Mysteries - great and small!!

WOW! Mysteries - I love em!! - Well sometimes anyway - I must admit that the mysteries of the computer make me frustrated, angry and despairing!!

But other mysteries well that's another matter; the mystery of creation; the universe; the gobsmacking splendour of the galaxy; the rainbows; the beauty of the sunrise; the stillness of star studded skies in the wilderness, all of these can leave me breathless with heaps of unanswered questions...

There is one mystery though that I will never get my head around - and I reckon it is the GREATEST mystery of all time!!

How God saved me is one HUGE mystery and one which I will eternally grateful for.

The plan of salvation is the mystery of mysteries and shows a love that is beyond our minds to comprehend.

God paid the price for my salvation - He took me to be His prize!! Me! that is a mystery that I cannot understand.

I had nothing; proud; deceitful; jealous; I could sin and feel  no compunction; hear of my guilt and remain unhumbled. Then Jesus came!

He changed my life and where I was only ever out to make life better for me, whatever the cost, He made me realise that I was bound to sin; a slave to sin; I was in chains and didn't realise it.

If we come to Jesus, we need to come bearing no gifts; there is nothing we can bring to Him; we owe everything to Him; how then can we bring anything to Him?

It is only through his grace that we can come anywhere near him at all.

Jesus is the King of the dependent: King of the despised; King of the weak; King of the left-outs and King of the hated!

Hated? - Yes Hated; we will be hated by others if we make a stand for Jesus. Left out? Yes certainly we will be left out; not part of the crowd; even despised.

The world at large will not take too kindly to us telling them about the only way to enrich their lives for eternity is to accept the invitation that Jesus brings; Why?

Because to come to Jesus we have to empty ourselves of all we have; we need to be totally dependent on Him bringing our sins; our past; our everything and laying them at the foot of the cross.

We need to leave behind the things of earth; and not place importance on the things that really don't matter. That was one BIG lesson I had to learn - Jesus died for us just as we are.

When He died on the cross, He took my sins up there with Him; when He died so did I in a way; died to sin; I became bound to Jesus through His death when I accepted the gift of freedom that He offered me.

The old life I had is gone - Now I have to rely solely on Him.

I don't know what mysteries lie ahead; have no idea, really what eternity will be like; death doesn't scare me but it is a mystery - an amazing mystery and one where I can be assured of God's amazing promises that where He is I will be also.

I have no idea what lies ahead of me; what trials; what tribulations; what joy; what pain - but I do know whatever happens, Jesus goes before me anyway.

There is nothing that I could possibly go through that he hasn't been there before me; and that He has promised to be with me through everything that happens.

My life is bound up in Jesus - My whole life is in Him.

The very same power that resurrected Jesus; that rolled the stone away; that killed death, is the very same power that saved me and brought me to life with Him.

Jesus paid the price for you and me. His blood bought us life.

When we are weak, then we are strong; God can't use us when we are proud, haughty and full of our own importance. We need to be totally broken in front of Him; totally dependent on Him; giving Him the glory in everything we do.

Glorifying God is when we see God as more important than anything else we are doing or what or who is in our lives.

It is only when we humble ourselves to the His will and let the Holy Spirit infill us will be be even remotely able to kneel before a Holy God.

We have to come to a point in our lives where we realise that can do nothing on our own; all power comes from God.

We can hold nothing back thinking that God can do so much and we can do the rest; we have nothing with which to come to God save his miraculous grace by which we are saved.

It is only when we come to that realisation that He will lift us up and see us through the sacrifice of Jesus; see us washed and clean; free of sin.

Way down deep

Don't you just love computer viruses??

A few weeks ago - the old laptop started to do strange and amazing things - like not shutting down - then shutting down 1/2 way through something!

Then it started dropping things off - like the web cam disappearing - the sound disappearing - strange messages appeared telling me that my anti virus was not installed - strange and mysterious are the ways of the computer!!

In desperation I called up my very favourite Daughter-In-Law (must say at this point that she is my ONLY Daughter-In-law, nevertheless) who I trust implicitly as a guru on all things techno!

She denies emphatically that she knows anything about computers but it amazes me (that for one, self-described novice, in all things tech) just how much knowledge her pretty little head can hold.

Anyway, she put me onto a tech minded Computer (and can I use the word) Geek. An amazing young man - quiet, determined, straight shooter, down to business sort of young fellow - who actually came to me without me having to go to him - extraordinary!!

He got straight down to the nitty gritty and YES!! - I had some sort of obscure virus that bi passed my security and anti malware programmes and embedded itself deep deep inside the driver of the Web Cam - making it give up the ghost entirely and taking out with it most of the other drivers as well.

That is about as much knowledge I needed to know and wasn't at all surprised when he suggested that I needed to 'wipe the slate clean' and then re-load the hard drive!!

As I said earlier - don't you just LOVE computers!!

Long story cut short - the Computer and I are friends again - I no longer threaten to hurl it down the steps onto the road and we have kissed and made up - even after hours of re-loading programmes.

All of that got me thinking long and hard about what actually is going on deep down inside our very souls - like the computer virus so easily stalked my little laptop and zeroed in for the kill so it is with sin.

Sin can get so embedded deep deep down in the very core of our personalities that it becomes so second nature to us that we accept it without question.

We can get used to and ever so comfortable with our sin-lives that we no longer have any consciousness of it there at all. That can be a HUGE problem!!

We can even get to like our sin - we like it so much that we can actually turn off the promptings of our Heavenly Father through His Holy Spirit and immune ourselves to not even thinking about whether it is there or not.

Yes, unlike the computer virus - our sin virus can slowly slowly take over our lives.

But, God will never give up on us - Believe me  - He didn't give up on me - and if He didn't give up in me then He won't give up on you.

He keeps wanting to get you back to Him - He wants you to have a full and lasting relationship with Him - How?

Well, the only way to having that sort of lasting relationship with God is to be prepared to hand everything over to Him - not just a little bit - but the whole lot.

So, maybe you are thinking I am just too bad - My sin/virus is embedded so so deep - not even a re-load of the hard drive will remove it - well, I have news for you.

No matter what you have done - no matter what sort of life you have led - Jesus loves you and wants you to come to Him.

Maybe you have wandered away from Him - He wants you back!

Maybe you been so hurt in the past that you have actually got so angry at God and you have vowed never to even think of Him again - guess what - He wants you back!

Maybe you have had a close friend or someone in the family that have been taken ill with a terminal disease or even died and you have blamed God and told Him so - Guess what - He wants you back.

No matter where you are on the "missing in action" list - God wants you back.

None of us are promised an easy ride in this life - We are going to suffer all sorts of stuff - from persecution, disease, grief, doubt, confusion, financial disasters, marital breakdowns - you name it - BUT God says - we are just passing though - this place is not our home - this place is just such a temporary dwelling - our real home is in eternity with Him.

I have heard people say that "there could never be a loving God in Heaven because Look at Bill - great man, gave all he had to the poor and yet God will send him to Hell".

My answer - How do you know that? - we cannot judge a persons heart - we cannot put our puny minds in the mind of God - Yes - God has said that all sin must be paid for either by accepting what Jesus did on the cross at Calvary or at the throne of God! BUT...

We are not in the 'judging' business!! - That is up to a mighty, just and merciful God!

We desperately need to get our own homes in order while we are living here in the days of God's Grace - while there is still time - we need to come to repentance and kneel at his cross where the burdens of past sins can be chucked into oblivion never to counted against us ever.

Are you one of those people, who think they are just too bad for God? Or are you angry at God for some reason? Or are your sins embedded so deep inside your personal computer 'drive' that you feel so comfortable with the whole set-up you just want to leave well enough alone?

God still wants YOU!! - He gave His son for YOU! - Don't try to put your mind in the mind of God? You will never do it!

Your sin embedded too deep? - God can go deeper!

Too angry with God for perceived injustices? God's love can overcome anything - even that - Come to Him today!!

Don't delay - He wants you just the way you are - Angry, hurt, confused, doubting, full of deep sin - just the way you are.

He worked a miracle in my life - he can work one in yours as well.

Oh the Deep Deep Love of Jesus (S. Trevor Francis)

O the deep deep love of Jesus, vast unmeasured, boundless, free!

Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!

Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love.

Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!

How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!

How He watches o'er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;

How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o'er them from the throne!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!

'Tis an ocean full of blessing, 'tis a haven giving rest!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, 'tis a heaven of heavens to me;

And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!