Jesus Died for Sinners

Proverbs 18:2

A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions.

Have you ever had times in your life when you were this fool?  I know I have been.  As I look back, this would be the perfect description of me for the first 32 years of my life.  I was prideful, arrogant, argumentative, selfish, and self-centered.  All of that stemmed from one underlying cause:  low self-esteem.  Even though I have been a Christian all of my life, I was baptized when I was just a few weeks old, for much of my life I didn't really understand what that meant:  to be a Christian.

Even during my periods of greatest rebellion against God I never lost my belief in Jesus.  I have always known and believed in Him as my Savior.  Yet, from ages 15-32 (especially through all of my 20's) my life did not reflect my faith.  I was a fool.  I was not reading.  I was not learning.  I was not seeking after understanding.  I was not in God's Word.  The one thing that I did do right during these years is I kept going to church.  I never left the church.  I may not have attended every week, but I was still going regularly during the year.  That may have been the only aspect of my life that showed there was still faith left in my heart, and that truly was by God's grace alone.

In 2007 I had my turning point.  A friend of mine that I played softball with introduced me to a network marketing company that had a world class leadership development program.  That company became LIFE Leadership in 2011.  That leadership development program is what God used to bring me back to the path that He had planned for me all along.  I fell in love with self-directed learning.  I have been a voracious student ever since.  I was no longer the fool; I found great pleasure in intentionally growing in understanding and wisdom.  I have actually developed a certain level of humility and no longer delight in airing my own opinions.  I have learned how to respectfully communicate with people (most of the time).  

At the beginning of this article I wrote that my real problem was low self-esteem.  That's not entirely true.  Low self-esteem is actually a side effect of the real problem:  not understanding what it means to be a baptized child of Christ.  This is what it means to be a child of Christ:

Romans 8:37-39

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 3:1-3

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

This is the gift that Jesus offers to everyone!  Even the worst of sinners.

1 Timothy 1:15

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance:  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners- of whom I am the worst.

God bless

Jason Fredrick