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HOUSMAIL HM0A1
1998 DROWNING IN
GRACE In
an E-mail received last week, the correspondent described their experience in
a Church they had formerly attended as: "DROWNING
IN GRACE"! How
could that be? Could it really be true that "grace" might destroy
life, rather sustain it? Alas
..... if our definition of grace is faulty, that is sadly true! When
"grace" is preached in isolation from a call to "SEEK FIRST
THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS", it is not grace at all, and
it cannot save. The
person concerned went on to say, "We wanted teaching that called us to
holy living". AMEN! That
is as it should be. A REAL experience of the "Gospel of Grace"
creates a hunger and bestows a blessing. "BLESSED are those who hunger and thirst
for RIGHTEOUSNESS, for they shall be satisfied". (Matthew 5:6
RSV) It
should of course be obvious that our hunger for this divine food can only be
satisfied if we continue to eat from the banquet spread before us! Jesus
pointed us to the source of this ETERNAL blessing when He said: - "The WORDS that I have spoken to you are
spirit and life". (John 6:63) and "Everyone who comes to me and hears my
words AND DOES THEM, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man
building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a
flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it,
because it had been well built." (Luke 6:47-48) If
we "eat" THIS "bread" we shall live for ever! (John 6:51) Allon |