Sunday, December 23, 2007

a pondering.....

So, I have had this kind of thought or question on my mind since I have come into a understanding of grace, the pure undiluted gospel of grace....I am wondering, why is it when Christians pray.... they often ask God to forgive them, corporately or privately of their sins or say forgive me Lord for this that or the other thing...?? Do we not remember that Jesus died to save us from all sin, past, present and future- all of it wiped clean once and for all -IT IS FINISHED~! I think what we should say is I am sorry Lord, thank you that you have already forgiven me!!! Anyway, we aren't left with sins that aren't covered that need to be still forgiven - it's done, dealt with, finite....I just want to hear more people declaring the good news in every day language and common practices....it seems like we could all stand to be a bit refreshed by the GOOD NEWS, don't ya think!!!


Added 1/12/08
"Without the shedding of the blood, there is no forgiveness"...
God forgave us when Christ shed his blood, not when we ask, grieve or confess..
We are to receive this forgiveness in Christ by faith and by faith alone. If confession can give us forgiveness, why did Christ die?
(quote from Bino, on the Grace Walk Forum...)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds good to me! Thanks, Lydia!

Ellie

Aida said...

Lydia, this is good. Father gave me that same understanding a few years ago.

It would seem that if we had to ask him to forgive us, there would always be the uncertainty as to whether or not he has. I'm just glad to know that forgiveness is now a fact and I can thankfully receive the gift that has already been given to me.

Aida

lydia said...

Aida,
I like how you said that, "forgiveness is now a fact!"
It is a gift.....yahoo!

Aida said...

Lydia, I re-read what you posted here and was attracted to your statement that we should be "declaring the good news in every day language." Maybe this is off topic but I've really been working at getting the christianese talk out of my vocabulary.

As followers of Christ, we've developed our own sometimes rather stilted way of speaking that separates us from the rest of society. In my opinion, this stilted way of speaking makes us seem weird to others and can be a distraction for them and for us.

My understanding is that the Bible was written in the common language of the day so it would seem that the early believers understood this. Instead, we've tried to take their common language and use it today.

I'm coming to believe that our message would have a greater possibilty of being received if we removed all of the strange language which others may find offensive and just talk like normal people.

Aida

lydia said...

Aida,
yes I agree, we can be in the world but not of it.....right, so meet people where they are at and be yourself...no need for us to "sound" all "christian" on the unsaved and unchurched...they just might get uncomfortable and never want to hang out with us ever again!! I know I have scared off a person or two in my past -my prayers go out to them!!
Good thoughts, thanks for sharing!