A trustworthy saying
It has been awhile since I posted last, and at this time I will break from the previous series. I have been consumed in busyness and what I have at times considered as mundane. But even in these things I have found that not only is God at work, He is profoundly at work even when you think nothing is happening. Since my last post much has happened in my life, including the growth of my son and arrival of my daughter. Praise God for they are truly a blessing!
Now to link with my last post... even though I am breaking from the series I was doing, today's post is the outworking of putting the last post into action...
I have found that the more you strive at goodness, the more the necessity for grace. The more you attempt to be good, the more you see how far from good you are. There is a fine line between walking in grace/living out the life of Christ in your life and justifying yourself with "goodness" before God. Clearly the latter is impossible because our meager attempts at righteousness - self righteousness that is - before a holy God is revealed to us, shockingly, to be utterly and woefully inadequate. The closer you get to God, the more you see how far you are from being God (or as good as God)! He is Holy, so00 Holy! And I am so woefully unholy. The words of Peter are so fitting, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord" (Luke 5:8). Yet we are driven to cling to Him and the cross of calvary, "for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Amen!
God is teaching us reliance on Him, utter and complete reliance, from first to last. For we come to Him by faith and entrust ourselves to His mercy and grace, knowing our deeds are not enough to justify ourselves before Him. And consequently we walk with Him, doing good, by this same faith, entrusting ourselves to the one who is "able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day" (2 Timothy 1:12 NIV). For it seems God is pleased to keep us in tension between entrusting ourselves to Him and to doing good- putting our hope in Him as we do it.
"This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe" (1 Timothy 4:9,10 NIV). The words of Paul are preceded by "train yourself to be godly" (v. 7). This theme is repeated again and again by Paul, "This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good" (Titus 3:8) and finally,
Amen!
Now to link with my last post... even though I am breaking from the series I was doing, today's post is the outworking of putting the last post into action...
I have found that the more you strive at goodness, the more the necessity for grace. The more you attempt to be good, the more you see how far from good you are. There is a fine line between walking in grace/living out the life of Christ in your life and justifying yourself with "goodness" before God. Clearly the latter is impossible because our meager attempts at righteousness - self righteousness that is - before a holy God is revealed to us, shockingly, to be utterly and woefully inadequate. The closer you get to God, the more you see how far you are from being God (or as good as God)! He is Holy, so00 Holy! And I am so woefully unholy. The words of Peter are so fitting, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord" (Luke 5:8). Yet we are driven to cling to Him and the cross of calvary, "for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Amen!
"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst." (1 Timothy 1:15 NIV).
God is teaching us reliance on Him, utter and complete reliance, from first to last. For we come to Him by faith and entrust ourselves to His mercy and grace, knowing our deeds are not enough to justify ourselves before Him. And consequently we walk with Him, doing good, by this same faith, entrusting ourselves to the one who is "able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day" (2 Timothy 1:12 NIV). For it seems God is pleased to keep us in tension between entrusting ourselves to Him and to doing good- putting our hope in Him as we do it.
"This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe" (1 Timothy 4:9,10 NIV). The words of Paul are preceded by "train yourself to be godly" (v. 7). This theme is repeated again and again by Paul, "This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good" (Titus 3:8) and finally,
"Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; ...if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself" (2 Timothy 2:11,13 NIV).
Amen!
posted by RomingObe at
11:53 PM
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