Free Gifts

Fun Fact about Rachel #83:

I love coffee...a lot.

I also love coffee mugs. So much so that my husband asked me to pick which ones I loved most, and then move the others into the attic because we were running out of room.

When I came across this blog and read about a mugswap, I signed up instantly! I received my assignment earlier this week, (the person I'm to buy a mug for, a little bit about her likes and style and her mailing information.) How fun is that!?

Today I found the perfect mug for her:

I hope when (and if) she sees this post, that she'll know how excited I am for her to have this mug.

I've been doing a lot of soul searching lately. I've had this deep desire to expand my relationship with Christ. I'm eager to know my purpose, and how God wants me used to do His will. I want to boldly share my faith in Jesus because I want others to know the amazing love of Christ. I want every person I come into contact with to know Him intimately.


So I've been reading through Ephesians this week. 

My church Vintage City, is in a series called 'Identity' discussing who we are, who we used to be, and who we are in Christ. 

I think Ephesians 1 does a great job of helping me understand who God says I am.

• You are chosen (v. 4).
• He has made you holy and blameless.
• You are adopted as children through Jesus Christ (v.5)

It's hard sometimes to read these promises and feel worthy. I always feel like I can do better, I can be better.

 Paul warms my heart in verses 17-19:

'I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.'

I pray this prayer often. Not only for myself but for so many others too. My heart sometimes feels like its busting with love for Christ, so much so that I want everyone else to have that same feeling.

Ephesians 2 I think, does a good job of telling us who we were. Paul describes it for us:

 'All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath' (v.3)

This is what it is without God, we have no hope of saving ourselves.

But then...
'But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved' (v. 4-5)

'For by grace I have been saved through faith. And this is not my own doing; it is the gift of God' (v.8)

It's a gift, simple as that. The gift of grace.  
I'd like to think that God feels the same way about us accepting Him and His grace the same way I do about my mugswap buddy getting her mug. 

I hope she'll know how excited I am for her to have this gift. 

God feels the same way about our relationship with Him. When we feel His love, that we will know how excited He is for us, and wants to give us the gift of grace.