Free Gift?

Listening to a sermon, I started thinking about God's gift of salvation. The person speaking referred to it as a free gift. That expression really irritated me.  I did much thinking, and this is my conclusion

I can honestly say that I have never given or received a free gift.  All gifts cost someone something.  Every gift requires some form of sacrifice.  That's the whole point.  You give a gift to someone so that they don't have to pay for it.  You give a gift to let people know that you love them so much that you don't want them to pay for it.  Even those cheesy gifts you get from department stores cost someone something.  And I'm not talking about the free* gifts.

The gift of Salvation is no exception.  In fact of all the gifts ever given, it is the most expensive by far.  What it cost both the Father and the Son are unthinkable.  Of course it cost much physical pain, which is where most of us would draw the line at giving a gift to an ordinary person.  It cost the Father turning His back on His beloved Son.  It cost the Son watching His Father turn His back, a sight He had never seen.  He was separated from the Father for the first time, which caused Him unthinkable anguish.

What is free about that?  Nothing.  Nothing at all.  Perhaps "all expenses paid" is a better way to describe it.  It is a gift, yes.  It is given to us so that it costs us nothing, but free is something that I can never call it.

I hope I never overlook exactly how much that "free" gift cost.

Anna

Here I am again...

I was recently reprimanded about not updating my blog often enough. Totally true! I apologize for the fifth or sixth time.

Over the last couple of weeks I have thought of many things to blog about, but I can hardly remember any of them now, so I'll just stick to my original idea, a list of things I love about my church.

• Okay, one of my most favorite things about my church is that they don't hesitate to fill up the baptistry and dunk people. At a lot of other churches I've been to, you had to add your name to a list. I understand that water costs money, but come on, Church!  If people want to be baptized they want to do it now!  Why tell them that they have to wait a month, or until they have enough people to make it worth while.  Why run them through like a herd of cattle?  These are people. Isn't one person enough?  I say it is.  Apparently my church agrees, because when people ask to be baptized, they are dunked the next Sunday.  Love that!

• Another thing that I love about my church is that if you're willing to serve, they will find an opportunity for you.  I've been in situations where churches almost looked at an eagerness to serve as an attempt to run everything.  How wrong!  If God burdens a person's heart to serve, who are we to tell them they can't?

• Kids, kids, kids!  I know I've said this before, but I love the fact that there are kids running out our ears.  We are a young and growing church, and I love the fact that there are so many children around all the time.  These aren't only children who attend with their parents, these are children who are coming from foster care and stuff.  There are 2 reasons that this excites me.  First, I think it's absolutely fantastic that they are coming.  I'm glad they feel comfortable, and I'm glad that we have an opportunity to minister to them.  Second, I think that it adds a whole different dimension to the way we treat church.  Children can add so much to things without even knowing it.  That's one of the things that I love about teaching Cubbies.  Some of the things they say really make you go, "Huh...".  It's really incredible.

That's all I have time for, but hopefully I will be able to update this soon. I'm going to be off all next week, so I should have some time. I'm going to Europe! But that's for another post on a different day.

Anna