God continues to give me opportunities to learn patience through waiting. My computer that I have used for blogging got infected by a virus a few weeks back. I couldn't get it off. The computer techs couldn't get it off. So, they wiped everything off the machine, and I've had to start over with reloading everything back on. As my father-in-law might say, "That sucketh great wind!" Anyway, all that to say that I haven't been writing here for almost a month, but I hope to get back at it more regularly. A quick thought for today...
You've probably seen the news stories on Michael Vick, the former NFL quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons. Vick was convicted in federal court for charges related to dog fighting and sent to prison. In one of the countless articles on the fallen football star, I came across the following quote attributed to Vick as he was preparing to face his jail sentence: "Through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God....I will redeem myself. I have to."
I truly hope that Michael Vick turns his life over to God and asks for forgiveness. But the reason he needs to do so is precisely because he can't redeem himself. Jesus came to live, die, and rise again because redemption is out of our reach. Even the word "redemption" implies the need for another outside ourselves to be intimately involved. To "redeem" means to "buy back" or to "free from a lien." We can't buy ourselves back from our enslavement to sin. The price is too high, even on an NFL superstar's salary. Futher, redemption always involves an exchange of some sort. When I was a kid, I remember redeeming Coke bottles for cash. But in case of our own redemption, Christ takes on our death and gives us his life in return. The Apostle Peter wrote: "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect" (1 Pe. 1:18-19 TNIV).
Hopefully, the Spirit of God will lead Michael Vick to a place where he can say, "I will not redeem myself. I don't have to. Jesus Christ has redeemed me by His power and grace."
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