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This looks way cooler in Word where I can format it than it will when you receive it. I guess that's just one of the many
problems of using electronic forms of communication. This issue is about grace. I've had grace on the mind for a while.
I wrote an essay on it in OAC English, even! I tried writing a new one, but I had no idea what to say. Here are some words
that cast light into the nature of grace--words of both God Almighty and His followers.
"But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is
by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus."
-Romans 3:21-26
"But we believe that through the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved"
-Acts 15:11
"What motivates us to testify of the gospel of
the grace of God is love, not guilt or fear. We share our faith because of the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts and
not out of self-interest. We witness for their benefit, not ours. The lost world around us can tell what motivates us, and
as one has said, 'The world doesn't care what you know until they know that you care.'"
-David Havard
"In
this dispensation, God has clearly included the burial and resurrection of Christ along with His death as a part of 'the gospel'
(1 Cor. 15:1-4)...It is God who has set these terms as the content of our faith in order to be saved. This is the METHOD of
salvation in this day of grace."
-Joel Finck
"This is the doctrine of justification. It is the
wonderful fact that God imputes His righteousness to us and makes us immune to the condemnation of sin. Being justified, no
sin can ever be imputed against us."
-Art Sims
"When Jesus tells us to become like little children,
He is inviting us to forget what lies behind. . . . Whatever we have done in the past, be it good or evil, great or small,
is irrelevent to our stance before God today. It is only now that we are in the presence of God."
-Brennan
Manning
"If I stand let me stand on the promise
That You will pull me through
And if I can't let me
fall on the grace
That first brought me to you"
-Rich Mullins
"Jesus loves me this I know"
-Anna Bartlett Warner
In the palace in the land of mercy
The King looked out from His throne
He
saw the sick and the homeless and hungry
He saw me lost and without hope
And moved with compassion
He sent out
His only Son
With the invitation to come
-Steven Curtis Chapman
But now he sings a different song about
amazing grace
He says he's got a brand new heart behind his smiling face
He says that Jesus touched him and he's a
brand new man
-Sammy Horner
Hold me Jesus cause I'm shaking like a leaf
-Rich Mullins
Amazing
grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
-John Newton
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forevermore. Amen.
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