The patient in the ICU lay dying, the offending unit of blood pulled from his IV too late. His body was tearing itself apart fighting an unseen enemy.*
The wrong blood…. is death.
Another patient. In the ER for just minutes, his heart rapidly pumping his blood onto the floor through a huge gaping wound. Fast acting physicians, rushing nurses, racing laboratorians, all worked together to provide the blood that saved a life that night.
The right blood…. is life.
When Moses stretched his hand over the river, a river worshiped by the Egyptians, a river full of fish worshiped by the Egyptians, the river turned to blood. All of the fish turned belly up. The river no longer a source of life to the fertile countryside.
The wrong blood…. is death.
Some days later, Moses instructed the Israelis to kill a lamb and spread its blood above the door and on the door jambs signifying that they were God-followers. Later that night, when the death plague passed over them, they were spared.
The right blood…. is life.
Good or evil. Right or wrong. Helpful or hurtful. Life or death. As leaders, employees, parents, friends, we make choices every day. We have conversations. Will they uplift or tear down? We post on Facebook. Will it be positive and supporting or negative and destructive? We interact with children and youth around us. Will we affirm, value and safeguard or criticize, discard, and endanger?
And what about Jesus? Do I choose to minimize and trivialize His work for me? Choosing a path that leads far from Him? Or do I choose to accept His grace gift of salvation? Horribly expensive grace. Grace bought through His suicide on the cross. Grace shown when He acted out His choice of death over losing me.
it was not with silver or gold that you were redeemed, but with the precious blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18,19 NIV excerpt.
My hope is build on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
Jesus’ blood…. is my life.
What right choices will you make today?
*Note that laboratory and nursing professionals across this country go to extraordinary lengths and use tiers of redundant safety mechanisms to ensure that patients receive safe blood every day, every time.
excerpted from Sunrise service sermon Ukiah 6/21/14