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Someone smart once said, “your days aren’t numbered, they’re getting longer as you step closer to eternity.” I really liked that from a quirky physics perspective and from the perspective of one of God’s paradoxical truths. Our days are actually shorter when we’re young because we’re farther away from eternity. The closer we move towards it, the longer our number of days grow. We aren’t running out of time, we’re expanding towards it.
Such ideas speak to God’s abundance, to the abundance of cultivating a kingdom mindset. The world relentlessly preaches scarcity, so there is never enough, never enough time, never enough money…..never enough love. Everything is viewed through a lens of deprivation, as if there are a very limited amount of resources, and somebody could snatch them away at a moment’s notice. Scarcity.
The God I know is rich in resources, infinite, beyond our ability to even conceive of. He doesn’t just come to give us life, He comes to give us life and life abundant. He doesn’t just say “I shall water you,” He says, “thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” He doesn’t just promise us a little bit of heaven, He says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” He promises us heaven beyond our imagination. We don’t just have grace, we have amazing grace.
I have a hard time stepping into the abundance of God, cultivating His kingdom mindset, resisting that relentless drumbeat from the world that always insists on focusing on scarcity and limits and “not enough.”
Yesterday I went to buy a pack of Oreos, the last on the shelf, and just as I was reaching for them a woman dive bombed me from behind. I think she would have tackled me if I hadn’t let go and jumped back quickly. It was comical, she was quite gleeful and I was thinking, oh good grief, they’re just cookies. You can have them!
Later that afternoon another woman brought me an entire case of Oreos. So, so many Oreos, I tried to resist her gift, tried to find away to bow out of it gracefully, but she is diabetic and didn’t want them in her house. I was not sure I did either, but I remembered that tussle earlier in the grocery store, and thought, now isn’t that just like the God I know? His perfect timing, His perfect synchronicity, His abundance at work.
They’re only cookies. God hasn’t given me a Ferrari yet, but in a metaphorical sense He has, in the sense that He has opened my eyes to possibilities I never even knew existed.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Wonderful post.
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🙂
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May God continue to bless you… with cookies and more…. 😉
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the cookies are more important than that ferrari—because it’s those little things He sees, which are really more telling than those great big grandiose things….
from one cookie to now another 😉
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The joy is in knowing he was aware of your grocery store experience, and it is likely that he was saying “thanks” in a very creative manner.
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Reblogged this on 👁️ STREETPSYCHIATRY 👁️ and commented:
Definitely a topic we would’ve chosen had insanitybytes22 not worded this so well
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couldn’t have said it better, excellent post
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Love reading your blog. Your perspective on issues are so refreshing!
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Thank you 🙂
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“The closer we move towards it, the longer our number of days grow. We aren’t running out of time, we’re expanding towards it.
Such ideas speak to God’s abundance, to the abundance of cultivating a kingdom mindset.”
Love this perspective. It true, God’s abundance is so counter-intuitive to our scarcity-driven brain, even though He made a gazillion stars, and who knows how many galaxies, when we can only see a tiny fraction of them. Probably part of that lesson He’s trying to teach us.
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Super diary! I actually enjoy how it is easygoing on my eyes and also the information are good scripted. I am questioning how I might be notified whenever a newborn post has been successful. I have signed to your rss feed which must make the trick! By!
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The cookie has ALREADY crumbled… While I appreciate and concur (from a strictly metaphysical perspective), I’d like to ‘qualify’ something regarding your statement “The closer we move towards it, the longer our number of days grow. We aren’t running out of time, we’re expanding towards it”.
The truth about eternity is that it has no expiration date. For those who have become born again (spiritually birthed into eternal life in Christ), according to scripture such personal experience is the entrance into eternity.
Christ declared: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me HAS everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but HAS PASSED from death into life” – Jn. 5:24.
The original verbs (has, passed) are BOTH past tense, concluding the ‘point’ of entrance into eternity is at the moment of acceptance of belief in Christ’s statement. Obviously, the final separation from the mortal body is still yet to occur, but the very essence of our beings are no longer under an expiration date like those who perish instead.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not PERISH but have everlasting LIFE” – Jn. 3:16.
In that scripture (in context with Christ’s declaration ‘Ye Must be Born Again’ – Jn. 3:7) Jesus points to TWO possible destinies = PERISH or ETERNAL LIFE.
The sacrificial blood of Christ so perfectly covers all sin, removing forever the curse (spiritual death) it once imposed, that ‘having passed from death to life’, entrance into eternity has ALREADY begun for those who are born of the spirit.
As a pastor/counselor I’ve witnessed too few people living in the perpetual awareness of the abundant life promised by Jesus. In my experience, they all continue in mind-sets founded upon false belief systems that reject the notion of ‘eternal security’, leaving their ultimate destiny still uncertain. Abundant life is perceived as merely an expectation of a better existence in the after-life. Living in hopes of yet attaining it are quit different from living in thanksgiving for having already acquired it.
Sadly, a common ‘argument’ against eternal security (‘once saved, always saved’) usually incorporates an idea of some sense of ‘works’ required, rather than a full understanding of the scriptural teachings on GRACE. Abundant life comes through such GRACE – it cannot be earned, nor is it appropriated by God, only to be revoked at some later date due to ‘unforeseen difficulties’. God is Omniscient and NEVER makes mistakes, nor fails to rightly give accordingly.
Either we are saved and we KNOW it, or we’re following false teachings that rob us of our full heritage in Christ – NOW.
To all concerned, for further insight into the topic of Biblical Salvation, Grace, and Eternal Security, I’ve written several Articles posted to my blog @ mjthompsons.wordpress.com/home/articles-table-of-contents/.
Gabrielle, as always, may God continue to abundantly bless and anoint you; we don’t need Ferrari’s where we’re going.
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