The Ticket

He was SO excited!   Kendall almost knocked me over when I picked him up from church recently because he had been given a precious gift... a ticket to a FREE movie that our church is showing tonight.  He kept jumping up and down telling me that he had been given a ticket to movie night and what a prize it truly was.  In reality, every kid in the class got a free ticket that day, but in his mind, it was a rare treasure.... so much so, that even I (as his mother) was not allowed to touch the ticket!  He ran up and down the halls of our church stopping everyone he saw to show them his ticket and tell them about the upcoming movie night.  Oh, his joy became contagious!  I laughed.... as did everyone else he talked to that evening.  To be brutally honest, everyone is invited to movie night and the ticket isn't even needed to get into the event.  Yet, to my incredible four year old, it has meant the world... he is suddenly special, precious, chosen.

Friends, through the blood of my precious Savior, Jesus, I, too, have been given a "ticket" to a redeemed life where all my past faults and failures have been transformed for His glory and my betterment.  I have been given life.... but, not life as this world holds, life that is reflective of the one who has restored and given me purpose.  I have found freedom in Lamb of God who bore the sins of the world!  Yet, do I share it with the same conviction and excitement that my young son held for this movie?  Do I find such delight that I have to stop everyone I see to share this tremendous thing?  Is my joy about being a redeemed child of the one true King contagious to others?  Oh, dear ones, I feel deep conviction about this.... if I have been given SO much from our precious Lord, WHY do I fear sharing? 

"You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:11-15 NIV)


Friends, we have been a gift- beyond our imagination and it is to be used for His glory to transform lives, bringing healing, and restore life!  Yet, we bury it deep within due to fear of offense or rejection.  Isn't it better to be rejected than to have never shared?  You have the ticket to life within- if you withhold it from others- you withhold life from them as well.  Oh, Lord, please don't let that be!  Also consider this.... He chose you to be the one to share His life-giving message.  All resources and possibilities are His and yet, He chose you!  Let that privilege not fall of deaf ears.  It is an honor that you were selected to carry His gospel to a world in need!  Will we share the freedom we have?


Blessings!