This present and future salvation

Salvation is a promise, an inheritance of future fulfillment but also an experience we are to live now.  It is a personal and yet also a corporate action.

We read in 1Peter 1:3-5, "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see."

  

I understand we live in a physical world where the spiritual can become an afterthought; heaven can become an idea, a 'someday' promise that has lost its importance and truth for today.  The worlds standards have slowly invaded our thoughts and actions substituting our longing for God's ways with current fads or acceptable practices of the here-and-now.  The opposite is we can become too heavenly minded we loose sight of why we were created to be here. How we live and interact with others, how we represent the Kingdom of God today will have a huge impact not only on us but those around us.

Do we really live as Peter suggests with "great expectation" looking for a "priceless inheritance" one that is neither silver or gold or can be delivered in a Uhaul? Do we afford our thoughts and hearts to be dictated by our hunger for comfort or do we allow the still small voice of God's spirit to melt and reshape our minds to his thoughts and his standards?

Peter tells us we must go through trials but there is wonderful joy ahead of us.  It is through these trials that our faith grows; we don't see him now but we trust him and the reward for our trust will be the salvation of our souls.

Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour when he will return for us but the Father.  He calls us, he expects us, to be ready at any moment which means we are to live not in fear or condemnation but with hope and expectation.  If we truly believe we are preparing today in this world for a future home that is amazing and beyond anything we could ever experience here shouldn't our lives and lifestyles reflect that?  Shouldn't we be willing to go the extra mile to bring this hope to others around us?  Shouldn't our actions be the sweet aroma of Christ rather than the repugnant scent of complacency and conformity to the world to those around us?  We all long for truth and identity in something (Someone) greater than ourselves.  Not just words spoken Sunday morning, but lived through our touch to others 24/7.   

It should never be enough to know that "we have our ticket to heaven."   The daily cry from our hearts should be "God open my ears and my eyes to see the hurting, the disillusioned, and the rejected from society and may I have the privilege of sharing your Good News, your aroma with them today."

For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2 NLT)

Empyting

I’ve been reading a book about emptying oneself in order to make room for what God wants to do in and through our lives.  Must admit the self reflection has been revealing and emotionally exhausting at times.  Yet there has been, and is continuing to be, a cleansing very much like the summer rains I used to run in as a kid.  Did you ever do that?  Remember the fresh gentle rain falling on your warm skin?  Remember the relief from the heat and rejuvenation that came with the rain?  It recharged us to the point we could have run around until midnight with the energy that came from those rains.

This same kind of cleansing can come when we honestly ask the Lord to reveal things we have not let go from our past or dreams and hopes we are tight-fistedly holding onto for our future.  The wounds we never allow to heal from our past prevent us from using those as lessons in order to turn our past into opportunities to help someone else that is going through the same difficulty today.  The hopes and dreams we have do not need to hold our present in bondage if we allow the Lord to have those.  The harder we grip the less energy we have to live our today.  The harder we manipulate and work to have those dreams come to pass, the less we enjoy living our today.  We will never truly know if those dreams are planted in our hearts by the Lord until we release and allow God to fulfill his timing and his purposes in our lives. 

For me, I am learning there is a freedom in realizing I don’t have to know my future but rather trust that God will direct my current today to join paths with my future hopes and dreams.  Today I want to be open and prepared to hear God speak or see Him move in me and those around me.  Who knows, someone I come across today just may be that divine appointment from God to give clarity of his purposes for either me or them. 

Don’t dismiss the ‘outside’ appearance of a chance meeting.  God sometimes uses the most unlikely candidates to speak into each other’s life.

Philippians 1:6,2:3-4; 3:13; Jeremiah 29:11