06.01.15 

Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? - Romans 8:34-35 NKJV. 

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39 NKJV. 

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Hebrews 13:5 NKJV. 

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! - 2 Corinthians 9:15 NKJV. 

Alfred Guercio wanted to give his friends a nice and generous Christmas gift. So, he bought them a set of knives, which they accepted, and placed on top of their refrigerator. A few months later Guercio discovered that his friends had not used his gift, and the knife set was still on top of their refrigerator. Guercio decided that his friends were unworthy of having his generous gift, so he went to their house one afternoon to take the gift back. That's what he told JMS (a woman), since they were not going to use the knives he wanted them back. JMS was willing to give the knives back, and told the man to wait while she went to get them. Guercio did not want to wait; wedging his foot in the door as JMS was trying to close it. He then forcefully shoved the door open, proceeded to the kitchen grabbing up the knives as JMS screamed at him. JMS called 911. Guercio was arrested, charged with second degree burglary, and could go to prison for 90 days to ten years. I think it should have been first degree burglary, since there was a person in the home when he violently stole the knife set. (Minneapolis City Pages 03.17.15; kstp.com 03.16.15) 

Can you imagine the shock of someone you thought of as your friend, showing up at the door of your home unexpectedly, demanding the return of a Christmas gift? I think Guercio should be happy that his “friends” actually had kept the knives, because they could have regifted them to another family. Just in case you didn't know, when you give a gift to someone else, it is no longer yours! 

Whoever receives Christ Jesus as their Savior can be thankful that it is not Alfred Guercio who sits in judgment of their worthiness to continue in possession of the gift of eternal life. Of course, there are many humans today who do want to do exactly that; they, in what they believe to be their higher level of godliness, think it is their right to judge us. These human judges put themselves in the place of God to condemn what God has forgiven. These human judges would say that if we have sinned at any point that Christ Jesus has forsaken us. We can take comfort knowing that the Bible makes it absolutely perfectly clear that this is not, and will never be true; because Jesus Himself says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We will lose our fellowship, and peace when we sin, but not our salvation. To have that fellowship and peace restored we should confess our sins in repentance to Jesus seeking His forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 says what? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

God has given to us who know Jesus as our Savior a most costly, generous and precious gift. God's gift was generous and unbelievably costly, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).” God's gift was, and is so very precious, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).” Are you worthy of this gift? Am I worthy of this gift? Isaiah 6:6a tells us how worthy we are, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” We can only say with the apostle Paul, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”