GREENE STREET LETTERS: We Need To Be Reminded

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

We Need To Be Reminded

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine

Heir of salvation, purchase of God

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Perfect submission, perfect delight

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight

angels descending bring from above

echoes of mercy, whispers of love....

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my Saviour all the day long

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my Saviour all the day long

Perfect submission all is at rest

I in my Saviour am happy and blest

Watching and waiting looking above

filled with His mercy, lost in His love

I struggled for years with the assurance that Jesus was, in fact, mine and I was his.

I was filled with doubt and fear and asked nightly as I lay awake in my bed, "Am I saved?" Every time I sat at church under powerful teaching, I would come under such great conviction that at the first mention of an invitation, I would be out of the pew and down to the front on my knees asking God to save me.

I do not know the moment or the time but years had passed and during one particular service I was filled with assurance. I didn't ask for it. I didn't seek it. I didn't even know it was going to come to me, but what a present it was. The simple knowing that comes to fill you and confirms that you are truly saved and belong to God.

The song, Blessed Assurance, is particularly close to my heart. Because I do have a story to sing about and tell with others. Like the blind man in John Chapter 9, I don't know that I could explain what happened. All I know is that once I was lost, now I am found.
Thank you Jesus.....

God on you..........

2 comments:

Bobby said...: Thank God for assurance. I'm convinced we Christians don't know all that much about how salvation works. God just does it! For many it's a long process. I ask Jesus to come into my life so many times growing up that I lost count. I vote to start asking Jesus too accept us instead of us accepting him!; September 23, 2009 at 9:29 PM
Greene Street Letters said...: Amen and Amen!
mb; September 24, 2009 at 11:42 AM

Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

We Need To Be Reminded

2 comments:

THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD