January 30 Equality of Atonement

Exodus 30:15 The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not give less when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives.

Smith talks about how everyone is on equal footing before God as it relates to salvation – we all have the same access to the Father and the same future hope through his grace and our faith.

I read this before we left for church today, and this “happened” to be a communion service where the focus was again on the grace of God. Pastor talked about two things – you cannot do enough good works to earn salvation and you cannot have real salvation without works – not that the works earn salvation, but they evidence salvation.

Yesterday I was wrestling with being the dwelling place of God, thinking about what I put in that dwelling place. And over the last few days, I have been also thinking about how changed am I because he is in that dwelling place.

At first my tendency was to beat myself up because of the bad choices or failures in my life. I think that probably made the evil one real happy because it depressed and discouraged me. But then God reminded me of how changed I am, how many of my choices are made without thinking and made right because of the work of the Spirit in my life, because of the closeness of our relationship.

I don’t say that to point out how good I am, but because it illustrates Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” You are influenced by the company you keep. The more you hang out with God, the more your choices will reflect his presence.

So, by the grace of God, he made me his own and he dwells within and he has influenced my life. Oh, I haven’t arrived; temptation still stalks me, but God walks beside me. He dwells within me helping me to choose good works, not to earn his love and grace, but as a response to it.

I picked up my Bible, and it struck me, as it often does, how much I love it. I love it. I get to read it, to listen to God speak through it. It brings me peace and joy and hope and I know I am blessed by God to be able to read it. I don’t read it to show God a good work. I read it because I love him back and I want to know what he has to say to me. That hunger reassures me that God is still at home in my heart.