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Gifts are something which we all like, may be its hard to give. Gifts are some thing special.
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Every good gift is from our father our God. Most of the time we boast about the things that we have done in our life. Do we keep God in every thing that we do in our life? Do we see that our family, wife children, brothers and sisters are from God, the life that we live is from God, and every good thing that we receive is from God? Let's see some of the gifts that God has given.
1. Gift Of Importance
Those who were with Jesus were hated, if you are with Jesus you will also be looked down. But the Bible says you are important.
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Bible says that God loved us, do we realize that Jesus died to show his love for us. "Who would we die for in our life" Many of us might not have faith to die for somebody else. God send Jesus to die for us, may be some of us not feeling important, not valued, we feel we are very small. May be in our family they treated us very bad saying we are useless. We don't have to believe that lie because we are valuable to God.
John 20:11-13
11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb
12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."
Mary was another disciple; people might have known her life from her previous past yet Mary was important to Jesus. Mary was the first person that Jesus appeared, what an honor to see Jesus! God will always honor the people who wouldn't be used by this world.
- Moses was the man who couldn't talk who had a speech problem and yet God used him to deliver Israel out of Egypt.
- Jonah hated Ninevites and God used him as a missionary to Nineveh.
- David an ordinary shepherd boy became Israel's greatest king.
- Humble family Mary and Joseph, their income must have been very less, yet God chose them to be the parent of Jesus Christ.
- Ordinary unschooled men became disciples of Jesus Christ.
Everyone is valued in the eyes of Jesus Christ. If we are feeling small today God loves us, we are valued to him.
Isaiah 43:3-4
For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead.
4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.
Bible clearly says we are precious and honored in his sight. We are so precious to God that He will exchange life for our life. Every day we do not see the dangers that are placed right before us. When we die and go back to be with God, and ask him, how many times we faced death? There will be a list of times He saved us from the death. God loves us.
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are,
29 so that no one may boast before him.
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
Bible says God chose the foolish things to shame the wise, God chose the weak people like us to change the world. He chose the lowly things of the earth to despise the things that are not and to nullify the things that are. We are precious in Gods eyes.
2. Gift Of Comfort And Joy
John 20:14-16
14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
Mary was looking so sad that she couldn't recognize Jesus because she thought He was a gardener. May be His appearance changed, may be God kept her from recognizing. That's what happens some times with us we look so sad, we don't see Jesus when we have problems. Problem in life clogs our faith that we should have. Mary fell in to a conclusion that He was a gardener, some times when we are not doing well we jump into conclusions. When people try to help us, we think that they are hurting us. Some one doesn't give us invitation we feel they dislike us. If some one opens up their heart we feel they have bad attitude. Midst of all these problems we don't see Jesus. That happened to Mary but when Jesus called her name light shown on her.
Some time we jump into conclusion, we got to trust people around us. Mary felt Jesus was a gardener she coud not recognize Jesus and yet when He called her name she came back to life. She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic 'Rebonah' that means teacher. Then she got back her zeal. So many times we look for various places for joy and comfort rather than going to Jesus Christ. We look at the world and people, to give us comfort and joy, these are okay but are we looking at Jesus. That's where we get the complete joy, and that's where joy comes from. We are looking for the joy in the wrong place no wonder why we are looking sad.
John 14:15-18
15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Jesus will not leave us like orphans; orphans don't have house to stay or any body to take care of them. But Jesus says that he will take care of us and give us heaven as our home. Jesus will not leave us till the end of our life, as disciples we are not walking alone. God is walking with us and that's the second gift that he has given us. Comforter to walk with us, a counselor to be with us, only after Mary seeing Jesus, realized that Jesus was near her and she was comforted. Let's remember we have joy and comfort from Jesus Christ. He has given us a purpose in our life.
John 20:17-18
17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.
God has given us a purpose, Jesus not just rose from the grave to say I am alive but He wanted us to go and share our faith and tell people about him. We got a command to reach out to people, to share the good news of the resurrection to save people from their sin, to bind the broken hearts. Jesus is expecting us to go and share the good news of his resurrection to the world. All of us have the responsibility to share our faith to. That's the good news of the resurrection, what Jesus said came true there is no other good news than this. Are we keeping this to our selves?
For many of us, we want the blessing but not the Jesus Christ the son of God. We want to be Christians but we don't want to go to the cross. Let's remember the gifts that He has given us through the resurrection. Let's see Jesus more clearly, let's know that we have purpose in our life, let's not keep the good news to our self but share the good news.
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