I face life with The Christian Attitude that through Jesus my life is a grace G.O.O.D. A God orchestrated opportunity for development, disposition, and doxology.

So, the “G” in the acronym is for “God.”

Meaning, I believe that God is always the One dealing with us.

Previously, I shared with you the first four reasons that I believe God is always the One dealing with us. Those reasons were AuthorityExpectancyHumility, and Therapy.

Now, I’d like to share with you my fifth and final reason for this belief:

Christianity.

Horizontal vs. Vertical

Our thinking about Christianity is horizontal. We stress what we do to become Christians“Are you a Christian?” “Yes, I’ve asked Jesus into my heart as my personal Lord and Savior.”

The Bible thinks vertically: what God does for us.

 The Bible says Christianity is God’s grace plan of glorifying himself through Jesus by bringing his people through grief to perfect and permanent happiness.

[ctt template=”2″ link=”S_U46″ via=”yes” ]Christianity is God’s grace plan of glorifying himself through Jesus by bringing his people through grief to perfect, permanent happiness. @gfoministries[/ctt]

A Grace Plan

Christianity is God’s plan. He’s not a character in the novel of his plan. He’s the author of the plan and the writer of the dialogue and doings of all his creatures. “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” (Ephesians 1:11)

Christianity is God’s plan to glorify himself. It’s the stage on which God will get a standing ovation from a vast multitude that no man can number. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)

Christianity is God’s grace plan. Meaning, saving us isn’t his duty the way protecting people is a policeman’s duty or rescuing people from a burning building is a fireman’s duty or treating the injured in an automobile accident is a paramedic’s duty. God has no duty to give us the opposite of what we deserve.

He saves because he wants to not because he has to.

“For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith—and that not from yourselves—it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

[ctt template=”2″ link=”0yfWa” via=”yes” ]Saving us isn’t his duty the way protecting people is a policeman’s duty. He saves because he wants to not because he has to. @gfoministries[/ctt]

How Sweet the Sound

Three thoughts emphasize how amazing God’s grace really is:

1. Christianity is God’s grace plan of glorifying himself through JesusI would not sacrifice either of my sons to save my best friend. But God sacrifices his beloved Son to save his enemies. It’s this amazing act that makes grace the Magnum Opus of God’s love. It’s this that makes us sing, “My God, how GREAT Thou art!” “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10.)

2. Christianity is God’s grace plan for his people. Christians are his ‘chosen people’ (1 Peter 2:9.) Why us? NOT because we’re as attractive to him as Bathsheba to David. My friends, the angels look at us and say what people say when they see an unattractive man with a beautiful wife: “Whatever did she see in him?” So, whatever did God see in you or me? Nothing. We are his people because he chooses to include us. “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.” (Romans 9:13.)

3. Christianity is God bringing his people through earthly grief to eternal glory. God’s not a coach who has a game plan he depends on others to execute. God plans his work and works his plan. “For those whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, them he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30.)

 In other words, God’s always the One dealing with us.

[ctt template=”2″ link=”P4N9c” via=”yes” ]God’s not a coach who has a game plan he depends on others to execute. God plans his work and works his plan. @gfoministries[/ctt]

For the Bible Tells Me So

Before he created the world, he included us in his grace plan: “He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 1:4).

Then, he brought us into existence for the sole purpose of bringing us to the perfect and permanent happiness he’s planned for the New Earth: Christians are “the objects of his mercy whom he prepared in advance for glory” (Romans 9:23).

Then, before we became Christians, he kept us from: dying in our sin and brought us to Jesus: “All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Having done this, he forgave us all our sins, dropping all the charges against us and taking us off death row: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

And he adopted us into his royal family: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13).

And he’s daily transforming us into Jesus’ image: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

And he answers our prayers: “If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?” (Matthew 7:11).

And he comforts us in our sorrows: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles . . .” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

And he sustains us with his grace : “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

And he restores us when we wander: “He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:3).

And allows nothing to separate us from his love: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

One day he who has begun this good work in us will bring us to perfect and permanent happiness on the New Earth. (Philippians 1:6.)

And we shall read our diaries and see that even on the tear stained pages that goodness and love have followed us all the days of our lives. (Psalm 23:6.)

And even chosen frozen Presbyterians like me will join that vast multitude whom no man can number in shouting, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 115.)

Meaning, our problems will be removed and we will be eternally grateful for the glorious truth that God was always the One dealing with us.

Christianity means ‘G’ is for God.

 

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