Exchanges: The Good And The Bad Of It

“Meanwhile, the leading priests, and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death. So the governor asked again, “Which of these two do you want me to release to you?”

 The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”

Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”  

They shouted back, “Crucify him!” (Matthew 27:20-22 NLT)

During the 1960’s,  it was common to return empty soda pop bottles to the neighborhood store; and depending on the bottle size, in exchange the returner would receive either a nickel or a dime… That is considered to be a good exchange.

Also during those times we participated in an activity called “Junking”, which consisted of collecting salvageable materials during the week, and then taking what we collected to local junk-yards to be weighed. In exchange, depending on the weight; we would receive a few dollars, the heavier the load, the more money we’d receive… That too, was considered to be a good exchange. Those kinds of exchanges taught us the benefits of enterprise and work ethic… good exchanges that would last a lifetime.

Then came the 70’s and 80’s… the drug trade was beginning to boom. Marijuana and cocaine became a popular way of inebriating ones-self… exchanges were still being made; only these exchanges ruined lives, families and often-times futures. Unlike the activity of junking, the more money that an individual exchanged, would determine the weight the product he or she would receive.

Over two-thousand years ago another exchange was made… Jesus The Christ, a man who did no wrong and knew no sin was offered up by a host of people to be crucified, in exchange for the life of a thief and murderer named Barabbas. The irony of this particular exchange is that many of the same people, who were now crying out for his destruction, were just a few days earlier hailing him and paving the streets before him with palm leaves shouting “Hosanna in the highest…”

From the out-set, the exchange of Jesus’s life for that of Barabbas would seem like a very bad decision, but the truth is there was another exchange made within the exchange… Jesus made a personal exchange that would seat us in heavenly places with the father, and himself being made the curse that our lives once were.

Today the same treachery exists where exchange is concerned, between God and man. What used to be right has been exchanged to embrace everything that is wrong in society… Christianity is attacked daily for its Biblical views concerning adultery, fornication, homosexuality which also includes same-sex-marriages…

Prayer has long been prohibited in the classroom in exchange for teaching our children how to practice safe sex as opposed to abstinence. Modest apparel has been exchanged in order to allow males to wear their pants lower than the country’s weak economy, and females to wear skirts so short where nothing is left to the imagination.

Virtuous women and honorable men are all but non-existent causing the world to wax more wicked than in the days of Noah.

Last but surely not least; practical Christian living has been exchanged for the “Mega-Church-Mentality”… the image of God has been exchanged for the image of beasts and birds, from male to female, for silver and gold; making the Creator to be the creature. A plethora of bad exchanges to satisfy mankind’s lusts and desires…

I say to the body of Christ, the power lies within us to bring about great exchange…for God has declared; “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”   2^nd Chronicles 7:14

To the un-believer I say; “if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of this Amorite society, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Ref. Joshua 24:15…..”

I don’t know about you, ”But I’m making a good exchange”