Day 4175 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Titus 2:11 NIV

grapples with the gravity

For in reality there is a particular if not indeed perfectly peculiar purpose unto every prize promised as is met only when it’s met by those to whom it’s given. It’s a weight won within this realization as to the time, effort, investigation that was given by another in order for their to determine that which they’ve now given. And this time and intention is, or at least should be, worth as much to we to whom any gift is given as is the gift we’re given. And that’s because every gift ever given was only given by someone who took their time from their life and decided to build, to buy what is this then beautiful expression of their having chosen to put us before themselves.

And that’s just a really hard thing to fathom.

Or, again, at least it should be.

But unfortunately what we seem now to see is this sea of which is our society in which we’ve all chosen all but collectively to sink inside what is this life in which we live as if we’re owed something. And what makes such a seemingly unanimous understanding so unacceptably heartbreaking is that said something can literally be anything. We are indeed so very selfish and prideful and arrogant that we have reached the point in which every promise, every prize, every gift we’re ever given in life is anymore almost begrudgingly accepted as if we’re somewhat burdened by having to appear grateful.

It’s kind of like we’ve within this life come to see saying thanks as something that’s somehow below us, as if thankfulness is an attitude beneath us.

Yes, as a people who live increasingly as if all we’re given is but all we’re owed, it seems then that all we know is to expect all we want.

Problem is that while we all may know, and that quite well, what all we want, a couple pieces of wood and an empty grave seem to say that we’ve no foggy idea as to what we need.

And that’s because within that scene which played out upon Calvary we see what is the surpassing beauty that is His unbridled glory which has in fact now appeared unto all so as to call said same all unto the light that is His life that was lain down for us to do the same. That is why the Christ came. It was to, yes, save sinners from their sins but to do so via calling said sinners unto repentance which is the ongoing and thus everlasting turning away from the sinful way of life that they had been living but from which He came, and died, to save them.

But this most merciful of all mercies has presented all but all of humanity with what is an at least two-fold problem. On one side you have that mind that is so stained by pride that it sees all such gifts, as grace most certainly is, as something that is due and deserved as opposed to a part or portion of the lives of he/she/they from whom said gift has come. And on the other we find that the very same pride, which knows only that we deserve everything we’re given (so long as what all we’re given is by us considered good), exists this insistence that we then deserve only that which is good.

Because pride tells us that we are good.

Pride convinces us that we can do no wrong, have done no wrong.

Pride causes us to believe that we’re always the ones to be always and forever pleased, mostly with ourselves, but too then from everyone else as, well, if we’re truly as special and powerful and simply then important as we’ve all of us so clearly come to believe we’ve become, then yeah, we should be given gifts. We should leave the house to the sound of applause. We should be able to stroll into work an hour late for the third time this week only to have our boss commend us for being so courageous as to buck the system so very often.

Because pride tells us that we’re the center of attention and thus too then that everything good that happens only happens because we deserve to be happy.

Problem then becomes that Christ didn’t come on this earth to die in order to make us happy.

He endured the brutality of God’s wrath so as to show us what will happen to all of those who continue to refuse His call for us all to become holy.

Because such is both what we were created to be and have unfortunately long since rejected every opportunity to become.

Instead all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, defining the very same all then as sinners who have then earned the wage that all sins wins. And that wage has remained unchanged since before the very same time began which we discussed just yesterday. For in 2 Timothy 1:9 we’re told that the grace of Christ, which appeared unto all when He poured out His life for the same, was given us before even time began.

For God created all things just as they should be and has not moved, wavered, changed His mind ever since the dawn of eternity.

No, God set everything in motion and it will continue in that motion until such a time, as He has determined to decide (and that also to keep hidden from mankind), as He chooses that all that is shall have reached its end. And at said time when all that is within this life has reached the finish line of this life, all that is then alive will then know what it is to die.

Question we’re all asked of this grace given us within this faith is will we have joined Jesus in His calling us to share in His enduring said death unto our flesh before such a time as we’ve run out of time to run away from His calling us to stop running away?

In other words, will we join Him in dying to sin before we’re to be judged by He who knew no sin and yet became sin for us because of His love for us which is given within the gift given that is the grace given that has been given unto all who needed it gave?

Will we accept Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, a Savior who saved us via a salvation that asked His undeserved suffering, sharing in His humility within lives given honestly to the fullness of the expectations that God has so clearly set forth?

Or will we continue to walk forward within this nigh blasphemous belief that we are owed all we’re given, a belief which then causes us to consider still Christ afflicted and that because either He must have deserved to be because we still can’t see to see that the cross He took was ours or that we somehow deserved what He did on our behalf through what many will continue to live as if are lives in which they do only that which is right?

Sadly the world in which we are walking is talking all about how amazing they are. Folks all around us are actually seeming to only increase within this forsaken belief that they’re doing alright all on their own. That they’ve figured out how to live this life and are doing usually far better than alright at so doing. We are daily surrounded by those who are utterly convinced that they can do no wrong.

But what does leave for the gift of God’s grace to be the gift that He meant for it to be?

For if we are as untarnished, untainted, unchallenged, unchanging as we all so often act as if we both are and too should be, then of what do we need He? If we have truly figured out how best to live this life and are doing said best every day and every night, then from what do we need saved? If we make no mistakes, have never made a mistake, then for what would we need belief in grace?

Grace is given only to those who need it from they who have the power and authority to give it and that with a willingness to do so.

Much the same as any and every gift ever given.

They are all given to those who get them by those who chose to give them and did so by spending their time, thoughts, desires even upon the other to whom they’ve determined to give a gift.

This whole idea hit me so hard one time when I was 18 that still to this day I carry the weight of having gotten it so very wrong that I will never forgive myself for what I did.

It was 2006 and I was graduating high school. And yeah, like everyone else I too, at that age in which we’ve reached the end of what the world says is basically all we need to know in order to be thrust into the world in which they believe that we can be successful and productive and meaningful members of society, I too thought I thus knew all I needed to. Thought I knew everything.

Even that the gift that my family had chosen to give me for my graduation wasn’t what I really wanted.

And so, in all of my pride and arrogance and ego, I asked them to take it back and let me use the money to buy something else that I wanted instead.

And they did.

And just thinking about it all over again leaves me once again wanting my punch myself in the face.

Because they had spent not only the money on this gift that they’d decided to give me but also the time spent researching which one to buy, the conversations talking about what they wanted to do for me, the gas and effort and energy to think about me.

And I held in my hands the camera they picked and said no thanks. Don’t want it. Take it back and give me the money so that I can pick out something better.

And I took the money and bought an xbox which I hooked up to a tv in my bedroom and spent hours over the next few years away from my family playing video games.

I will never let myself forget what I did.

Because, to me, it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever done as it shows my ability to be someone that I never again wish to become.

Because for someone to look at something that another has done and take it so for granted that they consider not the time and thought invested, it’s as disgusting a doing as I can imagine.

Why?

Because we all know the way of life that we’ve all come to live down here. It’s one in which we mostly think only about ourselves. It’s a life in which we’re usually all that matters most. It’s a time we spend looking at and looking for and thinking of only ways to make only our lives always better. We are such a violently selfish people that, well, we killed the very Man who came to offer us eternal life.

We held this gift in our hands, looked it over, thought it through and managed to reach the conclusion that it wasn’t what we wanted and, well, basically asked God to take it back with our help as we insisted upon Him the entirety of the crucifixion so as to rid our lives of this need to be thankful for the gift that God had given all so that we could take our lives and go back to living them as we’d determined we liked.

Yes, we see the gift you’ve chosen to give and yet we would rather take the time and effort that you have spent in giving us it and do with it something else entirely.

I hate this humanity!

Why?

Because our lack of humility is so utterly horrific that it’s left us unable to be thankful. Unable to be appreciative. Unwilling to be given gifts as we’re instead convinced that we alone know always best all that we want and think we need.

I despise our greed, our gluttony, our lust, our laziness, our idolatry and that of basically only ourselves.

Yes, we have come to become our own gods.

And along the way we’ve forgotten the Way that came to save us from a lifetime spent thinking so much about us that we reached this conclusion that is this delusion that has us determined that we alone know always best as we do always the same. Yes, we are all convinced that we can do no wrong.

But friends, those who do no wrong can receive no mercy.

Those who never mess up cannot ever be given forgiveness.

Those who are perfect already cannot then be washed cleaned nor set free.

We’ve convinced ourselves that we don’t need God’s grace and in so doing we’ve all but determined to forever avoid the grave in which said grace was gave simply because we’ve all become entirely convinced that we have no business ever worrying about ever being in one.

No, we’re so amazing at living our lives that it would be an absolute crime to insist that we stop living them.

Yeah, God’s considered by most a jerk because He calls us out of this world and the wasted version of life we’ve all come to live within it unto the promise of eternal life in Heaven.

All because all we want is only found here, thus inspiring us to consider the loss given on the cross and ask God to take Jesus back and get Him out of our way so that we can keep living our lives the way we’ve chosen to lose them. For we’re all convinced that we can find something better here and thus don’t need Heaven to be there.

And if Heaven isn’t there but is rather, as most seem to believe and instead some place or in some thing inside this world, then we don’t need anything of any grace or mercy or salvation. No, we can manage just fine without all the humility and surrender and self-denial that such things demand and deserve. We don’t deserve to have to be humble as pride is the only way that we can ever live our best lives.

I’m telling you right now my friends that we have no idea what the best of life is. And I know this for sure and for certain because at one time I thought that my best life was a video game system that inspired me to spend hours of my life apart from my family instead of being with them and making memories, maybe even capturing some on the camera that they tried to give me.

WE KNOW NOTHING!

All because we’ve all become all but convinced that we know everything.

A belief in ourselves that once inspired us to sell He who is our Savior for what was then thirty pieces of silver unto those who wanted Him gone but only because He had only come to set free those who this world wants to remain in captivity and give sight to those this world doesn’t want to see the truth as to what’s really happening around here and to help hear those who’ve lived deaf unto the call that this says world does not have anywhere near the all that we think we want or believe we need.

Jesus came to give us grace from within a grave that was and is meant to help set us free from a life spent chained to the captivity of our wanting only everything the flesh desires.

And we killed Him because we thought, most think still, that the flesh somehow knows best.

But friends, if that were truly the case then why does His Word here say that His grace has been given so as to offer salvation to all people? If we are all as impressive and amazing and perfect as we’ve all believed we alone are, then why does this gift apply to all?

Sure, perhaps the gift wasn’t given at all. Maybe it is all just the fairy tale that most folks think it is. Maybe it’s all been made up by a few freaks who got together and wanted to make a book about the tragic fall of humanity.

Yeah, perhaps the Bible is just a fantasy concocted by roughly 40 different authors somehow managing to write a cohesive story across what historical fact proves is ~1,500 years, all with prophecies and predictions that somehow managed to come true to the tune their being testified to by countless eye witnesses who saw them all unfold.

Yeah, probably all made up.

Why?

Because we all really, really, really want it to be.

Why?

Because we all know that we all really, really, really need it to be.

Why?

Because if it isn’t then we’re finished.

And that simply can’t be the case because, again, we’re pretty much convinced that we’re pretty much perfect.

But friends, if that were the case then Jesus died for nothing. And if Jesus died for nothing then His death can do nothing for us. And if His death can do nothing for us then we can never get anything out of it. And if we can’t ever get anything out of it then all we can ever be is only whatever we already are. And while we may all be impressively able to convince ourselves that whatever we already are is the very best that ever we can become, if we stop trying to grow and improve and change then we will reach the end of these lives only to be left standing there holding nothing but the sum of everything we’ve done.

And surely we’re not really so very far gone that we honestly believe that that can ever be a good thing.

Sadly many live still as if it is, as if they do no wrong and thus should be rewarded with whatever gifts or glories or other such outcomes that they feel they’re due.

The difference between Heaven and hell is to be determined by the difference between those who think they can earn the first and thus don’t deserve the second from those who know they deserve the second and are thus able to grow to increasingly appreciate the hope we’re given, undeservingly, in His promise of leaving here for the first.

Either way the choice is ours as to what we do with His gift. And that choice is made within how we decide to live these lives.

What then does your life say as to your understanding of God’s grace? That you deserve it but thus can’t ever appreciate the fact that He gives it? Or that you don’t deserve it but that you’re better able then to believe in it and be thankful for the chance to be?

Whatever our choice may be we’d best get to wrestling with it because eternity is coming and the outcomes thereof will be determined by whether pride won our lives or if we gave them instead unto humility.

He’s shown us which is the better way.

Problem is most think they know better.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold