Accepting People

"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." Romans 15:7

How has Christ accepted us? Just as we are, that's how. Or as the Billy Graham Crusades invitation song says.... 'Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me. And that thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb Of God I come, I come.'

A little interpretation might help some of you who didn't grow up with hearing Billy's convicting voice say, "Now I want you to get up out of your seats". And they did, by the thousands usually. I went to one crusade at the Los Angeles Coliseum with the youth group from my home church, First Baptist of San Fernando, in the early Sixties. I was overwhelmed by the simplicity of the Gospel and the profundity of the Truth. Though I was already committed to Christ, I had only one plea, and that was that He would accept me, because He paid for the price of my sin, a cost I could not pay myself. I know I recommitted myself that night because I knew and felt afresh the acceptance of Christ. I accepted Him as my Savior because He accepted and saved me as a sinner. Unconditional love, total grace and fathomless mercy. Once you have really experienced it from the vantage point of your own desperate need for a Savior you must from that moment on see everybody else differently. I wanted from the very beginning of my faith walk to see what Jesus saw when He looked at people. I knew and still know my predisposition to sin and my evil nature.

There is only one hope for every soul to be reconciled to God and that is Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. Big price for Him to pay and the word of God says I have to consider that each time I think about whether to accept someone else. We accept, love and forgive because we were accepted, loved and forgiven. When we do we bring praise to God. When we don't, we are bring a curse to God. Praise or scorn, we choose. With every word, even thought, a blessing or a curse. Which are you? Positive or Negative? Up or Down? Part of the solution or part of the problem. Join me in not forgetting who you were when you were lost and how much acceptance you needed.

Brothers and Sisters, love one another as Christ loved you. Accept as you were accepted. Forgive as you were forgiven. Thus bringing praise to God. He deserves nothing less. With His love and mine, Pastor Fred

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