In his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion.
The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.
“Would you give your blood to Mary?” the doctor asked.
Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, “Sure, for my sister.”
Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room—Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke but, when their eyes met, Johnny grinned.
As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny’s smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube.
With the ordeal almost over, his voice, slightly shaky, broke the silence. “Doctor, when do I die?’
Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he’d agreed to donate his blood. He thought giving his blood to his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he’d made his great decision.
Johnny, fortunately, didn’t have to die to save his sister. Each of us, however, has a condition more serious than Mary’s, and it required Jesus to give not just His blood but His life.
You and I were lost in sin, separated from the Father, living under a guilty verdict and destined for an eternity of judgment and suffering. We had no hope, no ability to change our desperate situation. We needed help!
Thankfully, the Father had a solution. He so loved you and me – the world – that He gave His only Son to suffer and die in our place. Jesus paid the price for sin and endured its judgment when He died on Calvary’s cross. When we accept what He did in our place, we experience a miracle of grace and mercy. We are not only pardoned from sin, we are Reconciled to the Father and Restored to all the privileges of being His royal sons and daughters!
And the Father has now entrusted to us the Ministry of Reconciliation because what He does To us, He wants to do Through us. The Apostle Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 this precious truth. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin (or a sin offering) for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Will you be Reconciled and Restored to the Father? Will you share this beautiful and powerful truth with other who are in need of His graced and mercy?
Friend, you are not the person you used to be. You are a new person in Jesus. You are Reconciled and Restored!
This Sunday, June 6, we will resume our teaching series, “A Brand New You”, in the 10:35am worship service. This week’s wonderful truth? You are Reconciled and Restored! We will also share in Holy Communion.
If you are not able to join us in-person in the building at 10:35am for the worship service, please join us Online for the Live broadcast on Facebook (Search: Honolulu AG). The recording will also be uploaded later that day to our website (honoluluag.org) and YouTube channel (Search: Honolulu Assembly of God).
Coming Up: Father’s Day on June 20 and our annual Freedom Celebration plus BBQ will be June 27. Yum!
Aloha and Aloha ke Akua!