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Feeling Special

James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

What does it mean to you to feel special?

For most of us I expect it is someone in our lives that makes us feel special. For others it might be some spectacular accomplishment. Not everyone gets to feel that way. Some of us never get to have that one day when we feel special.

David had Goliath. Moses parted the Red Sea. Noah built an Ark. You get the idea. Then there was Jesus and His life changing moment was dying on the Cross. It didn’t change His life, it changed the world.

Leviticus 27:1-3 English Standard Version

Laws About Vows

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone makes a special vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons, 3 then the valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

Imagine if you would that the value of a life spent in service would add up to only fifty nickels. How special would that make you feel? That is not what I would call a “special vow”.

Allow me for a moment to share the crowning glory of my greatest achievement, my Goliath moment. That moment I did something monumentally special. I was fifteen.

My father and I were playing in the annual father and son baseball game. Dad was older then, his legs were shot, he could not run. He was playing left field and was sitting on his heels. I asked Dino Hacket to throw me a pitch face high and a little inside so that I could “Hit one to the old man.” I did that “call your shot moment” pointing in the air above my father and cried out to him “Dontcha move an inch.”

Dino delivered the perfect pitch and I hit a towering pop up fly ball to left field. As I rounded first everyone’s eyes were on my father. He wasn’t moving. His eyes look upward as the ball descends from that great height. As I approached second base he stood up without moving his feet and caught the ball. I had done it. From 250 feet away I had hit a target smaller than a fifty-five gallon drum.

As I rounded second dad threw the ball at my feet and almost hit me. I yelled out to him, “Hey what’s wrong?” He replied with a grin on his face “You made me stand up!”

And that was the greatest accomplishment in my life. My Goliath moment. Some of us don’t even get that.

Parsed Verse

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This is the complete verse which I have parsed over the last three days. The reason for that is the finality of the fourth truth. There is no other way to enter into God the Father’s final solution for eternal life with Him.

All those who oppose Christ will deny this truth. The opposer is the Antichrist. He whispers lies into the life of all who seek a better life and tells them other ways are possible, do not believe there is only one way. That is the biggest lie of all.

From the very beginning this has been God’s plan to fix man’s first mistake, unbelief. That first sin was unbelief in the form of listening to the lie perpetrated by that old serpent, Satan. Believing a lie is no sin, it is acting on the lie in opposition to what God has commanded that opens the door to sin.

Now comes the really important part. Who knows what God has said if no one ever speaks truth to innocence. Innocence for the purpose of this post deals with the issue of knowing right from wrong, the age of accountability comes into play.

Romans 2:14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

Every society creates a social contract within themselves to identify what is and what is not acceptable behavior within their own community. That is not God’s law but is a sense of what is acceptable behavior and what is not. It is a sense of right and wrong even if God’s law is not taught.

Even in a family that does not teach their children what is right, the child learns by what is punished, even if the offense is not explained. Punishment without explanation is abuse and like it or not, it happens. As much as society will want to oppose social injustice it happens. The problem is that even with social justice and strict rules, they do not change God’s view of sin and His need for justice.

This bible we read and believe is God’s speaking to us about our nature and His solution for lies and sin. We can abide in all the laws required by social justice and still be guilty in the eyes of God. The liar will say “That isn’t fair!” If that is true then it was not fair that the Lamb of God which was perfect and innocent had to die on the Cross so that we might escape eternal damnation.

Only the Lamb, provided by God the Father, could satisfy His sense of justice regarding sin.