The Gift

''But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ'' - Romans 5:17

I have to share what Joseph Prince spoke of at Hillsong London.
In the swoop of one sermon that so profoundly deconstructed and unveiled the deeper meaning of a well read verse to many, I find myself in awe and adamant of a heart change.

I am made in absolute perfection and ultimately righteous or made right and reconciled with God because of the beautiful sacrifice of Jesus and the gift it represents. You see, it is a gift -  not a reward. We cannot earn righteousness as one does with a reward  because then it would not be a gift. Not only that. Gifts cannot be returned to the giver and will not be taken back either. So there is absolutely nothing I can do, whether it be of the most utmost evil or greatest good, that can break this gift of reconciliation or make me more eligible to ask of it.

To live in such security in knowing it is already mine is breathtaking and almost too much to bear.
The word 'receive' in the verse is meant as daily partaking and drinking of the grace gift - for our feeble minds can so easily sway.

And I do not want to ever forget the gift I have been given.

Grace.

Eternity is now

I am just mesmerised by this latest revelation. 

Not just a nice passage from a nice book, this particular quote has reawakened my heart and pumped its valves back into beating.

Dallas Willard writes, ''Jesus offers himself as God's doorway into the life that is truly life. 

"Those who come through me will be safe," he said.

"They will go in and out and find all they need. I have come into their world that they may have life, and life to the limit.'' - The Divine Conspiracy.

In other words, eternity is not about a heavenly existence that goes on and on, singing hymns foreverafter with the cherubim and the saints! Eternal life is not about its duration but about the quality of life given to us - its goodness through Jesus and living 'life to the limit'.

And Eternity is life now. 

And that life is Him.

''In Him was life and that life was the light of man'' - John 1:4.

I want to remain with this perspective for all my days here on Earth. The source, the energy, the light, the life truly is Jesus and there is no other way! 

As a human will, I struggle to keep my eyes on the eternal promise and the life I have in Him but it has to become a priority - to be identified and assured in Him.

Sleep

Do not forget the preciousness of the quiet. The nourishment it brings. The silencing of a chattering mind which has grown to overpower the whispered words trying to get in.

It truly takes more to accept an offer of rest than to ignore it and keep ploughing on.  It is only in times of pure exhaustion that we inevitably collapse and cry out. For again we feel shamed by the failed attempt at our self-imposed expectations to be perfect and achieve those notable things, those expectations whose harshness is forged to bring us to such a place We are absolutely wrecked and feel such the wretch.

1 Kings 19

''But he went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a lone broom or juniper tree and asked that he might die. He said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life.''


But He will never leave you there.


''As he lay asleep under the broom or juniper tree, behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat. He looked, and behold, there was a cake baked on the coals, and a bottle of water at his head. And he ate and drank and lay down again.


To take rest in the physical form is to strengthen the spiritual and a deeper understanding of how much we mean to Him can truly be felt. In quietness we are impressionable, teachable and able to receive goodness. God wants to refresh us by the hour, yet to close our eyes and sleep is something we struggle to do. 


Still He insists we rest some more.


''The angel of the Lord came the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.

So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food...And behold, there came a voice to him.''

He knows our limits, our weakness and pains and does not want for us to carry the burden alone. Replenished we can actually see the truth in that and hear that whispered word, the faintest sound of love.

It is all we need. Our sustainer for the days to come.