CELEBRATING AN ANNIVERSARY

Today's reading: Deuteronomy 17-19

"...Sacrifice it there as the sun goes down on the anniversary of your exodus from Egypt." Deuteronomy 16:6 NLT

Do you know the date you received the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior?

What Sunday you went to the altar? What day you prayed in a Vacation Bible School? What date you became a child of the Most High God?

Do you celebrate the evening before that day each year?

That's what the Israelites were asked to do. They were asked to have a special time set apart every year to remember where they were and where God took them.

They once were slaves, now they owned the land the walked on.

They once were in bondage, now they were free men and women.

They once were governed by whips and chains, now they lived lived in grace and mercy.

So God asked them to remember once a year exactly who they once were and to celebrate who God had allowed them to become.

It's a good practice for us, don't you think?

To pause long enough to remember that moment when Jesus came into our hearts.

To stop and survey the path He had walked you along from that day to this.

To take a moment to think about where you might be today if it had not been for the Lord.

To sit with your thoughts long enough to realize the depths to which Christ came to find you, a sinner, a lost soul, a needy orphan.

As you pick up your new planners for 2024, be sure to mark this special date--and set aside time that day to celebrate the anniversary of when God unlocked the prison doors, released you from your servitude to sin, adopted you fully and wholly as His own.

And if you don't have a date--today could be the day!

Admit you are a sinner in need of a Savior.

Believe Christ died for you, for your sins, for your place in His family.

Confess that you prayed and asked Him to forgive you and to become your forever best friend to another believer--share your good news!

Then mark this day down as your new anniversary!