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NeitherFirstnorLast · 01-04-2014, 09:22 AM

"Grace to you all, from our Lord Jesus Christ."

Paul begins his epistles to the saints in the churches with words like these, and he ends those epistles in the same way:

"The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all"

The gospel of God begins and ends with Grace. That's the message. That's a thing entirely too easy to forget.

This week for me has been one of revelation and prayers answered - that sounds esoteric and deep, but I don't mean it that way. It was a week where God made His Word real to me in a way it hadn't been before. I'd like to share that, in the hopes that it encourages others here - as many of you often encourage me. That's what fellowship is about, after all.

A brother on this board recently reached out to me, asking if I was in need of prayer or encouragement. The truth is, I was (and still am, aren't we all?) - and his concern was very much appreciated. I want that dear brother to know that his concern, his prayers, have been heard. In this post, on this thread, I want to share some of that - and perhaps more later.

Friends, I have to confess that I've been "working" for God. Since coming to faith in Christ, I've been laboring to be worthy of Him. I've pursued a growth in spiritual stature the same way I've pursued growth in my career. I read books by spiritual men, I read my Bible (never as often as I ought), I listen to audiobooks, audio-bibles, and I seek out sermons and teachings on line and try to sift through them to "see whether these things are so".... but in spite of "doing" all these things, I have not grown in my "position in Christ". Does that make sense? What I mean is, if you work hard at your job, you get noticed and you get promoted. In my spiritual life, I have seemed to have harbored the opinion (perhaps unconsciously, perhaps not), that if I labor really hard for God, He will honor that and "promote" me by calling me into service somewhere... and He hasn't. He won't. And truth be told I've been angry and miserable and resentful of God about that. I have no heart for my career, like I have a heart for my God. I WANT to please Him. I WANT to be His "good and Godly servant". But I haven't wanted those things for the right reasons or in the right way. Like a foolish Galatian, I was trying to perfect with the flesh what had begun ONLY in and by the Spirit.

My problem, I very recently (and only by His mercy) came to understand, was that I had become spiritually proud. I have not labored for His glory. I've labored for my own. I have sinned against Him in this, robbing Him of the glory that is due entirely to Him. This is what I confessed to the brother that reached out to me here. What I went on to say was that "now that I understand what my sin is, I don't know how to repent of it. If my sin were porn or alcoholism, I could repent - I could turn my back on those things - but how do I repent from wanting to "do" for God? I don't even know what that would look like." What the Lord later made me realize, is that human beings can't repent of ANY sin apart from God's grace. Sin is of the flesh, it's our nature as children of Adam. In this life, we still inhabit the flesh, and only God's grace can call us to repentance. As with any other sin, my sin of spiritual pride could be covered by Grace. I understood that on a mental level, but this week I experienced it. Here's the first part of that:

In my testimony, I said I grew up in a nominally Christian home and was sent to Lutheran church for Sunday school and catechism. That church was weak on the gospel, weak in faith, and attendance there did a lot of harm rather than good. I left that church as a teen, having lost faith in Christianity as a truth and reality. I determined that I was done with God, but (as I said) He wasn't done with me. He reached out to me, He worked circumstances in my life and He showed me His grace.

In 1987, as a teen with a hardened heart, I heard this song and loved it - a song that the Lord brought into my mind these many many years later just this week. This song was on the billboard charts in Canada in 1987 - by a Canadian singer and songwriter by the name of Paul Janz. I didn't remember any of these details, of course, but the tune came into my head when I was sitting here at my computer, in my usual pursuit of "spiritual things". I haven't heard the song in decades, but suddenly the chorus is playing in my head and I went to look for it on youtube. To me, as apparently to many in my generation, the song was a typical 80's love song. It was entirely secular and worldly, but beautiful; or so I thought.... But this song was God's message for me, back then, and only now has the Lord shown me that He cared enough even then, while I was "yet a sinner", to send it. Here's the song:

Believe in Me <-- Link Here.

*******************************
Lyrics:

"How many silent dreams reach into heaven and fall away
In Your eyes I see a promise that won't fade
I've been searching so long for someone true, a love that's real
In Your heart I've found a vision I can feel
Is this moment here to stay, it takes my breath away

Believe in Me

You open up my mind, now You know what I'm about
This kind of love's not blind, it breaks through walls of doubt
And the light that's in Your eyes shines for me
This time it's all I need

Believe in Me, reach out with your heart
No power in the world will keep us apart
Believe in Me and love will remain
Believe in your heart, love stays the same

In every lonely face there's a space, an open door
You speak to me in ways I've never felt before
When I'm a thousand miles away you'll still here me say

Believe in Me, reach out with your heart
No power in the world will keep us apart
O no, no. . .

Reach out with your heart
No power in the world will keep us apart

Believe in Me and love will remain
Believe in your heart, love stays the same

Believe in Me, reach out with your heart
No power in the world will keep us apart
Believe in Me. . ."

Paul Janz was born in 1951 in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada the very town of only 3,300 people to which the Lord called my wife and I, and where we currently live. Paul was raised in Basel, Switzerland amongst the Brethren, for whom His father ministered. He is a Canadian singer/songwriter and Christian rock musician best known for the hits Every Little Tear, Close My Eyes, Stand, I Won't Cry and many others.

He began his music career in the 70s with his brothers in a band called Deliverance, who are best remembered for the hit "Leaving LA" released in 1979. In 1984, he launched his solo career, which culminated in four projects with a string of chart-topping hits from each album. The success of his projects led to the nomination of the much-coveted Canadian Juno Awards (the equivalent of the Grammy Awards). Despite achieving great success in Canada, the recording label's restructuring of its roster of artists, such as Janz, led to the ending of A & R promotion in the American market.

Janz's last and final recording project, Trust, which was recorded under the Attic Records label, continued on in the same ground-breaking tradition with Janz's trademark lyrical compositions and driving melodic rhythms. Since that time, Janz hasn't released any new material. Presently at King's College, London, he formerly taught philosophy at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia and has recently written a book entitled God, the Mind's Desire: Reference, Reason and Christian Thinking published by Cambridge University Press.

In 2004, Paul's first album High Strung was re-released on CD for the first time by Escape Music in the UK
******************

I want to thank GOD, that from no merit of my own, He chose me out of the world to be Saved. He did it in mercy and grace and I prayed that He humble my heart, even humiliate me, and bring me into a right standing with Him. Not so that I can "get a promotion", but so that I can TRULY understand the depths of my debt to Him, and give Him the glory. My debt is boundless. I can never repay it. Christ paid it all. I am nothing. He is everything.

And to any of you reading out there, I want to apologize. I want to apologize if I have ever offended any of you. I want to ask your forgiveness if I have ever come across as being "holier than thou". I am not. I am nothing apart from Christ, and I am a far worse sinner than most. I am ugly, and if there's anything beautiful I've ever written or said it was ONLY through Him who saved me. Jesus Christ is Lord.

Ray

01-04-2014, 09:22 AM	#22
NeitherFirstnorLast Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 348	A song for me "Grace to you all, from our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul begins his epistles to the saints in the churches with words like these, and he ends those epistles in the same way: "The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all" The gospel of God begins and ends with Grace. That's the message. That's a thing entirely too easy to forget. This week for me has been one of revelation and prayers answered - that sounds esoteric and deep, but I don't mean it that way. It was a week where God made His Word real to me in a way it hadn't been before. I'd like to share that, in the hopes that it encourages others here - as many of you often encourage me. That's what fellowship is about, after all. A brother on this board recently reached out to me, asking if I was in need of prayer or encouragement. The truth is, I was (and still am, aren't we all?) - and his concern was very much appreciated. I want that dear brother to know that his concern, his prayers, have been heard. In this post, on this thread, I want to share some of that - and perhaps more later. Friends, I have to confess that I've been "working" for God. Since coming to faith in Christ, I've been laboring to be worthy of Him. I've pursued a growth in spiritual stature the same way I've pursued growth in my career. I read books by spiritual men, I read my Bible (never as often as I ought), I listen to audiobooks, audio-bibles, and I seek out sermons and teachings on line and try to sift through them to "see whether these things are so".... but in spite of "doing" all these things, I have not grown in my "position in Christ". Does that make sense? What I mean is, if you work hard at your job, you get noticed and you get promoted. In my spiritual life, I have seemed to have harbored the opinion (perhaps unconsciously, perhaps not), that if I labor really hard for God, He will honor that and "promote" me by calling me into service somewhere... and He hasn't. He won't. And truth be told I've been angry and miserable and resentful of God about that. I have no heart for my career, like I have a heart for my God. I WANT to please Him. I WANT to be His "good and Godly servant". But I haven't wanted those things for the right reasons or in the right way. Like a foolish Galatian, I was trying to perfect with the flesh what had begun ONLY in and by the Spirit. My problem, I very recently (and only by His mercy) came to understand, was that I had become spiritually proud. I have not labored for His glory. I've labored for my own. I have sinned against Him in this, robbing Him of the glory that is due entirely to Him. This is what I confessed to the brother that reached out to me here. What I went on to say was that "now that I understand what my sin is, I don't know how to repent of it. If my sin were porn or alcoholism, I could repent - I could turn my back on those things - but how do I repent from wanting to "do" for God? I don't even know what that would look like." What the Lord later made me realize, is that human beings can't repent of ANY sin apart from God's grace. Sin is of the flesh, it's our nature as children of Adam. In this life, we still inhabit the flesh, and only God's grace can call us to repentance. As with any other sin, my sin of spiritual pride could be covered by Grace. I understood that on a mental level, but this week I experienced it. Here's the first part of that: In my testimony, I said I grew up in a nominally Christian home and was sent to Lutheran church for Sunday school and catechism. That church was weak on the gospel, weak in faith, and attendance there did a lot of harm rather than good. I left that church as a teen, having lost faith in Christianity as a truth and reality. I determined that I was done with God, but (as I said) He wasn't done with me. He reached out to me, He worked circumstances in my life and He showed me His grace. In 1987, as a teen with a hardened heart, I heard this song and loved it - a song that the Lord brought into my mind these many many years later just this week. This song was on the billboard charts in Canada in 1987 - by a Canadian singer and songwriter by the name of Paul Janz. I didn't remember any of these details, of course, but the tune came into my head when I was sitting here at my computer, in my usual pursuit of "spiritual things". I haven't heard the song in decades, but suddenly the chorus is playing in my head and I went to look for it on youtube. To me, as apparently to many in my generation, the song was a typical 80's love song. It was entirely secular and worldly, but beautiful; or so I thought.... But this song was God's message for me, back then, and only now has the Lord shown me that He cared enough even then, while I was "yet a sinner", to send it. Here's the song: Believe in Me <-- Link Here. ******************************* Lyrics: "How many silent dreams reach into heaven and fall away In Your eyes I see a promise that won't fade I've been searching so long for someone true, a love that's real In Your heart I've found a vision I can feel Is this moment here to stay, it takes my breath away Believe in Me You open up my mind, now You know what I'm about This kind of love's not blind, it breaks through walls of doubt And the light that's in Your eyes shines for me This time it's all I need Believe in Me, reach out with your heart No power in the world will keep us apart Believe in Me and love will remain Believe in your heart, love stays the same In every lonely face there's a space, an open door You speak to me in ways I've never felt before When I'm a thousand miles away you'll still here me say Believe in Me, reach out with your heart No power in the world will keep us apart O no, no. . . Reach out with your heart No power in the world will keep us apart Believe in Me and love will remain Believe in your heart, love stays the same Believe in Me, reach out with your heart No power in the world will keep us apart Believe in Me. . ." Paul Janz was born in 1951 in Three Hills, Alberta, Canada the very town of only 3,300 people to which the Lord called my wife and I, and where we currently live. Paul was raised in Basel, Switzerland amongst the Brethren, for whom His father ministered. He is a Canadian singer/songwriter and Christian rock musician best known for the hits Every Little Tear, Close My Eyes, Stand, I Won't Cry and many others. He began his music career in the 70s with his brothers in a band called Deliverance, who are best remembered for the hit "Leaving LA" released in 1979. In 1984, he launched his solo career, which culminated in four projects with a string of chart-topping hits from each album. The success of his projects led to the nomination of the much-coveted Canadian Juno Awards (the equivalent of the Grammy Awards). Despite achieving great success in Canada, the recording label's restructuring of its roster of artists, such as Janz, led to the ending of A & R promotion in the American market. Janz's last and final recording project, Trust, which was recorded under the Attic Records label, continued on in the same ground-breaking tradition with Janz's trademark lyrical compositions and driving melodic rhythms. Since that time, Janz hasn't released any new material. Presently at King's College, London, he formerly taught philosophy at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia and has recently written a book entitled God, the Mind's Desire: Reference, Reason and Christian Thinking published by Cambridge University Press. In 2004, Paul's first album High Strung was re-released on CD for the first time by Escape Music in the UK **************** I want to thank GOD**, that from no merit of my own, He chose me out of the world to be Saved. He did it in mercy and grace and I prayed that He humble my heart, even humiliate me, and bring me into a right standing with Him. Not so that I can "get a promotion", but so that I can TRULY understand the depths of my debt to Him, and give Him the glory. My debt is boundless. I can never repay it. Christ paid it all. I am nothing. He is everything. And to any of you reading out there, I want to apologize. I want to apologize if I have ever offended any of you. I want to ask your forgiveness if I have ever come across as being "holier than thou". I am not. I am nothing apart from Christ, and I am a far worse sinner than most. I am ugly, and if there's anything beautiful I've ever written or said it was ONLY through Him who saved me. Jesus Christ is Lord. Ray