“The RoseBouquet”

People like to talk about their brush with the famous or various great people. Have you ever had one? A few moments with a very important person (VIP)?

I’ve met people who will tell in vivid detail about how they saw Queen Elizabeth up real close. Almost in arms-reach. Some will talk about speaking with a famous singer or movie star. The speaker a conference told last night about being at a Bible camp in Romania and being served his bread for breakfast by the President of that country.

But… is that good enough? Does a brush with a VIP count as gaining a true friend?

Who is your very best friend? How great or important is that friend? Does she (or he) have a relationship with a very important, influential person to whom she could appeal on your behalf? (On second thought, maybe we should not use our friends like that.)

I’ve got some great news for you though! I have a fantastic and super-perfect Friend who invites me to use His name to get special attention, and He’s willing to be your Friend too.

Oh, you’ve guessed who, have you?

Well, let’s just look at this tremendous Friend and the relationship we can have with Him.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He was willing to be born as a baby, to prove that He has gone through everything we did - from our birth. He told His friends that if they knew Him, they also knew God, because they are just perfectly alike. If you want to know what God is really like, study Jesus!

He said that a sign of a true friend is someone willing to die for another, and He sure did that! He died for everyone willing to believe and receive that death as being in our own place. That death and resurrection - if we receive it - is our ticket into Heaven - for eternity! Jesus showed that He loves us to the nth degree. He did more than any of our other friends could do for us.

Not only that, but Jesus went back up to Heaven to sit beside the Father (God), and to pray for us. Say-but, those prayers are effective! They always get answered!

Sometimes our friends will say that they’ll pray for us, but not all of them carry through on that. Jesus said, “I’m praying for you,” and He means it! (Just wiggle down into that thought and soak in it for a while).

Wait, there’s more! He also promised to prepare some rooms for us in Heaven. (Some translations say ‘mansions’). Now just think, it took Him a week to make the universe, the earth and sun and stars, and to separate the land from the water, and to make animals, plants and people. And that’s all glorious and beautiful to behold. So if He is taking all this time to make rooms for us, - wow! Hallelujah! Glory be! - and how magnificent shall those rooms be? (Just camp your mind on that thought for a few minutes!)

When Jesus sent His disciples out, two by two, to deliver the kingdom message to the Jews, and to heal the sick and cast out devils, they came back absolutely flabbergasted at all they had accomplished. But then Jesus told them to think nothing of that - rather be glad that your name is written in Heaven’s Book of Life.

Isn’t that something tremendous to brag about in your Facebook account? Your name is in the Book of Life - meaning you will live forever! And… (trumpets, please), your BEST Friend sits at the right hand of God, and prays for you - continuously!

No body, but nobody can top us on that!

By the way, Jesus has time to talk with us all the time - even if our other friends are too busy, or don’t answer our emails.