Valentine's Day

How would we ever know the closeness of God, His very near, breathing, Presence to each of us all of our lives, except that He sent Jesus?  How would we know His longing for us, His watching for our return, except through the Parable of the Prodigal Son? 

How would we suspect that we are not "locked into" our weaknesses and failings, that the new birth frees us from our sin nature, leaving us with a new spiritual nature, except for the revelation of God's secret, given to us in the "second Adam," as Paul refers to Jesus.

In Buddhism, it is necessary to discipline the old nature, to deny it everything in order to pass into nirvana, which is not the "peace that passes all understanding," but rather a denial of all reality.  Muslims must fast and obey many rules to please Allah and be worthy of heaven.  The difference that Jesus brings is the underlying assumption that we are first sinners, not worthy of being eternally loved, but loved anyway by the Father.  We first know the Father as a "Helper," one who will never leave us or abandon us; One who forgives our transgressions and who embraces us in our filthy rags and then puts around our shoulders the rich cloak belonging to a son in his father's house.

We know conversion based on being first loved; we know grace, like the wind, by its effects in us, delivering us from the powerful grip of evil and destruction.  We do not know how this grace arrived in our lives, only that it is present and effective in us.  Always, for us, God moves first---and because He does, we awaken from darkness and respond to His love.  There is nothing we can claim except sin and ignorance on our part.  We do not "call down" the grace of God by human sacrifice, or worthy lives, or lofty thinking.  We wait for our redemption from "the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers."

It is scandalous to accept that the spiritual life begins with "This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased," and ends with obedience, rather than the other way around.    God has turned all our thoughts and expectations upside down.  No wonder the Jews said, "Who can accept this teaching?" 

Imagine the heartbreak of God at our reaction to His freely offered love:  No thanks; I'd rather have it my way---I'll earn my salvation.  Then I can boast of what I have done.

Watchman Nee wrote a beautiful little book from his prison cell many years ago.  Called Sit, Walk, and Stand,  it outlines the pattern of the Christian life based on the Book of Ephesians.  I first read this book about 35 years ago and have never forgotten the lesson---while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; while we were still ignorant, God poured out abundant blessings on us; while we "sat," helpless to help ourselves, He sent His very own Spirit into our hearts, enabling us to get up and "walk" in His way.  The "stand," you'll have to read for yourself---or just read Ephesians!  It's all there!.