It is not that we keep His commandments first, and that then He loves; but that He loves us, and then we keep His commandments. This is that grace, which is revealed to the humble, but hidden from the proud...God chooses us, not because we believe, but that we may believe... - Augustine (354-430)
4 comments:
I love this. A few months back,when I was pulling myself out of the world, I sought God's face not expecting Him to answer because I had turned my back on Him. But I continued to cry His name hoping to find mercy.
Then one day, He did reply ..."You know from my Word that you love Me because I FIRST loved YOU...Then believe, that you seek My face and call on MY NAME, because I have called YOURS FIRST" And with these words,He welcomed me back home.
D
Have loved your sermons on grace, babe. For this little church girl it has been good to focus on the unchurched perspective of salvation...Forgiven much, love much.
But the funny thing that I have realized is that both you and I have been saved from much. The revelation for myself is just that...I have been saved FROM much. Sobering thought that but for the grace of God, go I. Provokes in me even more love and thankfulness.
LeeElla - the wife
Yesterday I prayed at Church that God would make it clear to me where to focus my energies. When I closed my eyes the sounds of the insects became louder, or seemed too. It immediatley reminded me of the jungle, and I thought of the Karen people in Burma. I came away with this, "Do what I put before you". Talk about a taking a load off. I was so relieved. Not "what is before you", But "what I put before you". The idea that what is before me is not by chance, that God's plans are at work even beneath my nose. A great reminder in trusting God. God knows I cannot do it alone, in fact I can't even decide what to do, just do what He puts before me. Gotta love God. ~Matt
Amen Matt,
The task at hand. If we were to take advantage of half the opportunities at hand we would do well. My problem is I always want to assess the small tasks from the large important tasks. So silly. Nothing done for God is small, and most of our lives are made up of little things. Like Mother Teresa would say, "little things with great love."
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