Grace For The Journey

  My prayer and greatest desire in writing this blog each day is that the truths I share from God’s Word will help you to know Him and discover His delight in you.

So much of religion demands us to do something.

Do something delightful, good or worthy in order to gain acceptance from our incomprehensible God.  Major world religions of various stripes place the constant requirement upon their followers to . . .

Do something to either

Remove the displeasure of God against you

Or to

Facilitate His favor on your behalf.

The big problem with this is, what is enough?  This can terrorize and harass a person because . . .

They are never certain that they

Have done the right thing or

Enough of the right thing.

The Bible teaches that only one human

Has ever pleased the Father,

And this was Jesus.

God’s acceptance of any one of us is found only in the pleasure that the only begotten Son of God brought to His own Father.

It is in Jesus that God is still well-pleased.

Jesus is the beloved Son, and He lavishly procured the basis of our acceptance with the Father when gave Himself as our substitute and He poured out His own blood on Calvary.  Because of that God the Father holds back nothing in communicating to you that you are His, and that He delights in you in ways that our hearts are reluctant to believe.

Listen to what God says in His Word . . .

Psalm 35:27, “Let those who delight in My righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, ‘Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of His servant!’”

Psalm 149:4, “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation.”

As someone has said, “These two missiles of truth should land in our hearts to explode away all our doubts and fears.”

God has accepted you,

Not because you were worthy then,

 Or remain worthy at this very moment.

The basis of our acceptance is

Because of Who Jesus is and what He has done.

The magnitude of this acceptance is highlighted when we think that this is made possible because of God’s immeasurable love for us.

He loves you in Jesus. 

He accepts you in Jesus. 

He forgives you in Jesus.

The Bible says in Zephaniah 3:17, “The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save: He will rejoice over you with gladness.  He will quiet you with his love.  He will rejoice over you with singing.”

What a powerful truth!  Because of Jesus . . .

God takes pleasure in us.

God delights in the welfare of all His servants.

Because of Jesus you are cherished & welcomed by Him.

It is His love for you,

And

Goodness toward you,

That must become your foundational rock of assurance.

Today, let’s choose to bask in and soak in the wonderful truth that because of Jesus God delights in us.    Perhaps it has been a long time since some of us have done so.  Some may have never thought about it even once.  Become immersed in the boundless sea of His acceptance.   Swim as far as you will and there will be no obstacle or shore where the delight of Father comes to an end on your behalf!

Oh, that more of us would frolic in the acceptance of our Lord!  We stand in a tub of lukewarm, ankle-deep water and call it salvation, when God has provided a vast, never-ending ocean for us with an open invitation to come, dive in, swim, and enjoy.  Will you admit that your are not good enough, nor can you do enough good things for God to accept you?  Will you accept who Jesus is and what He has done (the only One who is good enough and has done what is necessary) to make you acceptable to God?  Or will you, like many, choose for another day … another month … another year … to doubt His acceptance and love for you and try in vain to earn it?

Don’t let that be you.

God made you to experience and enjoy His acceptance.

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey

… Rest And Rejoice In The Wonderful Truth!

Pastor Terry

 Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”