Thankful For The Gift Of Grace

 To be Thankful for the Gift of Grace
By: Jerry Olson
Email: jerrydeanolson@yahoo.com

I want to take a moment to consider why we should be thankful. As believers in Christ Jesus, we should be especially thankful for our calling and the special grace we have been given – a gift given to each believer by God, our Father Most High!

Brethren, we do not know why God has given His Holy Spirit to some and not to others. It’s surely not because of our righteousness or our works. Only our Creator knows the answer to the why. But understand this; it is of God, not that any should boast!!!

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast”

Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together”

Some will begin the new year making resolutions to bring about some type of change in their lives. These could take on many different forms because all of us are different. Perhaps we want to shed a few pounds, spend less time watching TV, start exercising or maybe cut down on eating and drinking. As people of the flesh we sometimes allow ourselves to be pleased by our status in life, the things we have, and accomplished. We often consider our works and, what some would say are, the accomplishments of our service to the church and to God.

Romans 7:25  “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin”

Romans 8:6  “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”

When I was in Jerusalem, I asked our Jewish guide about the Messiah. Knowing that we were Christians she said, “Oh you want to talk about the trouble maker Jesus!”  Even with her regional and Old Testament knowledge she was still blind.

2 Corinthians 3:14 “But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ”

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

It is nice to have a new year, brethren and we are blessed. Let us be thankful that God has gifted us with belief in Christ Jesus through faith and the Holy Spirit of God!

I hope 2015 will be a blessing for everyone and my prayer for you is; Ephesians 1:18-19.
“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power”

Jerry
jerrydeanolson@yahoo.com

Below I’ve listed more scriptures for you to ponder:

Romans 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous”

Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you”

Romans 8:28-30 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to conform to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them he also glorified”

Ephesians 1:13 In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise”

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