(Deuteronomy 4:7) “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?”
The sun still sleeps but is soon to rise over the calm blue sea. The birds softly twitter and I hear their chips from every direction as I pensively sit on this fine expansive wooden balcony overlooking Hoby beach in Plettenburg Bay. It is overcast with the evidence of a wet evening as my toes pleasantly squish in the residue from last night’s rain. The ocean looks more like a lake than the sea; I have to go back many years to recall a similar sight. It looks and reminds me of Greece, something similar to the Mediterranean Sea. It is very pleasing to the eye but with that comes so troubling thoughts as I remember the folly of those day, yes I may not have known any better because sin had robbed me of God’s brilliance, O this “body of death” with wine, woman and song the order of the day.
However, no sooner has my mind been taken to a place filled with debauchery and passed off as acceptable to most, my mind now drifts into the realm of grace and God’s abundant mercy and I do not speak about His general grace but rather His specific grace; He sent His Son to die for me, praise His name! It boggles the mind to think that God as God, knowing what He knows, the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. And yet He still chose to call me by name, If you have His Spirit then He has also called you by name, what a merciful act!
One day all I could ever do was the opposite of what I didn’t want to do, I would know that I had had enough to drink and yet I would have another, I would resolve to stop a certain habit to find I continued in it. And yet somehow amongst the chaos there came a flicker of light, a glimmer of hope, something similar to what I now witness, clouds all around me with a small opening as the sun now breaks through magnificently with its glory shimmering off the water’s surface and now it is gone. Isn’t life like that? We have these moments of shear brilliance and then we soon forget them. Nothing can ever compare to the eternal brilliance of what God has done for us in and through His Son. Why is it we so soon forget! This morning I will not forget but remember the cross and my beloved Saviour, won’t you do the same? Take a moment to remember His death and what it took for the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem us back unto His Father, our Father.
Praise you great name Lord Jesus and thank you Father God, great Jehovah for thinking of me a wretched sinner, who only gave thought to himself. I once was an enemy of the cross but now I am free, I am gifted to cry out to you and all because of Christ’s selfless sacrifice. Sure we may still struggle with many things, because of this “body of death” that still looks to blindside our advances, but now we have a hope that burns bright and clear. We know that if we hold onto Him, our hope, it will soon be over and worth it all. One day in the not too distant future we will sup with Him in the kingdom of heaven. Even so come quickly Lord Jesus!
“The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.”
- Gal_2:20
When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, he first of all said, “Live”; and this he did first, because life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual matters, and until it be bestowed we are incapable of partaking in the things of the kingdom. Now the life which grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is none other than the life of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection between our souls and Jesus. Faith is the grace which perceives this union, having proceeded from it as its firstfruit. It is the neck which joins the body of the Church to its all-glorious Head.
“Oh Faith! thou bond of union with the Lord,
Is not this office thine? and thy fit name,
In the economy of gospel types,
And symbols apposite-the Church’s neck;
Identifying her in will and work
With him ascended?”
Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus with a firm and determined grasp. She knows his excellence and worth, and no temptation can induce her to repose her trust elsewhere; and Christ Jesus is so delighted with this heavenly grace, that he never ceases to strengthen and sustain her by the loving embrace and all-sufficient support of his eternal arms. Here, then, is established a living, sensible, and delightful union which casts forth streams of love, confidence, sympathy, complacency, and joy, whereof both the bride and bridegroom love to drink. When the soul can evidently perceive this oneness between itself and Christ, the pulse may be felt as beating for both, and the one blood as flowing through the veins of each. Then is the heart as near heaven as it can be on earth, and is prepared for the enjoyment of the most sublime and spiritual kind of fellowship. (C.H.Spurgeon)
I wish to leave you with this thought; remember that we all have the same struggle, this “body of death”! We are all required to contend with it, our own as well as others, I believe we have been left to lug them around in that sense, they are a help as well as a hindrance. A help as they remind us of our hope and that one day we will receive a glorified body no different in type to our great Saviours resurrected body and an impediment as they look to keep us from walking in faith. When those around us do not act as we would like, lets us remember they too have a similar struggle. When they are sharp with their tongue, let us remember we too have been prickly with ours. Let us learn to die so that others may live!
Signing off
Tyrone
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