Wednesday, October 17, 2012

AA says "Take Your Inventory" -- Jesus says "Receive My Grace!"

No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. (AA, pg 84)
 
All the promises in Christ are "Yea and Amen"
 
"For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." (2 Corinthians 1: 20)
 
The problem really settles on  --- do you believe Him or not?
 
Do you believe the following:
 
"1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:1-2)
 
If you have entered the rest of Christ and His Finished Work, then indeed you accept that all has been paid for.
 
We are called to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3: 18), to see more of all that He has done for us at the Cross.
 
We  must accept that not only has He died for our sins, He has taken away the curse (Galatians 3: 13) or the consequences of our sins. In His Body, all of our sins are sent away, and He refuses to remember them (Hebrews 8: 12).
 
Jesus Christ paid the price -- how, then, can we continue to "take our inventory" when all of our sins are forgiven, once and for all? He does not remember them, so what reason do we have to keep taking stock of our lives? In fact, the life that we now have in Him is His Life!
 
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)
 
This grace is a gift that He keeps on giving, which He wants us to keep receiving!
 
"for if by the offence of the one the death did reign through the one, much more those, who the abundance of the grace and of the free gift of the righteousness are receiving, in life shall reign through the one -- Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 17, Youngs Literal Translation)
 
We are called not to take our inventories, but rather to keep receiving His grace:
 
"But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." (Romans 5: 15)
 
and
 
"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:" (Romans 5: 20)
 
We need to receive more revelation of God's grace in our lives. In his epistles, Paul addresses his readers right away with "Grace and peace to you" Grace is something that we need to keep receiving, which is part of our "laboring to enter the rest" (Hebrews 4: 11). We rest in His righteousness, receive His grace, and by receiving His grace, we honor God all the more!
 
This "requirement" on our behalf may help explain why "forgiving" someone is not enough for some people. If we do not have the manifested revelation that God's grace is greater than our sin, that His blood keeps cleansing us (1 John 1: 7), then very easily we can slip back into working and earning and striving in our own effort for a number of things.
 
Satan attacks us with fears, worries, regrets, upsets, and the rest -- we are called instead to keep our eyes on Him who has justified us, and keeps justifying us (Colossians 3:1; Romans 8: 33)
 
Stop taking your inventory -- keep receiving His grace!

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