Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts

Monday, May 2, 2011

Giving Thanks To God For He is Good














So full of gratitude for all the blessings the Lord rains down on us! Lord, help us to always be grateful...
Psalm 9:1[ Psalm 9 ] For the director of music. To the tune of “The Death of the Son.” A psalm of David. I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

8-For the rain that helps our plants grow

9-For the beauty of  Spring in bloom 
10-For creativity also in bloom

11-For Friendships that bring joy to our lives  
12-For family vacations on the beach so longed for

13-For  a wonderful husband and a beautiful  son
14-For moments to cherish in pictures
15-for strolls on magnificent beaches
16-for peace in our hearts
17-For Love that surpasses our understanding...



















Gracefully Daisy







Thursday, November 4, 2010

Galatians 4 adoption to sonship

I was reading about children who live in the streets and my heart broke for them. I held my baby boy this morning and prayed for them that the Lord would help them and use us to help those that need him! Just like Christina had been talking about adoption this Chapter completely brought that subject home! As I prayed I began to see that this is how we were lost in the streets of sin without hope until we met our Saviour! He came to make everything right. Hope began to grow stronger in me for those children I was praying for because even if they are not adopted by earthly parents there is a Father that will adopt them and not only that but make them his sons for eternity!


Galatians 4:4-7 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[b] 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[c] Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.


I discovered today that the Greek word for adoption to sonship is a legal term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture.


so by Christ's blood we are redeemed and are now sons of God and because we became his sons he  sent his Holy Spirit into our hearts-we are now no longer slaves but heirs and redeemed to call him our Abba-which means father. He doesn't stop there of course because we are now his children he also made us an heir with Christ. This means that we have full access to his throne.

Hebrews 4:16 (New International Version)

16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

praise the Lord! His Word is truly alive and true and this truth continues to tear down walls that have been stubbornly taking up space in my heart that belongs to Christ alone. Because now I know that I have been adopted to Sonship I can approach his throne with confidence.

Hebrews 2: 10-18 basically rewords these beautiful truths to strengthen our faith.


10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.[g] 12 He says,
   “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
   in the assembly I will sing your praises.”[h]
 13 And again,
   “I will put my trust in him.”[i]
   And again he says,
   “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”[j]
 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them,[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.



So now after believing in him to be our Savior-the center of our lives he has given us freedom to live life forever with him. We are no longer bound in fear about where we will spend eternity-we are not afraid to die because he took the fear of death away by giving us eternal life! 

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Galatians 2 Stop trying to be good accept God's Grace


It is only day two and I am learning so much!

The accusation is frivolous. If I was "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.
19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
   Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
Galatians 2:18-21 the message
So many times I find myself going through check lists and when i am able to check off things on it I feel good. I feel like God ought to love me more because I did all the things on my list that are good. He gently reminds me, " I have loved you with an everlasting love..." Jeremiah 31:3 His grace is sufficient I need to stop trying to be good-stop trying to keep the rules I made up and just be a woman according to God's heart. 

So, I must remember to crucify myself with Christ daily-although sometimes I need to hourly! Because Christ's life is the perfect example of what I should do. I love the way the message states this-IT IS NO LONGER IMPORTANT FOR ME TO APPEAR RIGHTEOUS OR TO TRY TO IMPRESS GOD. 
what a load of my shoulders-God doesn't want to be impressed by me-he wants to be loved in obedience by me-what a beautiful thing his death and resurrection has set us free to have a relationship with him!
BY GRACE WE HAVE BEEN SAVED THROUGH FAITH!
Ephesians 2:5
that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

Another verse  that caught my attention was 
"The only additional thing they asked was that we remember the poor, and I was already eager to do that." Galatians 2:10
as I was doing research  
I found this writing by Charles Spurgeon http://www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/0099.htm
I like this excerpt
 "Grace is a plant which draws no nourishment from the wilderness in which it grows; it finds nothing to feed upon in the heart of man; all it lives upon it receives supernaturally. It sends all its roots upwards, none downwards; it draws no support from poverty, and none from riches. Gold cannot sustain grace; on the other hand, rags cannot make it flourish. Grace is a plant which derives the whole of its support from God the Holy Spirit, and is therefore entirely independent of the circumstances of man. But yet, mark you, it is an undeniable fact, that God hath been pleased for the most part to plant his grace in the soil of poverty. He has not chosen many great, nor many mighty men of this world, but he hath "chosen the poor of this world—rich in faith—to be heirs of the kingdom of God." We should wonder why, were we not quite sure that God is wise in his choice. We cannot dispute a fact which Scripture teaches, and which our own observation supports, that the Lord's people are, to a very large extent, the poor of this world. Very few of them wear crowns; very few ride in carriages; only a proportion of them have a competence; a very large multitude of his family are destitute, afflicted, tormented, and are kept leaning, day by day, upon the daily provisions of God, and trusting him from meal to meal, believing that he will supply their wants out of the riches of his fullness"

with the holidays coming up let's make an effort to remember those in need and rally together to help them.
be it in our bible studies, social groups, or book clubs-maybe a food drive or donations?
We can do all things through Christ! phil 4:13