October 23rd, 2024
by Lance King
by Lance King
In October, pumpkins take over the world. At least, it can feel that way with pumpkin-spice everything and decorative pumpkins all over the place. I’m not really into pumpkins, but one of my sisters makes a fabulous pumpkin roll. Possibly both of them make a great one, but you and they don’t know which one I’m talking about anyway. Maybe you’re more into decorating with pumpkins. Your house or office is decked out with real or fake pumpkins sitting on a table here and there. Or maybe you’re a carver, making sweet or ghoulish frights on the faces of your pumpkins. Whether it’s eating pumpkin pie or smearing on a pumpkin facial mask, pumpkins are a huge part of the fall seasonal culture in North America.
I was thinking about pumpkins a while back, and I realized that my life is a lot like a pumpkin. Maybe yours is, too. In this article and the next, I’ll share about my pumpkin life.
First, I was minding my own business when…
GOD PIERCED MY PUMPKIN LIFE WITH THE KNIFE OF THE GOSPEL.
A pumpkin's shell is made up of an outer skin, or rind, and the pulp. This thick shell gives the pumpkin its shape and protects the innards from harm. Carving a pumpkin begins by cutting through the tough shell of the pumpkin. No matter how hardened, God can pierce anyone’s heart with the gospel. Whether we want to admit it or not, God initiates salvation, and it begins and ends with Him. In God’s sovereignty, He’s given mankind the ability to choose to receive the salvation He offers or to reject it. We believe or reject belief. Still, salvation is all God’s doing. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast” (CSB).
Abraham believed God and was declared right with God, so it is with us. When we truly believe the gospel, we’re saved. Now understand that a real saving faith isn’t just some experience. Real saving faith, James tells us, is one that does something. It works out into your life. In other words, there are a lot of “in name only” Christians who won’t be spending time in heaven when their life is done. We’re saved by grace through faith, but a real living faith works. Repentance, or a change in thinking and living, is part of that living faith working in us.
You may be asking, “What is this gospel you’re talking about?” Gospel means “good news,” but it also has some bad news. The eternal God created an uncorrupted world, including two sinless people—Adam and Eve. Satan tempted them, and they fell into sin, marring humanity and creation with sin. Their children inherited a sinful nature and proved that they were sinners by their behavior. This sinful nature and bad behavior was passed down to every human born since the time of Adam and Eve. The bad news is that our sin separates us from God and must be dealt with. Ultimate separation from God happens at death when a person is separated for eternity from the grace of God in a place called hell. But God had a plan. Since the time of Adam, God had man use sacrifices as a way to turn their hearts back to Him. Eventually at just the right time, He provided a once and for all sacrifice for all time through the death of His Son Jesus on the cross. The Son of God came to this earth as a man in every way but in every way still God. This God Man lived the perfect live which you and I have failed so miserably to live. Then He died a cruel death on a shameful Roman cross as a substitute for you and me. We are the sinners and the failures, and yet Jesus died for us. Then He was buried in a borrowed tomb. His cold, dead body lay in that tomb where all of us deserve to be. However, on the third day, life coursed back into His body, and He came back to life in that tomb. Now He lives forevermore and wants to give new life to every sinner who will call upon His name in faith and repentance. That is the gospel. That is the good news.
Do you see that salvation doesn’t begin with us? God created us. God sent Christ to provide redemption. God preserved the gospel message for our modern world. Salvation begins with God. He initiates it. Some people have heard the gospel, but their minds are blinded to it. Yet in that darkness, God can plunge the knife of the gospel through the hard shell of the heart.
STEINBURG AND THE GYPSY GIRL
Chuck Swindoll tells the story of the Middle Ages painter by the name of Steinberg who was mesmerized by the beauty of a gypsy girl, and he would often make her his painting subject. During this time, he was working on what would become a masterpiece and has been dubbed “Christ on the Cross.”
The gypsy girl would watch him at work on this painting, and “one day she said to him, ‘He must have been a very wicked man to be nailed to a cross like that.’ ‘No,’ said the painter. ‘On the contrary, He was a very good man. The best man that ever lived. He died for others.’” The beautiful gypsy girl “looked up at him and asked, ‘Did He die for you?’ Now Steinberg wasn’t a Christian, but the gypsy girl’s question touched his heart and awakened his conscience, and he became a believer in Jesus.”*
God was able to use this unbelieving gypsy girl’s “Did He die for you?” question to pierce Steinberg’s heart with the gospel. It’s almost as if Steinberg had been painting that work of art on a knife—the gospel, and then God used that gospel to pierce Steinberg’s own pumpkin-like heart.
God is able to use whomever and whatever He wants to pierce us with the gospel. Think about it. Has God used something or someone in your life to provoke you to consider the gospel? Unbelieving Muslims in the Middle East have had dreams of a man who beckons them to follow Him. They sought answers and found that this Man was Jesus. God will make a way for someone who is open to the gospel. In my life, God used the Bible, my parents, my pastor, Sunday School teachers, and others to pierce my heart with the gospel. Eventually, on the last night of a revival, I gave up the fight and surrendered to His will.
Consider these questions.
Wherever you are in a relationship with Jesus, turn from your sin and pray for His mercy to flood into your “heart” to make it a fitting place for Him to rule your life.
I am so thankful that God had mercy on my soul by piercing my heart with the gospel.
*Charles Swindoll. Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes. Thomas Nelson: Nashville, TN, 1998. p. 501.
I was thinking about pumpkins a while back, and I realized that my life is a lot like a pumpkin. Maybe yours is, too. In this article and the next, I’ll share about my pumpkin life.
First, I was minding my own business when…
GOD PIERCED MY PUMPKIN LIFE WITH THE KNIFE OF THE GOSPEL.
A pumpkin's shell is made up of an outer skin, or rind, and the pulp. This thick shell gives the pumpkin its shape and protects the innards from harm. Carving a pumpkin begins by cutting through the tough shell of the pumpkin. No matter how hardened, God can pierce anyone’s heart with the gospel. Whether we want to admit it or not, God initiates salvation, and it begins and ends with Him. In God’s sovereignty, He’s given mankind the ability to choose to receive the salvation He offers or to reject it. We believe or reject belief. Still, salvation is all God’s doing. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast” (CSB).
Abraham believed God and was declared right with God, so it is with us. When we truly believe the gospel, we’re saved. Now understand that a real saving faith isn’t just some experience. Real saving faith, James tells us, is one that does something. It works out into your life. In other words, there are a lot of “in name only” Christians who won’t be spending time in heaven when their life is done. We’re saved by grace through faith, but a real living faith works. Repentance, or a change in thinking and living, is part of that living faith working in us.
You may be asking, “What is this gospel you’re talking about?” Gospel means “good news,” but it also has some bad news. The eternal God created an uncorrupted world, including two sinless people—Adam and Eve. Satan tempted them, and they fell into sin, marring humanity and creation with sin. Their children inherited a sinful nature and proved that they were sinners by their behavior. This sinful nature and bad behavior was passed down to every human born since the time of Adam and Eve. The bad news is that our sin separates us from God and must be dealt with. Ultimate separation from God happens at death when a person is separated for eternity from the grace of God in a place called hell. But God had a plan. Since the time of Adam, God had man use sacrifices as a way to turn their hearts back to Him. Eventually at just the right time, He provided a once and for all sacrifice for all time through the death of His Son Jesus on the cross. The Son of God came to this earth as a man in every way but in every way still God. This God Man lived the perfect live which you and I have failed so miserably to live. Then He died a cruel death on a shameful Roman cross as a substitute for you and me. We are the sinners and the failures, and yet Jesus died for us. Then He was buried in a borrowed tomb. His cold, dead body lay in that tomb where all of us deserve to be. However, on the third day, life coursed back into His body, and He came back to life in that tomb. Now He lives forevermore and wants to give new life to every sinner who will call upon His name in faith and repentance. That is the gospel. That is the good news.
Do you see that salvation doesn’t begin with us? God created us. God sent Christ to provide redemption. God preserved the gospel message for our modern world. Salvation begins with God. He initiates it. Some people have heard the gospel, but their minds are blinded to it. Yet in that darkness, God can plunge the knife of the gospel through the hard shell of the heart.
STEINBURG AND THE GYPSY GIRL
Chuck Swindoll tells the story of the Middle Ages painter by the name of Steinberg who was mesmerized by the beauty of a gypsy girl, and he would often make her his painting subject. During this time, he was working on what would become a masterpiece and has been dubbed “Christ on the Cross.”
The gypsy girl would watch him at work on this painting, and “one day she said to him, ‘He must have been a very wicked man to be nailed to a cross like that.’ ‘No,’ said the painter. ‘On the contrary, He was a very good man. The best man that ever lived. He died for others.’” The beautiful gypsy girl “looked up at him and asked, ‘Did He die for you?’ Now Steinberg wasn’t a Christian, but the gypsy girl’s question touched his heart and awakened his conscience, and he became a believer in Jesus.”*
God was able to use this unbelieving gypsy girl’s “Did He die for you?” question to pierce Steinberg’s heart with the gospel. It’s almost as if Steinberg had been painting that work of art on a knife—the gospel, and then God used that gospel to pierce Steinberg’s own pumpkin-like heart.
God is able to use whomever and whatever He wants to pierce us with the gospel. Think about it. Has God used something or someone in your life to provoke you to consider the gospel? Unbelieving Muslims in the Middle East have had dreams of a man who beckons them to follow Him. They sought answers and found that this Man was Jesus. God will make a way for someone who is open to the gospel. In my life, God used the Bible, my parents, my pastor, Sunday School teachers, and others to pierce my heart with the gospel. Eventually, on the last night of a revival, I gave up the fight and surrendered to His will.
Consider these questions.
- Has the gospel pierced your heart?
- Have you come to the place in your life where you’ve surrendered all that you are to Jesus?
- If the Lord has already saved you, contemplate your need for the gospel even today?
Wherever you are in a relationship with Jesus, turn from your sin and pray for His mercy to flood into your “heart” to make it a fitting place for Him to rule your life.
I am so thankful that God had mercy on my soul by piercing my heart with the gospel.
*Charles Swindoll. Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes. Thomas Nelson: Nashville, TN, 1998. p. 501.
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