Favorite Book Friday February 5,2021
I’m writing this on Thursday morning not night for one. (I started at 10am and now it’s 3:30pm)It’s #favoritebookfriday and I spent last night in my dorm. My room mate comes today so I wanted to already write them. My sleep was bad but let’s get to work for.
So chapter 7 is “loved and accepted”. So there’s a difference between “loved” and accepted” you can say you love someone a million times but if they don’t feel like you accept them, it falls on deaf ears. We all know John 3:16 but we forget there’s not a condition on it. He’s not shaming your behavior. We walk around trying to be the perfect Christian and think that’s God’s standard for acceptance. That just creates bondage and makes God’s love impersonal. Sadly this principle of God’s full acceptance isn’t taught very much. The truth is we’re all accepted but do you know it in your heads as well as your heart. You can know a lot of doctrine but if you don’t
Know this principle of full acceptance it’s a burden not a blessing. God gave Jesus our sin so we could have his righteousness. It’s by faith alone. We’re justified which means we’re declared totally righteous. It’s nit just about heaven but about living in today. It’s not a sick merit system. It’s about right now. God wants us to trust him. Hebrews 4:16 says we can come to him with confidence in your time of need we get this boldness and confidence from our creator. We pray “in Jesus name” because without him, we can’t be accepted by a holy God and because of Jesus, we can be confident and bold so we can ask God for what we need. It’s not your own righteousness but God’s. We’re literally clothed in Jesus. His acceptance of you is never in question. Prayer is how you talk to him! Once you understand that you’re loved and accepted, your prayer life will change.
Sometimes the most religious people are the meanest. Why religion makes people mean. Christianity is different than any other religion because God reached down to man instead of man reaching up to God. When we rely on Jesus, we can believe what he said, satisfaction in him. His love for you is unconditional. You don’t have to search any longer.
Check out the website to read about Chapter 8: The Great Exchange.
Let’s look at this chapter: The Great Exchange. Too many of us forget the incredible riches we already have in Christ. Praying our eyes may be opened is so much more than head knowledge, it’s heart knowledge too. The same is true for the word of God.
But you’ll never have a changed life until you experience the exchanged life. Christianity is not a self improvement plan or reformation project, it’s new life in the resurrection. Her are some of the results of totality acceptance. You’re at peace with God now and completely reconciled to him. You are safe from God’s wrath. All of God’s anger was placed on Jesus and he paid for it in full and were covered with his righteousness. The good news isn’t just for lost people. It’s for everyone. We have been freed from all fear of condemnation. Romans 8:1 says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We have been made perfect forever. Hebrews 10:4. Jesus’ one sacrifice makes us holy and it’s what God says about you. 1 John is all about love. We can only love because God loves us. The Bible means what it says, you’re perfect in God’s eyes. We have been made complete. There’s nothing lacking in you, you’re completely by Jesus. We aren’t perfectly mature yet that doesn’t happen until we get to heaven. We’re still under construction so let’s be a little less judgmental. We’re made citizens of heaven. There’s nothing than can be done to take this away from you. You’re a child of God! Your dead to sin and alive in God. Here-and-now Life and Power. The power you have in Jesus us available now. You have a completely new life in God.
You were defined by someone or someone but now you’re defined by God. We have Holy Spirit living inside us. God is still faithful. Sin is just a perversion of the truth and it doesn’t feel good for long. There is temptation out there but the Lord will renew your mind His truth. Your identity is based on what God says not what you do. A total exchange is how we get the changes we desire in ourselves
The only solution is total exchange.
Chapter Highlights (Chapter 7-8)
Love becomes practically meaningless apart from acceptance
How many of you are righteous and acceptable in the sight of God? All of you.
If you’re a true Christian, then you are as righteous and acceptable in the sight of God as Jesus Christ.
It’s my prayer that you will never again wrestle with God’s acceptance of you, so that you can go on to discover the immeasurable wonder of His love
Righteousness (a right standing before God) is a gift. You don’t earn it. You don’t deserve it. Like any gift all you can do is accept or reject it. And once you have it, it’s yours
How we pray reveals our perception of God’s acceptance and what we think he desires from us.
If you don’t trust that you have been made totally acceptable in God’s sight, you will never have the boldness to approach Him. You will linger outside His throne room l, trying to find a way to get “worthy” enough to go in. The end result is you will avoid going to your only source of help when you need Him most.
At no time does God ever deal with me except in perfect love, acceptance, wisdom and kindness. Because I am a child of God, there is no occasion in life where he would not attend my prayer that is offered in faith-that is in Jesus’name.
One of the most destructive forces in human history is conditional love and acceptance.
Too many of of not necessarily have a wrong view of Christianity but a too small one
You will never have a changed life until you experience the exchanged life.
We must receive God’s love and rest in His total acceptance before we will ever able to return it.
The more we learn about God and experience God’s love on a daily basis, the more we will find ourselves responding with love for Him and towards Him
Even though we are aware of the sometimes difficult process of growth, He sees us already there. God will never accept you one ounce less or once ounce more than He does right now.
There’s nothing more practical than the message of God’s love and grace, and the believers identity in Christ.
Salvation is not us changing our own lives But God making us into a new creation.
The only solution is a total exchange.
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