Dear Gregory:
Romans 7 :25 Paul says" With the mind I serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin. And earlier Paul said " O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death". The treasure of the birth of salvation to a Christian is contained in an "earthen vessel", or a clay pottery like vessel.
God could have entrusted the message of salvation angels or to kings but he chose simple people like me.
You have asked me why I don't choose to think another way putting aside the old nature, flesh side of my being. To do so would be to believe that the victory I need is somehow within myself. That being true how can flesh overcome flesh ? It cannot. Only the spirit of the living God can overcome flesh. I can choose to make myself my own reference point to victory or salvation or peace of mind or success or enlightenment or I can choose to make Jesus Christ and the faith that I have in Him as my reference point. The righteousness that I have is the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus.
All have sinned and come short of the glory that God has intended for us. Therefore it is firmly established in my mind that I cannot get my righteousness by following the laws of God; for to break one law of a Holy perfect God is to break them all. My righteousness therefore comes only by the faith I have in Christ Jesus.
So . BIG PROBLEM . Not for you, you are not a Christian. You can only die once, be cursed once by an Almighty God, Be dead spiritually once.
You see. I will tell you. I have nothing in my heart but LOVE for you, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, . From my perspective you are a condemned man on death row. You have been tried and convicted under the Old Law of the Old Testament and to that you will have to answer. Not a vengeful angry God nor to me or any other man. But to the LAW. Your sentence has already been announced, appeals have all been denied. The supreme court has heard your case and thrown it out.
But imagine the joy when the governor calls 10 minutes from midnight and says; there has been a stay of execution let the man go free. The warden says please repeat A stay of execution or LET HIM GO FREE. The governor says :: I have commuted his sentence. The warden says repeat, repeat. not on parole, not on appeal but let him go free. The governor says LET HIM GO FREE.... do you understand NOW why there is so much rejoicing in heaven over one soul coming to salvation.
Gregory, you are the hardest type of person to reach. This is why. You are probably the type of person that has a lot going for you. Confident,definitely intelligent, good self image and not to flatter you I could probably fill up this page with compliments. I'll be honest with you. There is something that 'clicks'. I like you. I think you are a great guy. I don't mean that for more than what it says but you are polite, articulate, thought provoking, conversation generating, open minded ect.
So I ask myself what is it that is keeping you from Christ. This is what the holy Spirit bring to mind.
Mrs Billy Graham once in an interview had the television crews coming to her house ; so she thought she would spring clean the house. National audiences would be seeing her house so she wanted it perfect.
She cleaned and cleaned. Polished. Buffed.
But when the television crew came in and set up all of these strong floodlights she said she was appalled at what she saw. Dirt, cobwebs and smears; residues, dust and lint and animal hairs were all over the place. The lesson she learned was that while we may view our own lives as rather antiseptic when the God of all creation turns up the candlepower we are ALL woefully inadequate and even the best behaved of us needs Christ Jesus as savior.
In Christ.gregor |
