When: January 31, 2016 at 2:00 pm
Where: Gallaudet University SAC, basement chapel of I. King Jordan building
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Redeeming Grace: A Lesson from Samson
Elaine Cain – the one whom I jokingly refer to as “my little sister” although she’s several years older than me – got a horse which was recently purchased by a killbuyer at an auction and was literally about to be shipped to a slaughterhouse either in Mexico or Canada to be sold as food. You see, this horse was basically healthy and had many years of life ahead of him. He had no reason to be someone’s dinner or a dog’s food. My sister found out about this condemned horse about a month ago through a Facebook horse rescue group and was able to pay the “bail price” to get him out of the killbuyer’s lot before he was shipped off.
This past Wednesday, Elaine wrote a brief Facebook post this past Wednesday about what God through the Holy Spirit’s prompting taught her about her new horse affectionately named “Samson.” Many people were touched by her story about God’s redeeming grace, and I wanted to share her brief post with you tonight.
Here is what Elaine wrote on her page on Facebook:
It dawned on me today how similar I am to our new horse Samson…
You see Samson was left for dead, sitting in a killbuyer’s lot, waiting to go to slaughter in Canada or Mexico. He was forgotten, left for no good other than for dinner meat or dog food. But we saw him…and saw a horse with a kind eye, a beautiful horse despite his wounds. We saw his potential, his love… We saw that he could have HOPE. So we paid his bail price, we pulled him from slaughter less than 48 hours before his death sentence, and we brought him HOME.
How am I like Samson?!?
Well, I was left for dead…in my sin, waiting for slaughter too. But God saw me, knew me, LOVED me. He saw potential. He saw his daughter. So years before I was even born, His son, Jesus, paid my bail price by dying in my place on the cross. He looked past the sin, and saw His original creation. He saw there was HOPE for all of mankind, including me…and YOU! So he died in my place…and YOURS…and saved us for eternity so we could come to HIS home and live forever in peace with him.
We love our Samson, and we love Jesus. And we know how much Jesus loves us….so we love others, trying our best to do as Jesus would have us do.
You see, God loves us far beyond our wildest imagination and has an amazing plan for our lives. God created all of us to have a personal relationship with Him. He desires us to have an abundant life (John 10:10). But we don’t experience His love and abundant life inthis world because we are (figuratively speaking) in a killbuyer’s lot. We are helpless prisoners to our own sins, subject to Satan’s power and control. We are separated from God because of our sins, condemned to die (Romans 3:23; 6:23). In short, there is no hope for us.
But God loves us so much that He sent His own Son on earth to die on the cross for each one of us (John 3:16). “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:9 NIV). He has already paid the “bail price” for our precious souls through His Son’s death on the cross. God is relentlessly pursuing the lost every single day so that everyone might receive the gift of His redeeming grace, have an abundant life, and be truly free from their sins. Even more, Jesus Christ has risen from the grave, conquering the power of death, and lives forevermore as the Savior, Lord, and Friend of sinners! All we have to do is to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in our hearts that He is indeed risen in order to experience His redeeming love and have an abundant life (Romans 10:9-10)!
I can’t help but think about the first two verses of a famous hymn titled “Amazing Grace” written by John Newton:
“Amazing grace how sweet the sound / that saved a wretch like me! / I once was lost but now am found, / was blind but now I see.
“‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, / and grace my fears relieved; / how precious did that grace appear / the hour I first believed!”