by Bill Snell
The following discourse was generated by a kind soul who took me to task on an article previously written addressing the subject of “sin and the saint”.
Message from the reader:
“Interesting article, I must admit, but I can’t bite off of your concept that God can’t see my sin (for the record I couldn’t find any record of my saying that God can’t see a believer’s sin – Snell). James clearly states that we are to repent of our sin.
James 5:16 (AMP)
Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].
Why would James 5:16, state to repent if God can’t see our sin? Paul throughout the Epistles continually exhorted us to flee from a life of sin.
Where I believe the Grace message should focus on and stop at is Romans 8:1 “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”
I truly believe there is a middle ground with this message, but from your article, I believe you have pushed it over into the ditch. “ (Underlined for emphasis)
Response from Pastor Bill Snell, Exec. Pastor, Grace Church…
June 18, 2013 in Blog by Grace Church
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Have you ever operated in the flesh? Wait, of COURSE you have! I hate it when that happens. Because we are saved by our belief in Christ, and now sanctified and a new and holy creation, we shouldn’t have problems with sinning anymore, right? I wish! But the fact is we still have flesh and its temptations to deal with. So when you do give in to temptation and sin, now what?
Yesterday, I did a major operation in the flesh. Just lovely, Vic. No, I will not grace the devil by telling you what I did. But I couldn’t believe I did that! I have gone over and over why I did what I did, but all I can answer is, I operated out of unrighteous anger. I was just plain angry. (I also did NOT count to 10 like ‘mama always told me to, THAT went out the window along with something else!)
June 13, 2013 in Blog by Grace Church
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Exodus 33:18
18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”
The Hebrew root word translated to ‘glory’ is ‘kavod’ . When you say “show me Your glory (or kavod)” it means “Show me the essence of who you are”, “Show me the absolute of who You are”.
Now if you didn’t know the rest of the verse, what do you think God will show Moses? Would God show him a glimpse of His creative power and of the universe and how it was put together? Would He show him an expression of His power? Would He show him an expression of His majesty and might? What does God choose to reveal to Moses? What would it be if God was going to give us a synopsis of who HE IS in ways that we can see and recognize?
June 12, 2013 in Quotable Grace by Grace Church
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Written on Thursday, May 30, 2013
By BJ Hostetter
Random thoughts:
Why do I pray for God to work powerfully in me?
I have prayed for power many times forgetting that I already have been endued with power from on high.
Why do I know so much more about the dark demonic spirits that fell from heaven during the great war in Heaven than I know about the angels that stayed and continue to make up Heaven’s armies?
I have loosed and bound, rebuked, and released, and gone on the warpath way more times than I have wanted to, and just how many times did Paul? Peter? John? James? When Eutychus fell out of the tree did Paul rebuke, bind, loose and lose it in sweat and tears ringing his hands in frustration as I have done?
But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted.
Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted. Acts 20:10-12, NKJV
June 11, 2013 in Blog by Grace Church
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I. “The” Sin is the Sin of unbelief. Hebrews 12:1
A. Continually look to Jesus. Hebrews 12:2
B. He is the author and perfecter of our faith.
C. The “sin” is unbelief not conduct.
Hebrews 12:1-3
1Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart…
June 10, 2013 in About Grace, Podcast, Sermon Notes, Video, Video Announcements by Grace Church
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Written on May 31, 2013 by Randy Thomas
“Twenty-one years ago today I knelt in my living room and asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I asked Him to forgive all of my sin (past, present, and future) which He of course forgave. He took all of my iniquities to the cross, in my place, so that I would not face eternal separation from our Heavenly Father. As I placed my faith in Him, His complete finished work on the cross, and confessed that indeed He was Alive and risen from the grave, He gave me Himself … I will never be “separated” from Him again.”
June 6, 2013 in Blog by Grace Church
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This week’s Quotable Grace post is a re-post from www.puregraceonline.com “The devil is delighted by all attempts to “perfect the flesh,” because he knows it is impossible, and the effort expended in the process leaves us tired and vulnerable to deception.” (Pure Grace – page 98). The “law leavened” gospel that is taught in most Read more
June 5, 2013 in Pure Grace, Quotable Grace, Team Grace by Grace Church
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When Christ was on the cross drawing His last human breaths, He said, “it is finished”. Well, was it, or wasn’t it? If “it” was finished, what was “it”?
Understanding the glorious message of God’s abundant grace toward all believers isn’t new. It may be new to many, but it certainly isn’t new like some modern, novel movement within the church that is fashionable for a short time.
This short excerpt from a message preached in 1861, in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, in Newington, England, by the Rev. Octavius Winslow, D.D., has become one of my favorite on this subject:
“What a spring of comfort flows from it to the true Believer amid his innumerable failures, flaws, and imperfections. What service do you perform, what duty do you discharge of which you can say, “It is finished”? Alas, not one! Your service is imperfect, your obedience is incomplete, your love is fluctuating, yes, upon it all are the visible marks of human defilement and defect. But here is the work which God most delights in, “finished.” “You are complete in Him.”…
June 4, 2013 in Blog by Grace Church
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Matthew 6:25-33
25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you…
June 2, 2013 in About Grace, Podcast, Sermon Notes, Video, Video Announcements by Grace Church
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By BJ Hostetter
Listening to a teaching on the health and healing available when our bodies are quickened, Romans 8:11, it occurred to me that most of us don’t believe we deserve to be healed, helped, or delivered. I was saddened by the thought that Satan, the enemy of our soul has so perverted, or as the dictionary defines it, corrupted or distorted from its original course, meaning, or state, the true Gospel Jesus came to deliver that we no longer expect to see the goodness of God in the land of the living as David did, Psalm 27:13.
This morning I want to take you on a trip down the rabbit hole and back to a land you can now enjoy occupying. A land flowing with milk and honey, a state called…
May 30, 2013 in Blog by Grace Church
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