Living Grace

“My lover is like a swift gazelle or a young stag. Look there he is behind the wall, looking trough the window, peering into the room.” Song of songs 2:9

The lie that we are given by the world and the lie Satan has feed us is that God does not want us. That we find value and acceptance for our lives by abiding in the security of our own divinity. That to be like God we must be our own God.

So we settle in the land of fear, shame, lust, anger and guilt and worship our own God’s of immediate gratification, self reliance and individual enlightenment.

And Christ looks at us from behind the walls that we have built and reaches out to us as we struggle with emotions that cripple our heart. Consumed with grief, abandonment, disappointment, loneliness, misconnection and detachment.

It is in the puzzle of our helplessness that God reached out to us. For God did not wait until we got it right. He did not wait until one of his chosen kept his law perfectly. He did not wait until we turned to him. He came when we were held in the captivity we had created. He came when we were trapped in the prison we had made. He came when we had said no to him, but He had said yes to us!

In our stubborn resistance we had turned to answers in our own hand crafted God’s.

Christ came to declare to us that his death is now our resurrection. His old life is now our new life. His sinless life is now our New Creation life. Our old life died with him on the cross, our new life was raised with him and he has delivered us from all the consequences of sin.

“Ah, I hear my lover coming! He is leaping over the mountains bounding over the hills. ” Song of songs 2:8

Jesus was born to deliver those in captivity from their oppression.

His coming was a declaration that God’s love always triumphs over judgement.

He desperately tried to demonstrate the love of God to a chosen people locked into to a business contract with God. He tried to make them see outside of the contract so they could free themselves from its binding clauses and obligations .

He went in to their business center and chucked out the debt enforcers, he broke their working agreement and healed people on the agreed day of no work, he refused their sick pay provision and healed every one who was held by its defaulted clauses and he sat with those who were marginalised, rejected and abused by its impossible perfect conditions.

In what seemed to be random acts of compassion, he acted out of a heart of mercy to declare that the essence of God is love, freedom for the oppressed and release for those held captive.

But it was on a lonely mountain top in the presence of a few of his close companions that Jesus revealed his true nature and in this act he declared the majesty and brilliance of a New Covenant.

For the transfiguration on the mount was much more than just a one off event it was a revealing to mankind of the glory of God alive in human flesh, it was a revealing of the New Birth of a totally New Creation, the physical demonstration of heaven kissing earth. Everlasting love alive in flesh .

For every New Creation is connected to the power of heaven and is made right with God. Each has been set free and delivered from the reign of sickness and death.

And today this is the declaration of God. That through the death of Jesus we are now reconciled to God and that God is not counting our sins against us. We are forgiven and the choice we are given is to receive it and trust it or ignore it and reject it.

“Promise me , O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time is right. ” Song of Songs 2:7

Love appeared at the appointed time. Love was given to us in flesh, for Jesus came to satisfy our hearts.

He came to satisfy your hunger, satisfy your thirst and satisfy the longing for connection within your heart.

One of the most heart breaking moments in the Bible is when Jesus broke down and wept over Jerusalem. It is so powerful that it can only be summed up in two words “Jesus wept”. The heart break of God as his chosen people rejected his mercy and settled for obedience in the place of grace. The eternal invitation to come and thirst no more rejected for a business contract with God.

With all of us the trap of our hearts is to get God to bless us by our actions instead of trusting his devotion.

Christ is the promise of Eden now planted into our hearts. The grace of God his unmerited favour given to us as a free gift to satisfy our hearts desire.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem but he rejoices over us his new creation with singing. His death and resurrection opened a new and living way into all the wonders and treasures of heaven.

So if there is longing in your heart, today eat from the fruit from the tree of life and that fruit is the grace of God which will nourish, nurture and protect you so you hunger and thirst no more.

For in Christ you enter into the day of God’s favour over your life. Love, joy, peace, freedom from oppression, deliverance from captivity in your mind, health to your body, release to your emotions and wholeness to your soul are your inheritance, given without reservation and placed into your hand.

“Strengthen me with raisin cakes. Refresh me with apples, for I am weak with love.”Song of songs 2:5

Strength is found in the depths of God’s grace.

Every crumb of grace is carefully marked with the promise of God.

Every strand of grace is a confirmation that God desires to bless us.

God is the source of all desire.

God created us out of his desire to share himself with us. He wanted to share his boundless joy and endless peace with us.

God is the one who recaptured us and delivered us from the Kingdom of death.

He invites us into the heart of his creation to enjoy the glory and wonder of his abundant life.

For his strength is nourishment to our hearts, it is in him that we live and breathe and have our life. His grace is his abundance to us, it his his promise to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or think according to the power that works within us

And his grace is perfected in his love.

“Strengthen me with raisin cakes. Refresh me with apples, for I am weak with love.”Song of songs 2:5

Strength is found in the depths of God’s grace.

Every crumb of grace is carefully marked with the promise of God.

Every strand of grace is a confirmation that God desires to bless us.

God is the source of all desire.

God created us out of his desire to share himself with us. He wanted to share his boundless joy and endless peace with us.

God is the one who recaptured us and delivered us from the Kingdom of death.

He invites us into the heart of his creation to enjoy the glory and wonder of his abundant life.

For his strength is nourishment to our hearts, it is in him that we live and breathe and have our life. His grace is his abundance to us, it his his promise to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or think according to the power that works within us

And his grace is perfected in his love.

“He escorts me to his banquet Hall, it’s obvious how much he loves me.” Song of songs 2:4

Grace makes the love of God obvious.

Grace brings us into a place where we hear the Father’s voice.

Grace takes is into the realm of our identity.

Grace stresses the freeness of God’s giving, that he gives just because of his heart of love not because we have somehow earned it!

And this banquet is without stipulations or requirements. It is without charge or payment . It is given to us with no strings attached .

Christ escorts us into the treasure chamber of the riches of heaven and gives us all his good gifts.

It is so wondrous, bountiful, it is an open demonstration of his delight and desire in us.

God’s grace is his eternal declaration of his love.

And how do we tell God we love him?

By living in the fullness of his grace.

By feasting on his rich provision, by believing in his promises, and by delighting in his grace we tell God I accept your love and I want to delight in you forever.

“Like the finest apple tree in the Orchard, is my lover among the young men.” Song of songs 2:3

The enticement of sin is that it turns evil into the normal.

Our hearts dulled by the onslaught of evil slowly resign themselves to accepting darkness as normal.

For it is in this resignation of death that we accept sickness, lack, captivity, bondage and oppression as part of life and accept it’s influence on creation.

The Orchard of life is filled with the numerous trees of opportunity and in the midst of the Orchard is the tree of everlasting life. The magnificent finest tree of grace.

It’s fruit is offered to us in Christ’s abundant victory, it is a fruit of boldness and courage, adorned in beauty.

Sins enticement is forever dulled and eternally dismissed in the wonderous, scandalous finished work of Christ.

Choose to eat from the fruit of Christ.

Choose to see the goodness of God as the normal.

Choose to focus on the finished work of Christ.

Because he has drawn himself to you, He has sought you out and he has found you.

He abides in you, see yourself abiding in him and let his love and delight in you entice you into accepting his love and righteousness within you as the normal.

The power of Christ in you is your normal.