"This Life Within Us"

"My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto Thee; and my soul, which Thou hast redeemed." (Psalms 71:23) Obviously there is nothing we can do to slow down this life; but there is something that we can do to change our perspective on life. I heard an interesting word yesterday, one that I had never quite heard this way before. It was about those who say, "If God is trying to say that I need to worship Him or go to hell, then I don't want anything to do with Him." The pastor gave a very good analogy of what God is really saying, in that He is saying, "You are going to hell, but you don't need to, because I have redeemed you." It is really not a matter of "if I should go," it's more about, "can I not go;" and to that, the answer is "YES!" As I was thinking about this while driving around in a fog, I couldn't help think of the people I know who literally despise God and want nothing to do with His rules and judgments. They are looking at it all the wrong way; God is trying to free them from the bondage of sin and death, not ask them to give Him their life or else; it's 100% the opposite, He is saying, "Take hold of my nail-pierced hand, and let Me save you from death." Try and remember, this is a Psalm about "The Prayer of an Aged Man," who is not only reaching the end of this life, but has also moved beyond his youthful years; those times when things were easier, and life seemed easy to manage. Even if you did not succeed, there was always tomorrow and another chance to make it happen. Maybe I should just stick to the basic point, and focus on the life He has given us. I don't care what others might say, there is nothing that compares to what we have been given. If you have ever attended a funeral where the deceased was not saved, then you might understand what I am trying to say; because there is no hope present there; as everyone focuses on what was, but never mentions the hereafter. If we have been given eternal life, then this is not the end, but just the beginning! James puts our life here on earth in perfect perspective, saying, "For what is your life? It is a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." He was speaking this in reference to "knowing what tomorrow will bring in this life," because we have no clue what tomorrow here will be like. We could be on easy-street one moment, and in the poor-house the next; we could be healthy as ever one day, and dying from cancer the next. But! The life we have been given in Christ is permanent! What that means, is that it does not change! No matter what! If you have eternal life, then you are secure in Christ! That is what being set free from death really feels like! God does not offer His hand of salvation, and then say, "Now you need to work for it." God does not have our salvation dangling like a carrot on a stick; it is eternal life from the moment of our transformation from that of death to life...  
"But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn't He also the God of the Gentiles? Of course He is. There is only one God, and He makes people right with Himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law." (Romans 3:21-31) NLT