Something I read today....
From The Grace Awakening by Charles Swindoll page 19
"Instead of striving for a manmade ticket to heaven based on high achievemnet and hard work (for which we get all the credit), I suggest we openly declare our own spiritual bankruptcy and accept God's free gift of grace. "Why?" you ask. "Why not emphasize how much I do for God instead of what He does for me?" Because that is heresy, plain and simple. How? By exalting our own effort and striving for our own accomplishments, we insult His grace and steal the credit that belongs to Him alone." |
Re: Something I read today....
From The Grace Awakening by Charles Swindoll pag 20-21
"Most people I know look forward to payday. You do, too, right? For a week, or perhaps a two week period, you give time and effort to your job. When payday arrives, you receive a hard-earned, well-deserved paycheck. I have never met anyone who bows and scrapes before his boss, saying, "Thank you. Oh, thank you for this wonderful undeserved gift. How can I possibly thank you enough for my paycheck?" If we did, he would probably faint. Certainly, he would think, What is wrong with this guy? Why? Because your paycheck is not a gift. You've earned it. You deserve it. Cash it! Spend it! Save it! Invest it! Give it! After all, you had it coming. In the workplace, where wages are negotiated and agree upon, there is no such thing as grace.We earn what we receive; we work for it. The wage "is not reckoned as a favor but as what is due". But with God the economy is altogether different. There is no wage relationship with God. Spiritually speaking, you and I haven't earned anything but death. Like it or not, we are absolutely bankrupt, without eternal hope, without spiritual merit; we have nothing in ourselves that gives us favor in the eyes of our holy and righteous heavenly Father. So there's nothing we can earn that would cause Him to raise his eyebrows and say, " Um, now maybe you deserve eternal life with me." No way. In fact, the individual whose track record is morally pure has no better chance at earning God's favor than the individual who has made a wreck and waste of his life and is currently living in unrestrained disobedience. Every one who hopes to be eternally justified must come to God the same way: on the basis of grace; it is a gift. And that gift comes to us absolutely free. Any other view of salvation is heresy, plain and simple." |
Re: Something I read today....
Greasy Grace!!!!!
Easy Believism!!!! Weak on the Message!!!! OK, I'm just kidding. I agree with what Chuck Swindoll is saying. The Apostle Paul said, "the wages of sin is death" (that's what we earn, that's what we get based on our works) BUT the gift of God is eternal life Thank God for that gift!!! |
Re: Something I read today....
This is a note written in the margin of my Bible at Jeremiah chapter 31
The New Covenant is a "gift certificate" for salvation. The merchandise is not free. Someone paid the price. We just go to the store and claim the purchased item. |
Re: Something I read today....
Awesome stuff!
|
Re: Something I read today....
Good words mizpeh. But I can tell you it's not the way I heard it.....
Very little mention of grace in fact. |
Re: Something I read today....
From Joyce Meyer's The Battlefield of the Mind, a devotional #84
Quote:
|
Re: Something I read today....
Mark 22:37-38 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence Brother Lawrence emphasized that all physical and mental disciplines and exercises were useless, unless they served to arrive at the union with God by love. He had well considered this. He found that the shortest way to go straight to God was by a continual exercise of love and doing all things for His sake. Also, he noted that there was a great difference between acts of the intellect and acts of the will. Acts of the intellect were comparatively of little value. Acts of the will were all important. Our only business was to love and delight ourselves in God. He then said that all possible kinds of self-sacrifice, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. Instead, we ought, without anxiety, expect the pardon of our sins from the blood of Jesus Christ, endeavoring only to love Him with all our heart. He noted that God seemed to have granted the greatest favors to the greatest sinners as more proof of His mercy. Brother Lawrence said the greatest pains or pleasures of this world were nothing compared to what he had experienced of both kinds in a spiritual state. As a result he feared nothing, desiring only one thing of God - that he might not offend Him. He said he carried no guilt because, "When I fail in my duty, I readily acknowledge it, saying, I am used to do so. I shall never do otherwise if I am left to myself. If I do not fail, then I immediately give God thanks, acknowledging that it comes from Him." http://www.practicegodspresence.com/...resence08.html |
Re: Something I read today....
I like many of his sayings and writings.
|
Re: Something I read today....
Quote:
Here's an excerpt from his 4th conversation: Quote:
|
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:09 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.5
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.