No Christian believer will deny that Jesus Christ is the very greatest gift of all time and eternity.  God gave His son so that whosoever —anyone at all— can have eternal life.

But Paul makes an interesting comment in his letter to the Romans: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32, NKJV)

Because of Christ, we are able to receive and put to good use all the other gifts of God.  We are made alive in Jesus Christ and we are now able to live life to its fullest.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I believe that one of the greatest miracles of God, one of His greatest gifts to us, is the human mind.  Another is the human body.  These two gifts, working in combination, can become our greatest curse when we are not submitted to God.  But in Christ these two gifts can be used to accomplish amazing and worthwhile things.

With God’s blessing and help, we can apply godly wisdom and insight to many of the problems that plague human existence.  We can solve mysteries, bring good health to broken bodies, build cities, develop good technology.  God has gifted every human being with awesome gifts, and with His blessing we can use those gifts to make life better for everyone.

Americans often find it difficult to understand how people in other lands can allow dictators and evil systems of government or religion to control and ruin their lives.  Yet we in America are not always so much better off.  Many of us yield to debt and addictions and lifestyles that destroy us, our families, and our communities.  And as people in other lands may look to dictators for everything, so we Americans often allow ourselves to be led along by TV programming, the printed media, and others.

My point is this: why not use the gifts God gave us?  We should use our own minds and our own two hands.  Why look to huge corporate conglomerates for energy, for products, for everything we need?  Why not remember that human beings can accomplish just about anything we really want to do?  We can work today to make the world truly better for our children tomorrow.

Obviously, the most important thing is for everyone to know the gospel: the good news about Jesus Christ.  But that is not all there is to life and faith.  people still need to eat, to have clean water, to have a decent place to live, and decent clothes to wear.  All people need these things — even our enemies.  Christians have the opportunity everyday to help make the world a little better until God makes everything new.

We can live as victims in the world, complaining about our government, about high taxes, about how many bills we have, and about how expensive fuel and electricity have become, or we can do something about it.  We can become part of the solution.  In a free society we can choose to live more intelligently, more in tune with the earth and other living things.  We can choose healthy diets and habits.  We can encourage the use and development of alternative energy.

God has given to us great gifts and great opportunities.  If we neglect what the Lord has already given us, then how can we expect Him to do more for us?  Yes, the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.  But He also wants us to understand truth and to share in the work and the joy of helping our own people and the people of the whole world.

What do you think?

Jim