GRACE AND FREEDOM


     Yesterday I was off.  I went to a near aunt’s funeral.  Afterwards I went to the library checked e – mail and xanga but did not post.  After my computer time ran out i sat down and read practically the whole book of Galatians which was seriously a breath of fresh air. Nothing but pure word.  Even as I think of it a quote comes to mind:


The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar of 1500-year-old, 200-proof grace – a bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly.”–Author Unknown 


     One thing that I have continually agonized over is my weaknesses and glaring imperfections and sin.  I have strived and fallen, got up and continued to walk but fell again.  And at one point even almost threw up my hands altogether and said “I quit”.  But God has held me and kept me and has seriously been teaching me how He has invested His best in me and I must truly learn to trust Him.  God has also been revealing to me that I have been living with this sort of legalistic mentality which has brought about more bondage and further condemnation.  It’s been like a treadmill, alot of work but no movement. 


“Oh, foolish Galatians! What magician has cast an evil spell on you? For you used to see the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death as clearly as though I had shown you a signboard with a picture of Christ dying on the cross.  Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by keeping the law? Of course not, for the Holy Spirit came upon you only after you believed the message you heard about Christ.  Have you lost your senses? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?”–Gal. 3:1-3


      As i sat in the I – cafe pondering these things a quote came to me, “In your spiritual zeal don’t forget what brought the Seal.”   Exactly this I must stop trying to accomplish in the flesh what God wants me to overcome by His Spirit.


“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”–Gal. 5:1


“… to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.”–Rom. 4:5

“… it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”–Eph. 2:8-9