill a small brown paper bag with enough sweets and bubble gum to last all afternoon and into the night.

One morning a couple of days later I remembered one of my first encounters with scratch off tickets in Trenton, GA. I believe Lanny and I spent an hour or more in the parking lot of a "quick shop" scratching tickets.  I would win something, redeem it, buy more, and scratch those tickets, and repeat the whole process.

On still another morning, I remembered going to the arcade with two little Bagley boys in Pigeon Forge. Oh, how they loooooved seeing the machines spit out those tickets. And ooooooh how long the boys stood in front of that long, glass case filled with childhood delights. Most of the time, one can only get a tiny treasure that fits easily in a pocket and is lost easily later in a car.

Funny how all of these memories are about redeeming things.

Yes, we all enjoy redeeming things. Most of the above mentioned prizes were tiny treasures.

As believers, we've hit the jackpot! Our treasure is Jesus, and He is NO TINY TREASURE.

The world today recognizes many different addictions - drugs, alcohol, sex, power/fame, foods, shopping/bargain hunting/Amazon Prime, gaming/TV/You Tube/Facebook, gambling, and on and on and on.

Each of these is a symptom of the main addiction - what I call THE SILENT ADDICTION, an addiction people just don't talk about much -

being addicted to ignoring or refusing God's will for our lives.

This "silent" addiction is a story as old as mankind and goes back to the days of Adam and Eve who were given specific instructions as to how to live in the Garden. They chose the silent addiction and did their own thing, and ever since, mankind's innate nature has been to disobey, to ignore, or to downright refuse God's will. We are made of the same stuff.

The result of this addiction was separation from Father God, a broken relationship with our Creator. Before Jesus was born into this world, God did everything He could to remedy this problem. He tried to bridge this gap and restore the relationship. The whole Old Testament story reveals His efforts and mankind's failures.

Ultimately, only the death of Jesus would remedy the problem and offer us a second chance to live as we were created to live, as sons and daughters of God, THE King of the Universe.

Jesus's story is one of redemption - a buying back something that was once a possession, an exchange of one thing for another. His life and death on the cross provided for us a divine swap, an amazing and mysterious and glorious exchange.

When we believe in God and turn our unmanageable lives over to Him including all our sins and guilt and shame and failures, He mercifully in return gives us His goodness, His righteousness, His life and all that comes along with that. We are forgiven and set free to live as a new creature with a new nature and a new heart. By faith, Jesus' life in us makes up for our weaknesses in both character and strength.

The Just (Jesus) died for the unjust. The Sinless One (Jesus) became our sin so that we could free of sin and all its consequences.

Jesus died to bring us safely home to God.

As believers, we have not just been redeemed FROM something; we have been redeemed TO something.

• From a broken relationship with Father God to an intimate personal relationship and life with God
• From the power of sin, death, and hell to an abundant life both here and eternally
• From a life with no hope or purpose and that makes no sense to a hope that ALL of this - life both good and bad - has meaning and purpose because our life is hidden in Christ Jesus who has all our days in His hands

Our old life is gone, divinely exchanged for a brand new life in Jesus.

Our story, our life becomes His.

His story, His life becomes ours.

Together our stories are the greatest story ever told, a story of salvation and love and mercy and hope and forgiveness and REDEMPTION!

His blood shed on Calvary REDEEMED me . . . and you. We are adopted into the family of God.

Isaiah 54:4-6

Fear not; you will no longer live in shame. Don't be afraid; there is no more disgrace for you. You will no longer remember the shame of your youth and the sorrow of widowhood. For your Creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven's Armies is His name. He is your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth. For the Lord has called you back from your grief.

We are ALL broken.

Each of us comes to God with a past.

We give Him all of us, and He gives us all of Himself.

We bring . . . our life, our losses, our shame, every disgrace, every tear, every word we wish we hadn't spoken, all the broken promises, all the lies and the loneliness and the judgments of others and the dead dreams and the dashed hopes and the broken relationships, all the emptiness, our successes and failures, our yesterdays and todays and tomorrows, our scars and wounds . . .

He gives . . . salvation, hope, new life, new dreams, love, acceptance, forgiveness, purpose, friendship, family, peace and joy in Him, and sooooooooo much more.

He is our redeemer, the one who restores our life.

He is the Lord of our past, present, and future.

He fills our emptiness with all of His fullness.

He shows us how to live in a manner worthy of His love.

He also leaves us with a task . . . Step 12 . . . Having had a spiritual awakening, WE CARRY THIS MESSAGE (our story) TO OTHERS.

As believers, we now have a story to tell, a valuable story.

FORGET about being shy and feeling awkward about speaking.

REALIZE the lie that says that what we have to share is trivial.

DENY the embarrassment and shame of the past.

Our story is now His story, and His story can help others trapped in the same places we were.

So, GO AND TELL.

Your story, my story, His story have become one and is part of the greatest story ever told.

Jesus is NO TINY TREASURE to hide in our pocket or to misplace in a car somewhere.