Give It Again

Dr. Adrian Rogers once told the story of a young Indian prince who became the leader of his province while he was still a child. As this was during the time when India was a part of the British Empire, it was customary for such rulers to visit Queen Victoria and pay homage to her.

In an effort to impress her, he ignored the the counsel of his advisors and presented, as a gift to the Queen, a very large and precious diamond. This diamond was without question the most valuable item that was in his province.

Years went by and the prince became a man. Twenty years or so passed before he visited London again. The Queen’s counsellors told her that it was possible that this prince would request the return of the diamond. If he did so, protocol demanded that she oblige him.

Sure enough, as he received his audience with the Queen, he asked her if he could have the diamond. She commanded that the gem be returned to the prince. Upon receiving it, he turned to Her Majesty with the stone in hand and said, “Your Highness, when I gave this diamond to you, I was only a child. I did not understand the value of this gem and what it represented for the people I rule. Now that I am a man, I do realize the value of it and what it means. As a man, I now give you this stone again.”

Many of us have made commitments to God at earlier times in our lives. Perhaps at a revival, concert, youth camp or some other event, we made a “decision” for Christ that we might not have fully understood. Since that time we have come to a fuller awareness of exactly what was at stake. Maybe it is time that we renewed that commitment to God with the full knowledge of what we are doing, motivated by love for Him.

“He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

Advertisement

They Worshipped Him as King

You can’t tell the Christmas story without including the visit of the wise men. They have always been favorites of mine for some reason. Every year, I would try to land the part of playing one of them in the church Christmas program and one of the first carols I learned was, “We Three Kings”.

Jesus came as the Savior of the world. We know that He will come again as King of Kings. To those of us who are believers in Him, this time of year is a wonderful celebration of the birth of our Savior. Between now and Easter we will think about His life, ministry, death and, of course, His resurrection. Our Savior and our salvation are real and that is a cause of great joy for us, is it not?

I am afraid, though, that many Christians do not celebrate Him as our king. We often think of His sovereignty in an abstract sense, some foggy concept of a future kingdom here on earth where He will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

And yet according to Philippians 2, God has already rewarded His obedience with a name that is above every name. Romans 8:9-10 states that we must believe in the “Lord Jesus Christ” in order to be saved. He is Lord and King right now. We cannot divorce His identity as Savior from His identity as King.

There are some who want Him to be the Lord over certain parts of their lives. They want His lordship to reign over their illnesses, their needs, their weaknesses and their negative circumstances, but they are not willing to submit their strengths, their abundances and their good times to Him.

The wise men came to Jesus on His terms as God had called them. They worshipped Him as He was, for Who He was. Whether or not they understood the full reason for His coming is unclear, but one thing is for sure, these men knew royalty when they saw it, and in the Christ child, they saw their King.

I hope that each of us will celebrate Him as Savior during this season but may that celebration continue throughout the whole year as we live our lives in submission to the commands of our King.