NOT ENOUGH

Thank you Father. I say thank you knowing that thank you is not enough, and will never be enough expression to show my appreciation for the blessed hope you’ve sown in me - a glorious hope. So I GIVE YOU MY HEART in love because you first loved me, and even as I give my heart I know that it too is not enough, and can never be enough, to show my appreciation for the love you so freely, lavishly bestow on me - a passionate all consuming love. So I GIVE YOU MY MONEY, so precious here on earth, to show my appreciation for your tender mercy and grace, knowing once again that it can never be enough - not enough for your superabundant ever abounding grace. So I GIVE YOU MY WORSHIP, the fruit of my lips expressing in frail inadequate terms your glory, your majesty, your honor, but it is not enough for you give back to me your presence, the elixir of my life, and I am once again drowning in your magnificent grace. No, worship is not enough. So I GIVE TO YOU MY SERVICE, righteous works preparing the way for your Kingdom. But you have prepared a place for me, a magnificent place so unfathomable to my senses that I am overwhelmed, awed by your generous heart. No, service is simply not enough. So I give you my most prized possession, I GIVE YOU ME, MY LIFE, everything I am and can ever be I lay at your feet. And it is then that I see the blood, the precious blood of your only Son, I see the crowds mocking Him, I see His body beaten and broken beyond recognition, and I hear my Savior’s last spoken words, a cry of agonizing desperation which stands forever as a testimony to the ultimate price He paid for me: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” And I truly know that even my life is not enough - can never be enough! FOR I AM A PRIZED POSSESSION, A JEWEL, A SON ADOPTED INTO A ROYAL FAMILY. Before the foundations of the world God looked at my heart and said this one (me!) shall be mine, shall be one of my divinely loved ones. And one day soon I shall hear Him say

“COME UP HERE MY BELOVED!”

NEVER A BUSY SIGNAL

When Jesus cried “It is finished”, God’s gavel sounded in the courtroom of heaven, and man’s reconciliation to God was decreed eternal universal law. This word “reconciled”, to change, is often misunderstood as man’s “doings’, repentance, etc., but nothing man does effects reconciliation. God reconciled the world, and mankind as a subset, to Himself through the death of Jesus, the sinless one, as an act of pure grace.   Reconciliation embodies transformation, a change of state between God and man. Prior to reconciliation man is destitute and doomed, alienated and disconnected from God, and separated from Him by an insuperable gulf, the abyss of sin, with no way to establish communications. After reconciliation the gulf is breached and communication restored between God and man.

Now this is what is so awesome about reconciliation, the vital crux of the matter: God paid the debt our sin demanded through the sacrifice of His beloved Son. He settled the accounts, filed the docket and decreed the case closed. Under Roman law a criminal’s crimes were documented on a clay tablet called a Certificate of Debt. Upon completion of his sentence the Greek word “Tetelestai” was inscribed across the Certificate of Debt and the tablet was hung around the person’s neck to accompany him as proof he had served his sentence and was released from any further legal penalty. “Tetelestai” is what Jesus screamed into the courtroom of eternity on the cross: “It Is Finished.” Tetelestai literally means “Paid In Full”; our debt to God is finished, paid in full. This is the most significant word ever spoken anywhere, anytime by anyone throughout time eternal.

Reconciliation then is a vicarious unilateral act whereby the God who judges is also the God who reconciles and pays with self-sacrificing love the sin debt justice, the administration of His Law, demanded. Reconciliation is by Christ’s death, and salvation is by His resurrected life. God repaired the phone line so he could call us to Himself, but we must answer the call. When we “believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.”  Oh, and He never quits calling.    (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5: 17-19; Col. 2:13-14; Rom. 10:9)                          

GOTTA LOVE THAT FRUIT

The Bible speaks of fruit, the product of our walk with God, as being that by which we are known. Now we can be known for many things and there could be, I suppose, many kinds of fruit. But anyone who thinks gooseberries ripen the same time as strawberries knows nothing about grapes. Love of God and Love for Others are the first and second commandments of our Lord and encompass the whole of the Old Testament Law, all 2277 commandments captured by Love. And Love is the initiating fruit of the Holy Spirit, the first-fruit that releases Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control, the very nature of our Savior. This is the fruit of abiding in Christ, continuing to dwell in Christ, living in uninterrupted union with the vine allowing the life changing nectar of His Spirit to flow freely into us. By this fruit we shall be known – They will know we are Christians by our Love, sacrificial, freely demonstrated Love. Notice there is no mention of health or prosperity in the Holy Spirit’s fruit list, these benchmarks are of a church saturated with the world’s viewpoint and drunk on the pleasures of this life. The cross is the signature of God’s new Love covenant with mankind, birthed by an act of Love that defies the superlatives of human language. To understand how God views Love we need look no farther than Calvary. We have received the down-payment of the Holy Spirit who has produced the fruit of His Spirit in us, changing us degree by degree into the mirrored image of His Son. This fruit is the tangible proof that God is and that He is present in and with us. There is no better spiritual manifestation to live by than the fruit of the Holy Spirit, no better judge of godliness or spiritual maturity in God’s Kingdom, and no better evidence of His presence. It is a most glorious time that we live in, sensing that the end is near and anxiously anticipating our grand step into eternity. Whether we fly or we die our hope is a blessed one, a sure anchor for our heart and soul. And how will our Lord recognize us when He comes to take us home? He’ll look for the fruit, a strong family resemblance.

GOD’S FRUIT IS A LIFESTYLE

COME SHINE ON ME

There is a close association throughout the Bible between God's glory and the unapproachable light He dwells in.  The concept of a God who “covers Himself with light as with a garment” (Ps. 104:2) is carried farther and made grander in 1 Thess. 6:16: “Who alone has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light.”  God is described here as eternally abiding in light as a continual dwelling place, and this dwelling is itself impossible to approach because of the brilliance of the light.  When Moses asked God to “show me Your glory”, God revealed some of His nature, His goodness, grace and compassion, transformed or transmitted - human words and concepts fail at this point - into blazing light (Ex. 33:18,23).

“God is love”(1Jn. 4:8), and the fruit of the Spirit is love: from love springs forth joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, but the “fruit” of the Spirit is love, and is purposefully singular to emphasize the overwhelming importance of love in God’s plan for mankind.  God holds nothing back in His love for us.  His “agape” love is passionate, self-sacrificing - think Jesus - fully committed and all consuming, a deep, constant, unchanging love for us.  I have an epiphany about God’s love and God’s glory which I have come to believe. God’s radiant brilliance, His covering and His dwelling place, is a physical manifestation of His love.  The deep passion of His love for us, His creation, is released as brilliant, glorious light, billions of times more powerful than our sun.  In fact the brilliance of His return will, by contrast, make our sun appear dark when Jesus comes in “great glory” to redeem His elect (Matt. 24:29-31).  How much does God love us?  The radiated energy of His full passion for us would instantly consume mere mortals.  “God is love” is in the anarthrous construction: God as to His character and nature is love, and He lives in unapproachable glorious light, a visible expression of His love.  Come shine on me with the light of Your love!