Grace

It has been said that grace is 'us receiving what we do not deserve' and I want to add to that ....  good things!  Grace is us receiving the 'good things' that we don't deserve.  Because it could be looked at as if we don't deserve bad things but we get bad things.  

So no!  Grace is us receiving the good things from God that we don't deserve.  We are sinners, we have fallen short of the glory of God.  We do not do those things that we aught to do and we do the things which we know we aught not to do.  But Jesus came to rescue us from the punishment, from the justice that we do deserve for the things that we have done wrong.  He has come to save us so that we can be overshadowed by God's Grace, His goodness that we don't deserve.  But let us not have an attitude that says that we are not worthy, that we're nothing because God sees us as worthy!  God sees us through the blood of Jesus, through the blood of the Lamb, through the lens of sacrifice.  So when he comes to us to lavish His love all over us, upon us, He doesn't turn away in disgust and dismay.  He comes to us and sees us pure and holy, in the likeness of His Son.  He sees us as pure so that His love will stick to us.  His love will come deep into our very souls so that we can show His love and His grace to a hurting world, to a world that doesn't deserve His goodness.  

     

               Here is love vast as the ocean, loving kindness as a flood.

      Where the Prince of life, our random, shed for us His precious blood.

                            Who His love will not remember?

                            Who can cease to sing His praise?

       He shall never be forgotten, throughout heaven's eternal days!

               Dyma gariad fel y moroedd, tosturiaethau fel y lli:

           Twysog Bywyd pur yn marw, marw i brynu'n bywyd ni.

                        Pwy all beidio â chofio amdano?

                        Pwy all beidio â thraethu'I glod?

            Dyma gariad nad â'n angof, tra fo nefoedd wen yn bod.

We are dearly loved because of God's grace.

When is this baby going to be born?

Could it be that it was because of a Holy Saturday silence, misinterpreted as His absence, when God was calling His children to come deeper and to seek Him with the whole of their hearts, that the past revivals have diminished into the history books rather than producing generations who continue to love God with heart, mind and soul.  Or is it that the faith of the fathers had to die with them so that the 'new thing' could spring up through the sons?

Selah!

I keep on hearing it said that often we pray continuously, waiting patiently for a 'suddenly' of God - could this be a time that we are praying and expecting a suddenly?  I know that I am.  I have felt for a long time like a woman who has long passed 'full term' and have been crying out to God, "When is this baby going to be born?"  Unlike an overdue delivery of a child God is never overdue on His promises. He is always faithful and will deliver at the appointed time.  So we need to keep praying, expectantly, building on the prayers of the generations before us who have been waiting for a move of the Spirit unlike anything experienced even in the revivals that we look back longingly on, just hoping that God will do it again!

Our longing, our waiting, our praying has changed from a looking back and asking for God to do it again.  We are in a season of the fulfilling of our desires for the Spirit to move in our day.  There is a fresh outpouring which brings refreshing not only to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ but will also bring life to those who have been looking on from a distance and from close by. Life in all of it's fulness as Jesus promised.

This baby is being born!