Welcome to Hank’s Place —
At Hank’s Place we live by God’s abundant grace – it is abundant toward ALL believers, thanks to JESUS! His grace is far better than living by the world’s standards and principles, believe me!
As we know, the world operates on the principle of good work yields reward; bad work yields punishment. Think of people in professional sports – work harder than the next guy, train harder, smarter, and get the bucks. Even people who cheat or steal – view their cheating and stealing as better cheating, better stealing than the other guy – and they work so hard for it.
Here’s Ephesians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”
The first few decades as a Christian, my mind was still awash with worldly thinking – not evil thinking, but believing God operated on reward and punishment like the world, and I struggled to “get it right.” I bet you know of many Christians today who refer to God’s love, blessings and favor as dependent on their obedience – obedience to exactly what, I ask. They always dwell in the land of doubt, uncertainly, and ‘maybe I could do more’ kind of thinking.
When I would read those verses in Ephesians, I would think, “Well, those are spiritual blessings, in heaven, so I don’t get any of those now in the present life.” And then that part of His choosing us to be holy and blameless before Him was a big “Ouch!” “He chose me, so now I have to do everything right, be holy all the time, really work at being blameless in all things,” I thought. What a burden I carried, laboring so hard because I did not understand the grace of God, that unmerited, undeserved favor and blessings, that come, by definition, out of God’s nature, His disposition toward us and not my performance. He who began the good work in us will complete it – Philippians 1:6 – we’ll wind up totally holy and blameless because it’s God’s will, and our destiny: God’s power at work in us, transforming us – whooo-hooo! Just go along with the Spirit, reckoning the old man dead. OK?
Remember, all the promises of God are YES and AMEN – but can only come to pass in one’s life by faith. Believe that God IS, and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6.
Rewarder of the seekers, not the performers. Rewarder of those who have faith in Him, not those who come out on top of the rat race of life. Friend, He has chosen you, and is making you totally holy and blameless before the Father. And rewarding you in the here and now. And that’s the way it is, and that’s the end result. So cast off any cares today – receive the blessings that God has for you today, by grace, and COME ALIVE!
NEW BLOG NOTIFICATION
Be notified when a new blog posts