This week inspiration come from  a dear friend of the ministry John H.  We  asked John H. would he write an article for us, that is a testimony to His Faith  It is with much pleasure we present that article as our guest post, hope you all enjoy it as much as we did and the privilege we had, in  put the article up

We all seem to understand grace in relation to salvation, you know: Ephesians 2: 8, saved by grace through faith – it is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.

But the Gospel of Grace as set out in the Word of God, especially in Paul’s letters, applies to every aspect of our ongoing lives.  Grace is described as unmerited favor, and that’s right.  We can’t earn it, we’re just not good enough, and we don’t deserve it.  But the Gospel of Grace could equally be described as the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Grace is not a doctrine, it is a Person, and that Person is Jesus.  John 1:16-17 says, ‘And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’   Our loving trust and faith is in Jesus and the finished work of the cross.  Nothing can be added to that, and nothing can be taken away from that – it is our total sufficiency.

About nine or ten months ago, the realization that grace is a Person, traveled, as some have described it, from my head to my heart, and transformed me!  I thought, ‘I know all about grace,’ and I knew nothing about the reality of it as it applies to every aspect of our daily lives, until by His grace, the Lord gave me the revelation of grace, so much so that it must come out.  I have to let it out and tell others.   It is a joy and privilege to do so.  I cannot not do it.  The sense of gratitude and love and praise it gives is the same as returning to my first love, as Jesus admonishes the church at Ephesus to do, in the Bible book of Revelation.

What a motivation a sense of love and gratitude makes in  keeping us walking the Lord’s walk in our ongoing, day by day, year by year lives, depending solely on ‘Christ within us, the hope of glory!’  Let us not turn that ongoing walk into a work of the law, or of the flesh, based solely on our own performance, ambitions, discipline, energy, will power, trying to make something happen yourself.  In the short term or the long term, that results in us messing it all up, even if we do give a bit of credit to the Lord in doing it.  I’m sure most of us have heard this saying a number of times, ‘Aim for the stars, and who knows, you could hit the moon.’   That could easily degenerate into a work of the flesh.

As we know in Isaiah 64:6, ‘Our own righteousness is as filthy rags’ in the Lord’s sight.  Just consider the sheer awesomeness of God.  We can pray,’ I’m in awe of the perfection of Your holiness, Lord, the infinity of Your holiness, Your purity, Your integrity, truth, goodness.  I’m in awe of Your character, majesty, righteousness.  I’m in awe of Your justice, which was satisfied in full by the death of Jesus on that cross.  And O, Lord, I’m in awe of Your grace, mercy, and loving kindness, Your favor, and Your patience and long suffering .  Keep Your hand upon me, Lord, lest I die.  I’m in awe of Your eternity.  You have no beginning and no end.  I don’t understand it.  I’m in awe of Your infinite intelligence, Your omniscience, Your omnipresence, Your omnipotence.

I’m in awe of the mystery of Your Tri-unity, and I honor, worship, adore, and reverence You.  And I love You Lord.  I love You because You loved me first –       (1 John 4:19).  And I love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and I love my neighbor as myself

( Mark 12:30, 31.)  That’s impossible for me to do in my own strength, Lord.  I need Your enabling grace for me to do that.  But when You enable me to do that, I can have some kind of perception, however imperfect, of how much You love them.’   How can we not rely on our wonderful Lord to act through us?

Much Thanks to Our Dear Friend John H.

God Bless

OFJ.