Day 100 He Came Once For All

 

4/10/2026

 "We now have this light shining in our hearts, 

but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. 

This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” 

2 Corinthians 4:7 NLT

 

I awakened early this morning to find Alex in the kitchen, waiting by the door, wanting to be off on his morning tryst. He wasn't interested in food which leads me to believe he had already eaten earlier. No, Alex had bigger plans for his morning. Reluctantly, I opened the door and freed him, only to have him back at 7 am for his morning snack. He's been in and out all day, but so far he has not returned to spend the night. Cats definitely have minds of their own.

This morning the first person who came to mind was Jill, and her untimely death greatly disturbed me. Knowing she's with a great crowd of witnesses, in heaven, with her mom, should bring me peace, but the loss of mother, then daughter, has been very hard. I decided that I needed to get busy and see if I could muster the strength to clean to keep my mind from dwelling on this great sadness. Thankfully, I was able to vacuum and dust and scrub a couple of floors, not without events, but I did get the jobs done. I even vacuumed off my plush collection that sits along the top shelf of my bookcase. It was a good beginning. Now I just need to keep the momentum going.

As I was reading this morning, I happened upon a statement made by Dr. J Vernon McGee, who used to have a radio show call Thru the Bible. He had a monotone voice, rather high pitched, but pleasant with a country drawl. I used to love to hear him read through the Bible, then he'd explain the scriptures very clearly. The quote I read was this: "This is God's universe, and God does things His way. You may have a better way, but you don't have a universe." I imagine that statement stopped some people in their tracks. He was referring to man's idea of who a Savior should be. Sadly the church has much to do with people's mixed idea of why Jesus came and just what salvation includes. Even writing those words seems ridiculous to me, because it is blatantly obvious in the scriptures why Jesus left heaven to become man, so He could die a horrible death, to save us from our sins, so we wouldn't rot in hell, eternally separated from a God who loves us. After all, we didn't deserve this sacrifice. People have a hard time swallowing that truth too, but we are all sinners. Hebrews 9:27-28 puts it this way: "It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."

For me, that's great news! Knowing I can do nothing to earn salvation, but all I have to do is accept Christ's great sacrifice and surrender my life to God's perfect will. For me there is no better news, no better gift. I come empty-handed, in humility and with thanksgiving. The only treasure I need in this body is God's Spirit living within me, and the joy I feel is in sharing Him with others. Like I did with Jill and with her mom, and now they are enjoying His Presence with so many others. And although I'm here, waiting for my day to come, I want to continue to live daily in His Presence, listening for His leading, obedient to His word and His call.