Go now, a child of God. Choose well the road you take,
And the decisions you make. Keep in mind always that The God you serve continues to call to you, making you more and more every day into the faithful one God wants you to be.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

One hundred six

James 1:17
“Every good action and every perfect gift is from God. These good gifts come down from the creator of the sun, moon, and stars, who does not change like their shifting shadows.”


Did God give us salvation because we deserved it? No. There is no way on Earth that we could ever deserve salvation. It is a true gift from God. It is a gift of love. God knows we are all sinners. We came into this world as sinners, we have sinful natures, but once we accept salvation, we accept the gift of Jesus Christ forgiving us of our sins.

I got a letter from my brother over the weekend. He rarely gets to write, but he had some good news. He is now in a half-way house out of prison. His jail sentence was supposed to be until 2015. My brother had a problem with drugs and has been in and out of jail since he was 18. He is two years older than me, so it has been about a 20 year journey of incarceration. He has a daughter that is a senior in high school this year. He has missed a lot of her life because of the lifestyle he chose. I understand about addicts because of my brothers life. Addicts they don’t realize the lives they really destroy are the lives of their loved ones. It has been really tough for his daughter to not have him around and that is all she wants, even now.

For my brother to be in a half-way house there is hope that he might be able to make it to her graduation. It will be an important day for her. We will all be in prayer that he will be able to go.

God is the giver of joy and He is with us.

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ – which means , ‘God with us”
- Matthew 1:22-23

I am praying today that God will be at work in my brother’s life so he will be able to beat his addiction and I am praying for his daughter and her mother. Her mother is a single parent with three children. I am always amazed at how supportive she has always been towards my niece and the relationship with her father. She always made sure that she could visit him, write him and keep that connection over the years.

Does he deserve her mercy? No. His drug problem is why they divorced. Does he deserve her forgiveness? No. I know that she doesn’t support the relationship because of him, it is because of the love she has for her daughter.

Does God have to forgive us each time we sin? No, but it is because of His love and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we can have forgiveness. It is love from God. I am thankful that God loves us enough that we can be forgiven.

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