...not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit Titus 3:5
By His mercy eight years ago today I started this blog called inchristalone-byhismercy.
By His mercy there have been 240 posts, in which my goal was to glorify my Lord and Savior in some small way. Even if one person was directed to look away from themselves and unto Him for salvation it would be worth any time or trouble on my part.
Eight years ago when I started this blog I was not yet a mother in law, or a grandmother. I did not have an empty nest.
I was still working part time, still coloring my hair, still in my forties!
Where has the time gone? Day by day and moment by moment it's slipped away.
My father is gone now, and we are busy helping my mother into an assisted living facility in the next few weeks.
By His mercy, the day I was baptized at Northgate Bible Baptist Church, the pastor quoted this Titus 3:5 verse before plunging me into the water. That was over thirty years ago, but still I remember it.
How I loved hearing that verse, not by works of righteousness that we have done...
It was like drinking an ice cold glass of lemonade when my soul was parched with trying to be "good enough."
It is the same way with my Christian life too. It is not by deeds of righteousness that I do that I grow in grace and knowledge of Him but simply according to His mercy.
Mercy in the Greek is eleos. In Vine's Expository Dictionary, the definition of mercy starts with:
Any progress I have made between then and now is by His mercy. I hope, when I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ, there will be evidence of some. Yet consider this thought, which made me stop and think, for 7-17 in None But the Hungry Heart:
By His mercy there have been 240 posts, in which my goal was to glorify my Lord and Savior in some small way. Even if one person was directed to look away from themselves and unto Him for salvation it would be worth any time or trouble on my part.
Eight years ago when I started this blog I was not yet a mother in law, or a grandmother. I did not have an empty nest.
I was still working part time, still coloring my hair, still in my forties!
Where has the time gone? Day by day and moment by moment it's slipped away.
My father is gone now, and we are busy helping my mother into an assisted living facility in the next few weeks.
By His mercy, the day I was baptized at Northgate Bible Baptist Church, the pastor quoted this Titus 3:5 verse before plunging me into the water. That was over thirty years ago, but still I remember it.
How I loved hearing that verse, not by works of righteousness that we have done...
It was like drinking an ice cold glass of lemonade when my soul was parched with trying to be "good enough."
It is the same way with my Christian life too. It is not by deeds of righteousness that I do that I grow in grace and knowledge of Him but simply according to His mercy.
Mercy in the Greek is eleos. In Vine's Expository Dictionary, the definition of mercy starts with:
ἔλεος
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ELEOS is the outward manifestation of pity; it assumes need on the part of him who receives it, and resources adequate to meet the need on the part of him who shows it. It is used... of God, who is rich in mercy, Eph. 2:4, and who has provided salvation for all men, Tit. 3:5, for Jews, Luke 1:72, and Gentiles, Rom. 15:9. He is merciful to those who fear Him, Luke 1:50, for they also are compassed with infirmity, and He alone can succour them...
Any progress I have made between then and now is by His mercy. I hope, when I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ, there will be evidence of some. Yet consider this thought, which made me stop and think, for 7-17 in None But the Hungry Heart:
It takes more to break inertia than to ease momentum. Misdirected zeal is more easily corrected than inert sloth...
It is possible, and very humiliating, to be awakened to the fact, that though we have had a measure of zeal for the Lord, that we have barely known the things we should have known, nor the behavior that is becoming to us in this marvelous day of grace.
But it is the love of the Lord Jesus that would lead us on, through the judgment of ourselves and ways, into deeper communion with Himself to be better representatives of Him here in whose likeness we shall soon appear.I could have done more in this eight years worth of time, but I press on. I want to simply show the world by my words and actions that He is worth knowing, worth pursuing with all my heart. Think back to where you were eight years ago. Are you where you want to be now? Let His love motivate you to press on. In the end, it is all that matters.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3: 13-14
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