Our topic... Salvation and Imputed Righteousness.
We discussed defined words such as -ransomed, redeemed, propitiation, expiation, reconcillation, etc. They are beautiful words--if you never have-look them up.
It was also mentioned in class.... that we as Christians will have a bent towards how we view our salvation.
We will either tend to focus on what we have been saved from....or what we are saved to.
This very much resonated with me. I know I am one who focuses on what I am saved from.....
I see what I deserve-hell.
I tend to sit in my sin. Feel the weight of it.
I can be hard on myself.
The challenge to spend some time focusing on the opposite of my bent...was something I had been missing.
This I am doing.....it has already begun to rock my world.
I will share more of what God is showing me from this soon.
There was one more piece of this salvation puzzle that God opened my eyes to yesterday.
He spoke it through a guest pastor who came to speak on Racial Reconcilliation
Pastor Eric Mason from Philly spoke words of life.
He started off his messages, by changing his topic. He went broader than a racial topic....He went deeper to the heart of man and our sinful nature. .
He spoke on the topic of repentance...cultural repentence, because without it....there can be no reconcilliation.
He spoke from Psalm 51: 1-6...read it. Sit in it.
One of his first statements..."Repentance does not start with man, but it starts with God.
Even the very act that I become aware of my sin is... from Him.
Look around you-people will lie, cheat, steal, and if you have been in the news at all lately more and more, kill. The fact that there is an awareness of my guilt, that I see my wrongs, that I have offended a Holy God, comes from the Holy God, Himself.
Pastor Mason also noted that we must "throw oursleves on the character of God" The fact that He is slow to anger, forgiving, merciful, steadfast in His love for us. This is what we should be crying out to in our failures.
Sitting in God'scharacter...His loyal love to us. Feeling the weight of that.
"Sin can only take me to my sin, not beyond it"
I heard God say to me, stop sitting in your sin...move beyond it. Look at me.
So I am looking.
"Repentance will cause us to long for real transformation."
This is so very true.
Pastor Eric in closing shared....." Reconcilliation without repentance is phony. Repentance with reconcillation is beautiful Restoration! ....We are a bunch of different looking sinners in need of the same looking cross."
Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
So this is where I am today, this is where my journey is taking me.....more into the character of God and it is revealing who I am IN Christ, what I get IN God.
We have to lift our eyes and take them completely off ourselves....and put them on the cross and the beautiful and awesome character of God.
This makes me long for more of Him and I am beginning to see how He is better.
Jeremiah 29: 13 "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."
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