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Second Quarter
TGP Volume 15
(April/May/June 2015)
Week 26
The Surpassing Experience
Speaking to a group recently, I wanted to know what desirable, joyful experience anyone ever had that they wished everyone they loved could have. Named were the following:
1. Buying/Living in a new home
2. Driving a new car
3. Offer of their dream job
4. Promotion at work
5. Reaching educational goals
6. Travel/Vacation to exotic places
7. Winning a ballgame or championship
8. Marriage
9. New baby
We all celebrated in our minds those experiences. And then I spoke of experiencing God’s provision of Christ, the experience that surpasses all others. Everyone agreed.
Paul’s desire for the church was “that you grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love (God’s provision) of Christ, and that your experience of him surpasses all other experiences, that you may be filled to the measure (running over) of the fullness of God.” - from Ephesians 3:18-19 GracePoint Interpretative Paraphrase
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15F25
Connecting to the Resources That Support Life
We drink water so that we won’t die of dehydration. We also include 7-9 servings of live foods in our diets each day so that we do not rot physically before we die.
Most importantly, we regularly connect to our leadership resources in the home and church and especially take time each day for quiet-time worship in order to be renewed by Christ so that we do not miss the support God provides which establishes us in health and happiness, mentally and emotionally.
God “made us alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15F23
Week 25
Truth and Love: Support to Identify What's Wrong
After moving to our present home, I neglected / procrastinated to look at the side of a building on our property that backed up to a neighbor’s fence. As a result, the 12 by 24 feet area became a tall thicket, overrunning the neighbor’s fence but also damaging the back side of my building. After two seasons, the elderly neighbor, a retired minister, rang my door bell. Kindly he informed me of the problem. (Kindly, because he was sensitive to the potential for people to be offended.) I was horrified and embarrassed by my oversight, hugely apologized, and worked the next several days to correct the problem. Then I thanked him for informing me.
Well-intending friends sometimes tell me I need to be more positive, that I tend to identify problems. I respond that it must be part of the equipping for ministry God has called me to, also because of my temperament type which tends to focus on what’s wrong. (The world needs a few people like that, you know.)
Satan (the demonic powers), our sinful nature, and the world’s culture call us to compromise – that is, to either condemn (to be negative about) what is right (supports health) or to approve (to be positive or say nothing about) what is wrong (destroys health). But "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15) requires us to be positive about what is right and grieve about what is wrong, and if we are called to it and enabled for it, to communicate that.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15F18
What God Has Already Provided, No Need to Petition
My friend said he prayed he would not lose his health. I said he could pray every day all day long according to his understanding of prayer (to “petition” God), but it would not benefit his health. He said he just wanted God to have mercy on him. I said that
- God has mercy on every one,
- it is from (and because of) his mercy that his grace (provisions, beginning with Christ) flows into our lives, and
- we have good health when we take time each day to receive those provisions (which is the Bible definition of "prayer").
“How certain and unfailing will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace reign in life (have good health).” – Romans 5:17
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15F16
Week 24
But Maybe Not: "God Loves You and So Do I!"
The sweet lady said to her friends, “God loves you and I love you!” I suspect she meant the love she and God had for them was the same.
The sweet lady said to her friends, “God loves you and I love you!” I suspect she meant the love she and God had for them was the same.
But it may not be. Our love for others may be human love – that is, neighborly (phileo), family (sorge), or romantic (eros) love. These loves are conditional, based on how valuable (enjoyable, suitable, pleasing, important) they are to us to meet our needs, wants, and desires. Each is a normal, natural, human love.
But only God has agape love, which is unconditional, not based on how valuable we are to him to meet his needs (he has no needs for us to meet), but based on his unconditional value for us (not the same word as valuable, which is conditional) – that is, not based on anything true about us that is valuable to him (there is nothing about us apart from Christ that is valuable to God) but only on what is true about him (he’s God) that causes him to unconditionally value us.
The only way we can love others the way God loves them is for him to impart and renew his love in us for them (during our quiet-time worship). Otherwise it is impossible for us to have it.
This means, we can say to others, “God loves you and I love you!” only if we mean, “God loves you and I am experiencing his love in my heart for you.”
Review:
1. God’s love for us is always expressed by giving/investing (his grace provisions).
2. His love in us for him is always expressed by receiving (his grace provisions).
3. God’s love in a husband, parent, or pastor for those they serve is always expressed by giving (his grace provisions).
4. God’s love in a wife, child, or church member for grace leadership in the home and church is always expressed by receiving (his grace provisions - when they exist).
5. God’s love in us for us is always expressed by us investing in ourselves (our health).
6. Our experience of God’s love is the foundation of a healthy life, home, and church.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15F11
"Doing Your Part": What It Means
The preacher told his audience that God was faithful to help them but they must do their part (“please God” - his legalistic definition of obedience). His notion was illustrated by two people carrying a long table, one on each end: The table got moved, he said, if both persons did their part.
But the message of the Bible is that
- God is merciful (compassionate) to provide resources (grace) sufficient to meet our needs, and
- we appropriate those provisions through faith -
- conviction concerning their existence and power and our need for them, and
- connection to the resources (the grace definition of obedience) through which they flow from God into our lives (John 15:4-5).
This means, rather than we doing our part to carry the table, God enables us to carry the table.
There’s a difference.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15F09
Week 23
Filled With Christ: God’s Provision to Lift Above Temptation
We do not minimize the power of Satan to war against us - to lie, deceive, and tempt us, and to also manipulate the circumstances about us, as well as work through people we come upon (1 Peter 5:8). But we do not overcome his opposition by countering with power of our own in the way opponents might in a sports event or military battle, or even with words to “come against” him (as the Christian tv folks attempt to do). Instead, we take care to be filled each day with Christ during our quiet-time worship so that we are lifted up above Satan’s reach. This is included in the meaning of the words of Christ that “Satan has found nothing in me (to get a hold of so that he can pull on or control me)” (John 14:30) and is also included in the meaning of the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, “lead us not into (lift us up above) temptation so that we are delivered from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
We do not minimize the power of Satan to war against us - to lie, deceive, and tempt us, and to also manipulate the circumstances about us, as well as work through people we come upon (1 Peter 5:8). But we do not overcome his opposition by countering with power of our own in the way opponents might in a sports event or military battle, or even with words to “come against” him (as the Christian tv folks attempt to do). Instead, we take care to be filled each day with Christ during our quiet-time worship so that we are lifted up above Satan’s reach. This is included in the meaning of the words of Christ that “Satan has found nothing in me (to get a hold of so that he can pull on or control me)” (John 14:30) and is also included in the meaning of the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, “lead us not into (lift us up above) temptation so that we are delivered from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7) means mostly to be filled with Christ so that Satan flees in fear, his power overwhelmed – this in the same way thirst and hunger and broken health and other conditions of brokenness diminish (because they cannot prevail) when we include the appropriate provisions of God’s grace into our lives.
Romans 5:17; Ephesians 2:4-6
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15F04
Consistency to Make Wise Choices: When Good Information and Strong Intentions Are Not Enough
You can
- have good information about the wise choices you need to make,
- have strong intentions to make them, motivated by
- fear of disease or other bad outcomes,
- common sense, or
- pride,
but without the heart of Christ, increased/renewed in you to fuller measure each day so that you love (value) yourself (your life and health) the way God loves (values) you, you will not be consistent to make those choices.
Philippians 2:13; John 15:5; 2 Peter 1:3-4
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15F02
Week 22
Experiencing Christ: Our Most Essential Need
If (Since) God’s provision of food, oxygen, water, and light are essential to support biological life so that we do not die (rot physically before we die), and if (since) God’s provision of leadership in the home and church (parents, husbands, and pastors) is essential to support psychological health and happiness so that we are not mentally, emotionally, and functionally broken (suffer missed support for information, affection, and decision-making), how much more essential is God’s provision of Christ –
- his Blood/Death for us, so that we can go to Heaven, and
- his Life in us, so that we can experience (during quiet-time worship) (and also manifest to others) his love (value – for God’s provisions, ourselves, and others), joy (rejoicing deep within - not the same as fun), peace (freedom from tension), longsuffering (patient endurance during adverse circumstances), gentleness (kindness to adverse people), goodness (giving to meet redemptive needs), faith (conviction concerning Truth), meekness (humility to connect to grace resources to receive God’s provisions), and temperance (support for making scheduled choices).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15E28
Water: Our Need for the Well
The well-known minister teaches we should desire God (his person), not just what he can do for us (his provisions). It sounds pious enough, but it makes no more sense than desiring a well but not the water in the well.
We can desire God all day long, but until we take time each day for Scripture reading, confession of need, and quiet-time worship in order to experience Christ, we will remain in our spiritual thirst and brokenness.
“To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.” – Revelation 21:6
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me (comes and drinks), as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them (into their hearts: the mind, emotions, and will).” – John 7:37-38
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15E26
Week 21
“Whatever”: A Failing Sentiment to Support Optimal Health
Glen Campbell joked that he did not attempt to be perfect when he performed because his audiences would “come to expect it.” Good humor aside, the singer’s comment helps explain why music (not his, of course) has increasingly become noise and static instead of sounds and lyrics that can be understood.
Consider: The message of grace is important enough for us to get it right and to teach it correctly so that those we minister to will not miss the support they need.
Related: Occasionally I will see a bumper sticker that reads, “Whatever!” (Does that mean I can drive on whichever side of the road I want?) or a church sign that reads, “Come as you are!” (Does that include if I have lice?).
If following God’s plan to daily include his provisions into our lives guarantees a good outcome, then not taking care to do so (frequently enough, long enough, and in sufficient amounts) puts our health at risk.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15E21
Living in Safety with Your Needs Met
Our redemptive needs are wonderfully met and every aspect of our lives are wonderfully enriched as a result of our praying.
But it is not the “praying” commonly understood as “petitioning” God for the needs we have, but opening the door of our hearts (mind, emotions, and will) to receive his provisions (grace) which flow fully and freely from him into our lives through his resources in Creation, Community, and especially Christ (his Blood and Life) to meet our redemptive (health and happiness) needs.
Consider God’s Plan:
1. We walk daily along the path God has called us to -
- making choices which increase our health, beginning with quiet-time worship in order to experience Christ more fully, which prepares/enables us for
- serving others, beginning with family, to meet their redemptive needs, and
3. throughout the day, we live in confidence of his care and protection.
Ephesians 3:19; 4:13; Psalm 37:23; Psalm 91
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15E19
Week 20
Living As Long As You Choose
Sometimes I hear people say they will live
- “as long as the Good Lord leaves me here,” or
- “until God calls me home,” or
- “until my number is up.”
But that misses understanding God’s
- provisions of grace to support our health and
- promise (according to the law of sowing and reaping which he ordained to govern life and death on earth) that we can be
- healthy until we take our final nap or get raptured if we regularly give our bodies the food, water, exercise, and sleep it needs,
- safe if we walk on the path God calls us to (no high risk, impulsive behavior), and
- useful in redemptive service to others if we are renewed to fuller measure each day with Christ.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15E14
Support for Experiencing Christ: God’s Purpose for the Gathering of the Church
Many came to see and hear Christ out of curiosity, to see a miracle, for a meal, and also to be delivered from a physical ailment. But few came seeking to experience his Life for inner healing. For that reason, only a few were helped during his three-year ministry on earth in the way he wanted to help. That’s why, when he looked out over the city of Jerusalem , he wept, “You will not come to me so that you may have Life” (John 5:40).
The following may be secondary or superficial reasons people attend meetings of the church:
- Religious pressure: It is expected.
- As a performance to win God’s favor in order to have his blessings
- Social (codependent) need to meet and be with people.
- “Praise and worship” (misdefined as telling God how great he is in order to gain his favor).
- Contemporary (sensual) music.
However, God’s purpose for the gathering of the Church is for members to receive support for learning how to experience Christ to fuller measure each day in order to be renewed for enablement to make scheduled choices that support good health and for increasingly manifesting his Life/Light in the community beginning with family.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15E12
Week 19
I was taught by my legalistic mentors years ago that God will not share his glory with anyone. I understood that to mean that God had a problem sharing credit with anyone for the work he did (maybe like the church janitor I knew who insisted on no one helping him with maintenance needs because it was important to him that, if a repair was done, everyone knew he did it.)
But God has no need for credit. (Old joke: The preacher said he appreciated the credit the church gave him for the work he did, but what he really needed was their cash.)
Christ is the Glory (Light/Seed) of God, the Father – the same as
- the Church is the glory of Christ (Doxa: “The character and ways of Christ manifested in and through sanctified believers.”),
- the wife is the glory of her husband (1 Corinthians 11.7), and
- children are the glory of their parents.
God is interested only that our family, friends, and neighbors
- see the Light/Life of Christ manifesting through us so that they
- desire and receive his support for their health and happiness and going to Heaven.
We do not give God glory, but receive it and then manifest it to others.
A well-known pastor recently told his large audience to visualize every morning putting on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6).
But that has no more benefit than visualizing drinking water (or eating food or exercising).
Visualizing is mystical, the basis of new age religion. Paul’s instruction to “put on the whole armor of God” was practical, the same as saying "drink water, eat food, and exercise."
God gave man a physical capacity to drink water. He also gave us a spiritual capacity (during quiet-time worship) to experience (receive) Christ who births and nurtures in us the support we need for Christian living and ministry.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15E05
Week 18
One of the difficulties counselees experience when reading the Bible is comprehending what the text means and sometimes even what it says.
One of the difficulties counselees experience when reading the Bible is comprehending what the text means and sometimes even what it says.
Part of the explanation is the trait (wiring) of some inborn temperament types to be spontaneous and impulsive more than slow and methodical. (A physiological parallel to help illustrate might be the “quick twitch” fibers in muscles which some people have - as did Hall of Fame fastball pitcher Nolan Ryan.)
2. Another difficulty is a diminished attention span (the amount of concentrated time the mind can focus on a task without becoming distracted).
- According to the
- Attention spans have been decreasing over the past decade with the increase in external stimulation (tv, internet, etc.) - this in the same way (for another physiological example) the untimely use of a lift chair can diminish muscle strength in the elderly.
- Research has shown that the percent of words read on an average web page (593 words) is 28%.
3. Also, personal values and interests is a factor.
But values and interests differ:
- The sinful nature is interested in superficial needs – especially to feel and look good;
- The born again nature values God’s redemptive plan for our holiness and holistic health.
That’s why the interest of one person may quickly shut down when reading or hearing information that supports making choices for good health but remains engaged in a two-hour movie or ballgame.
Sadly, the evangelical Church has strategized that the solution to gaining a hearing for the gospel message is to spike it with the external sights and sounds employed by worldly entertainment. But only the carnal nature hears and responds.
Consider:
God continues (as he has throughout this Age of Grace) to call us internally and quietly by the Holy Spirit through The Scripture to receive his Provisions of Grace, beginning with Christ, with the result that the values and interests of us who respond are increasingly sanctified so that we more and more delight to remain long before the Father, sitting quietly with an open Bible in order to hear him communicate Truth in order to experience Christ in order to gain support for making the hard choices that increase health.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15D30
“Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs”: The Music Existing in Heaven Enjoyed on Earth
Information comes to our minds from the following sources:
- The world (people, tv, etc.),
- Ourselves (cognitive, intuitive),
- Satan/the demonic world
- comes in the darkness as a flaming missile (impulsive),
- sometimes vulgar, sometimes religious in nature,
- sometimes subtle, always deceptive,
- interpreted by Satan,
- understood, received, and enjoyed by man’s sinful (old) nature,
- rejected by our born again (new) nature,
- always leads to ruin,
- God
- comes quietly from the Holy Spirit through The Scripture during quiet-time,
- has redemption for its theme,
- always Truth (reality as God knows it),
- interpreted by the Holy Spirit,
- understood, received, and enjoyed by our born again (new) nature,
- hated/rejected by our sinful (old) nature,
- and leads to health.
That’s why “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:19) or any other information given by the Holy Spirit, including teachings and writings (especially The Scripture) are not understood or enjoyed by man’s sinful nature.
Also, that’s why the music and lyrics composed by the world, our natural selves, or Satan are not understood or enjoyed by the born again (new) nature (which is the only nature that will exist in Heaven).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15D28
Week 17
Receiving: God’s Redemptive Plan for Financial Peace
During my early Christian life and ministry I was always looking for some strategy to help secure me financially – which was one of the unspoken reasons I tithed. I was taught that 10% of my income belonged to God, so I gave to the church to express my love and loyalty to him and also dependence on him with hopes that he would be impressed and bless me. Still, I lived week to week with financial tension and debt, including credit card debt.
Then, about 26 years ago, I began to learn about giving and receiving – that
- it is God who gives, beginning with himself, and we who receive, and that
- “tithing” is a religious/legalistic performance to earn God’s blessings - but which, instead, produces brokenness.
So Carole and I stopped “tithing” two decades ago, stopped trying to please God to win his favor, and started learning how to receive from him his provisions of grace in order to be established in health.
Today, we
- don’t have a lot and don’t spend a lot, but don’t lack for anything we need,
- have financial peace (zero debt except for a small mortgage),
- have a small income,
- have funds (after investing in our own redemptive needs) to invest, as we have for the past 10-15 years, 25-50% of our income in the redemptive needs of the hurting people God has called us to serve.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15D23
GracePoint: What We Do, Why We Don’t Charge
A famous pastor years ago liked to tell his congregation that there was no charge for them to attend the preaching/teaching services of the church – although, he teased, there would be a slight charge for them to leave.
Recently, a lady quipped to a friend that she would not go to a counselor who did not charge a fee. She was wise, of course, to be careful in that way. There may be some who charge nothing for their counseling because they know what their counseling is worth. The exception may be a counselor who does not charge, as in the case of GracePoint, because the support offered is for learning how to experience Christ. Only a charlatan would attempt to charge for that. So would a church or any ministry. (Surely the lady would not want to go to a church that charged a fee - which they actually do anyhow when they pass the offering plate.)
Again, GracePoint (a non-profit ministry) does not offer traditional, work-on-your-marriage counseling to help relieve tension and pain in the relationship (for which we would need to charge a fee - the same as a psychologist or a for-profit business) but, instead, offers support to broken husbands and wives for learning how to experience Christ for personal healing. There’s a difference.
From GracePoint Counseling's Disclosure (since 2002):
GracePoint Counseling
"Healing for the Heart and Home through
"Healing for the Heart and Home through
Support for Learning How to Experience Christ"
____________________________________
Providing faith-based Marriage and Family Counseling from a conservative, non-charismatic, grace theological perspective to guide and support counselees on a journey that
- begins with trusting Jesus Christ as Savior,
- is sustained by vital connection to
- Christ (through quiet-time worship), and also to
- leadership resources in the home and church, and
- leads to renewed strength and understanding for making life choices which increase health and happiness.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15D21
Week 16
Destiny Theology (I call it) teaches that God motivates/enables us for Christian life and ministry by giving us a desire to be great - to be Champions for Christ and to be valuable to God.
But Consider:
1. The desire we have to be great, significant, or valuable does not come from God (as a grace redemptive provision) but is an inborn human need rooted in our
- brokenness (the result of our unmet need for confidence concerning God’s unconditional value for us) and
- prideful religious nature.
2. God motivates/supports us for Christian life and ministry by birthing/imparting/ sowing into us his Life (the Resurrected Life of Christ) –
- first, into our spirits (the innermost dimension of our being) when we are born again, and
- then into our hearts (the soul: mind, emotions, and will) as we take time each day for quiet-time worship to experience Christ in increasing measure.
3. The Resurrected Life of Christ (renewed in us daily during our quiet-time worship) supports us for Christian life and ministry in basically three ways:
- Love, joy, and peace – Our experience of Christ in his relationship to us;
- Longsuffering, gentleness, and goodness/giving – Our experience of Christ in his relationship to others.
- Faith (conviction concerning Truth), meekness (humility to receive Truth), and temperance (enablement to comply with Truth) – Our experience of Christ in his relationship to the Father (response to the Father’s provisions of grace).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15D16
Grace: Support from Without and Within
God does some things for us from without (externally) which support our health and happiness. For example, he
- provided his Son (his Blood/death) as payment to satisfy his judgment against us so that we can have access to him (be justified/reconciled),
- resurrected him from death so that (when we trust his provision of Christ for our justification/reconciliation) he could indwell our spirits and (through quiet-time worship) live in our hearts (the soul),
- sent the Holy Spirit into our world who gave us (authored) The Scripture in order to communicate Truth to us,
- provides rain and sunshine (water and light) and fertility to the soil and atmosphere,
- gives order to time (day and night and the seasons),
- instituted the home and church and also governments, and
- protects against satanic and natural adversity which would destroy us.
But mostly and essentially, God supports our health and happiness from within (internally): He
- births/imparts (downloads) his Life within our spirits (when we trust his provision of Christ for our justification/reconciliation),
- flows (uploads) his Life into our hearts (the soul: mind, emotions, and will) when we take time each day for
- reading the Scripture (in order to hear God),
- confession of brokenness and need for renewal, and
- quiet-time worship in order to experience Christ to fuller measure, and in this way
- transforms our values,
- heals our poisoned appetites (addictions), and
- supports us for making wise choices consistent with the scientific law of cause and effect (sowing and reaping) which establish us in health.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15D14
Week 15
The Love of God: Expressed by Giving
- God’s love for us is more than a warm, fuzzy affection (like someone may have towards a baby or a pet) but is always expressed by him giving (providing resources) to meet our redemptive (health/recovery) needs,
- God ordained the law of sowing and reaping to govern outcomes in our lives (Galatians 6:7-9) , and
- he calls us to make wise choices for diet, exercise, and lifestyle which help establish us in health.
“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath (brokenness - as a cause and effect outcome) comes on those who are disobedient (make choices which disregard/reject God's provisions for their health).” – Ephesians 5:6-7
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15D09
Excerpt of Easter Message
The message of the Bible is of a Son who shared the compassion of his wealthy Father for a community of hurting people who lived in a distant country. Supported by his Father, he left his home to provide ministry to those people. His mission was to support them for making wise choices which would recovery them to health. Many responded to him and were helped. But others attacked him, and then killed him, offended that he would think they needed him or his help. Three days after his death, his Father resurrected him, brought him back to his home, and sent his Spirit to provide support to the community through those who had received him. The history of the Holy Spirit’s successful ministry to the community through the first century Church is recorded in the Book of Acts.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15D07
Week 14
Experiencing Christ: Recovery from the Ruin of Religious Activity
God calls the lost to trust (receive) his provision of Christ (his Blood/death on the cross) for salvation (justification) so they can go to Heaven.
But the lost do not seek Christ, although they sometimes do seek religion (performance to please God).
God also calls Christians to experience Christ (his Resurrected Life) through quiet-time worship to a fuller measure each day (for sanctification) so they can be filled with (enabled for living by) his love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, and temperance (Ephesians 3:18-19; 4:13; Galatians 5:22-23).
But not every Christian seeks to experience Christ, although they, the same as the lost, do seek religion (performance to please God) – which increases tension, anger, discouragement, and, in time, wears them out.
To them Jesus calls, “All you who are worn out trying to live the Christian life without my enablement, stop your religious activity to win my favor and come to me (experience me), and I will give you recovery” (Matthew 11:28-30).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15D02
Trusting God’s Provision of Christ: Our Guarantee of Going to Heaven
Our guarantee of going to Heaven is based on more than us agreeing that Jesus
- was a historical person, or that he
- is the Son of God, or even that he
- died on a cross.
Instead, it is based on us fully trusting (relying upon as we would a chair we are sitting on) that Jesus is
- the Christ (the promised Messiah) and that he is
- God’s Provision (the only payment God will accept) to satisfy his judgment against us because of Adam’s transgression (Romans 5:12-19).
Also, being sorry for/giving up “sin” and “living right” has nothing to do with us going to Heaven, but only with us being healthy and happy in this life.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 15C31
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