Thursday, September 5, 2013

Journaling Sovereign Grace #1

Sovereign Grace Its Source, Its Nature, and Its Effects. Dwight Lyman Moody. 1891. 90 pages. [Source: Bought.]

Now and then a book is so good, that it just has to be shared in a deeper way. I hope you'll take the time to read the quotes that I share from this wonderful little book on grace. It isn't the only book I've read on grace lately, but it may just be the best one!!!

There is probably not a word in the language so little understood. 
Now grace means unmerited mercy--undeserved favor. If men were to wake up to the fact, they would not be talking about their own worthiness when we ask them to come to Christ. When the truth dawns upon them that Christ came to save the unworthy, then they will accept salvation. 
Grace not only frees you from payment of the interest, but of the principal also.
I think if you will read your Bible carefully you will find that this wonderful river of grace comes right from the very heart of God...The first promise given to fallen man was a promise of grace.
For six thousand years, God has been trying to teach the world this great and glorious truth--that He wants to deal with man in love and in grace. It runs right through the Bible; all along you find this stream of grace flowing. The very last promise in the closing chapter of Revelation, like the first promise in Eden, is a promise of grace; "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." So the whole revelation, and the whole history of man is encircled with grace, the free favor of God.
Grace found him a rebel--it leaves him a son. Grace found him wandering at the gates of hell--it leads him through the gates of heaven. Grace devised the scheme of Redemption: Justice never would; Reason never could. And it is grace which carries out that scheme. No sinner would ever have sought his God but 'by grace.' 
The treasury of grace, though always emptying is always full: the key of prayer which opens it is always at hand: and the almighty Almoner of the blessings of grace is always waiting to the gracious.
We work because we are saved, not in order to be saved. We work from salvation, not up to it. Salvation is the gift of God.
So if you experience the favor of God, you have to take it as a beggar. Some one has said: "If you come to God as a prince, you go away as a beggar: if you come as a beggar, you go away as a prince." It is to the needy that God opens the wardrobe of heaven, and brings out the robe of righteousness. 
An old man got up in one of our meetings and said, "I have been forty-two years learning three things." I pricked up my ears at that; I thought that if I could find out in about three minutes what a man had taken forty-two years to learn, I should like to do that. The first thing he said he had learned was that he could do nothing towards his own salvation. "Well," said I to myself, "that is worth learning." The second thing he had found out was that God did not require him to do anything. Well, that was worth finding out too. And the third thing was that the Lord Jesus Christ had done it all, that salvation was finished, and that all he had to do was to take it. Dear friends, let us learn this lesson; let us give up our struggling and striving, and accept salvation at once. 
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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