IF CHRISTIAN FAITH is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of

things not seen1”, then thanks be to God if our hope is not met with

disappointment before You, as all we have to do is ask You. Our hope is alive in

You, awaiting our share that You prepared for us beside You, to be revealed the day

of Your revelation when we will appear with You in your glory2 that is beyond our

minds. But this is Your promise. Your promise daily revives us with the hope that

we will see You and be with You, receiving Your love that You outpour in our

hearts through the Holy Spirit You gave us. We therefore live every day in the hope

of meeting You. You will enrich us and we will therefore be satiated and drink from

the river of Your grace. Our hope in You will not be met with disappointment. It is

the promise of Your love endorsed by Your Holy Spirit which we receive anew

every morning refreshing our hearts, renewing our lives, giving us power to

overcome the world for You, thus being counted Yours.

Your Holy Spirit inspires in us a life of holiness that pleases You. It inspires us

with Your living words speaking in us, thus teaching us Your objectives which the

Father had previously set for us since the beginning, before the foundation of this

world, “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love”3, offering us

adoption after having been strangers and enemies. The Father through Christ

reckoned us to be “members of the household of God”4, heirs with the Son as His

own children after we had been rejected through Adam as foreigners.

In glory what wealth and generosity of God! That which He did for us and for

our sakes has made us to be counted as one of the heavenly beings among the host

of His saints and angels. We will thus appear with the revelation of Christ as fellows

of glory after having been rejected sinners.

The wonder of incarnation is that the Son of God became like one of us. We

consequently became through His victorious resurrection over our enemy, death, and

sin, one in Him, and sons to His heavenly Father. The Son of God became incarnate,

for us to become His body and members in His divine fullness.

In glory what wealth and generosity of God! He raised the dust from garbage and

made us sit in glory with the heavenly beings. He erased sin with the blood of His

Son and gave us a new life through His life. He changed us from a fallen creation, to

a new creation through the renewal of the Spirit, the love of the Father, and the

sacrifice of the Son.

After all that He does not demand of us thanks or praise, but His eye is mainly

centered on the sinner, because to Him the righteous are not counted. To the Father

the sinner’s price is more expensive than all humankind. He redeemed him with the

slaughter of His Son on the cross, to be a sacrifice of sin. The Son received the curse

of the earth when He was raised onto the cross. All of this was for the sake of the

sinner to repent.

All this we learnt the day we accepted the precious Christian faith. The sinner’s

return to God became thus our first and last concern. We here call out that sinners

repent, and the righteous turn to service, because the sinners’ return to God, and

receiving righteousness through Christ is our message to the world, for us to rejoice

the return of the sinner to Christ, and the righteous offering a deed to serve God.

1 Heb 11:1.

2 Note Col 3:4.

 3 Eph 1:4.

4 Eph 2:19.

Prayer

I, the sinner, have come to You, O God, accept me,

I have squandered my days in pleasure, and the enemy stole my certificate,

I have no more any joy in the world, for You alone are my goal and end,

The old serpent lured me with his cunning, and stole my primogeniture,

My situation has become like an orphan amid orphans, all deserting me, so accept

me,

My days have gone swiftly as a bobbin5, and the rope of my salvation has

become detached,

Where do I go, O Lord, as You are my only Merciful,

I confess my sin, and You only know my transgression.

7 July, 2005

5 Part of Job’s prayer Job 7:6. The bobbin of the tailor is known for the speed of its spinning.

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