the promise [which] rest[s] on grace
[is] guaranteed to all …
who share the faith of Abraham …
in the presence of the God in whom he believed,
who gives life to the dead and
calls into existence the things that do not exist.”
Romans 4:16-17
Do you like presents?
· Are you the kind of person who shakes every package, trying to guess what’s inside?
· Or are you one of the type of person who is deliberate, patient, and careful, not wanting to tear even a corner of the paper?
Do you like presents? Or do you like Presence – God’s Presence?
God is truly with us.
· That’s the literal meaning of the word “Emmanuel” – “God is with us.”
· That’s the point of the incarnation, Jesus’ stepping off the throne in heaven to come dwell in human form with you and me.
· That’s the gift of the Holy Spirit – an indwelling grace, an inescapable and comforting presence.
God is not a distant God. He loves you. He comes to you. He dies for you. He walks beside you. He carries you when you’re too weak to walk alone. When you pass through fires, he says, “I will be with you” (Isaiah 43).
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who likes presents of
shirts and ties and books and watches,
but like the Presence more!
(It enables me to live!)
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