This last week I have had a song in my head that I haven’t been able to get out, the old hymn He Ransomed Me. If you grew up in a Baptist church like I did I am betting you can at least remember the chorus.
Hallelujah! what a Savior,
Who can take a poor, lost sinner,
Lift me from the miry clay and set me free!
I will ever tell the story,
Shouting glory, glory, glory,
Hallelujah! Jesus Ransomed me.
In the King James Version of the Bible find the inspiration for this song in Psalm 40:2, He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. The NIV translates it, He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
No matter the version you use the picture is still the same. We were stuck in our filthy dirty sin and could do nothing of our own strength to remove ourselves from the situation. However, God loves us so much that he had a solution to the problem and the solution was His Son Jesus. We are moving closer and closer to Christmas and you can tell it by the lights on houses and yards, songs on the radios and the constant reminder from our kids…”I want such and such for Christmas.”
Christmas is a special time to remember why Jesus came. He came to rescue us from the sinful mess we are and to make us new in Him. He came to pay for all the sin we have done and will do so that we wouldn’t have to face the penalty for that sin, death both physical and spiritual. If the Lord delays His coming everyone who reads this will die a physical death but because of Jesus birth, death and resurrection we have can avoid a spiritual death, separation from God for eternity.
Maybe you are reading this in you are in the miry clay. You have never come to Jesus in prayer and asked Him to save you form the sin in your life. You have never accepted Him as your Lord and Savior and come into a personal relationship with it. If you haven’t than there is no better time than now to make that choice, it is a choice you will never will regret and will be so thankful that you did!
If you look at the next line of the chorus to He Ransomed Me we are given a reminder of what those of use who have already been lifted out of the miry clay should be doing. We should be telling our story, the story of how we came to know Jesus and to accept Him. We should be telling our story of how He changed us and put our feet on Him the Rock so we would have a firm place to stand no matter what life throws at us.
Let this Christmas be a time where you give your testimony as a gift to others so they can receive the greatest gift of all, God’s gift to us, Jesus!