SPRING FORTH NOW 2022

The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me. It was fitting that I bring up the rear. I don’t deserve to be included in that inner circle, as you well know, having spent all those early years trying my best to stamp God’s church right out of existence. But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I’m not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven’t I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn’t amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it.

I Corinthians 15:8-10 (MSG)

No matter where you are in life, God offers to you and me to press higher from a perspective in which All Things Have Become New. God generously offers His grace, unmerited favor, to us in sufficient amounts that no matter what we have done or where we find ourselves, He will lift us and give us the necessary fuel to press toward His higher calling for our lives. Stop allowing life and all your detractors, within and without, to try to convince you what you do not deserve, accept that you don't while simultaneously accepting the grace of God for your life, and Breathe: New Life. It is God who has made you and it is He that will shepherd you through life and all of its challenges, despite and in spite of you so that you appropriately respond to His calling and are rewarded with the fullness of joy and at His right-hand pleasures forever more!