Monday, August 18, 2008

Grace - It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it!

Our church is going through Romans together and after yesterday's services it was absolutely evident that our senior pastor Bob Westfall has been "swept away" by the concept of grace. Grace is a hard truth to grasp because most of us tend not to be grace people. We are taught from childhood that when we do good things, good things happen, and when we do bad things we upset people and they are no longer happy with us. Not with God.

God loves you as much now as he ever could and you could never do anything to make him love you any more or any less. But why do we try? I believe that it is the most audacious, pride-filled attitude that says we can do something to merit God's favor. The reason we try to work on our sin is because deep down we believe that we can "buck up" and do better. We can't.

In our newly formed ABF Dave Kvindlog led us through a study of grace and when we looked at these verses, I knew I had to share them with my readers today:

It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this. Titus 3 The Message

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