On my way to dropping my boys off to school I saw a man walking in the cross walk wearing an ankle monitor. He looked like a masculine man but he was wearing feminine pants that seemed to purposely display his ankle monitor. I like to teach my boys about life and so I pointed the ankle monitor out to them. I told them that it is an indication that he has been to jail, and that the police use it to track him now, that every so often he has to check in or he will be in trouble.
This week I get to teach Sunday School and my lesson is on sharing Jesus with others. As I saw the man proudly display his ‘ankle bracelet.’ I thought do I proudly display Jesus in my life in word and in action like this man? Some think to display Jesus is to present yourself better than others, to see others as sinners and yourself as a saint. But the Holy Spirit hit me with this, to display Jesus to others is to admit that you were wrapped up in sin, in evil, in yourself. And that the only way to save yourself was to surrender and turn yourself in to Jesus. Daily I check in with Him so that He can keep me from going down the road of evil I was traveling on.
1 Timothy 1:15-16New Living Translation (NLT)
15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. 16 But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.
Paul, a man on fire for Jesus, knew that without Jesus he was a master sinner. If we are honest with ourselves we know that we have secrets that truly reveal the evil we are capable of. “But God!” It is He who has saved us and we have not been saved by ourselves. Wearing Jesus as an ‘ankle bracelet’ allows others to see that if He can save a wretch like me, He can certainly save them too.
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This entry was submitted by Nathan McKelvey
knowledgeandproclamation.com 