[continued from previous message]   
      
   It is about grace, and letting grace in so that it will transform us   
   from the nothingness of our poverty to divine royalty, daughters and   
   sons within the Triune family of God.   
      
   In other words, if you are not empty, God cannot fill you up. Do you   
   want to be filled up with stuff of the world or with divine stuff?   
   “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his   
   soul?” (Mark 8:36)   
      
   In having nothing before God, we have God, and therefore have   
   everything. God is peculiar that way—the last shall be first, the   
   lowly shall be exalted. The way to bliss, to true joy and happiness,   
   is not through pride but through humility. Jesus is our example; he is   
   the Way.   
      
   It seems fitting to recall last week’s poem. Love, by its very nature,   
   always reaches outward.   
      
       As flowing water falls to seek the lowest point,   
       It gives all its energy away until none remains,   
       And then returns to the source to fall again.   
       What does the water gain from this falling?   
       What does life gain?   
      
   Just as water gravitates to the lowest point, so does love—by way of   
   humility.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)