Are You The Gift? (Read Scriptures Prescribed) There are certain indelible qualities scripted in our lives that live on forever. For me it is the 5 year old, who, ripping off the christmas wrappings, discovered the colouring book he did not want and complained to his mom: "A Book is not a Present!" The disdain and disinterest of that 5 year old lives on. The Bible is not the Gift. So come let us take off the wrappings and discover who the gift really is. Getting The Ideal GIFT: When buying someone a gift we first do our Homework. Is it what she really wants? Has she got it? Will she like to have it? Does she NEED it? This is part of the criteria we engage before we go shopping. Secondly, we will research the need so that the product is exactly what is desired and will amply satisfy the need. Rather pay more and get the right product than go back 3 months later because the motor burnt out. Find what satisfies, check the Guarantee, read the Owners manual and verify the specifications on that model. Watch how your gift is received. You will know if this is just another "Me Too" gift or if it is "The Real Thing". As the wrapping comes off the eyes light up, the hands automatically clap together and there is this ancient dance called a Jiggle that tells you, your choice was spot on. The intense delight as the gift is immediately put to use. Everyone is told to come and see how these new electronic dentures devour the meat ... WHATEVER? James 1:17 says: "Every good and perfect GIFT is from above coming down from the father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows". We know that God researched what mankind's greatest NEED was before He packaged His gift to us. His gift to us is LOVE wrapped up in swaddling cloths delivered to a manger in Bethlehem and He called His name JESUS which means Saviour. Because we have a God shaped need or vacuum in our lives, we need this Gift shaped by God to fit the Need. We were birthed with a built-in need for Love, Acceptance, and Relationships. God is Love. He accepts us with all our warbles and He calls us into a life-changing relationship with Jesus, who became flesh so that it would be possible to relate to HIM. The product manual [The Bible] promised that He would bring salvation, healing, deliverance, and freedom from the yoke of sin and that He would reconcile us to GOD so that we could be called the children and friends of GOD. Wrapped Delivered, all we must do is Accept, open and use. Paul said in 2 Cor 9:15, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable Gift". That is what Jesus personifies. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have Everlasting Life". What a Gift? What a Guarantee? What Glory? Indescribable GIFT: Grace: John 1:17 - - Grace and Truth was given through Jesus Christ. So let's exam GRACE and TRUTH and the IF in between. Grace = Unmerited Favour. Getting what we don't deserve because He took away the curse we do deserve. Ephesians 2:8 says we are saved by GRACE through faith, not of ourselves; It is God's GIFT to us. This is the promise we have. This is the warranty, the strength, and validity of our relationship. His Grace will save us, take us out of the mud of despair and set us on a mountain called salvation. Abraham was told that on the mountain it will be provided. Are you in the pit of panic and pollution? Get out! Get Grace! [Psalm 40]. Get the new song of Amazing Grace as you discover the power that changes you, taking you higher from glory to glory. INSPIRATION: Power to win, no matter the odds that are against us. Like mountain climbers, we see the summit; the goal. Not the Wind or the Ice or the Storms that can stop us. We have a passion to reach the top. Anointing of the Holy Spirit that breathes New Life into our Dry Bones. This is the source of our Inspiration. Never Quit! Never give up attitude that conquers the negatives. This is the power that God gives us. Triumphant shouts of gladness as we Delight in our risen conquering King. We have a Song to sing! When you are inspired to do something or go somewhere, nothing can stop you. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The hurdles and the difficulties are no setback when the gift of the Spirit is in you. Greater is He in you than the negative forces of evil that try to stop you. You will need the gift of Holy Spirit INSPIRATION. FORGIVENESS: Freedom from Fatigue. Sin saps you, His forgiveness strengthens you. Faint-hearted and failing we come to Him. Changed and transformed we face the challenges. Forgiven much, we love much [Luke 7:47]. If we don't forgive we die, we suffer, we sin. Famous fault of mankind. We don't forgive and therefore we cannot experience His Forgiveness. Fundamental to our relationship with GOD is the fact that He has forgiven us ALL our sins and has buried them in the sea of His Forgetfullness. Now HE says: "Take this Gift and develop a Lifestyle. Choose to forgive everyone the way that I have forgiven you. Don't keep an account of any of the actions or accusations against you. Treat even your enemies as though they are your best friends and watch the power of forgiveness clean up your life and take you higher up the mountain" [Matthew 18:21-35]. Notice the conditions of forgiveness. TRUTH: Jesus said Truth would set us free, not if we heard it but if we encountered Him and embraced Him [John 14:6]. Truth is more than the opposite of deceit and lies. John 8:44 identifies the devil as the source of deception and the father of lies.Choose who your father will be. Truth is not a message. It is a controlling Power that builds Character. Jesus is Truth and the more you fellowship with Him, the more you become like Him. Truth makes us TRUE. Don't be distorted by counterfeit religion, get to know the truth [John 8:32]. The more you employ truth, the straighter you grow. Truth must be your Lifestyle not a concept. If you always use the Spirit Level you will always stand up straight. So now the GIFT is unwrapped but we have not put it to use. The Gift has no value in a book or on the shelf. It was made flesh in Jesus [John 1:1]. Now it must be seen in those who call themselves "Christians". SAY YES to His GIFT and see how His GIFT changes YOU. Saying Yes to JESUS is saying Yes to His: Nature Ability Miraculous Power Eternal plan whereby He is your New Owner. As a boy growing up in a small town called Mafikeng, I was blessed to have Godly Missionaries visit our home. Some would stay for months. One of these was an elderly saint called Jack Raper. Half of his face was eaten away by cancer. You would never hear him complain or curse. Every night our custom at home was to read the Bible and pray in our lounge. Jack was the epitomy of Grace and the inspiration this young boy needed. He loved to read the Bible and pray but it was the moment he sang that you experienced the power of God. His favourite song was sung with a triumphant gleem in his eyes: "Let the Beauty of Jesus be seen in me. All His wondrous compassion and purity. Oh thou Spirit divine, All my nature refine. 'Till the Beauty of Jesus is seen in me". Jack died with the cancer on his face, but it could not destroy the NATURE of Jesus. His smile, his laughter, and the Holy Spirit glow placed the seal of authenticity over his life. Here I was confronted with the Truth, not in a book, but in a person. "A book is not a Present". You are the book that people read [2 Corinthians 3:2]. Application: I was given a book called "The Gift", but the book is not the gift. What is inside the book is the Gift. The knowledge that my sins were paid for because of His Grace and the fact that New Life had been given to me. Oh, what divine Inspiration to have this New Life pulsating within me! My Sins forgiven and I am being equipped with that same power to Forgive and grow in the nature of the Gift that now possesses me. Truth abounds! Life abounds! The Gift is not a book or a Philosophy but the Giver Himself. JESUS is the Gift and I the receiver can only benefit when I become the Gift that He will use to Transform the world around me. Until we become THE GIFT it is only a message in a book. Once you put your Faith in the Message, you become the GIFT Are YOU HIS GIFT?