What gift is this?

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord . . . Colossians 2:6 NKJV The life of faith is represented as receiving—an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we—giving nothing—take freely of the grace of God. Saints are not, by nature, wells or streams; they are cisterns into which the living water flows, empty vessels into which God pours His salvation. This idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, of making the matter a reality. One cannot receive a shadow; we receive things that are substantial. And so it is in the life of faith, when Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith, Jesus is merely a name to us—He is a person who lived so long ago that His life is only history to us today! But by an act of faith, Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our heart. Receiving, though, also means grasping or getting possession of. The thing I receive becomes my own; I appropriate to myself whatever is given. When I receive Jesus, He becomes my Savior—so much my Savior that neither life nor death will be able to rob me of Him. All this is to receive Christ—to take Him as God’s free gift, to realize Him in my heart, and to appropriate Him as mine. Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life. But we have not only received these blessings, we have received Christ Jesus himself. It is true that He gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon for sin and imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them—we have received Christ himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received Him and appropriated Him. What a heartful Jesus must be, since heaven itself cannot contain Him! - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening 

What kind of gift is Salvation?  Read his devotional again.  It's free. No strings attached.  Yet the promise of transforming us is undeniably there.  

Even as he mentioned believers being cisterns, the recipient of the water of life, the cistern itself is changed.  

There is nobody who has met with Jesus that wasn't changed in some way. Even Judas was at the beginning.  Judas, like the leftover exiles leaving Jerusalem after King Nebuchadnezzar took over who were bent on going to Egypt.  They knew the word of God yet steadfastly chose to reject it.  Believing the doctrines of demons.  Just as our world is today. 

Yes, for the world to lay ahold of the sin and evils that they do, to embrace the darkness rather than the light of Christ, is to believe in the doctrines of demons. 

Salvation sets the one free from that, it opens their eyes to what is, not what they were told it was. 

Scripture says that they exchanged the truth for a lie and worshipped the creature rather than the Creator. 

The gift is before you, if you haven't received it yet.  No strings, no surprises, just Salvation that brings you home to be with Jesus forever.  

The Prodigal Son left what was safe with his father, not believing that there was evil in the world.  Not believing that it wasn't all shiny gold to be had.  He spent years in misery as the truth of life hit him day after day.  Month after month.  Until he realized that there was indeed some possible Salvation to be had, even if it meant working for his father rather than being considered a son again.  So he started back home.  Little did he know that from the very day that he left, his father scoured the horizon, looking in hope beyond all hope, for his son to return. 

My friend, if you are still wandering this world then that son is you. 

The Father sits, watching the horizon for any sign that you are coming home. 

Notice that the Father of this son had not wanted to hear why he had returned, didn't care what brought him so low.  It was important only that he was home. 

God doesn't care how dirty you think you are. 

God doesn't care how much baggage you think you are bringing. 

God says to just come. He will take care of the rest. He will take care of your scrapes and wounds.  He will bring you new clothes to wear. He will.  Not you. You don't need to figure out how to be less sinful in order to be saved.  There's no way that you can be.  A sin, a single sin, is worth the death penalty with God.  

If you just come to Christ, He takes all of that away. His love for you held Him on the cross.  He was and is God. He easily could have had a thought or spoken a word and all His suffering would have ended.  He could have wiped out humanity in less than a heartbeat. He stayed on that cross to make the way possible for you to be saved. You.

The gift and offer are free. 

Both are there for a limited time.   Soon, as Jesus said, He will return to bring home those who are saved, the dead first then those who are alive.  If you haven't asked to be saved by then, it will be possible to be saved, but you will likely be here while God's judgment is unleashed upon the Earth. 

The time is now. Stop with the buts.

But you don't know...you are right, I don't. God does and wants you anyway. 

But what about...you are right again...I have my own things that I have done. God says in Him that I am forgiven. So can you be. 

Now is the time to say that there are no more excuses...that you want to be saved.