Tumbling Around

"A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man made perfect without trials." ~ Chinese proverb     

My grandfather was a rock hound. He could look at a dull, crusty, old rock and tell you about the beauty that was to be discovered with polishing. Some of the rocks had to be cut in to pieces to let the beauty in them come out in the process. 

That was not all of the process. He would put them in a tumbler, and for various lenghts of time determined by the type of rock, they would come out shiny and beautiful gems; but only after long periods of tumbling around and around in that drum.     

In the proper setting, many of those stones made beautiful jewelry. Their value and beauty increased far beyond what could be seen in that old piece of rock.    

Our trials sometimes cut us into pieces and toss us all around. They chip away the crust and other types of sediment that dull the beauty of Christ in our lives. When we are in the midst of a trial, it is difficult to realize that we can come out of it more beautiful, more shining with the beauty of our Blessed Savior than we were before.     

That is where the trust comes in to play. Trust in the Lord in the midst of the trying times to bring you forth as a beautiful gem. He will help you to become that beautiful stone, and he will 'set' you in the proper place to shine forth his glory to those around you. Your value and beauty increases with each new trial you come through.
  
"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."  I Peter 1:6-7  RSV
   
Have a great day; and remember who and Whose you are.
Brenda Quimby Smith

 "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Jude v. 24 KJV

Grace Greater Than All Our Sin

"Too many Christians today are spiritual bulimics; binging on the things of the world, then purging with an abuse of the grace of God.*  -Tyler Braswell

Personally, I don’t accept that theory about grace, but a lot of Christian do.* They are afraid we are going to take grace too far and miss heaven.  So they want us to do this and don’t do that, and don’t abuse grace. They want to boil it down to works again. They are adding to God’s plan, and preaching another gospel.

Let me tell you, there is nothing you can do, or not do that will make you acceptable to God. Jesus already did it ALL! No one but Jesus could redeem us. No one!

As we hear, see, understand the beauty of Christ and how much God loves us, it will produce a change in us and we will want to sin no more.   

You can never ‘out-sin’ the grace of God. The sin problem has been taken care, of once and for all (Hebrews 10:11-18 KJV), by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

The sin problem was never ‘The’ problem. The sin ‘Nature’ was 'The' problem. If you are saved, you are righteous. God gave you his righteousness  and put you in Christ Jesus. He does not impute your sins to you anymore. Read Romans 4:8 KJV, where the apostle Paul addressed this very idea.      

We all need guidance, mentoring and discipling as to how to walk out this new life in Christ. Imposing restrictions and demanding works does not do anything but call Jesus a liar. It puts people in bondage to condemnation. (Romans 8:1-4 KJV)  It says that Jesus' life, death, and resurrection weren’t good enough to get the entire job done.  

I understand why people have such a problem with this. It is so hard to comprehend that God would just forget our sin. What a grand and generous thing for the Almighty God, the Creator of everything, to do for us.  But He did!  He did, and He justified us.  (Romans 5:18 KJV)  He made it “just as if we had never sinned“.

My dad, a pastor of some fifty years, often advises to start with the
things that you know God expects of you, the basics. Don’t lie, cheat, or steal. Do the things like praying, reading the Bible, going to church. He advises to quit doing drugs, quit getting drunk, quit beating your husband. --you know, the obvious stuff. Then he advises getting filled with the Holy Spirit.

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, and as you grow in the new nature you have been given, as you are transformed by the renewing of your mind by the reading of the Word (Romans 12:2 KJV), the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth.  Before you know it, you will look back on a certain thing that used to trip you up and realize that's no longer an issue for you.

Pretty soon, you won't be fretting and feeling guilty, rather, you will be sharing with a weaker brother or sister and helping them to grow past that stumbling block.
   
God's grace is freely given. Take it and grow in it; then share it on to some one else.

"Well then, shall we keep on sinning so that God can keep on showing us more and more kindness and forgiveness?  Of course not!  Should we keep sinning when we don't have to?...So, look upon your old sin nature as dead and unresponsive to sin, instead be alive to God, alert to Him, through Jesus Christ our Lord."   Romans 6:1,2,11 TLB
  
Have a great day; and remember who and Whose you are.
Brenda Quimby Smith

"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." Jude v. 24 KJV

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net