He Loves Me! He Loves Me Not!
We are all familiar with the game that young children play when they have a crush on someone. You know the one where they pick up a flower and each time they pick off a pedal declare "He loves me." Next pedal, "He loves me not." Until finally the last remaining pedal declares if the crushee has the same feelings.
So what does this have to do with anything? Good question. Years ago when I was youth pastoring, I had great youth leaders working with me. They loved God, were hard workers and faithful. Each week we would get together and I would ask them one by one how their week was going. Over time I began noticing a trend. On the weeks that these leaders spent "quality" time with God their response was always, "I am having a great week." However, on the weeks that they were busy or for some reason did not spend "quality" time with God they would seem down and almost apologetic when they described how their week was going. How many of us have done the same thing? We play "He loves me! He loves me not!" with God simply based on our works. If we feel we have hit the mark in our own labors (i.e prayed enough, read the bible enough, witnessed enough, etc) then God is happy with us. Woe on us if we missed day. Oh how God must be disappointed in me now.
It was during this time that God began teaching me about Grace. What a controversial subject. I am thoroughly convinced the devil will do everything he can to keep believers from understanding the truth of Grace. I bet most of you have heard Grace described as "greasy grace" by some religious person. What ignorance. Recently I read a post on facebook where somebody said that grace was just an excuse carnal Christians use in order justify sin. Wow!
So here it goes. . . . . All I am doing is setting a foundation of what I will be blogging about in the weeks to come. After years of studying the Bible I have determined that Grace is one of the most important subjects in the life of a believer, therefore the subject I went to spend most of my time understanding.
Ready. . . . How important is Grace? To begin with - Grace IS WHAT SAVED YOU. Eph. 2:8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. ."
The Gospel is the GOOD NEWS OF GRACE:
Acts 20:24 "so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 14:3 "Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands."
