Eternal life- is eternal love, love without end.

Act 20:32  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

The word of HIS grace- is able to build us up with the intention of giving us an inheritance.

Have you ever received an inheritance?

Some people have, others haven't, but no matter whether you have or haven't received an earthly inheritance we can ALL receive a heavenly inheritance.

Usually to receive an earthly inheritance someone must die, parents,  grandparents, spouses as a rule.  To receive our heavenly inheritance our Savior died and because of His sacrifice He's made His inheritance available to everyone.

As with some earthly inheritances there are conditions that must be met. Soandso will receive their inheritance upon reaching the age 25, or once Soandso has completed college they will receive their inheritance. There are many various conditions people place upon the reception of inheritances, some silly, some serious, some easy, some not quite so easy and yes, sometime people place what appear to be impossible conditions towards the receiving of an inheritances.  Did our Savior place any conditions upon our being able to gain our inheritance from Him? Yes. I say yes because we are not guaranteed an inheritance simply by being born, we just aren't though some would dispute that. The truth of the matter is that we cannot receive our heavenly inheritance unless--

-- we believe.

And another truth, there are many who choose not to believe.

Joh_6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

1Jn_5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

We must comprehend that we receive the full inheritance upon the return of our Savior to gather us up to Him.  Those who have died sanctified will rise from their graves upon our Savior's return for them. Those who are still alive who are sanctified will rise from the earth to meet their Lord in the air. 1 Thess. 4:16-18

This is truth.

The word of God's grace is ABLE to build us up and give us an inheritance among us who are sanctified- made Holy by our Savior.

The word of God is the word of grace. This one eternal theme central to the entire Bible.

From the beginning to the end eternal life through the grace of God is what it is ALL about.

Eternal life- is eternal love, love without end.

Grace Reconciles

Grace.

Our Savior - God in the flesh gave us life never intending we should lose that life, never wanting us to lose our life.

When we chose to disobey God we did so KNOWING the result would be death. We were TOLD the outcome of disobedience.

Still, our Creator did not want us to die. He did not want us to have eternal death, eternal nothingness, never to be again.

For this to happen we would need to comprehend what exactly our Creator is, and what He expects from us.

We are NOT supposed to be separated from God.

Gen_17:7  And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

1Ti_2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

A covenant was needed between God and mankind.

A Mediator was needed between God and mankind.

Why?

You don't need a covenant or a mediator if you are not trying to reconcile and establish something.

God wanted to establish the best kind of relationship He could with fallen mankind through His covenant until such a time the Mediator would come with a perfect covenant that would rejoin mankind with God permanently.

Though we sinned and we are guilty, God still wanted us to comprehend the depths of His love for us. He could forgive us. He would make the greatest sacrifice ever to pay that penalty for our transgressions, for our disobedience. God the Son would become one of us and die.  What more could ANYONE ask of Him?

Reconciled to God, fallen man is reconciled by the grace of God.

We can do NOTHING to deserve eternal life, nothing at all. We can only accept the grace of our God.

Please, Father, help us to accept the grace of God, please.

Grow

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  (2Pe_3:18)

Grow in grace.

Grow in knowledge.

We understand how to grow in knowledge because we are constantly learning throughout our lives. Sure, you might get to a point where you've stopped any real schooling but you keep on learning through daily life experience. That saying- 'You learn something new everyday.' - isn't that far off because though we may not recognize the learning all the time, we are learning new things constantly. If we actively want to grow in knowledge we seek it out. If there is something we want to know we look it up online and gain the knowledge.  We GROW in knowledge.

So how do we grow in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?  We need a source to learn from and that source is the WORD given to us by God- the Holy Bible.  We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We need to pray.  There are active sources for us to use to gain this knowledge.

How do we grow in grace?

Are the two connected? Do we grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord together through His Word? 

Grace is-

2Co_12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

The grace we grow in- is Christ's grace.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God

Webster's-

'Grace

GRACE, n

2. Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him.

And if by grace,then it is no more of works. Rom 11.

3. Favorable influence of God; divine influence or the influence of the spirit, in renewing the heart and restraining from sin.

My grace is sufficient for thee. 2 Cor 12.

4. The application of Christ's righteousness to the sinner.

Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Rom 5.

5. A state of reconciliation to God. Rom 5:2.

6. Virtuous or religious affection or disposition, as a liberal disposition, faith, meekness, humility, patience, &c. proceeding from divine influence.

7. Spiritual instruction, improvement and edification. Eph 4:29.

8. Apostleship, or the qualifications of an apostle. Eph 3:8.

9. Eternal life; final salvation. 1 Pet 1:13.'

Grace. We must learn more of grace because we are told to GROW in grace.

To study grace and to study Christ Jesus our Lord is to grow in knowledge of them and this is essential to us.

The comprehension of what Christ is to us, what His grace is to us is something amazing.  We definitely need to study this so much more so we can truly grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior!

All through HIS love.

Amen.

I need grace

Heb 13:9  Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace

Established with grace.

And by grace we are saved. Eph_2:8 

Jesus- full of grace and truth. Joh_1:14

Justified freely by His grace. Rom_3:24

1Co_3:10  According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

Tit_2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men

Phm_1:25  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen

Heb_2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Grace.

We survive by His grace. We need His grace. We cannot live without His grace.

Please, LORD, please we need Your grace.

More and more my own wickedness is revealed to me and I would despair of ever being Yours except You died for me, to save me because I could not save myself. Please, Father, forgive me, please. I need Your grace, Lord Jesus, I need Your grace.

What work could we do to pay for disobeying God?

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

NO man can boast they've attain eternal life on their own merit, through their own works. NO man can say they've been good enough to warrant eternal life.  The good works of man- every single one of those good works is not capable of deserving eternal life. The stain of sin which separates us from God is NOT removed by our works. We cannot work off our sins, we cannot pay the debt for them, it's impossible.

What work could we do to pay for disobeying God?

Have you ever done something so awful to someone else that you know there is nothing you can do to ever make up for it? You can ask for forgiveness and you can do everything you can to atone- give them things, never do that thing again, etc, but deep down you know that you can't make up for the hurt you caused, you just can't.  On the other hand, has anyone ever hurt you so deeply you've found it very hard to forgive them? You do forgive them, but the pain of that hurt remains and it's an effort to forgive them because it's a forgiveness that has to be extended over and over, not a one time forgiveness and all it well.  We know the difficulty that is involved in forgiving, and being forgiven.  Without the grace of God it really is impossible for both- being able to forgive and being forgiven by others.

We are God's workmanship, we are created in Christ Jesus, created to good works. 

We are not created to evil.  Our Savior would have us be His fully, wholly, lovingly and in being His live as He lived and lives- Loving others, Loving God the Father.  LOVING outwardly, not inwardly, not selfishly. It is through HIS GRACE we are saved, It is through HIS GRACE we have hope.  By HIS GIFT, HIS SACRIFICE we are HIS as a choice we make to accept Him and all He's done for us. Please, Father, please, we would belong to YOU through the grace of our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ, always!

Amen.

Choice not attraction

Love...

is...a...choice.

Love goes far beyond feelings, yet people have made it all about feelings.  We went from learning to choose to love, to finding attraction to someone - love.  When we are attracted to someone for many various reasons we call that love versus being matched to someone and choosing to love them.  People who call attraction love miss the meaning of love because attraction can fade away, sometimes quickly other times slowly.  When we base our love on attraction we run into the dilemma of finding a lot of others attractive because we find the same traits in various people.  If you're prone to finding a blonde person attractive you may see several blonde people attractive to you. If you find blue eyes attractive the same thing and so on.  It's NOT that we can stop from finding various attributes and traits attractive, but we can stop calling that love.  We can choose to recognize that love is something MUCH more than the attractions we feel towards others.

Love is a choice, truly it is. We make the choice believe in God. We make a choice to care for one another. We make a choice to forgive others. We make these choices, so many choices and they are made daily, hourly, minutely and often without our truly paying attention to the majority of them. Our choices can become habits and sometimes the choices we make which are bad ones, become bad habits. 

Some call being in love illogical and something of pure fiction.  And you know what, the thing people call love can be that way, it really can.

Choosing to care for someone, to join your life to theirs and share in their life's journey is love. Choosing to do that for someone you're not attracted to in superficial ways is love as well. That *being* in love aspect does NOT mean you truly love. 

Some people are great at *being* in love, but not great at loving.

God is love. God chose to create us, chose to love us in caring for us in a way far beyond our full comprehension.

The way God cares for us is so much more than the superficial caring we tend to call caring. God's caring goes to the eternal level and if YOU believe in ETERNITY, then you understand the reality of the true depths of God's love.

When we live a single lifetime of say 70 years, that is NOTHING compared to eternity, absolutely a true drop in the largest of oceans.  Yet we tend to measure our life in the here and now and what we can get out of this life whether it be of love or not of love. We stop caring about God and others and turn to caring about ourselves first. We choose to love some but not all, we pick and choose those we are attracted to and give them the thing we call love while shutting out others that we aren't attracted to.

Love is so much more than the twisted warped thing we call love today, so much more.

Gal_5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith

1Jn_4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1Jn_4:10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1Jn_4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Truth, this is truth.

Please, Father, please teach us to love as You love, live in us through the Spirit enabling us to love.  To know You and be KNOWN by You.

Your Will Be DONE.

In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ our Lord, now and forever!

Amen.

We are to love outside of ourselves- love God, love Others

Eph 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 

Eph 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 

Eph 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 

Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 

Eph 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord

Walk circumspectly.

Definition: cir·cum·spect - thinking carefully about possible risks before doing or saying something

To walk circumspectly means we are living our lives aware of our actions, aware that there are consequences to our actions.  We are to be wise, not fools. A wise person is aware of the eternal view, not the temporal view. While we are not to WORRY about tomorrow, we are to be AWARE.  Worry and aware are two different things. You can know something as a fact without worrying about it. We can know that things look hopeless and choose not to worry about it by comprehending that the worst possible outcome of tomorrow does NOT take from us the promise of eternal life.

To walk circumspectly, wisely, we choose to use our time in such a way that promotes the eternal life to come. We live KNOWING that eternal life is a REALITY for us. We don't live our lives as if here and now is all there is to it and nothing matters but our seeking to get as much pleasure out of this life as possible. We comprehend that the days we live in are evil, THEY ARE.

Satan will stop at NOTHING to promote his agenda, and that agenda includes capturing as many people in his snares as he can and keeping them from eternal life. THIS IS SATAN'S AGENDA! Our days are FILLED with things that are meant to take eternal life from us. You don't get any more evil than preventing someone from attaining eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We need to truly understand what the will of the Lord is- do you know what it is?

Joh_6:40  And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day

1Jn 3:23  And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

1Jn 3:24  And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

The will of God - to BELIEVE and out of that belief we obtain the SPIRIT and through the SPIRIT we keep His commandments to love.

We are to be FILLED with the Spirit- not with artificially contrived things that make us feel differently than we do without them, making us feel less pain from the evil around us.  We need to be FILLED with the Spirit. We keep the commandments to LOVE GOD and LOVE OTHERS and this is what we are to be filled with- NOT any commandment that tells us to love ourselves first. I can't find that one anywhere. We are to LOVE outside of ourselves in order to be filled with the Spirit of love.  This is the will of God.

Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs- in our hearts!

This is how we are to live! The inward man inside each and every one of us needs to glorify God in song! It's amazing what music, what singing, what songs can do for us.

Just recently they're proving the power of song with Alzheimer's patients.  Truly there is power in singing, in music, in psalms, in hymns and we don't have to do it publically to reap the benefits, we can do it in our hearts!

The life of a Christ believing person, is the life of one who believes in loving others not self, it is a life of singing inwardly.

Will the Christ believer have a perfect life? NO, a thousand times NO! Will the Christ believer be promised life free from heartache, pain, agony, torture and so on? NO, a thousand times NO! Believing in God and His begotten son Jesus Christ is not a hope to live a good life here on earth now, it's just not. If anything it almost guarantees you are HARDER life now- more pain, more agony, more torture, more heartache because Satan stops at NOTHING to inflict all the pain he can upon Christ believers. Our HOPE is an ETERNAL HOPE, and ETERNAL LOVE.

Please, Father, bless us with Your Son, help us, keep us from evil and increase our faith in the sacrifice made for us.  Help us to love outside of ourselves- selflessly.

Please give us the Spirit, Father. We need the Spirit!

All in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior now and always!

Amen.