Monday, October 2, 2017

Standing Up In The Face Of Danger - Las Vegas Shooting

They stood up. They protected.  They went into the face of danger.
The police in Las Vegas acted like good soldiers in a time of horror.
Some protest the police and/or bend their knee to complain about this country and authorities (instead of giving thanksgiving for their blessings).
While the police draw from the same fallen human race as the rest of us, most of them will risk their lives to save the necks of the people of this country.

When I heard about the police standing up and risking their lives, it moved me.
We are so stirred up by heroic efforts of humans to save others and rightfully so.
Yet, it reminded me of something our family has been reading.
Does the prisoner in war love the man who, at the risk of his own life, breaks through the enemies lines, rescues him and sets him free?  Does the drowning sailor love the man who plunges into the sea, dives after him, catches him by the hair of his head and by a mighty effort saves him from a watery grave?  A very child can answer such questions as these.  Just in the same way, and upon the same principles, a true Christian loves Jesus Christ.  - J.C. Ryle (from the book "Holiness") 
I struggle with whether I love Christ like that, but when I think about it that way - it reminds me how thankful I should be to Christ and how it should make me love Him like that.
I feel so wretched that I don't love Him the way I want to.
His death means more than even heroic policemen, soldiers, or firemen.
He died for the sins of those who were His enemies.
He chose to rescue sinful humans by taking their sins on Himself to suffer the punishment for them by dying - shedding His blood for them on a cross.
His perfect righteousness is placed on those to whom He gives life to - to whom He grants repentance and faith in Him.
And He is also fully God as well as fully man!

How little I can rely on my feelings and my own thoughts.
No matter how I feel, I am His.  He has made me want Him, and I won't give up even though I have to keep fighting my own thinking and the doubts due to my own feelings and thoughts.

Do you love Christ?  Are you His?

GOSPEL

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