Grace and greetings.
Here is my offering for Sunday Night..
Peace and blessings.
Here is my offering for Sunday Night..
Saved by Grace
Ephesians 2.1-10
Though the writer was writing to a church two thousand years ago, and was responding to different situations and experiences, we still can hear of his call to the people. As we come to hear the words written in the Letter to the Ephesians, we can listen whether the words were written by Paul, or latter by a student of Paul, using Paul’s understanding of God’s grace and love.
Each of us in our lives do not always do what we want to do; in fact Paul even wrote that he does the very thing he does not want to do. There are times in our lives that we try to hide what we do, whether it is something big as an affair of the heart; going to places on the Internet that we know we should be going to; maybe it is the abusing of alcohol and illegal drugs; or something that seems innocent at the time, like a “white lie” to avoid somebody’s wrath or displeasure. For each of us, we have the opportunity to come before God and receive forgiveness.
As we read the passage, we understand that everything here, God does all the work. God initiates the relationship with each and every one of us. God gives us the faith to believe, God gives us the strength to come and ask for forgiveness. God blesses us with grace in our lives that we can reach out to God, and say “Thank you.” This is NOT of our doing, but it is ALL GOD!
So where does that leave us here and now? We understand that our faith in God comes from God. We do not need to spend our lives worrying about our salvation; that is all in the hands of God. We do not need to worry if we are accepted by God; God reaches out and claims us as one of God’s own.
But this does not mean that we can just let God do everything else. God has already set in motion the salvation for the entire world through the saving actions of Jesus. Now we need to go out and tell the rest of the world about God’s love and saving grace that comes about by faith; and even the faith that we have in God is a gift from God. We share the Good News of the gospel, by how we treat our neighbor, acknowledging them, helping them, sharing with them and loving them. It is from the parable of the Good Samaritan that we know who our neighbor is: it is ANYBODY that we come across, or ANYBODY that we come in contact with, whether it is in person, or over the Internet, or over the phone. We are each other’s neighbor where ever we may be located at any particular time. We respond to our neighbor, because of the wonders that God has given us. It is ALL God’s doing.
Ephesians 2.1-10
Though the writer was writing to a church two thousand years ago, and was responding to different situations and experiences, we still can hear of his call to the people. As we come to hear the words written in the Letter to the Ephesians, we can listen whether the words were written by Paul, or latter by a student of Paul, using Paul’s understanding of God’s grace and love.
Each of us in our lives do not always do what we want to do; in fact Paul even wrote that he does the very thing he does not want to do. There are times in our lives that we try to hide what we do, whether it is something big as an affair of the heart; going to places on the Internet that we know we should be going to; maybe it is the abusing of alcohol and illegal drugs; or something that seems innocent at the time, like a “white lie” to avoid somebody’s wrath or displeasure. For each of us, we have the opportunity to come before God and receive forgiveness.
As we read the passage, we understand that everything here, God does all the work. God initiates the relationship with each and every one of us. God gives us the faith to believe, God gives us the strength to come and ask for forgiveness. God blesses us with grace in our lives that we can reach out to God, and say “Thank you.” This is NOT of our doing, but it is ALL GOD!
So where does that leave us here and now? We understand that our faith in God comes from God. We do not need to spend our lives worrying about our salvation; that is all in the hands of God. We do not need to worry if we are accepted by God; God reaches out and claims us as one of God’s own.
But this does not mean that we can just let God do everything else. God has already set in motion the salvation for the entire world through the saving actions of Jesus. Now we need to go out and tell the rest of the world about God’s love and saving grace that comes about by faith; and even the faith that we have in God is a gift from God. We share the Good News of the gospel, by how we treat our neighbor, acknowledging them, helping them, sharing with them and loving them. It is from the parable of the Good Samaritan that we know who our neighbor is: it is ANYBODY that we come across, or ANYBODY that we come in contact with, whether it is in person, or over the Internet, or over the phone. We are each other’s neighbor where ever we may be located at any particular time. We respond to our neighbor, because of the wonders that God has given us. It is ALL God’s doing.
Peace and blessings.
No comments:
Post a Comment