Marriage Anchors

His scoped rifle was pointed right at me!

This Communist Czechoslovakian Iron Curtain tower guard had me in his cross hairs. As an Army Lieutenant, it was my duty that day to take a military jeep deep in the German forest and inspect the border between Germany and Communist Czechoslovakia.

I told my jeep driver to drive right up to the “Line”.
The dividing wall consisted only of a small ditch with some fence and a strand of barbed wire. The rest of the area was forest with a few clearings interspersed.

On the Communist side there was a high wooden look-out tower with one guard in it. On the ground below, there were 6 soldiers playing a game of soccer.

I remember the cool of that morning in that deep forest. The air was fresh and saturated with oxygen. All seemed peaceful.

Our jeep came up near to the barbed wire. I gave a slight wave to the tower guard.

He trained his high powered rifle with its scope on us to get a “closer” look! I can only assume his rifle was loaded. Since I did not want an international border incident and I did not want us to get shot, I quickly yelled to my driver, “Let’s get out of here!!!” We drove north into the forest as fast and as far away from our enemy as possible.

That experience stuck with me.

That guard and I, sadly, were enemies. I did not even know his name.

I was reading in Romans recently. Chapter 5 tells us that we are enemies of God unless He saves us, forgives us, reconciles us, and washes us clean with His cleansing blood.

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”   NIV

When you choose to trust the Lord Jesus and embrace the truth that He voluntarily shed His blood and died for you on that wretched cross 2000 years ago, your status as an enemy changes. Before, you were a sinful enemy of God guilty and deserving of condemnation and judgement. Once He saves you and you call upon Him to forgive and wash you clean with His cleansing, pure blood, you become His friend.

More than a friend, you become his own daughter or son. He adopts you. You are born again.

Verses 6-9 says, “⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” NIV

Jesus, God's only Son, loves you so much that He took your sin, past, present, and future, off of you and owned it as if He committed them all. The cross hairs of God's judgement fell suddenly upon His own, beloved Son. Jesus became His Father’s enemy so that you would not have to!

In exchange for removing your Hell deserving sin, Jesus freely gave you His Heaven assuring righteousness, holiness, purity, and never ending holy standing.

Some call this THE GREAT EXCHANGE. He took “the bullet” of God, the father’s judgement and punishment for your sin. When He now looks at you, He sees His new child who now and forever possesses eternal perfection, the same as that of His Son, Jesus. You are pure Royalty and Family now.

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May Jesus be the Light of your life this and every day! God bless you!

If you want to read The Gospel on the Front Lines: Message #1, go to: https://marriageanchors.com/…/the-gospel-on-the-front-lines…/

Here is the link to Message #2:

https://marriageanchors.com/…/the-gospel-on-the-front-lines…/

Here is the link to Message #3

https://marriageanchors.com/2016/07/22/the-gospel-on-the-front-lines-message-3/

A more complete Gospel presentation is here:

https://marriageanchors.com/…/your-anchor-dont-leave-port-w…/