Thanks Be To God |
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2 Corinthians 9:15 Jesus is such a wonderful gift! How can we comprehend His lavish generosity? God sent His Son to die for us — His precious, one of a kind Son. God sent His Son to die for us when we were estranged from Him because of our sins. God lives in us enabling us to be the body of Christ. What love God has lavished on us! “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” Ephesians 3:17-19. How do we accept a gift so undeserved? We can deal with earning something. We feel deserving when we are paid for our work. But with Jesus we have a gift that we do not deserve at all. And we know how undeserving we are. So we struggle with accepting something so wonderful, so amazing without it being earned. “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior” Titus 3:5-6. How do we find the words to express our thanksgiving? “Thank you” seems so inadequate — we say that when someone holds a door open for us. Our heart wells up with thanksgiving, joy, and the emotions of forgiveness. We ask God to listen to our hearts because we know He can when we can’t find the words. We realize that the best way to express our thanks is to be a living sacrifice to Him. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship” Romans 12:1. The gift of Jesus is just too wonderful for words! Bob Clark 2/21/2001
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