Imagine with me if you will, you are invited into the home of someone who is in a position of power. Like say, the Queen of England, the President of the United States, or some other person of that sort of standing. You don’t have to like them or understand them, just the fact that they are in a high office or seat of power.
Just to get the invite is pretty incredible. To go to their home, remarkable.
You are given the freedom to just walk in, unhindered by secret service, guards or any kind of security. They all know who you are and that you are a guest. So you wander about, intrigued by the different decorations of the place.
Then the person, you were invited by, walks in. But you just keep wandering about looking at this and that. You even turn your back on them and just ignore them completely!
Now I know that you wouldn’t do that because social etiquette would be too strong for you to do such a thing. But imagine if you did…
How would your Host feel about being snubbed? It’s a no-brainer: annoyed, angry.
But, he is gracious and considers you may not have noticed him enter the room. First he sends a servant to you. But you ignore the servant. So the Host calls upon his son to slip over to where you are gazing and to let you know that he is in the room.
At this point, you can only respond in three ways as you hear from the son, and his message that the Host has arrived:
1. Procrastinate. Ask the son for more details – is he sure the Host has arrived? Get distracted by the mural on the wall, and still take your time to consider what has been said to you, or
2. deliberately turn your back on the Host and just completely ignore him because, well, quite frankly you didn’t like him that much anyways or you are just immersed in the surrounds and don’t want anything to take that away from you, or
3. you turn towards your Host and greet him in a manner befitting his office.
Now. What do you think your Host’s response would be to the 3 responses?
What would your response be if you were the Host?
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Now consider that the Host is God.
By procrastinating or deliberately turning your back on God, this is known as “SIN”.
God, full of grace and mercy, has given you the benefit of turning towards him…He has sent you word through His ‘servants’ to let you know He is in the room. He has even sent His Son, Jesus!
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin…
Acts 13:38,39f
God is prepared to forgive you and greet you with open arms. He longs for you to turn towards Him and to know Him personally and intimately.