Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by Richard (Dick) Innes of ACTS International.

Monday, March 18, 2019

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."¹

A young boy asked his mother if she would go with him to his elementary school's first teacher-parent conference. To his surprise she said she would go. This embarrassed the boy because, though his mother was beautiful, she had a terrible scar right across one side of her face.

This was the first time his teacher and classmates saw his mother and because of his embarrassment, he withdrew from them and tried to hide himself. However, he overheard his teacher ask how his mother's face was scarred.

"When my son was a baby," the mother replied, "he was in a room that caught on fire. Everyone was afraid to go in because the fire was out of control, so I went in. As I was running toward his crib, I saw a beam coming down and I placed myself over him to shield him. I was knocked unconscious but fortunately, a fireman came in and saved both of us...the scar is permanent but to this day, I have never regretted doing what I did."

Hearing what his mother did for him, the boy ran towards her with tears in his eyes. He hugged her and felt an overwhelming sense of thanks for the sacrifice she made to save his life.²

May we, too, feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us in giving his life to save us from our sins and a lost eternity.

Suggested prayer: "Dear Jesus God, once again I thank you for all that you did for me in giving your life to save me from a lost eternity. I offer my life as a living sacrifice to live for and serve you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

Note: If you have never thanked God for giving his Son, Jesus, to die in your place so your sins could be forgiven, and thanked Jesus for doing this for you, so you could also be given the gift of eternal life to live with God in Heaven after this life, then I encourage you to do this today. For help, please read the article, "God's Invitation," at: http://tinyurl.com/gods-invitation; and/or the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian—without having to be religious" at: www.actsweb.org/christian.

1. John 4:9-10 (NLT).
2. Adapted from a story by Lih Yuh Kuo in Chicken Soup for the Soul.

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