SOUNDING OUT:
Focusing On Grace

[Sounding Out this morning comes from Mike Hadsell a subscriber from Sarasota, FL. He has been blessed in reading The Grace Awakening and had some things to share.]

How wonderful it is to read and enjoy Chuck Swindoll's book on "grace." I am reminded about how important it is to check the focus that we have set our minds upon. In the Old Testament we have what I call the BIG DO, meaning that the Old Testament believers had to earn and work for their salvation, they had to DO something. In our administration we have the big DONE. The last words our Lord and Savior said dying on the cross were "It is finished". What was finished? Your salvation and mine, unfortunately we live in a society that trains us to think that if we really want something we have to earn it. But when we come to God the work has already been done for us.

Romans 3:24:
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

The hardest part of being a Christian is learning that we only need to walk in this grace and abound to every good and perfect work in Christ Jesus. We must first unlearn what the world has taught us and relearn what a great gift our wonderful God has made available to us.

Ephesians 2:6-9:
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.

The Greek word for "gift" used in verse eight is doron, and this is the only place where it appears in the church epistles. It means a special one-time offering. What a wonderful time to walk for God! We don't have to work for this; we are simply empty vessels for God's grace and kindness to show through. I know we are going to stumble, make mistakes (condemnation) and make it complicated (legalism), but the key is to get our focus set correctly and see a thing the way God sees it. Remember what the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians?

Philippians 3:13:
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Let's not get caught up in condemnation and fall into legalism, but let's set our sights on the high calling of God and enjoy this time of grace that God has given us.

Love & Blessings,
Mike Hadsell