John 19:30 When He received His drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, He bowed His head and gave up His
spirit.

No matter what the sin, Jesus has made a way for us to forgiveness. We have a habit of thinking our sins are too great for Him to forgive. We hang onto our guilt and spend hours and days in grief. We allow our guilt to cloud our lives and tear from us our peace. 

Jesus never meant for us to suffer in vain. While we must confess and repent, He reminds us to move forward, not
dwell in the past. (Phil 3:13, 14) (Is 43:18) We may still be 
responsible to pay for our sins from a temporal point of view, but from God's point of view, we are eternally forgiven!! What we had done is forgotten by Him and is separated from His memory as far as the east is from the west.  

God, the Father, had a plan for us from the beginning of time. When Adam and Eve sinned, God sacrificed the first time to provide for them a covering. The blood of the animal was  spilled to clothe them. Each time they would dress, the skin of the animal would remind them of the cost of sin.
From that time until the time of the Cross, a temporary
sacrifice was necessary to cover our sins. The cost of sin is death.

At the Cross, however, the debt was paid. Some interpretations of 'It is finished' also say 'Paid in full'. Col 2:14 tells us that the written code has been cancelled (NIV). Christ has paid our debt.

This is the time to celebrate with great joy and 
appreciation. This is the time to accept willingly, the price Jesus  paid so that we can stand forgiven, clothed in grace and enfolded in mercy. We can stand in the presence of the Most High God and be accepted as His child. We are loved beyond all understanding and received with excitement and singing.

John 21:12 KJV Jesus said to them, "Come and dine."

John 6:51, 55-56 I am the living bread that came down from
heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. For My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in me and I in him.

Read John 6.

Throughout the Bible we are shown God's provision for our
physical and spiritual needs. He gave Jesus as the Passover Lamb. The Israelites ate the lamb prior to leaving Egypt. The Lord gave them manna in the wilderness to sustain their bodies. Through His miracles, He gave them spiritual food to sustain their eternal needs. They weren't satisfied with 
either. They wanted more.

We are, in the same way, given all we need through the Word of God to supply all our spiritual needs. We have been given a banqueting table to feast. We are given a balanced diet of promises. Some are given with conditions. Some are unconditional. Our salvation comes with the condition of 
acceptance and repentance. He promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us. (Deut 31:8, Heb 13:5)

A good clue to the type of God's promises is the word "if". 2 Chron 7:14 says "If My people... God promised to heal our land "if" His people would repent and return to Him. For a small word, it has a powerful effect.

God is a God of balance. He is not a Santa Claus that we give our list of "needs" and demand He supply them. He is not a God of vengeance that demands we give our lives for nothing. He is a God of such deep love that He gave His most precious gift, His Son, for us. He is a God that desires
the best for us. Sometimes, it seems He is far away but He is as close as our hearts and minds and souls.

His word is a banqueting table that supplies all our needs. When we dine on His word, we are given the whole armor of God to supply our immune system. He gives us the stripes on the back of Jesus for our healing.  We are encouraged eat of the Bread of Life. We are given the New Wine to comfort us. We are given the Living Water to quench our thirst.

Jesus said to us, "Come and dine." Ps 34:8 tells us to taste and see that the Lord is good. He is offering us a table of bounty. We don't  take advantage of what is offered.

If you find it difficult to partake and understand, pray for understanding. Luke 24:45 Then He opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures. He did not give us His word so that we could not benefit from it. He wants to supply all our needs. He loves us.

​Revelation 21 and 22 is a beautiful  description of where we, whose names are written in the Book of Life, will spend eternity.  Verse 3 says that "Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God."
 
Heaven is described as having streets of gold and twelve gates made of pearl. It will shine with the glory of God.  The foundation will be decorated with precious stones. There will be no temple because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. There will be a river of the water of life and it will flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
 
While we can't be there yet, we can make our churches a house of God. We can be the light to the world that draws all men to God. The Holy Spirit can give us comfort that we, in turn, can offer to the world. We have all the tools to turn our congregation into a spirit filled, on fire body of Christ.
 
When we get past our own preconceived ideas of what and how, when we open our hearts and minds to the Spirit's leading, we can, as Paul did, turn the world on it's ear.   Our true home is heaven but while we are here, on earth, we are God's servants and His witnesses. We are the occupying soldiers assigned to protecting and encouraging each other.

Our time will come to walk the streets of heaven and spend eternity with those who have gone before us.   There will be no more tears, no more pain, no more cancer or other diseases. There will be only praising and worshiping the Lord.
We will have a heavenly choir and even my voice will be a beautiful sound in the Lord's ear. 

Jesus has offered us such a deep and abiding love.  He loved us first, far before we were even born. He poured out His love and mercy and goodness on us from the creation of time. He and His Father made a way for us to be redeemed from our
sinfulness and willfulness. Adam cast  humanity into a deep ravine of death. Jesus cast into the ravine a way out. We need only grasp for the ladder of forgiveness and repentance.
 
The initial step is one of confession and acceptance of His
freely given forgiveness. The following climb is a day to day growth in our Christian walk. The Lord Jesus is offering us His hand to help us along the way. His love follows us all the days of our lives.  

What follows you in your day to day dealing with others? Do
others look forward to being with you or do they wonder how you will react to them and their current issues? We all want to be known for our love just as Jesus said we would be if we obey His word and live according to His guidance.
 
I have a friend who brags about being a 'high maintenance'
person. She expects others to bow to her preferences and demands and will not bend to the needs of others. She is difficult to work with and has a critical attitude.   When I go to be with the Lord, I wonder what those I leave behind will have to say about me. Will I leave a legacy of mercy, love and
compassion or will I be remembered with a less than positive reputation?
 
I would like to leave behind me a harvest of the seeds I have
planted in other's lives. I would like those seeds to root, grow and produce another crop of compassion and mercy in the next generation. My deepest heart's desire is to hear the Lord's words of praise, "well done my good and faithful servant."

I pray for you, that you too, will hear those words. I pray that your legacy to others will be that surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.