Showing posts with label repentance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label repentance. Show all posts

Tuesday

The Discipline of Grace - 3



If you have not read my notes on the first two Chapters of

"The Discipline of Grace" by Jerry Bridges 

then you may wish to go visit those before continuing here.

GRACE 1

GRACE 2


Chapter 3

Again I thoroughly enjoyed reading this chapter and to me the emphasis was on justification and grace.

Bridges seems to be excited by what he is writing as he talks of our sin, the atonement by the blood of Jesus, justification through the death and punishment suffered by Jesus on our behalf and the grace of God in the forgiveness we receive.

None of this is subject to us but freely given by God and Jesus.

Several times Bridges writes "Preach the Gospel to yourself" which he admits will seem to be a strange instruction; but he goes on to clearly explain that this is the way to truly know and remember what Jesus has done for us and will help us not to be overcome with guilt (covered in first chapter) about our sin and the imperfect people we are.




While I was reading this I couldn't help but think on the sad comments that Steve Chalke has made about the death of Jesus and how mistreated he claims Jesus was by His Father God; 

so I must say here that

I am very thankful for a book like this one which clearly states the true reason for our Saviour's death and the goodness of our Heavenly Father.


I do agree with Bridges when he says you should "preach the Gospel to yourself"

Do you?



Do we preach the gospel to ourselves?


If this encourages you to read the book you'll find it on amazon for kindle or in paperback.


For other posts on this book see Links below:

Grace 1
Grace 2


                                                            











The Discipline of Grace - 2


Click here to read  Grace 1 which covered the first chapter of the book



          
  The Discipline of Grace 
by Jerry Bridges



 Now let's take a look chapter 2  this time.


 Chapter 2

This surprised me at first because it was so different to the first chapter.

Here he takes a look at the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican going to pray.

I loved the way he explained what this parable is all about.


What it boils down to I think is the fact that when the Publican says

                         "Lord be merciful to me a sinner" 

he is able to say this because he is sure of the grace of God.


Isn't that so ironic that he understands grace but the Pharisee doesn't.

If the Pharisee truly knew what the grace of God was, he could not have been so confident in himself.






The Publican did understand but still he was not confident in himself instead he was confident in God because of grace.

Of course the author has a lot more to say than just this and again this chapter is full of truth and I found it so encouraging.


If this encourages you to read the book you'll find it on amazon for kindle or in paperback.




I promise that later posts on this book will contain shorter notes on each chapter.  



For other posts on this book see Links below:

Grace 1
Grace 3





Grace 1 - The Discipline of Grace





Some time ago I decided to read

        "The Discipline of Grace" by Jerry Bridges

and I have been slowly, very slowly doing so because there is just so much to take in from each chapter.


If I waited until I had read the whole book the notes on it would be extremely long judging by the ones thus far so I've decided to put together here just the notes from my reading of the first chapter to give a taste of what this book has to offer.


Chapter 1

The Holy Spirit transforms us spiritually; we cannot do this ourselves. This is sanctification.
The Pursuit of Holiness is our cooperation and involvement in the sanctification process and it is something we need to be fully committed to.  This must be anchored in the Grace of God.

God's blessing does not depend on our performance.
God's grace through Christ is greater than our sin.
If God’s blessings were dependent on our performance, they would be meager indeed.
Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.
And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.
Every day of our Christian experience should be a day of relating to God on the basis of His grace alone.
We are saved by grace but also each day of our lives we live by grace because we must look only to Jesus for God's blessings on our lives we cannot earn the blessings ourselves.


God's grace through Christ is greater than our sin.

Grace - God's unmerited favour to those who deserve His wrath.
Although saved we still sin; but we also still receive His grace.
We are neither blessed because we have done good enough to gain His favour or not blessed because we have failed to earn it.
 Our performance rating is not the important thing here.
The Gospel applied to our hearts each day frees us to be honest with ourselves & God.
We can admit we still sin and take responsibility for this instead of blaming our actions on the effects of others.

"So it doesn't matter how I live because God forgives me unconditionally" - no, this is not acceptable as it means that the truth is being abused.

We cannot allow others to lessen the value of the truth for all of us. So they need to be reminded of the Gospel.

What about those who struggle with the fact that we are still sinners and they think they are not committed enough? They also still need to be reminded of the Gospel because it does not pour on guilt but rather brings freedom from guilt to them.


We cannot allow others to lessen the value of the truth for all of us.

To live no longer for ourselves but for God is the essence of discipleship.
Love is what compels us to live for God.

So it is by the Gospel that we must be motivated to live a holy life and not by guilt or duty because it is through the Gospel that we will be conscious of His great love.

God's grace is greater than all our sins.
Repentance is one of the Christian's greatest privileges. A repentant Christian focuses on God's mercy & God's love.
One who draws on God's mercy & grace is quick to repent but also slow to sin.
Are we willing to rely on God's mercy & grace alone instead of on our performance, to boast in nothing save the cross?


If this encourages you to read the book you'll find it on amazon for kindle or in paperback.




I promise that later posts on this book will contain shorter notes on each chapter.  
See Links below:

Grace 2
Grace 3





Wednesday

I love Hearts - A Dose of Encouragement


As I sit at my desk......Last year I started a blog post with similar words but no I am not repeating myself.








As I sit at my desk in the study I just simply have to glance to the right of my laptop and I get the first example of hearts that can be found around our house.


Some hearts are decorative but these ones have a useful purpose as well.


They are the Love Heart coasters that I use each day for my coffee mug or glass in the study.







Yes I love hearts


BUT


That does not mean we are a very soppy couple because we are not - I just like hearts.



They are not the only hearts in the study.

There are also hearts as tiebacks for the curtains

There is also a heart decorated box.
   (It is really just decorative as I love boxes too and this one is quite small so is not used to hold anything at the moment anyway.)

Oh and two more boxes!!!

Oh and a heart shaped one!!!


There is also a heart decorated wooden Tissue Box Cover.


And I mustn't forget the  "Home is where the Heart is" Hanging Decoration.


Then there is the Fred & Sandra Christmas decoration that just somehow didn't get put away with the other decorations one year because it needed to be repaired and then when I did get it fixed I just hung it on the door of my craft armoire.


And of course the heart cushion that I lean against each day when I sit on my computer chair.


Oh I nearly did forget the 2 hearts with HOPE and FAITH that I couldn't resist buying earlier this year and don't know where they are meant to go yet so they are just sitting on one of the bookshelves.







That is just one room


There are other examples


A small heart garland hangs on a chest of drawers upstairs








A heart shaped clock is waiting to be put up on the wall of the Dressing Room.







And my heart shaped Friends Cushion that sits in the Sun Room.







Someday I should try to count up all the heart things I have.



I may collect hearts but I can't collect a real heart.

I cannot take someone's heart or make anyone love me.


Fred loves me and my children love me and there are others who love me but I did not make them love me, they chose to do that themselves.

We cannot make people love us, there are no special words to say or things to do.

We also cannot make God love us.

We cannot ever be "good" enough to make God love us.

It has nothing to do with "how much" we might love God.

It has nothing to do with "how much" we might try to get His attention.



We cannot make God love us.

Because He already does.

He has always loved us.




I am very thankful that God first loved us.



He loved us before we even thought about loving Him.
(see 1 John 4 v 19)






He loved us so much that even though He could not have us sinful creatures in His presence He made the only perfect way for us to be united with Him.
(see 1 Cor 15 v 3&4)



HOW?


He gave us Jesus.



Have you ever tried to make someone love you?


Have you ever thought or planned what you could do to change your life so that God would love you?

Do you feel that you would never be good enough for God to love you?

Don't think any longer just acknowledge the fact that you can do nothing to earn His love you just simply have to believe that He loves you and accept the gift of Jesus.

Jesus is the only one who can take our sins and give us His righteousness so that we can be in God's presence.

This can happen as soon as we admit that we are sinful and decide to turn to God and away from that sinful nature.







If you would like to know some more about God's Love and how we can be saved from our sin just click on the  3 2 1 Presentation at the top of my sidebar.


Or you might like to have a look at my Sunday Series called "It's God's Love"