AA#001 - 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

"Every one 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

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