Comments on: Off Target & More http://www.thephilfiles.com/2009/09/16/off-target-more/ Musings & messages on everyday worship, Jesus, and the stuff of life. Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:49:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Linda Hoeck http://www.thephilfiles.com/2009/09/16/off-target-more/comment-page-1/#comment-5524 Linda Hoeck Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:17:20 +0000 http://www.thephilfiles.com/?p=1051#comment-5524 You hit the nail on the head with this one. Probably the most quoted verse of the Bible by those who know nothing else is ""You who are without sin, cast the first stone."" It is today’s mantra; we want to be able to do WHATEVER we want without being judged; regardless of the fact that even if it doesn’t hurt any one person, it causes society to deteriorate. It is easy in our ""make your own religion"" society to pick and choose God’s commands and make those our gospel. Unfortunately, truth does not change, in spite of our beliefs. God still demands the same change today that He demanded in the first days of the church. Jesus tried to teach us that (""Go and sin no more"") but we ignore what we don’t want to prevent interference in our lives. From my perspective Western cultures understand grace in terms of mercy and acceptance because of our cultural principle of independence. We chafe against anyone telling us what to do. We have our rights, for goodness sake! ;-) Sadly, are not willing to give up our “rights,” even for God. Using God’s standards (not man’s) it is IMPOSSIBLE to talk about salvation without a change. In every instance of Bible history, God showed that those who changed were pleasing to Him, those who did not turned from Him. The most difficult change in MY life was to lose the fear I had of talking to others about God, Christ and His purposes. I was by nature a people-pleaser and it took a lot of trials in my life to change me. It was one of those cases in which people warn, “Don’t pray for patience!” because we all know that God sends us things to TEACH us patience. I prayed for courage to speak of Him and He sent me things to TEACH me courage! You hit the nail on the head with this one. Probably the most quoted verse of the Bible by those who know nothing else is “”You who are without sin, cast the first stone.”" It is today’s mantra; we want to be able to do WHATEVER we want without being judged; regardless of the fact that even if it doesn’t hurt any one person, it causes society to deteriorate.

It is easy in our “”make your own religion”" society to pick and choose God’s commands and make those our gospel. Unfortunately, truth does not change, in spite of our beliefs. God still demands the same change today that He demanded in the first days of the church. Jesus tried to teach us that (“”Go and sin no more”") but we ignore what we don’t want to prevent interference in our lives.

From my perspective Western cultures understand grace in terms of mercy and acceptance because of our cultural principle of independence. We chafe against anyone telling us what to do. We have our rights, for goodness sake! ;-) Sadly, are not willing to give up our “rights,” even for God.

Using God’s standards (not man’s) it is IMPOSSIBLE to talk about salvation without a change. In every instance of Bible history, God showed that those who changed were pleasing to Him, those who did not turned from Him.

The most difficult change in MY life was to lose the fear I had of talking to others about God, Christ and His purposes. I was by nature a people-pleaser and it took a lot of trials in my life to change me. It was one of those cases in which people warn, “Don’t pray for patience!” because we all know that God sends us things to TEACH us patience. I prayed for courage to speak of Him and He sent me things to TEACH me courage!

]]> By: Sherry http://www.thephilfiles.com/2009/09/16/off-target-more/comment-page-1/#comment-5522 Sherry Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:24:07 +0000 http://www.thephilfiles.com/?p=1051#comment-5522 Wow this must be a theme for me this week, prayer group last nite talking about repentance, and following God's plan, radio preacher talked about this woman (and listening to God and acting on His direction"obedience") and another radio preacher talked about being saved by grace thru faith, how one with out the other is death- like two sides of a coin, God's grace and our faith (obedience) have to work together to produce the LIFE he wants for us...random things? I don't think so! (and i don't always have on radio preachers, either, just for about 20 minutes while driving today) Wow this must be a theme for me this week, prayer group last nite talking about repentance, and following God’s plan, radio preacher talked about this woman (and listening to God and acting on His direction”obedience”) and another radio preacher talked about being saved by grace thru faith, how one with out the other is death-
like two sides of a coin, God’s grace and our faith (obedience) have to work together to produce the LIFE he wants for us…random things? I don’t think so! (and i don’t always have on radio preachers, either, just for about 20 minutes while driving today)

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