We’ve all seen one of those old rubber stamps. It’s big, with a handle we can grab. It’s made to slam onto an ink pad and then onto our paper, leaving a message no one can overlook.
Why a rubber stamp? Why not write out our message by hand? That’s easy. We can go faster with a rubber stamp. We can stamp our message everywhere, and we can make it big and bold.
In business it might say Approved or Rejected. On folders we might see Confidential or Top Secret stamped in bold red letters. Some stamps even tell us the time and date we picked up or delivered a package.
Bam! Bam! It can be startling to the one not holding the stamp.
Remember junior high school? The teacher sits with a row of stamps inside his drawer. We hand in our term paper, and we die inside as he looks over it. We pass or fail the class on this one project. Then, his hand reaches out, he grabs a stamp, and bam, bam! That hidden word hits the ink pad and then slams onto our paper.
When the stamp slams down, we cringe. What will it say when he lifts it high? Which one did he use?
The message is hidden until we see the results. We close our eyes in desperation. Passed? Failed? Redo? Have Signed by a Parent? We can barely stand to look at the message. That last one would rip our heart out.
What if we could hold a rubber stamp that said Saved by the Almighty God? How great would that be? What if we could run around rubber stamping God all over everyone and everything? Bam, bam, on your forehead! You are now a child of the King! Bam, bam, that paycheck belongs to God! Bam, bam, only family fare will be shown on my television! Bam, bam, my tongue will be under control!
We can, you know. We can rubber stamp God everywhere.
Read John 1:1 where it says:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
God gave us a head start. He went crazy with his rubber stamp. Bam, bam! The world was his, and his stamp blurred in his hand as he went after everything in sight. Bam, bam, ink to sky! Bam, bam, ink to soil! Bam, bam, ink to animals! Bam, bam, ink to us.
Read about it in Genesis 1:1-31 where it tells us:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day…”
Then man came along, and God said, “My stamp is yours.” He handed us his stamp, and he said, “Put my name everywhere, because I created it all.”
And yet, we’ve lost God’s rubber stamp. We think it’s all us. We earn the degree. We apply for the job. We spend long hours at our desks. All the time we’re rubber stamping our names on everything. Bam, bam! Us, us, us! It’s our house, our cars, our friends, our time…
How can we be so blind? Read the consequences in 1 Corinthians 6:9 which says:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers…”
Let’s pull out the God stamp once again. It’s the one we read about in 1 Peter 2:21, which tells us:
“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.”
If we follow Christ, then what will the world hear as they pass us by?
Bam! Bam! Our voices will cry out, “That’s one more thing that belongs to God!”
God can truly say, “I made you, and I can take you out,” because he really did.
Copyright © 2014 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.J.30.14.vp