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When you read the first four chapter of Romans, you will see that it clearly states,  the principle that the only way a man can be justified is by faith. He has shown that the means of ignorance, morality and religion are insufficient for salvation. He has clearly shown that faith is the only way sinful men could be saved and illustrated that men of all ages were saved by this same principle.

Romans 10:3,4 tells us that God’s way of making people right with himself, that is, right standing with Him, comes through faith in Christ alone. Some interpret Christ to have accomplished the purpose of the law in the sense that He is the goal or fulfillment of the law. However, “law” here refers to the system of earning righteousness in one’s own strength. Christ has indeed accomplished everything the law requires, but He also put an end…

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Things we should know about Faith and God’s Grace.

I added another song to this.

sandy229's Blog

via Things we should know about Faith and God’s Grace.

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Things we should know about Faith and God’s Grace.

When you read the first four chapter of Romans, you will see that it clearly states,  the principle that the only way a man can be justified is by faith. He has shown that the means of ignorance, morality and religion are insufficient for salvation. He has clearly shown that faith is the only way sinful men could be saved and illustrated that men of all ages were saved by this same principle.

Romans 10:3,4 tells us that God’s way of making people right with himself, that is, right standing with Him, comes through faith in Christ alone. Some interpret Christ to have accomplished the purpose of the law in the sense that He is the goal or fulfillment of the law. However, “law” here refers to the system of earning righteousness in one’s own strength. Christ has indeed accomplished everything the law requires, but He also put an end to the law as a way of achieving righteousness for all who believe. Thus, Paul emphasizes the sufficiency of faith in receiving the righteousness of God because in fulfilling the law’s demands, Christ terminated its claim. The verse does not mean that a Christian may ignore God’s moral standards or commandments.

Oral confession declares, confirms, and seals the belief in the heart.

Romans 10:3 tells us that God’s way of making people right with himself, that is, right standing with Him, comes through faith in Christ alone.

Romans 10:6-8 tells us that Paul asserts that faith’s way of getting right with God does not demand human merit or effort. Christ has already achieved all that is necessary for our salvation.

Romans 10:8

Romans 10:8-10 New International Version (NIV)

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”^[a] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim:⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgrvIMeLQ1k

Romans 10:9 & 10 is the most foundational lesson in the importance and power of faith’s confession found anywhere in the Bible. The principle is established at the very beginning of our life in Christ. Just as salvation (God’s righteousness working in our behalf) is appropriated by heart belief and spoken confession, so His continuing working in our lives is advanced by the same means. Thus as our words “contract” from our side the salvation God has fully provided from His by Christ saving work and power, so we have a principle for all of life. Beginning in this spirit of saving faith, let us grow in active faith–believing in God’s mighty power for all our needs, speaking with our lips what our hearts receive and believe of the many promises in His Word. Let us accept God’s “contracts” for all our need by endowing them with our confessed belief–just as when we are saved. 

Romans 4:17 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”^[a] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

2 Timothy 1:12 New International Version (NIV)

¹² That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame,because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igC3fYB5AOU

Through Jesus, we have received abundant grace and the gift of righteousness. This grace does not give us license to sin, it grants us the freedom to live and grow in godliness. Love, humility, and unity are to motivate godly living. Godliness prefers others, does not abuse freedom and honors others in the body of Christ.

Everyone is born in sin. This means we are born sinners and unless we choose to obey God, we are obeying sin. There are 2 choices in life, sin or righeousness in Christ Jesus who freely offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. This salvation is free. So let your life be a daily expression of worship. Do not live according to the ways of the world, but let the Bible change the very way you think. Romans 12:1 & 2 tells us to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.  This means do not live according to the ways of the world, but let the Bible which is God’s Word, change the way you think.

Romans 12:1-2 New International Version (NIV)

A Living Sacrifice

12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Faith and God’s Grace

 

The first four chapters of Romans, says, the only way a man can be justified is by Grace through faith.  Ignorance, morality and religion are insufficient for salvation. Romans clearly shown grace through  faith is the only way sinful men could be saved and illustrated that men of all ages were saved by this same principle.

 Romans 10:3 says that God’s way of making people right with himself, that is, right standing with Him, comes through faith in Christ alone. We are saved by grace through faith.  So God’s way of making people right with himself in right standing with Him, comes through faith in Christ alone. Jesus came to fulfill the law, not abolish it….. For by Grace we are saved and not of ourselves lest any man should boast.(Ephesians 2:8&9) The verse does not mean that a Christian may ignore God’s moral standards or commandments.

Oral confession declares, confirms, and seals the belief in the heart.

Romans 10:6-8 says that Paul asserts that faith’s way of getting right with God does not demand human merit or effort. Christ has already achieved all that is necessary for our salvation.

Romans 10:6-8

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”^[a] that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim:⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

 Romans 10:9 & 10 is the most foundational lesson in the importance and power of faith’s confession found anywhere in the Bible. The principle is established at the very beginning of our life in Christ. Just as salvation (God’s righteousness working in our behalf) is appropriated by heart belief and spoken confession, so His continuing working in our lives is advanced by the same means. Thus as our words “contract” from our side the salvation God has fully provided from His by Christ saving work and power, so we have a principle for all of life. Beginning in this spirit of saving faith, let us grow in active faith–believing in God’s mighty power for all our needs, speaking with our lips what our hearts receive and believe of the many promises in His Word. Let us accept God’s “contracts” for all our need by endowing them with our confessed belief–just as when we are saved.

 

12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day endowing them with our confessed belief–just as when we are saved –

Romans 12:1-2 New International Version (NIV)

A Living Sacrifice

12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

When we don’t understand

These words  are a part of an album by Jeff Deyo…..”When it comes to understanding God, we seem to have trouble keeping in balance, people see Him differently. God is a God of balance, He is both meek and strong, merciful, and judgemental, tender and harsh, gracious and bold.  One of the most misunderstood things about God is whether to approach him as King or friend. The Bible makes it clear that He is the King of kings, but Jesus also calls us His friends. Psalm 2 :11 tells us to serve the Lord with reverence, fear, and to rejoice with trembling.

Two seemingly opposite ideas. Ecclesiastes reminds us, there is a time for everything, a time for weeping, a time for dancing, a time to be still and a time to speak up. Most people seem satisfied to approach God however they feel instead of how He requires. The real key is to relate to God in all His glory because otherwise we set ourselves up to a version of God that we created, so if your the type of person that finds it easy to lean on His Grace and come boldly before His throne, it may be time to restore the fear in your life. God is King and Lord and He can strike us down if He chooses. This is new and Old Testament theology. If you spent your whole life trembling before God and see Him as an impersonal, far away being, unapproachable, you may want to ask to see Him to help you understand Him as the Dad and intimate friend He is.

Sometimes I don’t understand everything, then it becomes a “weakness” in me.

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you that I am not defined by this weakness.  Since I am Your child, I am defined by what You accomplished on the cross. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, I can wake up every morning and live life knowing that no matter what I do, think, say, or feel–the cross covers it. Because You offered up Your own beloved Son, I can have peace with You and can face each day with fresh hope and grace.  Help me to focus on what is true, and not focus on how I feel. As I sit before the cross, help me to gain a new appreciation for what it actually means for me on a daily basis.

Help me to embrace my weakness as a gift. Remind me that my weakness allows You to work through me even when I am so very weak and feel as though I can do nothing. (2 Corinthians 12:9) Through this time, I pray that you would enlarge my heart that I might love and obey You, and love others more deeply. (Psalm 119:32; Galatians 6:2; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
Amen

Proverbs 3:5-6 New International Version (NIV)

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.^[a]

Footnotes:

1. Proverbs 3:6 Or will direct your paths

I got this from my Study Bible in  Kingdom Dynamics

Intimacy and Spiritual Breakthrough. FAITH’S WARFARE. Two words in this passage are especially significant–the words “do” and “seek”..
The word “do” (Hebrew derek) is literally  “ways” and means “a road, a course, or a mode of action.” It suggests specific opportunities a person may encounter on a recurring basis. The most common “segment of opportunity”  we experience regularly is each new day. It is as if this passage suggests that in all our “days” we should acknowledge God, and in doing so, He will direct our paths.
Of equal significance is the word “seek” (Hebrew yada) Elsewhere yada‘ is translated “know”, meaning to know by observation, investigation, reflection, or firsthand experience. But the highest level of yada’ is in “direct intimate contact.” This refers to life-giving intimacy, as in marriage. Applied to a spiritual context, ir suggests an intimacy with God in prayer that conceives and births blessings and victories. Joined to our Proverbs test, we might conclude that if in all our “days” we maintain yada’(direct, intimate contact with God), God promises to direct our paths toward fruitful, life-begetting endeavors.

 

God wants to use me as His voice and light in this dark world. So I want to be His voice to my friends and neighbors. May He break the spirit of discouragement over my life in the name of Jesus and give me great joy in His love. I need not fear or be discouraged. He is with me.  I know that I need to believe and trust God even when I don’t understand everything – I need to walk in minute-by-minute obedience – and daily pray God’s Word over my life and be faithful in the small things – by prayerfully giving thanks and resisting discouragement in Jesus’ name. When I put my hope in You God, I know you will deliver me.“‘Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged’” (Deuteronomy 1:21).

 

Things we need to know about being Holy

I edited this because I wanted to make it clear that God did not do this to me, He allowed it to happen just like He did with Job when Satan did all those things to Job. Satan cannot do anything to us unless he has God’s permission, but God allowed this to help me realize what I was doing.

sandy229's Blog

Holiness is one of the defining points of God’s people. Edom is represented by stubble, while Israel is represented by fire. God’s people are to be consumed and marked by the fire of God’s holiness so that the stubble of pride, deception, greed, betrayal, and rebellion can be burned up and overcome in our lives. God desires that we walk in the full possession of our inheritance in Him.

Colossians 3:1-17 tells us that relationships often prove to be the crucible in which our godliness is tested. Colossians challenges us to bring the life and character of Christ into the way we relate to others. Drawing strength from the power and might of His glory, we must remove and discard our old ways of living and relating. God has made us new creations in Christ; let us be continually renewed to live and love in a manner worthy of our…

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