WHAT A WONDER

Meditating in the Word of God today and I am as astounded at this moment as much as I was when Jesus Christ opened my eyes to see what He had done to rescue me from sin, death, hell, and the grave.

The Lord saw my conception take place by His ordained plan. He saw my very beginning as well as my last breath here on planet earth. He saw every act of idolatry, rebellion, indifference, lust, hatred, unforgiveness, and everything His holiness revealed as vile and death-deserving. Nothing has ever been hidden from Him.

He, faithfully and persistently, pursued me making Himself real to me at the age of seven and again at 19 rescuing me from demonic forces that were encouraging me to commit suicide. He intervened and grabbed ahold of me, bringing me back from the edge of eternal separation from Him.

I have deserved nothing that I have received from Him. I can never and will never ever earn His love. I have it as a gift that, once given by His grace, can never be rescinded. I am secure in His love because He did it. I brought nothing "to the table" as any kind of bargaining "chip", as if God needed me on His team. I live now because He is Life, Eternal Life, within me.

I needed and still need God to be able to live into the destiny He had already determined for me even before I was conceived. As King David wrote in one of his Psalms, "Such things are too great for me to understand, too great to even grasp." I thank God that it's not my ability to grasp the grace of God, but the power of His grace to grasp and lay hold of me.

To read, mark and inwardly digest the astounding truth that, before the foundation of the world, God destined for me to be conformed to the Image of His Son. That He would cause me to stand before Himself holy, blameless and beyond reproach by forgiving me of all my sin. HE delivered me from the dominion of darkness and translated me into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in Whom I have redemption by His blood; the forgiveness of my sin.

That the Eternal Father, enthroned in heaven, Whom the Arch Angels hide their faces from because of His glory, this One bears toward me the same love He bears toward His Eternal Son, the Lord Jesus is beyond the reach of human imagination. There is a great comfort in knowing that, when He called me by that singular gift of His grace, He has already factored in all my stupidity.

Even more overwhelming is that He grafted me into His Vine, Jesus Christ, so that the Life that now flows in and through me is His own Life being lived within me. God has united me to Himself, not as some theological proposition, but as a living reality in me at this very moment. His righteousness has not been merely imputed to me, but in heaven's reality has been imparted to me. How else could the Holy Spirit indwell me if God had not given me His own holiness, thus being Life within me. God has made me to stand holy before Himself.

As a new-born child has all it needs to grow up and reveal the DNA that will itself be seen in becoming a mature adult, so the Life of God being my very Life in the here and now is working in me to conform me to the Image of Jesus Christ. That is my destiny, my heritage in Him. Having begun a good work in me, He has promised to bring that good work to completion by the Day of Christ.

It is because He has caused me to be born again that I may now experience His salvation and its working in me by the Holy Spirit. My confidence in in Him, not me. As St. Paul stated, "I am not sufficient in myself to think of as anything coming from myself. Christ is my sufficiency."

To know that nothing in all creation can separate me from the Love of God in Christ Jesus (that even includes me as part of creation) enables me to stand in solid hope because His promises never fail. In Jesus Christ every promise God the Father has made are "YES!" for me in Him.

I can change; I am being transformed. I can know the forgiveness in this moment that is my heritage in Jesus Christ. I can hear His voice because I am His sheep. I can see His power manifested in signs and wonders confirming His Word declared because Jesus said that was what He intended to have happen through His church. I can pray knowing He hears my prayers and that every time I pray, something happens by God's own Hand. Sometimes when I pray, everything happens to the praise of all God's people to the only One who is worthy of praise. 

As the old hymn states, "I stand amazed in the presence Of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean. Oh, how marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be: Oh, how marvelous! How wonderful! Is my Savior's love for me!"