Monday, July 1, 2013

The Rest of the Story


I love how God works.

Today I read back over yesterday's post here and thought "it's like there needs to be something else in this.  I feel like I'm missing something."

Lo and behold.  

I went to the comments screen and found the following, from Gloria Laudes.  I will copy it here just as she wrote it (its original Author being, of course, God Himself!). 

This provides, as Gloria recognized, the encouragement we need at this time.  

And here, my friends, is the rest of the story....  

"'If it were possible to live without God, it would not be worth living at all.' And so we must live in Christ: in peace, love, and hope - ' proper and real hope' which is expressed beautifully in Romans 5:1-10 (sorry for the long quote but it is the encouragement I think we need at this time):
[1] Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[2] Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
[3] More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
[4] and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
[5] and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.
[6] While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
[7] Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man -- though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die.
[8] But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
[9] Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
[10] For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life."

Lo and behold.  Thank you, Gloria.

I love how God works.

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7 comments:

  1. So glad to know this was helpful. I love how God works too! :)

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  2. Nancy, How wonderful! God is so good. He's just waiting for us to ask Him to help tell the rest of the story..+

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  3. This was the epistle at my Dad's funeral two months ago--I picked it! Indeed very consoling! God doesn't wait for us to straighten up our lives--He loves us first!

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  4. And we can relax in this truth...at last. Thank you for such a wonderful example of God's love.

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    1. Thanks to every one of you. Gloria, I'm so glad you followed the inspiration to share these words of God.

      God is indeed good, loving us first, and His truth is the only place in which we CAN relax!

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  5. The part about suffering really struck me, Nancy. I think we approach suffering so differently from a faith point of view. Recently, I've appreciated more the value of suffering and how it can be used to help ourselves and others, spiritually as well as physically. How could we refuse such a grace-filled gift? Though, I guess it takes a childlike trust to embrace suffering without crippling fear.

    Thank you for sharing this, Nancy.
    God bless:-)

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    1. Thank you, Vicky. I am so wimpy about suffering, and I'm hanging onto your words about using it to help ourselves and others!

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