A Constant Offense (a trilogy)

A Constant Offense
(a trilogy)

It still amazes me, after almost 40 years of salvation, that our God, in all His majesty and might, would even consider us weak men that are a continual offense unto Him (Gen 6:5). Every thought, every act, everything we are or think ourselves to be, are an offense unto the Lord, and yet He loves us. We are an offense every day of our lives, continually offending Him in some way, and yet He blesses us. The power of love is the greatest power on earth, the greatest power known to man. A bold statement you say? Not really, not when we remember that “God is love”. His mere essence is love, total, undeserving yet unlimited love; given freely and fully to man. He loved us (and still does) while we were “yet sinners”—at our very worst, (although we can get no better by our own merit) He sought us out, and washed us up, and set our feet on the path of righteousness, and all because of His Son and Calvary. What a gracious plan God had for man; what a wonderful God to “pull it off” and redeem men such as we are; only omnipotence could do it; only God could make it all happen, and only He did. Think of the patient long suffering he has toward us; only a true, very strong and real love could suffer our foolishness all the time, and still love us enough to bless us exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ask or think…only God can do that. Our sin is constantly before His face, every moment of every day, and yet…what amazing grace He gives; what an altogether amazing God we serve, and what a privilege that we have in doing so (although we little realize the fullness of it).



A Continual Feast

Though the Lord recognizes our sinful state, and that we are “but flesh”, He constantly blesses us with a continual feast of blessings. Each day, and every moment of the day, we are blessed; we are blessed with life, health, and a certain amount of wealth in this life, as well as many other-worldly blessings that He freely bestows upon us as a “bonus” blessing. In spite of our foolishness, He loves us. The love of God is phenomenal; it is almost unbelievable, and definitely inconceivable that he should love a people such as us, and still shower us with blessing after blessing until our “cup runneth over” with His favor, and we have no want of anything. We live in a state of blessing; we exist in the realm of God’s love, and that alone is the greatest of blessings; to think that our Creator, our all powerful and awe-inspiring God should even care to bless us is similar to us reaching out to a venomous snake or a scorpion, and taking great care for it, even if it seeks to bite us! It is even more fantastic than that that we should be blessed by such an all powerful and Almighty God. Yes, we are in a state of continual favor with the Lord, though none if us are fit to even speak of it, let alone bask in the comfort of it; there is no measure to the depth of His blessing; there are no words to describe it, nor any thing to compare it too because it supersedes our wildest dreams, and goes beyond even our most optimistic hopes. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever and ever, and to Him be all honor and glory and praise forever more.

A Contagious Hope

Now we get to the gist of the matter; our hope in Christ is a real hope, but “Hope that is seen is not hope” as we see in Romans 8:24, where it goes on to say, “For what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for?” And in verse 25, “But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” So, my friends, our hope is in Christ, and it is a contagious hope, one that will easily spread among an otherwise hopeless people and bring with it a real blessing, meant to be shared by all men. However, it will not be fruitful until we get the message out! Without faith to see the invisible we are left with a false hope, and unfulfilled desires. We must go, by faith, unto the multitudes and spread the message of hope.

By Gypsy Martindale