Friday, June 17, 2011

22,479 Days and Still, NO PROGRESS!

Today marked the 22,479th day in a row that I had nothing to offer the Father but my filthiness, my sin and my utter need for His mercy in Jesus Christ.

 "6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8

Even more humbling is the realization that God knew that for 22,479 consecutive days I would have nothing good to offer him - NO PROGRESS!  Now there is something to look forward to. Why doesn't He get sick of me? After 5479 days I turned 15 and still had nothing good to offer God. After 7919 days He graciously gave me my beautiful wife to try and curb my inner barbarian. On the 10,449th day, my second daughter was born and my need for God's mercy was deeper still.  Today, on the 22,479th day, married to the same remarkable lady for 14,560 days - I have 9 challenging children, countless friends and the depth of my iniquity and need for a savior is infinite. It's not that I'm better or worse than anyone else, it's that we have ALL sinned against an infinitely Holy Creator.  I'm not maladapted, in need of therapy - I didn't have a moral lapse, a mistake in judgment and sorry to those whom I might have offended - I have sinned against the Holy One.  It's not even the depth of our sins. God is perfect and we owe Him our perfection and so the seemingly least of sins is enough to earn us His eternal wrath.

I have nothing good to offer Him BUT I have a great savior.  God is not a great savior because He saw in me the potential to be a good man, a good husband, a good dad, and he chose me to help me develop my potential, NO!!!! God is a great savior because he saw in me NO GOOD THING, He saw in me that I hated Him, He saw in me the object worthy of His wrath, He saw in me selfish pride, lust, anger and the potential to commit the most heinous sins and YET, He sent His son into the world to die in payment for those sins.  I have a great savior.

"18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Romans 5:18-21

So on this 22,479th day, I have nothing good to offer God but my filthiness, my sin and my GRATITUDE for saving a wretch like me.  He has done so much for me of which I am unworthy, the least I can do is worship Him and tell YOU of His great love.

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