A Sacrificial Gift

 

 

When I was a child one year for my birthday I got an awesome present, a sixteen speed bicycle.  With that bicycle there was a new freedom in my life, I was at that point not limited to only being at my house, nor was I dependent upon others for a ride to my friend’s house, and no longer did I have to walk everywhere I went, I could now ride all over my neighborhood and meet with all kind of friends to play and have fun together.

After I had had my bicycle for a while, it was no longer special.  I soon forgot how awesome of a present it was, the sacrifice that my parents had to make to buy it for me, and began to take for granted the freedom that was granted with the bicycle.  When my father and mother had presented the gift they expressed how valuable of a gift it was and the sacrifice it took for them to give it to me so I needed to take care of the gift.  However when the newness was worn off of the gift, I began to slack off in my care of it, instead of placing it in the garage after using it, I begin to leave it in the rain.  After a while this awesome sacrificial gift I had been given, was nothing but a rusted piece of metal that would no longer work.  The freedom that I had taken for granted was now gone, I could no longer go around the neighborhood play with friends, I was once again alone.

In America we have been given a gift as believers and it is the corporate gathering of the believers as the church.  There are so many who have sacrificed throughout the years for us to not only have this freedom, but to also have the bible in our language, to be able to practice believer's baptism, and to be able to have theological debate or differences. I thank God that He has used these men and women in the past so that we have the church that we have today where we are free to have theological debate, free to have not only an English translation but to have dozens of English translations, free to not only be able to sing in church but to be able to sing a variety psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as commanded in scripture.  I praise God that we have the church we do today.

 

Because we have been given such a sacrificial gift, we must guard from not allowing our awesome sacrificial gift of the church become a rusted bicycle we left out in the rain. I pray that as we approach Reformation Sunday we will once again realize what a gift we have as the 21st Century Church, who knows maybe somewhere along the way God will choose us to sacrifice or take a stand for the future generations of the church.