Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Dear 2.7 faithful readers, sorry it’s been nearly a month since my last update. I’ll try to do better in between now and leaving.

 

Everybody, I hope, has at least one unbelievably great gift you’ve received in your life. Maybe it was your first bicycle. Maybe an authentic Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle (don’t shoot your eye out).  Or perhaps even a pony. Hopefully, whatever it is you have at least one you can still recall. Mine is from the Christmas of 1995 I do believe. It was a Sega Genesis. Easily the greatest video game system of all-time and the first one I ever had. Still play it to this day.                      Important note: If anyone knows how to beat the last level of Aladdin please let me know. I have pelted Jafar with hundreds of apples yet he still remains undefeated. Thanks


If you were anything like me, you got really excited whenever there was a time for gift giving. I would snoop about the house looking for where my mom hid them and always beg to open one early. I got so bad about finding gifts she started leaving them at other people’s houses or once she even hid them in the creepy crawl space under the stairs. But I mean who doesn’t love a gift? Somebody’s giving stuff to you for free, and if I learned one thing in college it’s that stuff is good but free stuff is great. Heck, even if your great-great-aunt gives you a pair of knitted, mismatched socks, they’re still free. No loss for you.

Ok, now imagine if you heard about an incredible gift, better than any one you’ve ever received, that somebody was going to give you. It blows socks, ponies, and even a Sega Genesis out of the water. The best part is you can have it right now! It’s not hidden, it’s sitting there for the taking. You don’t even have to wait till mom goes to the post office and then ransack the house trying to find it before she gets back. Seems like an easy decision right. We’d all open it now as soon as we could. We’d take it out, play with it and show it to others telling them all about it.



Appropriate reaction for said incredible gift

 

What about if we didn’t though? What about if I said ‘Hey I admit that is a really great gift, a gift that makes the best gift I can give look like knitted mismatched socks, but I think I’ll wait to use it. I’ll write my name on it and stash it over in a corner until later.’ That would be stupid. I never would have opened my Sega and tossed it aside to use years later. But so often I do something much more ridiculous than that.

God gave us the ultimate gift: His Son. I know that thanks to God’s grace Jesus died for my sins and through this comes salvation. But so often I live as if I’m going to be saved later instead of living like I’m already saved. I have days where even though I know when I die I’ll be saved, my life looks no different than it would if I didn’t know Jesus as my savior. 


Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. It doesn’t say the gift of God eventually will be eternal life. It says is- as in currently, right now, this very moment, ahora. Eternal means it doesn’t end, but it doesn’t mean it can’t start now.


When we accept Christ as savior, the power of the cross can begin living in us now. Grace is much more than God forgiving us as we approach the pearly gates. It allows us to be changed right this instant. But am I taking advantage of this gift?


How often do I put something off until later? How often do I think I should really quit this sinful habit I have or maybe I should pick up this good habit I don’t have, but I say oh I’ll get around to that later. Or how often do I just slog through a day like there’s nothing special about it. Now I even find myself deciding I’ll make changes once the Race starts. Things like realizing I should really start reading my Bible seriously every day, and then I think oh well I may skip today, but I’ll definitely start doing that in June. This mindset cheats God, and it cheats me.


John 10:10 sums it up perfectly: 


The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 


This is my gift from Christ- a full life right now, but I’m letting Satan steal it. He doesn’t want me to open my gift right now, and like a fool sometimes I listen and leave it sitting there all wrapped up.


Jesus came so each and every single day after we choose to follow Him can be different than before we knew Him. He allows us to have a life that is way more full than anybody who doesn’t know Him. But I see myself having days where my life is definitely not to the full. I say great gift Jesus and I know it cost you a lot, but no thanks- not today. Maybe tomorrow. Obviously this is a) stupid and b) must change.


So that’s my challenge to myself and maybe to you. Go right now and rip open the gift Jesus gave us: an eternal, fulfilling life different than the one we all once knew and different than the one we most definitely deserve. Then open it again each and every day. Why wait? It’s a gift. It’s free. And it’s even better than a Sega Genesis: it’s a new you Genesis.