I once was a stranger. ( Ephesians 2 v 19 )

 I was listening to the music of a well known hymn ,'Nearer my God to lead',and I remembered  there was a time that I was a stranger to God and His ways.separated from Him by my sins (Isaiah 59 v2), far away from Him,without hope  and without God .The words of a hymn  by Robert Murray M'Cheyne sum it up,'I once was a stranger to grace and to God; I knew not my danger,and felt not by load; Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree, ''Jehovah Tsidkenu'' was nothing to me''.That's were I was for many years,but then something profound happened, in the words of that same hymn,'When free grace awoke me,by light from on high,Then legal fears shook me,I trembled to die; No refuge,no safety, in self could I see; ''Jehovah Tisdkenu'' my Saviour must be'.From that moment on I was no longer a stranger 'Now in Christ Jesus I who once was far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ'. (Ephesians 2 v 10.) A man called James Houstan was speaking and was stressing the privilege's we have been granted to the divine life of God',he wrote the following words,

                                                       'So near,so very near to God,

                                                        I cannot nearer be ,for in the

                                                        person of His Son,I am as near

                                                        as He.'