From the other blog..

I thought that I would add this here, even though I'm just cross-posting from my other blog (weeklything.blogspot.com).

Psalm 47:1,2
Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth!

Romans 12:1,2
…I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.


Hey everyone-

How’s it going? I hope that this week went well for all of you, or if nothing else that you were able to see God’s goodness throughout the week.

This past week I’ve been reading Romans (yes, again; it’s my favorite), and also thinking a lot about the nature of our salvation. Think about it. Regardless of if you grew up in church or not, you and I are saved not by our own merit but by something far bigger than that. God’s grace, as the song goes, is amazing. It’s incomparable with any sense of grace that we have here on earth.
Yesterday, the 15th, was the day that God implemented that grace to save me six years ago. I for one did not grow up in a Christian household, and didn’t really grow up going to church either. Romans 5:10 mentions that we were God’s enemies before knowing Him, while Romans 8:7 mentions that the sinful mind is hostile to God. It’s interesting to think about because I was one of those kids that rarely would do anything “wrong” on the outside: I obeyed my parents, I did my homework, I didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t hurt people intentionally… All around good, right? And yet, Scripture says clearly that before I knew Christ, I was an enemy of God. I’d say that’s about right. If nothing else, it got to the point in my life that anything to do with Christianity was trite idiocy (or arrogance) and I hated it. I hated the Christian God and wanted nothing to do with Him. I didn’t have a problem with there being a “god” whatever it was, but Yahweh? Please, I wanted none of it. Not just that, but the garbage that went on inside could not be compared to any outward misdemeanors I may have done. So, yes, I was an enemy of the LORD.


Yet, here I am now, loving God and just floored at the fact that He reached down and extended His salvation to me six years ago. And it’s all to Him that I have faith and a desire to write these Weekly Things every week. It’s to Him that everything in my life has changed since I was in High School… it’s to Him that any one of us have the faith we have, and it’s to Him that we were saved at all. Praises be to God!
The verse that I pin-point as the one that finally broke the camel’s back was this:
Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone would come after me [Jesus], he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
So I ask you to ponder these questions with me… Do we recall the days before we knew Christ, and praise Him for what He’s done? Have I really shouldered my cross, denying myself for Him? Have I really lost my old life to have new life?

Praise the Lord for your salvation, not just today but every day.

I pray that each of us would be humbled by how amazing God’s grace really, truly is, and praise Him continually for salvation. I also pray that we extend that awe with others, sharing Christ with those who are enemies of God so that they can know God, and be saved in just the same way as we were. I ask that the Holy Spirit would continually be working in our hearts to protect us from temptation and sin, and that He would also work in us the likeness of Christ. I pray that our lives would not be our own, but His. May we all praise the Lord, always, for everything that He does.

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne

P.S. I wanted to include this snippet… It’s from a local band called Kurios, and the name of the song is ‘Sing, Fall Down.’ I absolutely love it.

“One day You'll come again with open arms to hold me.
I'll see You face to face and bow before Your glory.
With all my strength, with all my heart,
with all I am my soul cries out.
With all of me I lift my voice to worship You.”

“We sing. We fall down. We worship You. We sing. We fall down.”