Grace Be Unto You

[soul man]

1 Thessalonians 1:1,

1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

When paul uses the word's; "grace be unto to you" he is saying "a simple life be unto you." Christ is in you, grow up into him, his full stature. Why simple life; because the Jews had 640 rules in the Torah. Grace is simple, it is as simple as Christ in you, that is what Grace is. Paul is simply saying learn Christ that is in you and go on and live him. So you're hope of making heaven is Christ in you that's all you need to know about going to heaven. So all you're doing, wanting, and getting basically is fruitless everything you need to know is in you.

The nah-sayers always need to know what happens if I don't live right? With Christ in you a very simple thing happens, your father spanks you. And their answer usually is; well you don't believe in living righteous. I say if your going on in God you will live righteous because he spanks you until you do. Very simple principle you don't need a university professor to teach you that, Hebrews 12:7,

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

We all know people that have been behind the woodshed with their father for five-ten years or longer. That's ok, their going to learn because our father does not give up on us. As long as you will suffer chastisement it keeps coming until you do learn. All these things are connected, just as in identity it is very hard to make the change. The proverbial adage "teach an old dog a new trick" will always been in order. Why? Because of the old man syndrome that we are left with, the residue of the past life (soul-mind). The old man is dead but the knowledge and memories and actions are still very much alive as far as my flesh is concerned.

But I hear Paul saying;

24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

[Episkopos]

So all you're doing, wanting, and getting basically is fruitless everything you need to know is in you.

Not so fast! ;)

If we already have all we need...why should we ask for more grace to be to or upon us or others?

God gives us grace out of His fulness...almost never in a great amount at first...more often as a small deposit...to see what we will do with it.
Now a lot of people who have received a tiny amount of grace potential have been indoctrinated to say..."that's it!" I'm saved! I have an eternal saved status with God because I was touched by His grace! It is finished! (actually they are finished as potential disciples to think that way)

Talk about seeing things backwards.

So then the people who claim to be saved so quickly do not please Him so often but rather have stopped the process of salvation dead in it's tracks. They have drawn the wrong conclusion about grace through a religious and dogmatic subversion of God's efforts towards them. All humility is thrown out the window at that stage since it would seem to impair a full assurance of salvation. As in..."if I doubt myself then I won't be sure of my salvation." A total mess.

So then faith in God is replaced with faith in one's own beliefs. God is left fully out of the equation.

And the people loved to have it so.

 

[GTW27]

Long ago, I used to have a teacher, that when He would come, would say to me, "Peace be unto you" And the last thing, that He would say when He leaving was, "Peace be unto you". Today, many years later, those words have come to pass, not because of anything I did, not because of anything I strived for, but only because He spoke it. This is the peace that passes all understanding. So today when you hear Him speak, believe it, for it shall come to pass in the same way as when He said, "Let there be Light" And there was "Light".