How Far Can You Jump?

How far can you jump?  Can you jump further than me?  Probably.  But if we were all to stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon, would it matter if you could jump further than me?  Would it even matter if you could jump twice as far as me?  Not really, because we all would plunge to our deaths.  That’s because no one could jump across the Grand Canyon.  Paul says in Romans 3:23 and 10, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God … There is none righteous, no, not one.”  The point is not that we are better than someone else, the point is that we are all sinners.  We are all guilty before Almighty God.  But, thankfully, Jesus Christ paid for those sins!  And He can carry us all across the Grand Canyon, if we will just let Him.  Repent of your sins and Believe in Jesus.  He can do what we can’t.

Survival

A man built a small grocery store in a small town and they both began to grow.  He put in a line of hardware to meet the needs of the growing community.  Years went by and the town prospered along with the little store.  A big grocery chain looked at locating in the growing town and offered to buy the man’s property.  But he wouldn’t sell.  So, they built a huge grocery store right beside the little store.  A large hardware chain approached the man to buy his property, but again, he wouldn’t sell.  So, they built a huge hardware store right on the other side of the little store.  Soon the man’s business began to dry up.  With a huge grocery store on one side and a huge hardware store on the other side, he became desperate.  But he had an idea.  He pulled his money together and put a huge neon sign above his door which said, “Main Entrance Here”.

Hollywood Love

Hollywood says that you should find your soulmate and then you fall in love.  There are websites that ask twenty compatibility questions, and based on your answers, connect you with ten potential matches.  But the Bible teaches a totally different plan.  When you marry, you make a commitment.  You are commanded in Ephesians 5 to love your mate … for life.  Love isn’t an ushy gushy feeling; love is a commitment.  We are to love our mates as Christ loved us.  And Jesus Christ loved us while we were sinners - while we were unlovely.  We don’t fall in love; we grow in love.  Hollywood says that when your love dies, it is the other one’s fault.  They didn’t meet your needs.  You are justified to ditch the old one and find a new soulmate.  But God commands us to love, honor, and cherish till death do us part.  For better or for worse.  Love is not a noun, a thing that we have, love is a verb, a thing that we do.  We must work on our love and nurture it.  True love grows because of the time that we put into it to make it thrive.  Love is meeting the other person’s needs.  Love is growing old together.