Not Ours, But His

Not Ours, But His

I am amazed and confounded by the attitude of Christians today. It is the idea that they own their own lives and can do whatever they please.

Is it scriptural? No!

Pauls says, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20 ESV).”

There it is. If we are not our own, then who’s are we?

Christ’s, of course. We belong to Jesus.

Do Christians live that way? Not very many do. Rather, we live as if we own all the rights to our lives and we can live them however we please.

When I was a senior in high school, God visited our family. On October 1st of that year, I quit the rock group, which was the god of my life, and gave my life to Christ. The following summer, I was asked to lead “film night” at our church on a Monday night. It was summer when all the work had to be done, and Dad usually worked until dark. But that night he decided to go with me to church.

As we sat together, the Lord began to tell me that I needed to give an invitation to receive Christ at the end of the service. I was terrified . . . and sweating, but I got up, went to the front, and stammered through a salvation invitation.

To the shock of the whole congregation, Dad got up and ran to the front. Oh, what a glorious time that was, and a huge boost to the little church. No one had surrendered to Jesus for well over a decade.

Then, it was Mother’s turn. She kind of halfheartedly made a move toward surrender to God, but she still wanted do do whatever she pleased. It all culminated one snowy evening when Dad couldn’t see clearly in the storm, and he pulled out onto the highway where the car was rammed by a semi. Dad broke his arm, but mother was just tossed around and badly bruised.

But when they were released from the hospital, Mother was different. Finally, in a quiet moment when we were alone, she told me what had happened.

“I thought I could do what I wanted,” she said. Her eyes told the story. She had totally given her life to Christ.

We are not our own.. We are bought with a price.

Everything changed. I was called to the ministry and chose St. Paul Bible College, in St. Paul, Minnesota for my Bible training. The bill for the first year was $2000. That was like a small fortune on our little farm . . . unattainable. All that year, Dad wondered how he was going to pay the bill.

This was the time when wild rice entered into the farming scene in northern Minnesota. It was our first year to grow it domestically on our farm. Guess what Dad was paid that year for his wild rice crop? Two thousand dollars!

The great exchange that is often preached from pulpits across America is simply this: We give ourselves to God, and He gives us everything we need. Dad needed $2000, and God provided it, although Dad had never before made that much money in a single year on the farm.

Of course, it is not just money. It is peace deep within the soul, that we are right with God.

After I joined the little choir at the Baptist church, Mrs. Herring introduced us to the song, “Nothing Between.”

Nothing between my sould and the Savior,

Naught of this world’s delusive dream;

I have renounced all sinful pleasure;

Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.

Nothing between my sould and the Savior,

So that His blessed face may be seen;’

Nothing preventing the least of His favor,

Keep the wqay clear! Let nothing between.

Ah . . . peace with God. Nothing compares to it. You can’t buy it with money, even if you have a million dollars. You can only receive it by surrendering to God, with no reservation. He paid for our sins with His own precious blood on the cross of Calvary. He bought us with a great price. We are not our own; we belong to Him.

Later that summer, we were visited by a family from extreme northern Minnesota. The husband, Ervin, had served with Dad in the CCC’s many years before and each year the two families got together for a time of fishing, laughing, eating, and just plain fun.

When the wife, Minerva, caught wind that I had become a Christian, she sent Mom a pamphlet of all the reasons God wasn’t real, and that atheism was the only real answer to life. It was a bitter, toxic piece of writing.

When they arrived, she obviously thought I was going to enter into debate, defending my new found faith. I just sat in the big chair in the living room while all the chatter went on around me, and the peace of God descended upon me like thick, heavy fog. Not a word was uttered abut my faith, but she obviously could sense the deep peace I had . . . peace that she couldn’t argue against, and she seemed stymied and totally mystified.

The peace of God speaks loudly, even if not a word is uttered. This is the peace the atheist cannot explain or discard. It is silent evidence that the believer belongs to God.

Christian, I urge you to consider the rightful claim of Christ, your Savior, on your life. He paid for your sins, with His blood on the cross. You are not your own! If you think you are in charge and can do whatever you want to do in life, you are sadly mistaken.

Surrender to Christ wholeheartedly . . . and “Let Nothing Between.”