“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)

In the first Blueprint devotional, I focused on those of us in life who want to prosper and achieve great success. We read book after book, hoping to gain the necessary knowledge to become successful. But we rarely acquire true success. The reason it’s a rarity is because true success lies in the Person of Jesus Christ. In this Blueprint, I want to present Christ as two things: the Gift and the Curse.

Jesus, as John 3:16 points out, is the Gift to us who have received freely His Atoning Work on Calvary’s Cross. It says that God “gave”; and we know that a gift is something that is given. One thing about a gift is that it brings joy into the life of the receiver. For those of us who have received Christ (the Gift), He has given us a joy that the world can see, but can’t understand.

In Acts 16:25, Paul and Silas were thrown in jail for Christ’s sake; but they had a joy that the world couldn’t understand, because the world didn’t give it.

On the flip side, Christ is a curse to those who don’t believe. Have you ever witnessed a person going through life; and to them, something is wrong every day? Their marriage is not the way they want it to be. Their kids are disobedient and always in trouble. They don’t enjoy their jobs and almost every, if not every day of their life is joyless. True enough, they make attempts to make things better; but the sad thing is, they never understand why they experience so much heartache.

For those of us who are spiritual, the reason is simple; the same Man that is a Gift to us who are saved, is a Curse to them who are lost. In our text Scripture, it says that the man who doesn’t believe in Jesus is condemned already. The wrath of God abides on his life.

This is why we witness the lost going through so much. Sometimes, I find myself praying for people in my family and even strangers, simply because I want them to be happy. I want them to experience the joy in their marriages and family the way I do. People ask for help to get their problems straight. And at times I’ve found myself giving what seems to be good advice, but leaving the most important piece out – Jesus. People spend great amounts of money, time, and energy on their problems, only to have them get worse. Just like the woman with the issue of blood did (Mark 5:26).

The Blueprint for those things in life that we long for: love, joy and peace; is in the Person of Jesus Christ. We are called to be witnesses. So let’s tell the world that they can either receive Jesus and receive God’s Gift; or stay in sin and receive God’s Curse.

P.S. Even when life seems to be more that you can handle, God’s love is still shown in that He’s using those tough times to draw you into His loving arms.

God loves you!

The Blueprint 1 was posted on July 6, 2011.