A Gift is Free

 “As I’ve mentioned before my family are huge Dodger fans and we love going to Dodger Stadium at least once a year. My dad use to get tickets from vendors at his work back before it was okay to do that. (I never understand why people complain about things like free tickets and ruin it for everyone) One year, I think I was like Twelve years old and  my dad got Four prime seats as he always did that were 12 rows behind the Dodger’s dugout. My brother Chente drove us in his van and my brothers Sal, Martin and Ruben claimed the tickets to go with him. My little brother Michael and me wanted to go and buy tickets that back then we’re Five dollar tickets to sit in the pavilion and my brother Sal was like, no they’re sold out, stay home. Chente said we could go and try and that made Sal mad for whatever reason that I still don’t know. We got there and they went in to their seats and me and Michael went to the pavilion ticket booth. As we stood in line a man came up to us and said, “I have two tickets but I can’t sell them so I’m going to drop them on the ground and you guys can pick them up and go in.” We looked at each other, sort of skeptical but then we were like, okay, what’s there to lose, so we picked them up and went in. We started walking to the seats following the numbers noticing we were getting closer to the dugout. We asked the usher and he walked us to the second row right behind the Dodgers Dugout. 

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians reminds us in chapter Two, 

“I mean that you have been saved by GRACE through believing. YOU DID NOT SAVE YOURSELVES; IT WAS A GIFT FROM GOD. It was not the result of YOUR OWN EFFORTS, so you CANNOT BRAG about it.” ‭(NCV‬‬)(Emphasis added)

A gift is something you didn’t buy, it’s not something that you expect (at least you shouldn’t, even for birthdays or Christmas.) it’s nothing you deserve or worked for and that’s why it’s called a gift. 

Cults and sadly many so called “Christian”  churches put worldly expectations on their followers with; you have to give so much money to move up the ladder of enlightenment. You need to knock on so many doors a week, you have to attend all these conferences and buy our books, buy our under garments, or you have to be baptized in our church to be saved, to get more knowledge or to be a someone in that “religion” or church. But Paul clearly states , we can’t do anything to earn it, there’s not enough money to buy it, it’s simply by faith in Jesus Christ. Now many will argue, yes but we still need to work as James says in his letter in the second chapter, 

“In the same way, faith by itself—that does nothing—is dead. Someone might say, “You have faith, but I have deeds.” Show me your faith without doing anything, and I will show you my faith by what I do. (NCV)

But what James is talking about in context is that many claim they have faith and that is enough, that I’ve said a little prayer and I am saved, I don’t need to love my neighbor and or go to church, or read my Bible, because I have faith. But having faith and being saved are two different things. Listen to what Paul continues in Ephesians Two, 

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”‬ ‭(ESV‬‬)

We are His workmanship to do His work, not the works of man, not the works of a religion, but to WALK in them, which SHOUKD glorify God! 

James also continued in chapter Two with, 

“You believe there is one God. Good! But the DEMONS BELIEVE that, too, and THEY TREMBLE WITH FEAR.”‬ ‭(NCV‬‬)(Emphasis added)

It’s not enough to just believe and sit on our laurels. James says that demons believe and yet they shudder and most of us, don’t bat at eye, when we think of God, play with God, or bother to do for God. We do for our traditions and our religion but never to glorify God! I believe Jesus is Lord and that He died for me and if that’s too simple for people to accept, then the GIFT being FREE will always  be an obstacle. But I also know that I am called to preach the word and to make disciples, to reproof, rebuke, admonish, and do everything given me by the Holy Spirit as gifts, to share so that others may believe, repent and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

When that man dropped those tickets, me and my little brother didn’t have to pay for them and they were better seats than my dad had gotten. When our brothers saw us pass by and they were jealous, we didn’t say that’s what you get, we’re better than you, we just enjoyed the game. Actually I think we even let my brother Sal sit in the better seats, because as with Gods gift, we can’t boast of something we didn’t pay for, we reaped the benefits and shaming people is not what true Christians do. 

I play music for God and volunteer where I can to do God’s work, not for fame and money, but by doing for God. I get to share and allow people to see grace as it was given to me. It is available to all who confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus died and rose for all.  I am not perfect and fail and fall from time to time, but I also know that God is there, if I walk in Him and go to Him.

God “dropped” your free ticket in the form of Jesus as Isaiah foretold in Isaiah Nine, 

“For to us a child is born, to us A SON IS GIVEN; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”‬ ‭(ESV‬‬)(Emphasis added)

He was freely given as a child to live a sinless life, to die a sinners death. All you have to do is take the “ticket” and walk in Him (daily taking up our cross) and reap the benefits of God and His grace, His gift!” Jose Barajas