Hi Mark,
Which one of us on our own can say we are righteous or that we are good enough to receive the Grace of God what a contradiction that is anyway, how can we receive Grace if we have to earn it.
Yes each one of us is rotten through and through in the flesh, not one of us seeks after God, we have all gone our own way, and in the flesh we are capable of the vilest deeds and our thoughts and actions are evil, we love ourselves, and we seek our own glory taking no interest in others unless it suites us to do so, the heart of flesh is evil above all things.
Oh but the Wonder and Glory of the Grace of God coming from a Heart of Love and Compassion, are we the objects of His Love are we worthy of all this No, but He can be no other way, He is Love and can do no evil. He knows those who are His and has from the beginning, He draws us to repentance by the Holy Spirit, the seeds have been planted and watered and the harvest begins.
Sadly He knows those who are not His and He hates their eternal sin, their name or what they stand for is a blemish in His sight, does He hate them His fallen Children those who will never come to repentance, those who see His Glory but refuse to humble themselves and choose to worship the created things of the flesh … No! they are His enemies and He tells us to Love our enemies and do good to them, can He do different or less.
But why not, they hurt His Redeemed Children over and over, they pour out their idolatries and filth and pollute and corrupt, they lie and make His Grace a thing to be laughed at, they persecute those in need etc. Why does He not avenge Why! Why! because we have all gone our own way and the Mercy He extends to them is the same as the Mercy He gives to us His beloved Children. We are all without Hope but feely God gives and freely He pardons. But like any gift we have to open it and receive it by real Repentance and thankfully with the Power of the Holy Spirit we can then walk on in Faith, Trust and Obedience, doing good and rejecting evil, being washed Sanctified, perfected and made Holy and greatly blessed.
What is given freely, needs to be shared freely, to enjoy all the Richness and Beauty it holds. When we are in Christ Jesus this is what we will want to do, no one will have to twist our arm or make us feel guilty and the Spirit will empower us to do it. There will be no excuses or long winded reasons why it is much better to wait untill we know someone before we witness, or it is not up to us we just need to pray and God will do the rest, because if we did it would make us a Bible basher and unacceptable to our lost friends. Yet we will never know them as such untill they are in Christ Jesus, because they are dead, deaf and blind and they are our enemies. Therefore we do good to them, but I ask you Mark what is the greatest good we can do for anyone!… Will they always accept God’s grace, His Hope, His Truth, His Gift, No sometimes they will throw it in our face, unopened and kick dust on our sandals in other words… they will rubbish the Truth of the Gospel which is as you know the only Hope we all have and they will reject us too Mark by their lies, persecution, intolerance, scorn and condemnation and sadly they will believe they are in the right for doing so,
What then are we to do… shake the dust off and move on. Does that mean we don’t continue to Love them… No, but we don’t give our pearls to them, the wisdom that comes from God, the greatest Treasure which value is beyond anything we can understand, well does that mean we don’t do good to them… No can we be any other way if we are in Christ Jesus, besides we don’t know their heart they may even come to Repentance on their death beds through the seeds that were planted by our Testimony in Christ Jesus.
Would you extend your hospitality Mark to someone who would come into your home and shoot your wife and family and yourself … but you rightly say how would I know beforehand what they were going to do, we don’t… but God does, He sent His son to die for us knowing what we would do to Him . Why! Why! Why! ….. He is Patient not wanting anyone to perish, you see Mark without real Repentance we are all His enemies and He hates what we do we are all lost in our sins, but He Loves us all and we who are His redeemed Children who are known by His name and of which is written in the Lambs book of life, are part of His heart. Does He add our name when we come to real Repentance, No it was added before the foundation of the World, because He knew we would come to real Repentance and so we were predestined to be conformed into the likeness of His Son Christ Jesus, but what of those that will never come to real Repentance, sadly they are blotted out from the book of life, they choose their own destiny as Judas did. God’s Redeemed Children names are written in both books but highlighted in red in the Lambs book of Life when we come to real Repentance. This is when we go through Childbirth after dieing to ourselves, it is then that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and are born again coming from death to life.
After this we will never stand before God condemned, or have to give an account for all the wrong we have done, good yes to receive rewards but not wrong. When we asked for His forgiveness by coming to real Repentance, He washed us clean of all unrighteousness and He keeps no record of wrongs, He takes our sins as far as the east is from the west, in other words the distance from what is Good to what is Bad, what is of God and what is of Satan, the non crossable chasm accept by God’s Grace and Mercy offered in His Son’s sacrifice for all of us, a Gift beyond measure.
Does that mean we don’t have regret for the Sin that tortured and killed our beloved Saviour, can we look on the Spotless Lamb of God His Holiness and not humbly acknowledge our filthiness, our falseness, our rejecting, pitiful self seeking, proud and blasphemous hearts, our rotten decayed flesh and when we do… this then is real Repentance. No we have regret but we have no shame, guilt or condemnation Jesus nailed it to the cross and like King David and all the Saints we rejoice in His forgiveness.
Hi Mark,
Which one of us on our own can say we are righteous or that we are good enough to receive the Grace of God what a contradiction that is anyway, how can we receive Grace if we have to earn it.
Yes each one of us is rotten through and through in the flesh, not one of us seeks after God, we have all gone our own way, and in the flesh we are capable of the vilest deeds and our thoughts and actions are evil, we love ourselves, and we seek our own glory taking no interest in others unless it suites us to do so, the heart of flesh is evil above all things.
Oh but the Wonder and Glory of the Grace of God coming from a Heart of Love and Compassion, are we the objects of His Love are we worthy of all this No, but He can be no other way, He is Love and can do no evil. He knows those who are His and has from the beginning, He draws us to repentance by the Holy Spirit, the seeds have been planted and watered and the harvest begins.
Sadly He knows those who are not His and He hates their eternal sin, their name or what they stand for is a blemish in His sight, does He hate them His fallen Children those who will never come to repentance, those who see His Glory but refuse to humble themselves and choose to worship the created things of the flesh … No! they are His enemies and He tells us to Love our enemies and do good to them, can He do different or less.
But why not, they hurt His Redeemed Children over and over, they pour out their idolatries and filth and pollute and corrupt, they lie and make His Grace a thing to be laughed at, they persecute those in need etc. Why does He not avenge Why! Why! because we have all gone our own way and the Mercy He extends to them is the same as the Mercy He gives to us His beloved Children. We are all without Hope but feely God gives and freely He pardons. But like any gift we have to open it and receive it by real Repentance and thankfully with the Power of the Holy Spirit we can then walk on in Faith, Trust and Obedience, doing good and rejecting evil, being washed Sanctified, perfected and made Holy and greatly blessed.
What is given freely, needs to be shared freely, to enjoy all the Richness and Beauty it holds. When we are in Christ Jesus this is what we will want to do, no one will have to twist our arm or make us feel guilty and the Spirit will empower us to do it. There will be no excuses or long winded reasons why it is much better to wait untill we know someone before we witness, or it is not up to us we just need to pray and God will do the rest, because if we did it would make us a Bible basher and unacceptable to our lost friends. Yet we will never know them as such untill they are in Christ Jesus, because they are dead, deaf and blind and they are our enemies. Therefore we do good to them, but I ask you Mark what is the greatest good we can do for anyone!… Will they always accept God’s grace, His Hope, His Truth, His Gift, No sometimes they will throw it in our face, unopened and kick dust on our sandals in other words… they will rubbish the Truth of the Gospel which is as you know the only Hope we all have and they will reject us too Mark by their lies, persecution, intolerance, scorn and condemnation and sadly they will believe they are in the right for doing so,
What then are we to do… shake the dust off and move on. Does that mean we don’t continue to Love them… No, but we don’t give our pearls to them, the wisdom that comes from God, the greatest Treasure which value is beyond anything we can understand, well does that mean we don’t do good to them… No can we be any other way if we are in Christ Jesus, besides we don’t know their heart they may even come to Repentance on their death beds through the seeds that were planted by our Testimony in Christ Jesus.
Would you extend your hospitality Mark to someone who would come into your home and shoot your wife and family and yourself … but you rightly say how would I know beforehand what they were going to do, we don’t… but God does, He sent His son to die for us knowing what we would do to Him . Why! Why! Why! ….. He is Patient not wanting anyone to perish, you see Mark without real Repentance we are all His enemies and He hates what we do we are all lost in our sins, but He Loves us all and we who are His redeemed Children who are known by His name and of which is written in the Lambs book of life, are part of His heart. Does He add our name when we come to real Repentance, No it was added before the foundation of the World, because He knew we would come to real Repentance and so we were predestined to be conformed into the likeness of His Son Christ Jesus, but what of those that will never come to real Repentance, sadly they are blotted out from the book of life, they choose their own destiny as Judas did. God’s Redeemed Children names are written in both books but highlighted in red in the Lambs book of Life when we come to real Repentance. This is when we go through Childbirth after dieing to ourselves, it is then that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and are born again coming from death to life.
After this we will never stand before God condemned, or have to give an account for all the wrong we have done, good yes to receive rewards but not wrong. When we asked for His forgiveness by coming to real Repentance, He washed us clean of all unrighteousness and He keeps no record of wrongs, He takes our sins as far as the east is from the west, in other words the distance from what is Good to what is Bad, what is of God and what is of Satan, the non crossable chasm accept by God’s Grace and Mercy offered in His Son’s sacrifice for all of us, a Gift beyond measure.
Does that mean we don’t have regret for the Sin that tortured and killed our beloved Saviour, can we look on the Spotless Lamb of God His Holiness and not humbly acknowledge our filthiness, our falseness, our rejecting, pitiful self seeking, proud and blasphemous hearts, our rotten decayed flesh and when we do… this then is real Repentance. No we have regret but we have no shame, guilt or condemnation Jesus nailed it to the cross and like King David and all the Saints we rejoice in His forgiveness.
Christian Love Anne.