Things now possible.

I am down in the lovely South for Easter….and….the flowering trees are in bloom.
What a showing of new life.
Hallelujah.

And maybe it was the warmth, maybe it was because it was Holy Week, maybe it was the sunshine, but my cross-country trek to get here was just….glorious.

All I could think about was that Screwtape Letters quote:

“…The Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which [God] has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He {God} would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity or with the Present--either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.”

Because in that sunshine, on that southward journey, I was thinking about the cross. I was praising the Jesus I love. For that cross, for the South, for the sunshine. It was a receiving of the “present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.” All things had come full circle because I realized that without that cross, there would be no present grace, no present pleasure to be thankful for, no sunshine, no warm South.

I mean…without the cross, without the resurrection—we’ve got nothing. And only because we DO have it are any of these other little graces possible.

I will not take graces for granted. No. They did not come at a reasonable price.



 

Grace is seen when "It is Finished"leads to....

 

 

"And the curtain of the temple was torn in two," bringing you and me into access with God.

And not only do we have access to God is really only worth much if that God is alive.
And, let's just clarify something. Who is the only person who rose from the dead--and then never died again? All other leaders, all other "prophets," where are they?
They're still in the ground, wolfies.
But not ours.
We do not seek our God among the dead.

Only the Living One, the perfect sacrifice, has a blood that redeems.

And in redemption...there is confidence, there is sifficiency. And freedom.

And freedom does not disappoint.

And freedom leads to a smiling girl on a South-bound road trip...

...who can reckon Mumford and Sons in her head as being a worship song...

...and people who see life through worship-ful eyes know that the sun sings a worship song of it's own....(Romans 8:19-22)

...and green grass makes this free, redeemed, thankful girl sing right along with that spring field.

Thank you, Jesus, for making these present graces and pleasures possible.