The Gift

I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. (Galatians 2:21, NLT)

What is “… the grace of God?”

We hear that word all the time living here in the Bible belt, and most of the time it’s coupled with the word “mercy.” Thank you Lord for your grace and mercy! You get the idea. So what is it?

I’ve tried to teach my children in various life lessons what the difference between grace and mercy is. It goes something like this: “Grace is getting a gift that you absolutely do NOT deserve and mercy is NOT getting the consequences or punishment you ABSOLUTELY deserve.” Simple… but effective….

Grace is an undeserved gift. Mercy is an undeserved pardon.

What then is God’s undeserved gift to us that Paul doesn’t treat as meaningless in Galatians 2:21? It would imply the gift is meaningful.

If I did the search correctly, in the ESV translation, the word “grace” appears only 10 times in the Old Testament. Three different Hebrew words translate to those ten occurrences of “grace.” Eight of the ten times it is the Hebrew word chen (“khane”) meaning “1 favour, grace, charm. 1a favour, grace, elegance. 1b favour, acceptance.”

In the New Testament, the word we translate into the word “grace” is charis and appears 124 times in 116 verses (in the ESV) and means something totally different: “of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”

I bring this up only to point out that grace, as Paul is defining it, is a post-Christ idea. In fact, except for 3 verses in John 1 (prior to Christ’s birth), the word “grace” doesn’t appear in any of the gospels.  The first occurrence is in the book of Acts, after Christ’s ascension.

For the next couple of chapters, Paul compares the bondage of living under the law with the freedom of living in Christ.

4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:4-6, NLT)

The gift (the grace of God) is a life of freedom from the bondage of the law; a life free from having to perform; a life free of doing in order to earn God’s favor.

2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. (Galatians 5:2-4, NLT)

The gift (the grace of God) is living life in the power of His Spirit and love.

For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. (Galatians 5:6, NLT)

For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13, NLT)

The gift (the grace of God) is a life of transformation into something new.

15 It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. 16 May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God. (Galatians 6:15-16, NLT)

I will not treat the grace of God (the gift) as meaningless….

Running After Papa…

Eternity Is

Have you ever thought about eternity?  What does eternity actually mean?  How do you define it?

A couple of times this last weekend, Papa has brought up the thought through two totally unrelated speakers at two totally unrelated events.  At both places, within 1 day of each other, two speakers – both of whom I know are incredibly Godly and right hearing men of God – said almost the exact same thing.

The thought for me is based in something like this:  “Because God created time, He is not bound by it.  God knows every detail of the past, every detail of the present and every detail of the future, all the time.”

If you let your mind wander down that thought for a little while, you might snap a synapse or two – like I have.  This is so incredibly hard to comprehend because we, as humans, are 100% bound by sequential time.

As I’ve mulled over three comments from these two men for the last few days, I’ve come away with three primary – and life changing thoughts:

First thought from David Terry:

Ephesians 1:4 says that God “… chose us before the creation of the world…” (NIV).  It is possible that before there time is when God chose me, chose you, chose us.  When he put together His team, he said,  “Let’s see… I’ll take Abraham, Issac, Jacob, David, (insert your favorite OT hero), Paul, Barnabas, Peter, John, Aquila and Prescilla, Billy Graham, Martin Luther, and (insert YOUR name here)…  Yep, that’s who I want on my team.”  Does that blow your mind?

My takeaway: God chose me for His team.  Am I playing  or sitting on the bench?

Second thought from Marcus Brecheen:

Because God isn’t bound by time and knows everything about our past, present and future, He is able to speak into us words of life that can (if he desires) reveal the future to us, but more so He can reinterpret the past and redefine our present situation. (Thank you Pastor Marcus for this insight!)  This might come through reading, through prayer, through a word from a friend or a stranger.  It might come in worship.  It might come in a sermon. 

My takeaway: God is speaking to us so much more than we are listening to Him.

Third thought from David Terry:

I am never more eternal than I am right now.  Eternity doesn’t begin when I die.  God chose me before the world was created.  He knew me then.  He knows me now.  He’ll know me forever. 

My takeaway:  Eternity doesn’t begin.  Eternity is.  If I’m living in eternity right now, is what I’m doing – right now – eternal? Ahh!  That IS the question and a good measure of my life activities.  “Is what I’m doing right now making a difference for eternity?”

Running After Papa…

Faith: What is it?

Yesterday I explored how faith affects those outside of the one who has it.  So what is it?  What is faith?

Since the majority of the occurrences of the word “faith” in the New King James translation of the Bible are found in the New Testament, I looked up the word in the Greek.  The Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek defines faith as:

πίστις (pistis)1. what can be believed, a state of certainty with regard to belief (Ac 17:31); 2. trust, believe to a complete trust (Mk 11:22; Ac 24:24; Eph 4:29 v.r.); 3. trustworthiness, the state of complete dependability (Ro 3:3); 4. Christian faith, belief in the Gospel (Ro 1:8; Eph 2:8; Gal 1:23; Jude 3); 5. doctrine, the content of what is to be believed (Gal 1:23; Jude 3), for another interp, see prior; 6. promise, pledge to be faithful (1Ti 5:12)

From those definitions… “a state of certainty with regard to belief; believe to a complete trust; the state of complete dependability.”  In a previous post, I discuss how it is that our mind is to our belief and faith.  (Faith & Doubt: Read it here.) In this post, I want to build on yesterday’s post and the earlier post to explore “what” it is.

”3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.” (2 Peter 1:3-9 NKJV)

Faith is the beginning. It is “a state of certainty with regard to” who God is; who Jesus is; who Holy Spirit is; what each is able to do.  Faith is the beginning.  This is why Peter starts with faith.  Without faith, there is nothing to build on.  We cannot have virtue (excellence), knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love if we don’t start with faith.

Faith inspires God to move on our behalf. In the gospels, 9 of the 11 times Jesus said “your faith” (as NKJV translates is) it was the reason he moved in the lives of others whether he was healing the sick, saving a soul, or giving sight to the blind.

Faith moves others to action. There are dozens and dozens of references in the rest of the New Testament that tell how “your faith” comforts, grows, is tested, is genuine, is received, glorifies God, builds others faith, etc.   As we saw yesterday, it affects others.

Running After Papa…

Faith: It matters to others…

I love the story in Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-26 of the men who brought their paralyzed friend to be healed by Jesus.  Luke makes it fairly clear that they weren’t going for the show or to watch Jesus, they were going with specific intent of their friend walking home.  Luke describes how, because of the crowd, they couldn’t even get their friend in the door, so they climb on the roof and lower him in his bed from the roof to get him in front of Jesus.

Let your mind run with that picture for just a moment or two and you’ll begin to understand this was no easy task.  Climbing over crowds, getting up on a roof, hoisting a paralyzed man – let’s say conservatively he was 130 pounds of dead weight – up onto the roof without dropping or dumping him, removing part of the roof big enough for a bed to be lowered down, lowering this same 130 pounds down being careful to keep it level on all corners as not to drop their paralyzed friend on top of Jesus and the crowd in the house, etc., etc., etc.

Luke 5:20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Luke 5:24b …He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

Make a mental note that it was not  just the paralytics faith in play here – in fact, it’s not clear if his faith had anything to do with it at all.  The point is this:  The friends’ faith played a significant role in the complete healing (both inner and physical) of the once paralyzed man.

Matthew 13:54-58 and Mark 6:1-6 recount the time when Jesus went back to where he grew up, only this time in full ministry mode.  As he began teaching, they were astonished at his teaching and couldn’t believe it was the same carpenter’s son who grew up here – to the point that they were offended at him.

Matthew 13:58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Can you imagine limiting Jesus?  The community’s faith – or lack thereof – squelched the move of God in their midst leaving the sick, sick; the oppressed, oppressed; those in bondage, in bondage.

Last example (for today)…  Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10 tell the story of the Jesus healing the Centurion’s servant.  The Centurion so believed in Jesus’ healing power that he knew all Jesus had to do was to speak it and it would be done.  The Centurion understood authority.  He knew Jesus didn’t need to see the servant, or speak to him, or touch him, he only need to speak and it would happen.  The amazing part is that the Centurion wasn’t a Jew.  He didn’t grow up in the synagogues and under the tutelage of the priests.

Matthew 8:10-13 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! … 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.

The interesting phrase in this one is “as you have believed.”  As the Centurion believed, so the servant was healed. I wonder if that why I don’t see miracles of faith sometimes in my life and the lives of those around me.  Has my faith limited the move of God in my life and in those around me?

My faith isn’t just mine.  My faith can directly affects others.  My faith can bring healing and freedom to others, or it can squelch the move of God in others.  Your faith isn’t just yours.  It affects others.  Your faith can bring healing and freedom to others, or it can squelch the move of God in others.

Heavy thought…

I think tomorrow I’m going to start studying on how to grow my faith…. because it matters to others…

Running After Papa…

Be Different

Exodus 21:12-22:31

In reading the last half of Ex 21 and all of Ex 22, its apparent that God’s way of doing things is so much different than what we’ve morphed into over the last few thousand years since Moses first gave the law.  It’s fairly simple to boil down… take responsibility…. period.  Take responsibility for yourself, your family, your actions, your animals, whatever.  If your ox kills someone, make restitution, if you accidentally break something of your neighbors, fix it or replace it.  An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. If you know your Ox gores people and you don’t restrain it, you are more responsible and restore the infraction with more.  If you steal it, restore it with more.

Why don’t we live that way now?  Every day we see people finagling their way out of promises, commitments, contractual obligations, etc.  People get in and out of marriages like they get in and out of their cars.  Employment contracts mean nothing, sports players “hold out” of their contracts because they want a better deal all the time.  People abandon their kids, abandon their debts, abandon their families with no second thoughts.  Our prisons are full of people on vacation for committing some crime and not really having any real consequences for their actions – unless watching TV, getting college degrees, writing books, etc. is considered “consequences”…  No one is accountable for anything anymore and while it would be easy to digress into a social or political statement, that’s not my intent.

What captures my mind here is “Why did Moses have to be so explicit in these commands?”  Answer?  Because society was very likely exactly the way it is today.  I would say we’ve come full circle, but my real guess is that left to our own devices, we’ve never really changed.

In the context of the Law (the 10 commandments) having JUST been delivered, God is saying, “Look!  I have rescued you as a people and you are now going to be My people.  Because you’re going to be called My people, we’re going to do things differently. You are going to be different.  When others see you, I want them to know you are Mine.”

That’s the call.  Be different.

When people see me living life, what will they immediately know about me?

Will my life today scream that I am God’s son?

Be different.

Running After Papa…

Command #1…

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

I’m taking a survey of the Old Testament class and as a part of that class, I’m reading through the Old Testament in chronological order.  I can’t get over this statement today.  For those that know me, you know I love God with my whole heart.  I am passionately sold out to Jesus and will spend the rest of my days worshiping and honoring and serving Him – the one who saved my soul from destruction.  But I am mesmerized by Ex 20:3 today.

Do we ever not put some other “god” before God?

When I examine my own life, at any given moment, I usually have something there – in that place of honor – that shouldn’t be.  I’m not talking about allah, or budda, or some other named “god” that other faiths are based on. I’m talkin about the little things…. those little attention grabbers that snap my attention from this to that… from here to there… those volitional choices I make to do one thing over another; the decisions to put off doing the “best” thing to do something “good”; the time wasters that eat up my day and get me off onto some tangent course and keep me distracted until – before I know it – its bedtime and I’ve gotten no time with the very one I am starving for.

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

This is the first commandment.  God has just performed the greatest miracles known to man to date in freeing the Israelites from the bondages of Egypt.  Plagues of flies, grasshoppers, fleas, darkness, blood, death;  the parting of the Red Sea; the total annihilation of the Egyptian army; the pillar of fire by night; the pillar of cloud by day; water from the rock; the list goes on and on…

And God’s first words that He wrote in the stone?  “You shall have no other gods before me.”

God knows we are forgetful people.  All through the Old Testament memorials are built to remember great moves of God.  God wants us to remember.  At the last supper, Jesus wanted them to remember him every time they got together and ate, every time they took a drink of something… “As often as you do this… (eat or drink) Remember me,”  “You shall have no other gods before me.”  We are a forgetful people.

So what’s at the root of our forgetfulness?  Why is it so stinkin’ easy to put things in the God chair that don’t belong there?

Ultimately?  For me?  My guess is that it’s my own pride.  It is my nemesis.  It’s the reason I have to remind myself of Gal 2:20 every day.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

It is my life verse and for me, I end up here often.

I choose to remember.  I shall have no other gods before You.  Amen.

Running After Papa…

Fear God… nothing else…

Exodus 20:18-21 (NKJV) 18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

God’s really working on me in His holiness and what the fear of the Lord means, and in the process, I’ve gotten really ticked at how the enemy has taken everything that God has created – remember that God created everything for good – and twisted it into some sort of shackle to restrain, control, and manipulate mankind with.

There have been times during my children’s lives that they have expressed a fear of something, be it a roller coaster or a bully or a new situation, and I almost always respond with the same thing. “Fear God and nothing else.” I don’t mean that as a trite quip  just to satisfy giving them some sort of response, I want that repetitive statement to sink deep into the core of who they are and resonate within their spirit. I want it to sink deep into the core of who I am and resonate within my spirit too! It’s just as much for me as it is for them. I struggle with fear for them as much as any parent who loves their children.

Here were the Israelites who feared that God would kill them right after they had seen all the miracles God performed to free them from their bondage and slavery.  He chose them.  He saved them.  Yet, they feared He would kill them because they witnessed his amazing power, majesty and glory on the mountain.  He gave clear instruction on what was going to happen and how to prepare and respond to it (see Exodus 19), yet they still walked in fear.  They walked the wrong kind of fear of the Lord, the kind of fear that cripples and paralyzes us in our journey with and toward God.  Holy Fear is a fear of respect and humility – knowing that God can AND has every right to zap me off the face of the earth.  I deserve nothing that He affords me.  That is Holy fear.  Holy fear is NOT being afraid to enter into his presence or approach his throne if you are a believer (Eph 3:12, Heb 4:6, 1 John 5:14).

They were living a picture of Psalms 23.  Verse 6 says “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  Interesting word in that verse is the Hebrew word hesed which means “a love or affection that is steadfast based on a prior relationship.”

For Israel, it was based on the promise and relationship God made with Abraham, Issac and Jacob.  For you and me it’s based on the prior relationship God the Father has with God the Son (Jesus).  His redemptive power through my submission to His lordship is the basis of God’s hesed in my life.

Fear God… nothing else.

Running After Papa…

Counting the Cost (Luke 14:26)

Luke 14:26 NLT “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.” (emphasis mine)

Whoa!  I must hate everyone else by comparison?  I thought God is Love; Jesus is Love.  Jesus loved everyone!

“… otherwise you cannot be my disciple.”

Those are some pretty heavy words.  I don’t ever want to be told I cannot be His disciple.  There are no half-hearted attempts that count.  This discipleship thing is significant, it is real, and it has costs.  Verse 28 begins with “But don’t begin until you count the cost…”  It costs to follow Him.  It is very expensive.  It costs a lot.  It costs everything.

There are costs in putting Jesus so far first that – in comparison – you hate everything else.  I remember in high school being on the volunteer fire department.  I went to a training class one Saturday in the middle of the summer in Texas.  It must have been 112 in the shade.  By any standards, it was HOT!  It didn’t matter if it was a humid heat or a dry heat.  It was HOT!

During these training exercises, the facility had a two story house structure built out of cynder blocks.  They would put flamable furniture and hay bales in the house and ignite them and we would don our fireproof coats and protective gear and go into the structure and learn the right ways to put out fires.

The point of this story is that when I came out from putting out the fire on the second story, I took off all my fire gear.  It was so hot inside that house that when I removed my gear, I literally got chills I was so cold in the 112 degree summer heat.

While it’s not a perfect comparison, it does give some context to this verse.  I love my wife more than any human being on earth and I love my kids almost as much.  You could say that my love for them is HOT by anyone’s measure.  But Jesus is saying that my love for Him should be so much “hotter” that all my other relationships should feel cold, like that Texas heat after coming out of a burning building.

So what could it cost me?  For those around us who don’t understand, it could cost friendships.  We could be ridiculed.  We could be inconvenienced. We could suffer loss financially, physically, emotionally.  Some could die – literally – for the sake of Jesus.  Some of us could have to turn our backs on everything we knew, every comfort we have, everything we enjoy to follow Him to some dark and hard place.  It could cost A LOT.

Luke 14:33 NLT “So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.“

Our cars, our Juicy Couture purses, our sports, our cheerleader competitions, our friends, our bank accounts, our investments, our security, our grades.  Whatever those things are that bring us the most pleasure in life, Jesus says we have to give them up to be his disciple. Our appearance, our shoes, our jerseys, our clothes, our guitars, our pianos, our jobs, our positions, our hobbies, our status, our children’s hobbies, our houses, our kids schools, our location, our foods, our wines… whatever it is, it all has to be emotionally given up.

And it’s not just the physical “stuff” of life.  Jesus asks us to give up our rights, our expectations, our will, our wants, our needs, our desires, our duties, our ownership, our rules, our way of doing things, our rituals, our habits, our clubs, our associations… you get the point.  We’ve got to give it ALL up.

When we’ve emotionally given up all that we have and everything we are, it’s no big deal if Jesus asks us to give it up or give it away physically.

This is counting the cost.  All or nothing.  Following Jesus isn’t a $0.00 down, $199/month lease for two years.  It’s all or nothing.

Galatians 2:20 ESV “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

If you’ve been reading my posts for long, you know this is my life verse.  It always seems to come back to this verse for me.  I am dead.  Jesus is alive.

Running After Papa…

Abiding in Christ (Day 4)

I’m on Day 4 of reading “Abiding in Christ” by Andrew Murray.  Great Author.  Great book so far.

Fourth Day – “Abide in Christ” : As the Brach in the Vine

Great chapter on a really great passage.  I posted an entry back in Nov 2006 called “Remaining IN” on this very passage.

“The branch, whether an original or an engrafted one, is such only by the Creator’s own work, in virtue of which the life, the sap, the fatness and the fruitfulness of the vine communicate themselves to the branch.  …  The same Spirit which dwelt and still dwells in the Son becomes the life of the believer; in the unity of that one Spirit, and the fellowship of the same life which is in Christ, he is ONE with Him.  As between the vine and branch, it is a life-union that makes them one.”

The thought “… is such only by the Creator’s own work,” really hit me.  I often fail to remember that I had nothing to do with this.  My salvation came only through God’s effort and plans and work.

I’m not a viticulturist, but I think I’ve seen enough National Geographic shows to understand that grafting branches into a vine is no easy feat.  It takes work, preparation and care by the one doing the grafting, especially of the newly grafted branch is going to produce fruit.

The vine produces fruit through the branches, the branches need the vine to produce fruit.  God chooses to use us “branches” to demonstrate his fruit on earth.  Murray states, “The branch does not exist for itself, but it exists to bear fruit that can proclaim the excellence of the vine.” How’s that for a mission statement!

I exist to proclaim the excellence of the Vine!

Running After Papa…

Abiding in Christ (Day 2 and 3)

I am reading “Abiding in Christ” by Andrew Murray, a 31-day devotional / journey to intimacy with Christ.  I was intending to post my thoughts on each days reading, but I’m behind…so I’ll get caught up before I read Day 6….  I’m trying to keep them brief, but give enough to whet your appetite for this great book.  He is one of my personal favorite authors.

Second Day – “Abide in Christ” : And You Shall Find Rest For Your Souls

This chapter deals with the rest we all have experienced when we came to Christ, but somehow do not live in on a moment by moment basis.  The whole chapter is incredible and speaks powerfully, but perhaps the next quote sums it up the best.  Andrew Murray asks how it is that the rest we at times enjoy is so often lost.  Great question!  His conclusion is that we don’t understand “… how entire surrender to Jesus is the secret of perfect rest.”

“Giving up one’s whole life to Him, for Him alone to rule and order it; taking up His yoke adn submitting to be led and taught, to learn of Him; abiding in Him, to be nd do only what He wills – these are the conditions of discipleship without which there can be no thought of maintaining the rest that was bestowed on first coming to Christ.  The rest is in Christ and not something He gives apart from Himself, and so it is only in having Him that the rest can really be kept and enjoyed.”

He then draws the thought to Matt 11:30 (NKJV) “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” stating that the yoke is easy because when we totally surrender, it is the yoke that gives rest, because the Lord himself gives the strength and the joy to do it.

“The soul has but to yield itself to Him, to be still and rest in confidence that His love has undertaken and that His faithfulness will perform the work of keeping it safe in the shelter of His bosom. … The obedient student asks no questions about the possibilities or results; he accepts every order in confidence that his teacher has provided for all that is needed.”

Third Day – “Abide in Christ” : Trusting Him to Keep You

Murray addresses the question / thought process of “While it’s a sacred duty and privilege to abide in Christ, how is it possible to live in continual unbroken fellowship with the Savior?”  I know I’ve faced this question in my own life.  I certainly desire it, but does it exist and am I able to do it?  The answer is I am not able – but He is.

“Abiding in Him is not a work othat we have to do as the condition for enjoying His salvation, but a consenting to let Him do all for us, and in us, and through us.”

My part is simply to yield to Him.  Again I’m reminded of Galatians 2:20 – one of my life verses – and how it is a proclaimation that I have died to my self to let Him live through me.

Day 4 and 5 will be next….

Running After Papa…