16 Nov My Story

Once upon a time, a long time ago, The year was January 1980 to be precise, I got down on my knees and said a short prayer, something along these lines “Jesus forgive my sins, I receive you as Lord and Saviour”. There then followed a decade of zealous religious life, that is going to church three times a week, praying as much as I could every day, reading my bible every day, even fasting and of course witnessing to strangers. Then followed a major spiritual crash and burn out, I would try my best to get back on track, mostly just sitting and hiding at the back of the pews. Thus began a pattern till, well, quite recently actually.

Now the Lord  sent a messenger, a friend of old who turned up on my doorstep and told me the good news of ‘Grace’ he and his wife mentioned some names, so as soon as they left I googled Joseph Prince, a pastor in Singapore, and I later discovered another fellow, Paul Ellis, who has a web address “escape to reality”. They seemed to be saying that the Christian life was not about doing but who we are in Christ, that we were just to walk the same way we received Christ, that is just believing. and more than that, it is all free, no strings attached, in fact there was no doing at all, and the really good news is all our sins are (present tense)  punished at the cross on Calvary, it is a done deal. This means all sins, past present and any in the future. Our salvation is entirely secure, because it is what Jesus has done, nothing to do with out weak doings or not doings.

Now what is my experience in all of this;

• The religious life of trying to score points and approval that is, my own approval plus my peers plus Gods approval just made me tired.
• Now ‘Grace’ which is personified in Jesus has made me very hungry and thirsty indeed, yes I want  more of this good unmerited favour.

By the way, I have found that all that religious stuff has been replaced with just wanting to read The Bible, talk to Him, in fact I am now finding He does most of the talking, but that is another story.

 

1 Corinthians 2:12
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

Ephesians 1:3
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

John 6:28-29
28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

emphasis all mine