Mark 1:1-7
We have become a people that are weary, tired, and broken by the things and events that we deal with on a daily basis. We have mountains of fears and we do not have very much joy in our lives. We no longer know how to laugh at ourselves. We do not know how to laugh with each other. The mass media is busy telling us that we should do this, or we should do that. We no longer receive just the facts from the mass media. The people in the mass media want to tell us what we should think. Even in many of our church communities the people that are active in the church life are living miserable lives.
What can change and bring reform to the way we are living? Our human choices alone will produce in us the misery we now see taking place in many of our lives. We are living in the dark, doom, and gloom that we have made by our own choices. In truth we say that we don’t need God and, in our doubts and fears, we question His very existence. Even the church that God formed with His life with us and His death and resurrection no longer has a clear message that changes and transforms life.
Let’s look at God’s message for us that can bring joy and laughter again into our lives. In 1880 Will L. Thompson wrote the words and music that contains God’s invitation that reforms the life of one who hears and believes:
“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See, on the portals he’s waiting and watching, watching for you and for me. Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading, pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not his mercies, mercies for you and for me? Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing, passing for you and for me. Shadows are gathering. Death beds are coming, coming for you and for me.
O for the wonderful love he has promised, promised for you and for me! Though we have sinned, he has mercy and pardon, pardon for you and for me.”
The chorus sums up the message that can change any life.
“Come home, come home, you who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling, calling. O sinner come home!”
The Bible is filled with people that God has called to be His messengers of love and grace that can reform a life. John the Baptist prepares the way with his message that Jesus would come in love for us with God’s life-changing reform.
“This is the Good News about Jesus – the Messiah, the son of God. It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written. ‘Look I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord’s coming. Clear the road for him.’
This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from camel’s hair and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.
John announced: ‘Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am – so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus calls us to faith in him. When we repent of sin, His love and grace reforms our weary sin-filled lives. It gives us the freedom, joy and laughter that is in a new life. This new life is seen by others. Also, you know that each day of your life you have God’s love and grace that has brought you a special gift. That special gift is that you are living the eternal life now. Yes, death will come, but you will walk off this stage of life when God’s Holy Spirit transports you to His place.
In Revelations John tells us that because we have faith in God’s love and grace: “God himself will be with the believers. He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
God also said: “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.”
That is what God’s love and grace does for weary lives filled with sin. It is God’s Holy living in us by faith that brings the reformation of everlasting life. This is also God’s message for the godless unbelievers. When we reject His love and grace, we have rejected life. God’s judgment on sin is as sure as His love and grace is for the believer. We push God aside and make fun of the faithful believers. This will be what you face in your Omega. “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars, their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Sin is never a laughing matter. When we reject God’s offer of love and grace, we have chosen our own ending. It is not God’s desire for us to end life without Him, but when you say ‘No’ to the free offer of His love and grace, you make the choice of your own free will. The choice we make will be for life or death. I choose, by faith, His life-giving grace and love. I pray all would make that their choice. This is God’s clear message to all His children: “Come home to me.”
