God doesn't want to help you.

3. Grace, also is sovereign.

Not having debts to pay, or fulfilled conditions on man's part to wait for, it can act toward whom, and how, it pleases.

It can, and does, often, place the worst deservers in the highest favors.

4. Grace cannot act where there is either desert or ability:

Grace does not help -- it is absolute, it does all.

Wow...how often have I prayed "God help me do ______". God does not want to help! He doesn't want partial credit; He wants all the glory and all the credit. He doesn't want a marquee that reads; "Bryan, God, and Associates", but simply God and God alone. My problem is that I am like the kid who won't give dad his broken toy because "I can help dad! Let me do it!" but grace is absolute.

Too thought provoking?

Go to my completely random and off the chain blog, www.goingtribal.blogspot.com

No question is off limits. No thought to shallow. Here I discuss the importance of things such as soybeans and popsicle sticks. Join in!

Nature of Grace-part two

1. Grace is God acting freely, according to His own nature as Love;

with no promises or obligations to fulfill; and acting, of course, righteously -- in view of the cross.

2. Grace, therefore, is uncaused in the recipient:

its cause lies wholly in the GIVER, in GOD.

Question: If I am not the cause for God bestowing grace, can I be the cause for Him removing grace?

'For by Grace are you saved, through faith, and that NOT OF YOURSELVES, it is the gift of God-not of works lest any man should boast'. Eph. 2:8-9

A Few Words about Grace

Over the next few weeks I am going to post some quotes by William R. Newell on the topic of Grace...feel free to run with any of these. I don't have a grasp on much of it but would love to hear others insight into the topic.


"A Few Words about Grace" by William R. Newell

The Nature of Grace:

1. Grace is God acting freely, according to His own nature as Love; with no promises or obligations to fulfill; and acting, of course, righteously -- in view of the cross.

passion and presence

Wow...there is incredible comfort to be found in a love that is so steady and unchanging that its passion and presence remains unchanged whether you are experiencing the best day of your life or the worst. "(Love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Cor. 13:7

Revelations of Love

Here is an excerpt from the writings of Julian of Norwich titled "Revelations of Divine Love":

He showed me a very lofty spiritual delight in my
soul, and in it I was completely filled with
everlasting certitude, firmly sustained, without any
painful dread. This feeling was so glad and so
spiritual that I was entirely at peace, at ease and at
rest, so that there was nothing on earth that could
have disturbed me.

This lasted only for a while. Then I was transformed
and left to myself in depression, weary of my life and
irked with myself, so that I kept the patience to go
on living only with difficulty. There was no comfort
and no ease for me, except faith, hope and charity,
AND THESE I HAD IN REALITY THOUGH I HAD VERY LITTLE
FEELING OF THEM.

And Immediately after this our Lord again gave me
comfort and rest of soul and delight and certitude,
so blessed and so mighty that no dread, no sorrow, no
bodily or spiritual pain that could be suffered should
have caused me distress.

And then the pain returned to my feelings, again
followed by the joy and delight--first the one and then the other, at, I suppose about twenty different times. In the time of joy I could have said with Saint Paul, "Nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ." And in the pain I could have said, "Lord, save me! I perish!"

This vision was showed to me to teach my understanding that IT IS PROFITABLE FOR SOME SOULS TO EXPERIENCE
THESE ALTERATIONS OF MOOD--SOMETIMES TO BE COMFORTED
AND SOMETIMES TO FAIL AND TO BE LEFT TO THEMSELVES.
GOD WILLS THAT WE KNOW THAT HE EVER KEEPS US EQUALLY
SAFE, IN WOE AS IN WELL BEING"(emphasis mine)

Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich. Julian
was an English Benedictine nun born in 1342. No
one knows just when she died but she did become very
ill on May 8-9, 1373, and was visited with sixteen
visions of God's love. She became a recluse and spent
twenty years meditating on these visions, after which
she wrote the "Revelations".

Narnia

Just finished watching the Chronicles of Narnia tonight and it
compelled me to open my Bible when I returned home. I turned to
Matthew ( I don't know why) and read of the "passion of Christ". It
reminded me once again how different the time in which
we live has changed from times past. You don't really
hear words like "flogging" and "stripped" to much in
connection with living a Christ-like life. Can you
imagine a new small group starting up with the title,
"How to take a flogging for Jesus Christ"? Talk about
a lonely small group leader!

Disclaimer

Before you read this first blog of mine let me issue a disclaimer. Please do not build your "doctrine" on anything in this site. It is merely the dam breaking on my mental stream. Your doctrine and convictions should be built upon the Bible alone as guided by the Spirit of God. I don't always agree with every part of a quote or excerpt that I post but whether the writer is a Saint of Nissi, my desire is to stimulate thought...not shape it! God knows I don't want to have to answer anyones ravings but my own! : ) That said: enjoy!