Grace To Help

Comment

Comment by Jeanette B on February 18, 2009 at 1:55am

Hmmmmm!! Ron!
I agree with you to a point!

I'm reminded of Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."

God DOES know better than we do, that's because He is God. We need to look to Him for guidance.

However, what do you make of this?

Paul says in 1 Cor 2:16, "For 'who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?' But we have the mind of Christ."

Comment by EZIUKA SUCCESS ADANNA on February 18, 2009 at 1:27am

Grace,
Unmerited favour, that is what keeps u from challenges of life.
We are survivals because to Grace

Comment by PoiemaDei on February 17, 2009 at 9:55pm

That's it Jeanette. Some prefer to stay with Paul's struggling experience in Romans 7 whereas Paul moved on quickly to victory Romans 8, after ending Romans 7 with a desperate cry for help and deliverance from the body of death and finding the answer in Christ Jesus. So, as you pointed out, Jeanette, the Spirit gives the victory to us like He did to Paul.

So Paul then testifies in Romans 8:1-4:
1: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3: For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
4: that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8 takes us out of our hopeless self-struggles and bring us into absolute dependence on the Spirit who does the work in us and through us to produce God's righteousness. These are not truths that are for our intellect at this critical hour for mankind. These are truths we have to pray and ask God to help us to believe that we may benefit from their most needed grace in our personal lives through faith.

Thanks for your comment. God bless you.

Comment by Jeanette B on February 17, 2009 at 9:34pm

As I understand it, because of God's grace, we are no longer under the Law. We don't HAVE to follow a list of rules.

I know from my experience, when I've tried to please God by following prescribed rules, I've ended up like Paul did in Romans 7. And the more I tried, the more I failed to measure up.

As you've quoted, Ron,

"The things I want to do, I do not do, and the things that I don't want to do, those are the things that I do!" (Romans 7:15)

The heart has changed, because we no longer WANT to do the things that we used to. That is GOOD!! However, we still don't DO the right thing. We still sin, and of ourselves, we don't have the power to overcome.

We don't receive God's Spirit by obeying laws. We receive the Spirit by faith... by believing in Jesus. And when we have the Holy Spirit, we then have the power to obey ... to do the good we want to do. We are set free from striving to keep the Law. It is the Holy Spirit who works in us to keep the Law. We please God by the power of the Spirit, whom we receive because we believe.

So, as I see it, all we need to do is what Paul said in Galatians:

"Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." (5:16-17, NKJ)

Ezekiel had prophesied the same thing:
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." (36:26-27, NKJ)

So striving to be good is something we no longer have to do, because by God's Spirit we are made good, and right with God.

Comment by PoiemaDei on February 17, 2009 at 8:43pm

Thanks for all of your comments. Let us appreciate the word of God. That's what the Lord has given us to create faith in Him that He can make of us what He wants us to be.

God once lamented: "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13).
.

Comment by Jeff on February 17, 2009 at 6:55pm

Dear Jeanette,
It is always a pleasure to become acquainted with another person of God that does what He says and teaches. Obedience performed from our hearts is something that God is always searching for in His creation of the human race. When we set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth, (Col 3:2) we do indeed then and only then strive to become overcomers just as our Lord Jesus Christ. In the world today, very many people worship the awesome beauties of the creations from the rising sun seen from a mountaintop, to the setting of the sun beyond a tropical rain forest or over the ocean just being in a tranquil state of heart and mind while never even giving any thoughts or praise to Our Lord who created all things through Jesus Christ. When we awake in the morning, when we sleep at night, when we walk, when we eat, and as we live . . . . God needs to be in our hearts and on our mind, and not in our lip service because God knows our every thought and intent with nothing ever hidden from him. We must always ask ourselves the questions. . . Is God my lifes priority? Is my prayer life long enough and detailed enough to please God? Are my prayers and concerns for the well being of others deep within my heart and my prayers? How many hours a day do I spend studying to show myself approved unto God? How badly do I want a very special and intimate relationship with our Lord God? Do I fast for self affliction just to show my love to God and become closer to Him? Now ask yourself some more very serious questions like . . .Do I participate, honor, or celebrate any holidays that our Lord new nothing of because they never existed and are not even in the Bible? Do I honor God's feasts in Levitcus 23 as God commands? Do I attend God's sabbath on the 7th day of the week as Christ did? Or do I just go on the 1st day of the week like everyone else? . . . .while thinking it matters not. . . . when it means everything to God.
"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." 1 Timothy 4:16
Would you like to bless yourself via your heart and your mind? Just make a firm decision with God as your witness and say . . . I am going to read all of Psalms with prayers to God as certain scriptures deeply strike my heart. I can promise you from my experiences of reading every book within the Bible that way that God will begin to take more and more of your heart to glorify Him.

Comment by Jeanette B on February 17, 2009 at 2:45pm

And Charles, that is such a wonderful lesson we can learn.

So many of us get caught up in our own works and striving, trying to do better to please God, even though we know this truth. We can know it in our heads, but it doesn't reach our hearts, 'cause we still strive.

Oh that we would really know this are a reality in our lives!

Comment by PoiemaDei on February 16, 2009 at 6:18pm

Ron, thanks for sharing with us Steve Brown's perspective on the work of grace in our salvation.

Doesn't death bring an end and life bring a beginning? We need to take time and deeply, deeply ponder if we believe that we entered into death and burial with Christ, according to the Scriptures, and that we have risen to walk in a newness of life through Christ resurrection life. But that's the path designed by God for our salvation and deliverance from sin. He designed it to be effective. And it cost Him an awful lot for it not to be effective.

Too much philosophy has distorted our faith. We need to go back to "thus saith the Lord." Hearing and believing the word of God is the only means of creating true faith that will produce God's true intended outcome in our lives. I am very grateful to God for His mercy and longsuffering by which He has provided for our forgiveness and cleansing, while we keep believing we are bound to sin, and lack the faith to believe in His salvation that frees us from sin. So I am not in any way pronouncing condemnation on any of us whose faith has been distorted and cheated of the fullness of God's great salvation by philosophy and misleading teaching of the Gospel. But what I urge us to do to take a fresh look again at the glorious message of the Gospel of grace and pray that God will give us faith to believe and receive the full salvation it announces.

If Brown believes that the desire he refers to is born of the incorruptible sperm-seed of the living word of God, according to Peter's description of the new birth, why would he call the produce or offspring of that glorious seed imperfect?

What grace is teaching us, and will patiently continue to teach us, is to let God take over and He will do in us that which is pleasing in His sight. To please God is to meet His standard of excellence. So He Himself according to the Scriptures wants to do it - please Himself - in us and through us.

Hebrews 13:20-21:
20: Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21: make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Take a look at the depth of meaning of the Cross and its effectiveness in dealing with the sin and death problem and bringing us into life and freedom from sin as God designed it to.

Romans 6:1-7:
1: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2: Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?3: Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4: Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.5: For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6: knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7: For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Comment by PoiemaDei on February 16, 2009 at 10:22am

Let us all in this group keep Jeff in our prayers. God is so faithful to us. Our destiny is in His Hand because He designed it by His grace and will lead us over hills and valleys, mountains and plains, across deserts and rivers, lakes, and oceans. He who has put His will and destiny for us within our hearts by His grace will lead us on. May God help us to be humble and ever yielding to His Spirit.

So, Jeff, we are praying for you. Go, borther, in the name of the Lord.

Comment by Jeff on February 15, 2009 at 10:17pm

I do hope that all is well within the lives of all that read these words. It would be good of you to pray for me as I will also put you into my prayers. My trust in God comes by faith, therefore the words of David in Psalms 143:1 truly touch my heart very deeply..
About me. . . . I am just a simple man that God has shown very much to throughout my life and the past 15 years in His own ways, and His own time. My life is God's life to do with according to His will. As I sit here in an Internet cafe in the Philippines, with my very much used and worn out Bible that looks like a colored road map in many pieces with clear tape, duct tape, and a heart of faith just to keep it as my life's most greatest possession alongside my Strong's, RSV, and other valuable to my heart learning helps of reality according to God, and not man. When it comes to God, our Lord, and scriptures, there is just no end to my conversation in the love of Christ with a blessed open mind for always learning, and always sharing while living according to the inspired words of Paul in First Thessalonians 5:21reading "Prove all things: hold fast that which is good". Because of my life that has contained much tribulations, I can and do indeeed relate very well to Paul, Job, Jeremiah, Daniel and many other men of God that through their faith went thru many tribulations in their own lives. Mine was typical of others in many ways with no family as a child, a gay or as I say homosexual uncle in my life before I was even a teenager. Then just a disturbed godless life of suicide attempts, sex, drugs, rock and roll along with being one of those long haired hitch hickers thumbing all over america in the early 70's. Then an escape from the midwest to the north east only to marry a woman with 3 boys, and I stayed married for 30 unhappy years. It's so very difficult to try and explain one life in just a few paragraphs, that I will just skip most of it until I came to the Philippines from The USA.

I wanted a new life with God and love, so I signed everything (a life's work of home and property) to my soon to be ex-wife and just left america with a one way ticket to Manila Philippines and about $1300. Needless to say because of my giving heart, the money was gone in my first month here over two years ago, however God had begun His special work within my heart and mind. Since December 1st, 2006, I have owed bread shops, fish markets, loan sharks, rent behind, power bills, water, and on top of that have had very many other difficulties, yet have learned so much, and have built my faith so strong "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:20) Why do I thank God for a whole lifetime of hard times including a head injury in which part of my brain was removed? Because He is the potter, and we are the clay, therefore He shapes and molds us according to His will only for His purposes.

Now my time has finally come for God to place me where He needs me most, and He will because He knows my heart and keeps all of His promises in scripture.
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16. The word effectual in Strong's meant to dwell, and fervent to be hot and serious.

I have made numerous attempts to become an active part of the Body of Christ in more that one church through the years past, yet that is not where God has wanted me. If God has touched your heart please read just these few of very many verses on the subject of churches. . . . Jer 12:10, 2 Cor. 11:13-15, Mark 7:7-9,13, Eph. 4:14 Col. 2:8
and through heartfelt prayer with much faith allow God to direct your thoughts and feelings while always keeping in mind Revelation 12:9, John 6:44, and Luke 12:32.

After a failed attempt of getting some assistance from the US Embassy in August of 2007, and that help being a plane ticket back to America so as to work and become involved in a church. . . . . God was not yet ready for me to depart our very private unity here in Negros Oriental.

So through 17 months added studies and prayers, He has led me to another Embassy here in the Philippines. Now from waiting weeks in faith and prayer, today or tomorrow I will be hearing from them on when to depart if it be God's will.

My next hardship was having to have an address, so being that I have none, I used my Uncle William of 82 years of age in Downers Grove Il. So now what will happen is that my Flight will take me to OHare near Chicago. Once there, and with very few pesos, or dollars, I will just have to take a bus into Chicago, look for a salvation army cot, look for a church. and look for a job as a welder, and all with God and prayer in my heart just for Him to lead me to where He wants me to be. As it is now, I have no coat, epoxy holds my shoes together, few clothes, and just a past of once being very well off left behind with no regrets.
When I had many funds, I gave, and gave, and gave to all causes. Church building funds, cancer, sponsered a child in India, and even helped out one man that went bankrupted on me for near $75,000.

Now at this time in my life I am the happiest that I have ever been. That is because God loves them that love Him. Proverbs 8:17 Another reason is because God has brought me and Mylene together as of two years ago. I am 53, and she is 34. Mylene and I pray together and are very much in love with God as our lead in life. She is a grade school teacher with 54 first grade students for less than $250 a month.

In my heart that God knows, I don't want to even be apart from her, but for Him (God)and financial needs I will do whatever is necessary. It may be just six months work there in America and a return here, or it may be that God places me as a minister over a church with a congretaion there requiring me to get Mylene with me. My faith is so strong that I even at one time offered myself to any refugee camp that needed me in Africa. . . .and doing that only God knows if you will be killed, yet I am willing to give my life for God. Read 1 Peter 2:21 and ask your own heart if you are doing what God says to do. . . .
All one needs is to study his words on charity which is love, and the word heart that He uses over seven hundred times in scripture really ought to tell you very much in a very deep way because God even knows our every intent in our hearts better than we ourselves. (Hebrews 4:12)

In all sincerity,

Jeff

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