When the truth of the grace of God given us in Jesus Christ actually breaks over our hearts and minds, we are like the people of Israel who sang Psalm 126. "When the Lord brought us back from exile to Jerusalem, it was as if we were dreaming. We were filled with laughter and sang with joy..." The nations around them declared, "What amazing things God has done for them!"It's astounding that God in Jesus Christ has actually taken our sin away. It's gone! We are forgiven and made heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ! 

Usually when something seems to good to be true it's because it isn't true. Here, however, it is an eternal truth that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world! St. Paul states that those who are in Christ stand before God...right now... holy, blameless and beyond reproach. God is FOR US! Therefore no one can stand against us and prevail in accusation. He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all to rescue us will hold nothing back that we need for life and godliness to prevail in and through us.

That perfection given to us, God's indwelling Spirit, the very Life of Jesus, is transforming us daily. He leads, guides, corrects, convicts us of sin, cleanses us of what He convicts by the shed blood of Jesus. We are being changed from one degree of glory to another. We move from faith to faith. None of us has yet to arrive at all God has in store for us. We are all still "on pilgrimage".

What we find on the "Camino", the path, is that all we may have referenced our lives to in terms of value shrink to less than nothing compared to what we have received by grace, God's gift to us in Jesus. As St. Paul says, "We no longer put any confidence in human effort."

The way we used to evaluate our worth is completely worthless! The Lord speaks through Isaiah, "Forget about what you've known in the past. What I am about to do is utterly new, in fact it's already begun!" God is not saying to forget what He has done, but to not hold onto the way the world's expectations and demands. 

God has a new way of living in store for all who will believe. Forgetting what lies behind us looking to God for what lies ahead, we press on in the race to lay hold on what Jesus laid hold on us for in the first place. We have a heavenly call upward in Jesus Christ.

Our eyes are to become fixed on Jesus as we run the race. There is nothing worth holding onto if it hinders us running. We are able to live lives in worship to Him without reference to us but to Him. We can pour out on Him that which is most precious to us. He is worthy of our all. We don't find ourselves depleted in living this way. In fact, we find ourselves overflowing with the living water of the Holy Spirit.

We are drawing near to Holy Week and the remembering of this greater "new thing" God spoke about through Isaiah...to make rivers run in the desert...to bring everlasting life out of the death-of-deaths. Please keep putting one foot in front of the other. His power working in you is able to cause you to finish the race you've begun and to finish well. 

Please read through and pray through the Scriptures for this Sunday: Isaiah 43:10-21, Philippians 3:3-14, Psalm 126 and John 12:1-10. Let the Lord encourage you and hear Him calling you to follow Him onward.