"God's Fierce Love" -2

"Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger." (Psalms 85:3) Before we can totally understand this, our hearts must be changed. I heard a message yesterday that made me realize how urgent our message must be, and it made me realize how much I have taken for granted. This gift of salvation is the most important thing that there is; there is nothing else in this world that matters more, and yet, how often do we actually take the time to discover how blessed we are to have been given it; not often enough. The message involved the pastor's son, and how he would respond if his son was still asleep upstairs in the house if the house was on fire. No matter what anyone would say to him, or how important their question might be, he would knock them out of his way in order to wake his son up and let him know that his life was in danger. At first I didn't think much of what he had said, because it seemed the logical thing for anyone to do in that situation. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the contrast between life and death, darkness and light, heaven and hell; it's just a matter of being woken up! That's what happen to me, all those many years ago, I was woken up out of a deep sleep; a spell if you will, one that had me in a spiritual coma of death and sin. If not for the Holy Spirit letting me see God's love for me and my need for forgiveness, I would not have known that I was asleep, let alone that I was going to be burned up in a fire. That's what the Holy Spirit did, He knocked down every other thing around me that mattered, and opened my eyes to see the great need I had to be pulled from the fire. When you are about to die, and you know it, there are mysterious things that happen to your priorities and what you think is important. Oh, what an awesome gift we have been given...
"Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil -the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness towards us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God." (Ephesians 2:1-8) NLT