Pastor's Pen
by Buzz Dahlen
We have all owned things.  Things that were very important to us that we somehow lost.  I have had many things like that growing up.  I remember the unwritten rule as a child, “finders keepers, and losers weepers.”  Most of us lived by this code and were happy to, when we found something.  I can remember even saying it out loud, as if it made the find official, “Well, finders keepers losers weepers.” Then somehow whatever I had found mysteriously became mine.  I even remember hearing that said to me, when I discovered that someone had something that I had lost, “Finders keepers, and losers weepers.”
Even as an adult I found that rule to still hold some authority.  I had received an NFL football from and NFL coach at a college all-star game that I worked at.  It was one of those prized possessions.  I kept it in perfect condition for a long time, until one Sunday we needed a football to play with.  I grabbed mine.  What good is having a football if you do not play with it?  So, we played with the best football any of us had ever played with.  It was great and afterward we all went to get something cold to drink.  When we returned my football was gone!  A few days later, I saw a kid playing with a football that looked just like mine.  I enquired as to where he got the ball; he said his dad bought it for him.  I wanted to take the kid home and ask his dad, but then “the rule” popped into my head. “Finders keepers, losers weepers.”  It was his ball now… and the only way that I was going to get it back was if I was willing to buy it from him.
A very similar rule exists in the spiritual world.  God created everything and everyone, which for some is hard to accept, but its true.  So, He in fact, owns everyone.  When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they became lost.  Who was standing right there to find them?  Yep, the devil, and he took advantage of the situation.  The bible tells us that we are all born “lost.”  God knows that He owns us all, yet there was really only one thing He could do, buy us back.
You would think that mankind would run away from the devil and into the arms of our loving creator.  Unfortunately, the devil has brainwashed mankind into thinking they we better off not being owned buy God, and many hold onto this belief.  And so, God had to purchase us back with the blood of His own Son, Jesus.  His death was the price to buy you and I back, paid in full.  We need only accept His purchase and confess Him as our owner again.  Paul writes it this way in his letter to the Romans.  That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  Romans 10:9-10
Paul is saying, if you say “You own me because You paid the price for me” you will no longer belong to the devil.  Now you might be thinking, “The devil doesn’t own me!”  Many people think that, because that is what the devil wants everyone to think.  But its true, we are owned…  
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.  Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!  Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me?  He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."  John 8:42-47
You can belong to God, just confess with your mouth and believe in your heart.  If you have any questions, give me a call and we can talk about.

Cottonwood, Idaho 83522

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