Mulligan

"Mulligan"

There are a lot of golfers out there who have convinced themselves that it is OK to cheat, they even came up with a name for it so that it didn’t sound so bad. It’s called a Mulligan, a do over, a second chance.

Here is how it goes. You step up to the tee box to hit the ball and you’ve been having a pretty good day so far. 14 holes are done and your only 12 over par, which is by far the best score that you can remember achieving. So you get into your stance, you take a few practice swings and then it’s time to tee off.

But just as you are going through the swing something goes wrong. You can’t really put your finger on it but for some reason the little white ball is slicing heavily to the left, hooking towards the man made pond as visions of your best game ever are quickly dissipating in your mind.

What do you do? You cheat. You call for a mulligan; something outside of the rules. You want a do over, a second chance.

In Golf its called a mulligan, bending the rules, but in life it’s called salvation.

Salvation is a gift that comes to us from God, it is a gift that should not be available to us solely based on the fact that we don’t deserve to be saved. We are sinners and we don’t deserve life. We don’t deserve a second chance.

But God’s love reaches right through what we deserve and he shows us mercy and he shows us grace. And Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.”

And that’s the truth. If you believe in Jesus and accept him as the Lord of your Life then he forgives your sins and gives you the gift of salvation.

That means that the old has gone and the new has come. That means that your sins won’t be held against you in heaven’s court on judgment day. It is a New Beginning for Life.