"The Gift of God"

 "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." (John 4:10 KJV)

  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10 KJV)

  After we get past the differences of what we believe or think things should be, there are a few things that are important for us to all come to terms on and have some sort of agreement. I know that faith without works is dead, not just because James has said so, but because it is what I know to be true: if you are not taking a step, which means that you have some sort of movement, then there is no life demonstrated in your faith, and your faith is basically useless, to you and to those around you. 

  It has been proven time and time again, if believe that God has chosen you for a particular work, then you will by your belief, look for and live out that particular work. Maybe we might not even know we are walking in that work, but it is simply that which we do is, unknowingly and without merit, is the work that God is doing through us. If you study the parable of the sheep and the goats, those that were the goats thought they were doing God's work, and were not; while the sheep did God's work, and didn't even know they were doing it. 

  I had a little chance to listen to a message yesterday, based upon the fact that our lives should live out the Gospel; that preaching the Gospel is less important than actually living it out. Not that is it not essential to share the Good News, because it is vitally important and needs to be said. But that the way we live our lives, what we do and how we do it, it should demonstrate the love of God to the world! 

  Now we have this thing, whatever you want to refer to it as, where we think that loving the world is wrong and that it is not part of what we should be about; something I believe we have missed the point Jesus made, if we have any part in that belief. If we live our lives to be rewarded by this world, then it is wrong; but if we live our lives by giving of ourselves, for Christ sake, then we are on the right track. 

  Strange and mysterious is this thing, whatever you might want to call it; but we get the Gift, and in a weird sort of way, we also become a part of the Gift, the Gift that keeps on giving...

"I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made." (Philippians 3:12-16 NLT)