My Sunday Sermon

We have been taught the He has paid the price and all He expects from us is change.  Lets think of that in literal terms.  He paid.  What did he give? He gave His blood. The atonement, or I own mint.  The Lord, the great I AM (I) The Creator (own) Giver of grace and mercy (mint, where grace and mercy is stored for distribution). But more than that He gave his life.  The most tangible commodity there is. He gave His blood so that we may live with Him.  He gave His life that we may live, be immortal. Those two gifts are the greatest of all. 


We all dream of immortality.  We even have fictional characters that defy death. We also do activities that makes us feel as though we have touched deaths door and lived to tell about it. We dream of it.  Some even take care to live in a way to prolong life.  Death is death.  A reality undefined.


To live again is one thing. That gift is given to all.  It's a given. But to live with Him is another.  That is where we start to pay the price.  The change.  Our change.
To obtain that privilege we need to have mercy and grace jingling in our pockets.  And plenty of it.
How do we earn the "change" you ask, the jingle. Well lets say it something like this.
Say we feed the poor, clothe the naked, comfort those who stand in need of comfort, you have just earned a few pieces of grace.   Boy don't they feel good in the depths (debts) of our empty pockets. Heck even a smile given to those we pass can earn us a little.  Grace is easy, but the more we had to sacrifice the more we will earn.  Anytime you go beyond yourself you pretty much got paid.


Oh mercy.  That is a big one.  You do need grace and mercy, mercy and grace.  We can have abundance of one or the other but we have to have both.  To earn mercy we can forgive, that can be easy, and then again it can be hard.  The harder it is the more we earn. The mother load of mercy is forgiving ourselves.  Whoa.  For some that is near impossible.  One, because we don't see the sin in ourselves, two, we have done something we feel is unforgivable.
Sometimes someone did something to us that we just can't let go.  We are innocent, we feel.  Being hurt is not a sin, holding on to the pain is.  Forgive.  Forgive them.  Forgive yourself for how you felt or reacted to the pain.
Sometimes we hurt others.  Deep.  Forgive yourself for your weaknesses, forgive them even if they never forgive you.  


The Lord has once said to a sinner.  "Go and sin no more".  Is that possible? Sin no more?  It is.  In a sense.  No, we can not be perfect, we become perfected. But we can walk away from a sin.  We won't be sinless.  Just won't be a committen that sin no mor.  Yes sir no mor.


By earning change we have changed.  That is what the Lord wants.  Our change.  Change of heart.  Change of ways.  Change for the better.


Think of it this way "Go and change some more".  Now that is how it should of been said. For me, lately I believe I have had a hole in my pocket and have lost some grace and mercy.  I sure am grateful for those around me that have picked it up and put it in their own pockets.  To you I say I love you.  I felt your love and you deserve what I have lost.  Today, tomorrow and forever I will try my darnest to earn change. 


There is a Lord.  He lives.  He loves. 
Jingle your change!