SPRING FORTH NOW 2023

So roll up your sleeves, get your head in the game, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.” You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living. Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.

I Peter 1:13-21 (MSG)

Life is what we make of it, you have been Chosen to win. We can either see it as an opportunity to cultivate the space in which we live and live abundantly or we can see it as an ongoing challenge in which we struggle from experience to experience to produce. Without question, life is full of challenges but each challenge must be seen as an opportunity to cultivate your space in which you glean from your challenges experiences antidotes that allow you to cultivate your space in the midst of your challenges toward being fruitful and multiplying. Insight is key to our ability to not just struggle from experience to experience but instead see in our experiences, keys that allow us to build into our cultivating, our living that which will take the sting of death, the challenges, and yet give us victory in the midst of the challenge and press forward to our reward, being fruitful and multiplying. The insight required means you must get your head in the game, think through your challenges and glean from them that which will empower you to navigate and overcome not only the present challenge but also equip you for further challenges. Your being equipped keeps you determined, in the way to win, and with such insight, you are more sensitive to the tricks of the enemy, negativity. Your sensitivity to the enemy allows you to draw on your lived experiences as well as your inner strength, the Spirit of God inside you, the very Chosen-ness for your life. Therefore, despite your challenges, including your shortcomings and incapacities, you are well equipped because you have been built for your journey; your lived experiences and the indwelling of God’s Spirit that you can rest under the blood, the sacrifice of Christ who died so you could have your life and life more abundantly. Remember, you have been Chosen and God has promised to be with you to the very end giving you a Most Favored Status to win, overcome and inherit all things!