Friday, August 4, 2017

GOD'S AMAZING GRACE

   Did you know the song, Dixie, was written by a former slave prior to the Civil War?  Yet this song has been sung and played on musical instruments for over 150 years and is still popular today.
   Did you also know the song, Amazing Grace, was written by a former slave trader?
   John Newton wrote and published Amazing Grace in 1779 and it has been sung and played on musical instruments, over the past 238 years, by more people in more places than any song in human history.  This fact alone is truly amazing!

     "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."  (Ephesians 2: 8-9)

   Grace through faith is the gift of God.  Grace, therefore, is a present from God, gift wrapped, and on the table.  To receive His grace, however, we must accept the gift, open the present, and experience the saving grace of Christ our Lord.

     "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."  (Genesis 6: 8)

   Prior to the Great Flood, Noah was building the ark for 120 years; and for 120 years he told people that God would destroy the earth by water.  They never believed Noah, and they never accepted God's gift of grace. But because of one man's faith in God, the human race was spared, and we are the evidence of God's grace today.  Yet today we are faced with the same choice that those people rejected before the flood.

    "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  (Romans 6: 23)

   As slaves to sin, we are earning wages; or, we are collecting debt:  a debt that must be paid by ourselves, or paid by someone else.  In other words, we must be redeemed if we do not have the means to pay our debt.  Or, we must die for our sin, or someone else must die for us in our place.
   This is when Christ came to earth and became the Redeemer:  to die in our place for our sin.
   Christ is the grace of God, the gift of God and given to us for our sin debt.  We can accept this gift and be saved, or can we reject it and pay the sin debt in eternal darkness.
   This blog post today is my feeble attempt to share God's amazing grace and I will tell you that I am inadequate.  But let me tell you what I believe:  when Christ reveals Himself to people, then and only then will they understand God's amazing grace as well as God's amazing love.
      "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.  Amen."                         (2nd Corinthians 13: 14)
     
                                                                      

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