David Knott's Blog - Posts Tagged "grace"
Shaping – Becoming All That You Were Meant To Be
I hope my latest article will help you become all you are meant to be in 2021. Wishing you a joyful, peaceful and fruitful new year.
You are a unique creation, designed for a purpose that calls you towards a life of joy and meaning. What greater meaning can there be than serving the creator of all things with a life and character shaped by him, just as he planned it to be before the creation of the world...
https://medium.com/pelos-press/shapin...
You are a unique creation, designed for a purpose that calls you towards a life of joy and meaning. What greater meaning can there be than serving the creator of all things with a life and character shaped by him, just as he planned it to be before the creation of the world...
https://medium.com/pelos-press/shapin...
The Glory of God's Grace
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.” (Psalm 89:14)
I love that picture of God’s power and authority being built on righteousness and justice. It is impossible for God to do the wrong thing. The apostle John puts it like this, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
The wonderful thing about our Shepherd is that love and faithfulness go before him. If we ask for forgiveness, he will give it freely, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8,9)
Even as Christians who trust in Jesus, we are not perfect. As sheep, we continue to wander from the righteous path. When we confess our sins to God, his righteousness says, “Your sin needs punishment”, but in his faithfulness God remembers that Jesus has paid for your sin on the Cross. So then his justice says, “Because Jesus has PAID the penalty for your sin, I will cleanse you from it completely, I will make you as white as snow”. In this way, God’s righteousness and justice are satisfied completely, and he sees us as if we had never sinned. This amazing gift of forgiveness is possible because God’s love went before him, and moved him to provide such a great salvation.
Hallelujah, what a saviour! Does your heart leap for joy at the wonder of his grace? The majesty of it hit me in a fresh way through this picture of God’s character, in the way that his righteousness and his justice and his love and his faithfulness work together to reveal the glory of his amazing grace. It is as if they form the four corners of an enormous banner that declares the wonder and glory of God’s grace to all of heaven and earth for all eternity. They form a glorious tension, because the greater his righteousness, the greater his love must be that desires to save us. And the greater his Justice, the greater his faithfulness must be in forgiving us. Is it any wonder that we sing “Amazing Grace”?
(Taken from The Psalm 23 Life: Experiencing the Love of God Every Day
)
I love that picture of God’s power and authority being built on righteousness and justice. It is impossible for God to do the wrong thing. The apostle John puts it like this, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
The wonderful thing about our Shepherd is that love and faithfulness go before him. If we ask for forgiveness, he will give it freely, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8,9)
Even as Christians who trust in Jesus, we are not perfect. As sheep, we continue to wander from the righteous path. When we confess our sins to God, his righteousness says, “Your sin needs punishment”, but in his faithfulness God remembers that Jesus has paid for your sin on the Cross. So then his justice says, “Because Jesus has PAID the penalty for your sin, I will cleanse you from it completely, I will make you as white as snow”. In this way, God’s righteousness and justice are satisfied completely, and he sees us as if we had never sinned. This amazing gift of forgiveness is possible because God’s love went before him, and moved him to provide such a great salvation.
Hallelujah, what a saviour! Does your heart leap for joy at the wonder of his grace? The majesty of it hit me in a fresh way through this picture of God’s character, in the way that his righteousness and his justice and his love and his faithfulness work together to reveal the glory of his amazing grace. It is as if they form the four corners of an enormous banner that declares the wonder and glory of God’s grace to all of heaven and earth for all eternity. They form a glorious tension, because the greater his righteousness, the greater his love must be that desires to save us. And the greater his Justice, the greater his faithfulness must be in forgiving us. Is it any wonder that we sing “Amazing Grace”?
(Taken from The Psalm 23 Life: Experiencing the Love of God Every Day
)
Objective Moral Truth and the Church
Here is the latest in my series of articles exploring how we live out our faith in contemporary culture:
https://medium.com/pelos-press/object...
https://medium.com/pelos-press/object...
How to be in the World, but not of the World
Here is the final part of my series looking at how we can live out our faith in a Biblical yet culturally relevant way:
https://medium.com/pelos-press/how-to...
https://medium.com/pelos-press/how-to...
