by John Smith, Worth Valley Community Church

I READ a quote recently which said “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop."

Imagine if we could choose who we are. We could be someone famous. Someone who lived long enough to enjoy the profit their fame brought them. An inventor? A scientific genius? The list could go on and on.

But what about when I die? What comes next? Will I really be just an urn of ashes or an embalmed body? Will my name be at best remembered for 200-300 years or will I just be another statistic? Is there more to life than just trying to pay the bills and choose whether to remain a European or a Brexit?

Being born again into Christ Jesus changes everything. It's like that drop mentioned in the quote. The old life with all its sin and unholy mistakes evaporates. It's as if we had never sinned. The penalty for our sin has been paid for through Jesus who, although he knew no sin, took our sin upon himself on the cross.

Now, I am a new creation in Christ. My old life has gone. I have a new nature and the promise of God that I will go to heaven. And I can experience heaven right here, right now.

"The Kingdom of heaven is within you," said Jesus. Just like condensing the ocean into a single drop and then bringing all those billions of drops back together to create an ocean, the believers in Christ are a condensed version of who Christ Jesus is. Once we are born again, we are everything God designed us to be in Jesus.