Tom Cruise Ain't Got Nothing On The Father

So. Myspace has taken to being a big time killer for me. And one night I was doing one of those surveys. You know, the ones that you do only when you're really bored, but you secretly love to do them, because it is your excuse to talk about what's going on in your life, despite the fact that people don't read it, only open it to copy and do by themselves. haha. Anyway, I was doing that,

When I came across this question:

[twelve] ever had a near death experience?

Now, I've come across this question before, and I've given the regular non-chalant response of, "sure." or "not recently." But this time was different. What ended up coming out of my thoughts and straight onto the screen was:

every day is a near death experience.

Now, as "morbid" as this can be taken, I really wasn't thinking about life being dangerous and I wasn't being pessimistic in any way. I was just being honest and I added to my answer that "every day is a near death experience. [IN THE CHRISTIAN SENSE]" because, it did hit me, in the moment that I typed it, that to a Christian, it's the truth. To a Christian, every day is a struggle to cling to the cross. Every day is a battle with sin and therefore a battle with death.

Each time you are faced with the struggle of whether or not to sin, you face a near death experience. You teeter off the edge, constantly on the brink of really falling back into the world. But who keeps you from falling? Who saves you every time?

God does.

And not only does He SAVE you. He does it by sending His Son to go Mission Impossible on your butt by leaning off that edge dangerously to grab hold of you and then He uses His incredible God-given strength to push you back onto the ledge while He continues to take the fall.

All For You.

How awesome is that? You'd think we'd start to feel guilty for making Christ rescue us every time. But most of the time we don't. Most of the time we're so focused on our own little worldly lala land that we don't even see it.

Haha. Oh to be only human.

Now, don't misunderstand this; Jesus did not and does not die ten billion times a day to attone for each and every one of your sins individually. No. Christ sacrificed himself once for our sins. Only once. [That's all it took because his one perfect human life was enough to attone for generations of a world of sinners]. What I'm saying is that when your faith dwindles and when you slowly start to drift toward that edge he is constantly there.

The gift of God has so much more to the package than Christ dying for your sins. That's only the pretty wrapping; what you get out of it is a relationship with God and protection; constant love that keeps you from falling back into that sin. God doesn't leave you. He is always at your side, waiting and expecting you to need help, ready to save you from ultimately yourself, and so, that is why every day is a near death experience. Every day we are close to that edge, and every day we are on the brink of losing our footing. Every day we almost die to this world. But we are saved, each and every time.

I mean, For a Christian, there are moments when we see ourselves fall, when our life begins to flash before our eyes and we begin to lose our footing and cry out to the Lord, reaching for that hand that we know will take hold of us and bring us back onto the narrow path. But, I'm not just talking about those times when we know we're in trouble and when we know we are saved. I'm talking about all those times when we aren't even conscious of it. How, amazing is it, that even when we don't ask, God is constantly saving our butt? How awesome is it that He never gets tired of it, or expects us to recognize Him. I know I would get tired of saving the same people every day, every five minutes, and get even more frustrated if that person was so oblivious to the fact that I just saved their life. But God never does. And that is the biggest blessing that I have come realize.

God never tires of loving me enough to save me.

Meditate on that. And tonight, Praise God that He has the patience to tolerate us. Thank the Lord that He never gets tired of saving us and that no matter what He never will. Exalt Him because He is ever present and full of ever lasting love for a world of sinners who forget to acknowledge Him. A world that needs saving every day from it's constant near-death experiences.

Praise God, because He saved and continues to save your life.

Psalm 20:6
6 Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.

-penman