Yes, you did so well the last time, here is another opportunity. The topic today is sin, temptation, and how to overcome it. Here is a passage from the book of Romans, chapter 5. Let's see how God is speaking through you today...
"Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There’s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?
"Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.
"All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. "(Romans 5:15-21, The Message).
For me, I'm grabbing this life-giving gift with both hands and not ever letting go, because I can't do it on my own.
Peace ><>
pc
3 comments:
Amen Dan, well said.
How can anyone individual, alone, even be aware of all of thier sin? We need each other in many ways, especially accountabily, to keep each other aware of our actions, just and unjust. We do not need to judge each other, and that is where we fail so often. Who is worthy to cast the first stone?
We know we will sin, we need others to hold us accountable so we are aware of our sins. We need to give our grace to others and not hold thier sins against them. As we give Grace to others, God's grace though Christ becomes abundant upon us. What a great Gift!
As the passage said, one person brought sin into this world and brought this trouble upon us but Jesus brought us back into life and gave us accesss to the Father. Keeping that in mind we have to keep our focus on that sacrifice, and what that sacrifice made available to us. We have to help each other keep that focus. That is why our Church family, small groups, etc. are so important. They help to remind us that we are accountable. As long as we keep our focus (on God that is) God's Grace is there for us.
the thing that struck me yesterday after thinking about this for a while is that there are two things in life we can't avoid unless we choose to turn away from them...and those are:
1. Sin
2. God's grace.
how simple is that?
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