Its not about me

Thank you Jeanie for commenting!

Jeanie said she would read this blog if I updated more often, and she requested that I write about what the Lord is teaching me.

This is my favorite subject, and the point of this blog is to make the Lord famous, so how could I ignore that??

Psalm 23:3
he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.



Isaiah 43:1-7
1 But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.

3 For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush [a] and Seba in your stead.

4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life.

5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.

6 I will say to the north, 'Give them up!'
and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.'
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth-

7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made."

AND finally Exodus 34:14
Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Ok, so those are some intense verses. I will admit that. Notice who it does NOT talk about.
ME. The Bible is not all about me. Life is not all about me.

And Jeanie, the Lord used YOU, and His word to teach me this.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Free to not live for ourselves, free to not be our own saviors.

I have learned to endure in salvation and sanctification and sadly, I now like to "think" I know how to do it on my own.
I could not be more wrong.

I was Created for Him and His glory ALONE. We exist to bring him praise. We exist to honor him with our lives, our gifts, our talents and our wealth.

To those who have been given much, much more will be required.

I have been given SO MUCH. The Lord has saved me from darkness, from alcoholism, from bitterness, from being on the computer 6 hours a day, from wasting away, from diseases, from isolation, from loneliness, from a bad potential marriage in 2005/2006.
He ALONE rescued me. He called me by name and picked me up and loved me right where I was, but IN HIS MERCY, he did not leave me there.
And how dare I claim that it was me who picked me up by my bootstraps, and dusted myself off and trained myself to run this race. How dare I claim that I added anything to what he has done, and now as a believer of Christ the risen Lord, I grow complacent. I think that my works merited my salvation, and that my works will merit favor.

I am here to tell you that your works will NEVER merit favor from a Holy and Just God. Thats right I said just. If he was fair, we will ALL be in hell, we would have never been alive in any sense, and we would have nothing.
So, he is NOT just nor fair. He is gracious.
ANd there is nothing you can add to his grace. Its free, you can't earn it, you cannot lose it. And he gives us more and more grace every single day.

BUT! Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

One small snag.

Grace is sitting on the table right in front of you waiting for you to pick it up and take hold of. You are so hungry, and if grace were a box of Cocoa puffs you would pour yourself a HUGE bowl. Your hunger cannot be curbed by looking at that box, though. You have to grab hold of it and pour it out, stick your spoon in and eat it.

So, this is where I am.

God has provided every cocoa puff of grace I could ever want, and now with this knowledge, I am praying that He will enable me to live according to His grace and mercy as much as possible.