Excerpt - 'God's grace is not something by which He winks at man's transgressions, but His grace teaches us that we should deny ungodliness and lusts which war against the soul. That this may be accomplished in us, we must accept the promises of the powerful energies heaven has provided whereby we can escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. The grace which Christ implants in the soul through the Holy Spirit does something specific for the recipient.'
(My thoughts- Too often we really do believe that God's grace just overlooks our sins. We tell ourselves that God understands that we can't help ourselves and therefore He will excuse all our wrongs- past, present, and future. Then we go on cherishing our favored sins as if they are beyond God's ability to take from us. Every sin should be abhorred! And even if it's a ten times daily abhorring of a sin besetting us, it must forever be abhorred and constantly repented of, never accepted as a matter of our life's burden, never accepted as that's just the way we are. If we become accepting of our sins then we are moving further away from Christ, not closer to Him. If we stop recognizing our sins as being sins at all, we are in grave danger. Truly God's grace is much more than His overlooking sin, it is a power. When, through the Holy Spirit we are given this power it isn't so we can overlook our sins, not a single one of them. It clarifies our sins and makes them more apparent to us so that we may comprehend that even the smallest of our sins has the power to separate us from God. Once it is clarified, once we are able to recognize that smallest of sins we are - by GRACE- forgiven that sin if we seek forgiveness for it, and repent of it, hating it with our entire being, hating even more the fact that we might enjoy it and that is why it's so incredibly hard for us to give it over to God. It's not all happy, happy, joy, joy in our Christ following life, not when we are at war, warring against the spiritual wickedness in our lives. Not that there won't be a lot of moments of happiness and joy, but if we expect only to feel the happy without the suffering, we are going to sabotage ourselves. We are told to count it all joy and such, but even our Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane was not all smiles, but suffering beyond our comprehension.)
Excerpt- 'Whoever is seen to abhor sin instead of loving it, whoever resists and conquers those passions that have held sway within, displays the operation of a principle wholly from above.'
My thoughts- (The power is from GOD, not from within us, not some source of untapped, hidden power we possess in and our ourselves and need to cultivate, or tease to surface so we may conquer sin. It isn't our WILL power that overcomes at all! It is the power of God from above! And it lives in us as we are convicted of the sin in our lives, as we resist and conquer through Christ- this is all God's power, not a single ounce, not a tiny smidgen of power comes from us. When a sin is conquered it truly is ALL GLORY and PRAISE, all THANKSGIVING and HONOR to our KING, our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!)
Excerpt - 'In the statement, 'I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,' God pledged Himself to introduce into the hearts of human beings a new principle, - a hatred of sin, of deception, or pretense, of everything that bears the marks of Satan's guile.'
My thoughts- (TRUTH. This hatred for sin is put into our hearts if we choose to accept it! If not we will be allowed to be blinded to sin's evil. We often ask ourselves how people can be so cruel when we read of horrific acts committed and in truth those people are truly blind to their evil. On a much lesser scale have you ever dealt with anyone who just couldn't see things as you did. No matter how you tried to explain something to them they just could not grasp what you were saying. You could see the blank expression where comprehension should be, and then possibly their irritation at your insistence - wanting them to understand, and sometimes anger and then a futile end, agreeing to disagree or perhaps a lingering anger, or a truly noticeable placating of pretense at comprehension where there is none. If you've ever experienced this then you know it's possible for people to just not understand and on a much GREATER level, a whole group of people choosing NOT to love God, their Creator and Redeemer and therefore being allowed their delusions, blinded and allowed to remain so - and evil in the smallest of sins or the greatest will not be understood the same way as one, who by God's grace and mercy, has been allowed to feel and understand the true hatred for all sin that God has and that we have been given through His promise to put an enmity (hatred) between Satan and God's People.)
(Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman
Psa_97:10 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil
Pro_8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil
Amo_5:15 Hate the evil, and love the good,
Heb 1:8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Heb 1:9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity)
By God's grace may we all fully understand our need for the grace of God in a very real, powerful way. May our hatred for sin match that of our Savior's as our love for Him over comes all! May we never ever find sin acceptable no matter how much the world has labeled sin human nature, undeniable and unconquerable. In Christ, through Christ all things are possible, and only possible through HIM.
All by HIS GRACE!
NOTE: The above excerpts were taken from the manuscript 'In the Form of a Slave' By William Grotheer. If you are interested in this manuscript you may go to the following website where it is possible for you to order a copy of it. http://www.alfiowa.com/
(My thoughts- Too often we really do believe that God's grace just overlooks our sins. We tell ourselves that God understands that we can't help ourselves and therefore He will excuse all our wrongs- past, present, and future. Then we go on cherishing our favored sins as if they are beyond God's ability to take from us. Every sin should be abhorred! And even if it's a ten times daily abhorring of a sin besetting us, it must forever be abhorred and constantly repented of, never accepted as a matter of our life's burden, never accepted as that's just the way we are. If we become accepting of our sins then we are moving further away from Christ, not closer to Him. If we stop recognizing our sins as being sins at all, we are in grave danger. Truly God's grace is much more than His overlooking sin, it is a power. When, through the Holy Spirit we are given this power it isn't so we can overlook our sins, not a single one of them. It clarifies our sins and makes them more apparent to us so that we may comprehend that even the smallest of our sins has the power to separate us from God. Once it is clarified, once we are able to recognize that smallest of sins we are - by GRACE- forgiven that sin if we seek forgiveness for it, and repent of it, hating it with our entire being, hating even more the fact that we might enjoy it and that is why it's so incredibly hard for us to give it over to God. It's not all happy, happy, joy, joy in our Christ following life, not when we are at war, warring against the spiritual wickedness in our lives. Not that there won't be a lot of moments of happiness and joy, but if we expect only to feel the happy without the suffering, we are going to sabotage ourselves. We are told to count it all joy and such, but even our Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane was not all smiles, but suffering beyond our comprehension.)
Excerpt- 'Whoever is seen to abhor sin instead of loving it, whoever resists and conquers those passions that have held sway within, displays the operation of a principle wholly from above.'
My thoughts- (The power is from GOD, not from within us, not some source of untapped, hidden power we possess in and our ourselves and need to cultivate, or tease to surface so we may conquer sin. It isn't our WILL power that overcomes at all! It is the power of God from above! And it lives in us as we are convicted of the sin in our lives, as we resist and conquer through Christ- this is all God's power, not a single ounce, not a tiny smidgen of power comes from us. When a sin is conquered it truly is ALL GLORY and PRAISE, all THANKSGIVING and HONOR to our KING, our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!)
Excerpt - 'In the statement, 'I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,' God pledged Himself to introduce into the hearts of human beings a new principle, - a hatred of sin, of deception, or pretense, of everything that bears the marks of Satan's guile.'
My thoughts- (TRUTH. This hatred for sin is put into our hearts if we choose to accept it! If not we will be allowed to be blinded to sin's evil. We often ask ourselves how people can be so cruel when we read of horrific acts committed and in truth those people are truly blind to their evil. On a much lesser scale have you ever dealt with anyone who just couldn't see things as you did. No matter how you tried to explain something to them they just could not grasp what you were saying. You could see the blank expression where comprehension should be, and then possibly their irritation at your insistence - wanting them to understand, and sometimes anger and then a futile end, agreeing to disagree or perhaps a lingering anger, or a truly noticeable placating of pretense at comprehension where there is none. If you've ever experienced this then you know it's possible for people to just not understand and on a much GREATER level, a whole group of people choosing NOT to love God, their Creator and Redeemer and therefore being allowed their delusions, blinded and allowed to remain so - and evil in the smallest of sins or the greatest will not be understood the same way as one, who by God's grace and mercy, has been allowed to feel and understand the true hatred for all sin that God has and that we have been given through His promise to put an enmity (hatred) between Satan and God's People.)
(Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman
Psa_97:10 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil
Pro_8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil
Amo_5:15 Hate the evil, and love the good,
Heb 1:8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Heb 1:9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity)
By God's grace may we all fully understand our need for the grace of God in a very real, powerful way. May our hatred for sin match that of our Savior's as our love for Him over comes all! May we never ever find sin acceptable no matter how much the world has labeled sin human nature, undeniable and unconquerable. In Christ, through Christ all things are possible, and only possible through HIM.
All by HIS GRACE!
NOTE: The above excerpts were taken from the manuscript 'In the Form of a Slave' By William Grotheer. If you are interested in this manuscript you may go to the following website where it is possible for you to order a copy of it. http://www.alfiowa.com/
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