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Grace

Several years ago, the Lord gave me this very simple description of "grace and righteousness". I could never write something like this in a million years. It helped me to receive the truth about "Grace".

All that we do, no matter how "good",
will not impress Him;
it will be as a "filthy rag"
that WE have used to clean OUR possessions
because OUR possessions are more important to us
than to be HIS possession,
letting HIS Spirit possess OUR being
until our being IN HIM
becomes more important to us
than our HAVING;
then our DOING will be acceptable
to HIS BEING because
our EVERYTHING
will BE because
HE HAS BECOME OUR EVERYTHING!
It is what we are IN Him
that will take us to Heaven;
and it is what we are, WITHOUT Him
that will send us to Hell,
because without HIM IN US,
and US IN HIM,
we will BE nothing.
Our DOING comes as a result of our BEING,
so if we are IN the flesh,
our BEING is carnal,
and the works of our flesh will be sin;
but if we are IN the Spirit,
our BEING is righteous,
and the fruit of the Spirit will be produced.
That fruit which is produced by the Spirit
is not of our DOING,
so if our BEING is in the flesh,
the "good" that we do WILL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH!

After all - "In Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)

Written by Stella Paterson

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HE WAS THERE

When I needed a Saviour at the age of eight...
HE WAS THERE!
That unforgettable sense of "brightness" and feeling "clean" has been proof all of my life that...
HE WAS THERE!
As a teen, with all types of growing pains and insecurities, I searched His Word and found that...
HE WAS THERE!
As a young married mother, learning to cope with new challenges like a fevered child, I whispered the Name of Jesus, and...
HE WAS THERE!
When the stresses of life pressed in, it seemed there was no end to trouble and pain, and my strength was gone; I looked to Him and...
HE WAS THERE!
When I was stubborn, willful and "determined to make it", but forgetting to spend time with Him, and trust Him to meet my needs...
HE WAS THERE!
When the reality of His faithfulness in forgiving, healing, leading, providing, and just being all that He is, caused me to long for more of Him...
HE WAS THERE!
When I realized He was drawing me into a more intimate relationship with Him, I felt so unworthy, so awed, so blessed, because...
HE WAS THERE!
When He called me to pray about needs in people's lives, and my heart ached so much for them to know His Presence that I felt I could die...
HE WAS THERE!
When He called me to put in writing those things that His Spirit was teaching me, I felt so inadequate but...
HE WAS THERE!
I became so wrapped up in doing what He had called me to do, and I began to miss those special, intimate times with Him, but when my heart yearned for Him, causing me to reach out to Him...
HE WAS THERE!
He has always been there!
It is we who must seek Him because to taste of His Glory is the highest of "highs" that can be experienced for...
HE IS THERE!!

...Inspired by the One Who Was, and Is, and Is To Come.

With thanksgiving,
Stella Paterson

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The Word of God says it all.

(Old Covenant)
Deut. 6:25:"And it shall be unto us righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us." (Not because of the doing, but because of their acknowledgment of God in their doing.)

(Prophecy)
Jeremiah 23:6: "...and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."

(Fulfilled)
I Corinthians 1:29,30: "That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."

(Misunderstood)
Romans 10:2,3,4: "...they (Israel) have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."

(Teaching legalistic people)
Galations 2:19,21: "...I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ: yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. I do not make void the grace of God: for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nought."

(Chiding them)
Galations 3:3: "...having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"

(The emphases are mine.)
by Stella Paterson

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Exchanging My Comfort For His Joy

The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart hath trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.
Psalm 28:7 (Older KJV)

There was a time, several years ago, when my husband and I came to realize that some of our beliefs about "prosperity" were totally against the teachings of Jesus. We came face to face with the reality that we needed to ask God to forgive us for trusting in other people’s interpretation of Scripture; for trusting in our giving "to God" so we could receive from Him; and for trusting in confession of Scriptures to make things happen.

We had come to believe if all was fuzzy and warm that we were in right relationship with God. We believed we had to do and say all the right things in order for our lives to run smoothly. We thought that God’s ultimate concern was for our comfort in the flesh, and for us to have all the best possessions. We thought that if there were any painful things come our way, it had to be from Satan. Not so!

God’s ultimate purpose is that we enter into His rest so that we can have fellowship with Him. The reason He made us was for Himself. But when Adam and Eve came into the knowledge of good and evil, they became aware of themselves and their own abilities. Ever since that time we humans have found it so easy to be wrapped up in the natural realm, governed by the knowledge of good and evil.

The Greek word for believe means, "entrust one’s spiritual well-being to Christ." We are creatures of flesh and blood, so it is only God’s Spirit Who can effect the transformation of the human spirit. A similar Greek word for belief and faith means, "reliance upon Christ for salvation." Satan’s aim since day One has been that we rely on the knowledge of good and evil, rather than trust in God. The enemy of man’s soul is delighted when he can trick us into operating in the realm of the knowledge of good and evil. After all, that is where he can pull off the greatest deception to trick us into being self-righteous.

Sometimes God uses tough love to show us that His desire is that we leave our own ways and allow Him to bring us to a place of trust in Him.

The process through which Jerry and I came to the knowledge of the truth was definitely not a "fuzzy and warm" one. All our prosperity beliefs were completely undone by a merciful and loving God.

God allowed my health to be stripped from me, almost to the point of death. It is a long story, but, in short, God turned my trust toward Him. It was His mercy that took me through, not spared me from.

Two years later God allowed us to be totally stripped financially, being left with only the basics. We discovered that the "giving to God" and confessing Scripture was useless against what was happening. Again we saw that God’s mercy was at work in our favor.

Some may say, "How could sickness and financial destruction be to anyone’s benefit?" But it was, for us! And we thank God every day for showing us that He is all we need.

If Jerry and I had seen Satan as the author of our difficulties, we would have greatly pleased him. He would prefer that we be comfortable, rather than see us trust in God.

With no place to look but up, we began to understand that God wants nothing from our hands. He wants only our whole-hearted worship, and that we love and take care of one another in our life on this earth.

Matthew 6:33 tells us that if we seek God’s reign (not ours) and His righteousness (not our own), He will meet our needs.

After coming to understand that God alone is all-powerful, and that there truly is nothing He needs from our hands (as though He could be bribed into giving back to us,) I have come to believe that faith could be defined as, "finding significance in insignificance." Jesus is everything to me! He must increase and I must decrease.

by Stella Paterson

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