The truth of the Gospel never ends

[Catching my breath and as I stop for a cup of tea....
 Won't you join me as I soak some Light into these winterized pores...]


I am so thankful for friends who share good reads with me... That is how I found each one of those books I recommend on the right side of this column. Check them out.

Now there is another one...on my Kindle...to read a few minutes every day, and think about all day.

Comforts of The Cross by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick.  There are other books she has written that I will be checking out...getting one for my grandbaby's parents, Give Them Grace, Dazzling Your Kids With The Love of Jesus.  Wish I had had that about 40 years ago, maybe I would have understood grace better.

More than anything, after all these years of living, of sinning, of loving, of hurting, of failing, of needing, of trying, God is still working in me...leading me further to more understanding of the gospel, that Jesus paid for it all.  Of the fact that he wants me to focus on him and what he has done for me...not on what I have or haven't done.

Yesterday, reading this in Comforts of The Cross, truth hit deep ....

"The gospel teaches us that instead of focusing on ourselves and our closely clinging sin, we've got to focus on, to consider, Jesus. We've got to look away from our sin, whether because it's alluring and drawing us toward it or because it's condemning and pushing us into ourselves and away from our Savior. We must patiently focus all our attention on him. We've got to think on, ponder, or consider, Jesus. Every aspect of the gospel is meant to encourage us in our war against sin. Of course, we should be aware enough of our sin that we seek to repent of it and are grateful for the cross, but that's not where our thoughts should settle."

Satan has us right where he wants us...out of fellowship with God....feeling like a failure once again. We spend so much precious time trying to do it right or not do it wrong.  And then when I fail yet one more time,  I think, "Great, I did it again!  I will never get this right! What must God think of me?"  And that leads me to ignoring God, because he wouldn't even want to be around me, after all he is holy and I am anything but.

So once again, I am learning, it is not about me and my pleasing God...it is about being pleased by and finding delight in my God who sees me clothed in the righteousness of his Son.

^{I John 4:15} Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

In studying for that lecture on I John I am looking deep at the word abiding.  Beautiful how it rolls off the tongue...abbbbidddding..................... like it just wants to stay there....not fall off the cliff. And isn't it good to remember that steadfast love and faithfulness is always part of God's abiding in me...

And now...back to working on the lecture.  More later.