"The Blood of Christ was shed for All"
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This is a lesson that the Lord Jesus Christ taught me through a life experience.
I try to give blood whenever I can. I figure if Jesus shed his blood to save eternal lives, I can give some blood to help mortal lives. I'm not saying this is something a Christian has to do. I just do it to try to help. It's a very little thing.
I give to the American Red Cross. I am what is called a "CMV Hero." I can't remember what the CMV stands for, it's some really big medical words. But, it means that I don't have some kind of diseases in my blood that many of us carry that we are not aware of. These diseases are not harmful to a healthy person, but they could be deadly if given to a premature baby or someone with a life-threatening disease.
This fact has always made me feel extra good about giving blood. My blood is often used to help premature babies.
Recently, I went to give blood; but I was refused. My iron count was under the standard. This has happened to me before. It grieves me quite a bit, because I think of the babies that my blood may have saved; I find it very upsetting.
I especially find it upsetting because this standard is set by the FDA, and it is a standard that is measured by men's average blood iron levels. Women generally do not have as high an iron percentage as men. (By the way, my iron blood level was normal for a woman.) As some of us may have noticed, men and women are different in some respects, especially physically. I guess the FDA hasn't noticed this yet.
For example, men have denser, heavier bones. It's just a fact. Men tend to be larger than women (in general, of course); they tend to be stronger physically than women. When men play golf, they tee off further than the women's tee off point. In races, they are measured by a different standard, and in almost all physical competitions, there is a different standard for men than for women.
I was very saddened that my blood could not be used to save babies. I wanted to write the Red Cross or the FDA a heated letter. Instead, I went to the Lord in my anguish. Here was His reply.
How sad do you think it is for me? I shed my blood for EVERYONE to be saved.
Not everyone wants to turn to the Lord, but it's especially upsetting when the Church (administrators) set up standards that were never set up by God that keep people out of Church. Always examine all scriptures yourself, because "many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). There are ministers who impose rules that the first Church never upheld. There are organizations teaching laws out of the Books of Moses. We are no longer living under the laws of Moses, but we are living under the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all need to pray and fall on our faces before Almighty God and pray for His Spirit and His truth, "for the Father seeketh such to worship him" (John 4:23).
"Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart." Jeremiah 12:10-11
That's why it is so important that we not add anything to the doctrine that was set down by the original Church. If they were not practicing something or teaching something, neither should we today. Do not lay down for doctrine the commandments of men. If your church has another book besides the Bible to measure the standards of the Body of Christ, you are adding to the Word of God and the doctrine of Jesus Christ. You will be held accountable.
"Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the traditions of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. ... Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. Mark 7:6-9, 13
"For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries [the box containing the law of Moses], and enlarge the borders of their garments [priestly robes], and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. ... But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Matthew 23:4-8, 13
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