The greatest gift you can receive; Salvation

(00:00): My grandmother, Mildred olive. She loved Christmas. We all couldn't wait to get to her house Christmas morning because whatever we didn't get from Santa at home, somehow grandma managed to fulfill all our wishes. She had this somewhat insulated screened in porch, and it was full of presence. You couldn't even walk in it, but I know it was grandma, grandma Millie, who would tell me, you know, Renee, it's better to give than to receive as a five or six year old. I was trying to understand that, but truth be told. It felt really good to get all those toys. The definition of a gift is a thing given willingly, without payment people give gifts to show that they're grateful for the recipient or that they truly value them today. We're concluding our series on grace, which is unmerited mercy or favor from God himself. He gave us something willingly without payment from us. A gift stay tuned because this is better than grandma's screened in patio full of guests.

(01:18): Welcome to episode 23 of the well-versed woman podcast. I'm Renee teller and I'm Theresa Morrigan Renee. And I are two perfectly imperfect women who have a heart to share our faith in life's experiences with you. See what we've experienced in our life is the love of God. And if you stay tuned, we know what we're about to share will fill your life with love. And that means the piece you've been looking for, especially right now. But if you've been listening, you know, before we do anything, it is so important that we get plugged in, plugged into the power source, our very creator so that he can download what he would have to say to us today. So go ahead, close your eyes. Unless you're driving, take some slow deep breaths and just be still and ask God to fill your heart, your mind, and your ears to listen to what he's saying to us today. Here we go.

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(02:47): That's it. That's 20 seconds. And I have to encourage you to continue to grow

(02:54): Still time when your eyes open in the morning, let your first be about plugging into that power source. It'll change everything. I promise you. But back to this idea of Christmas and gifts and the last episode in our grace series today, we're going to talk about the best gift I ever received. And my new found, understanding that it surely is better to give than to receive since that right, Theresa

(03:29): It sure is Renee. And you know, Jesus teaches that in the scriptures. He says it is better to give than it is to receive. And today we're going to explore some of those other scriptures that expound on, on that one, uh, foundational scripture,

(03:46): Then idea that the definition of a gift is a thing given willingly without payment. And then this idea, Theresa, that the grace of God is a free guest, right? Not only is it a free gift, but it also speaks to the unmerited favor that God gives us. I feel like it's a double whammy, you know, absolutely.

(04:14): You know, when mankind sinned, there was a separation that occurred from God, this Holy beautiful loving God, because God is just, and we've talked about that in previous episodes. So what Jesus did by coming to earth, walking the earth as a man in dying, shedding his blood resurrecting to the right hand of the father that brought salvation to all mankind through our faith in his finished work. And it's a gift from God. We don't have to work for it. Salvation is a gift from God's heart of grace and you know, Renee, I think about my experience coming into an understanding of the gospel. The Holy spirit was drawing me, John chapter four, verse 44 says no one can come to Jesus unless the father who sent Jesus, draws him, giving him the desire to come to Jesus. So in my experience, when I was 35 years old, just living life, you know, I had this great awakening. If you will, to know this Jesus that died on the cross later, when I got into the scriptures, I saw that actually, what was happening is the Holy spirit was drawing me to the gospel, was drawing me into the question of gee, why did this Jesus, the God man have to come to earth and die? You know? And that in and of itself, the drawing power of God they're drawing people to, to Jesus is God's grace action.

(05:58): So the foundational experience of coming to Christ, his grace, the hearing of the gospel, that if we put our faith in Jesus Christ and what he did is constant grace and Renee, I think the best scripture that further explains really what salvation is, is found in the book of Ephesians chapter two, verses four to 10. It says, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ, by grace, we have been saved and he raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ, Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace, we have been saved through faith and that not of ourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. Isn't that beautiful Renee from the initial drawing to the hearing of the gospel, to the receiving of Christ as your Lord and savior is all a free gift. And it's all because of the grace of God and how he loves humanity.

(07:28): That's so amazing and clear to me, Tracy. And I I'm just thinking back to that drawing period, uh, I was raised in religion, not in relationship with God. So if you don't understand that, please do subscribe to this channel and go back and listen to that very first episode, because this is not a religious podcast. This is a podcast about relationship, which clearly is so much deeper, but I'm trying to think back to, you know, when I was drawn and I can think of so many times that I was drawn being drawn to God. And I didn't, I clearly didn't know what it necessarily was that he actually wanted this deep, deep, deep relationship with me. But I go back through my life, Teresa in the different stages. And I say, Oh, he was trying to get me there. And Oh, and he was trying to get me there.

(08:34): And again, we're all different. And we all come to him in a different way. And he's so personal about how he knocks at each of our individual doors. So if in these times, this is the beginning of your feeling, a pull or a tug on your heart. Again, listen, be still just reach out, lift your hands up to like that little child reaching up to be picked up by God and say, if this is you pick me up, pick me up and give me that peace. And then the drawing to the hearing, to the receiving. So it's a, it's a process, this whole idea of coming into relationship with God Theresa. And I love how you spelled that out. It's all free. It's all part of the gift, the drawing, then hearing the word and then making the decision to receive. We don't need to perform or complete a checklist. I think that's the difference of what I'm, I'm hearing in what you're explaining.

(09:49): Absolutely. You know, I've talked to people, Renee who have said, gee, I'm just not right. I've, I've done so many bad things. I, I feel unworthy to come, uh, to, to, to God and to Jesus. But this is the sheer simplicity and beauty of the gospel, you know, in Romans three 23 in Romans six 23, the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God because the wages of sin is death, which is separation from God. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So the beautiful thing about these scriptures is, is that number one. And I know I felt so much better knowing that everybody has sinned, right? I'm not the only one, uh, that we're all in the same boat, if you will. So that once we recognize that we are a center, right, and we repent of that sin and we invite Jesus into our heart to be Lord and savior, right at that moment, Renee, right at that moment, we're saved.

(10:57): And we're not only saved through the gift of God and the grace of God. But listen to this Renee, Ephesians one 13 says in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, the Bible, and as a result, when you believed in Jesus, when you put your faith in him and invited him into your heart to be Lord and savior, we then are stamped with the seal of the promised Holy spirit, the one promise by Christ as owned and protected by God. So this is saying not only when we come into his grace and we're given eternal life, but that our spirits are sealed by the, by the Holy spirit, the Holy spirit comes into our spirit to dwell in. He seals us, right? So that eternally and forever we are gods. So that if tomorrow, God forbid we, we were to pass right from this earth Renae, we go right to be with God. It's such a beautiful thing for my mind to know that Christ's, uh, what Christ provided on that cross his death, burial and resurrection, the shedding of his blood not only provided for my sins of the past, but also covers my sins of the present in any sense of the future. So we are sealed what a relaxing thought that is.

(12:33): It, it surely is. And so I go back just like you. When I realized that we have all sinned and we have all fallen short, you know, back to that idea of religion, I was taught that there are degrees of religion and that's just not true. There are no degrees of religion, it's black or white there's sin or not sin. And so that that's step number one, I guess, is, um, in my thinking and the only unforgivable sin is turning your back against God, not choosing God, which makes sense, but any other sin has no degrees. One sin is not worse than the other. So whatever we could be thinking about ourselves and our unworthiness and our just inability to come before an all amazing, wonderful God and not feeling worthy in his presence, the truth is we're not worthy. That's why we needed the savior. That's why we needed somebody, Jesus to come between us and this God, he is the bridge we've talked about before to take this spiritual, beautiful God and come down and become flesh so that the humans that he created could have a bridge between between God and our humanness. So Jesus was the only human who was without sin and he was without sin because he was God, first of all. And second of all, he had to be without sin so that he could make the bridge, right?

(14:18): That is correct. The Bible teaches that he is the great propitiation for our sin, or, you know, it appease God's righteous and morally and ethical side of God, that, that just side. So he, Adam and Eve sin, man, sin in lost union with God in a man, had to come back to regain the union with God. So that I, I love the simplicity of the gospel Renee. You know, when you were talking about that, there are no stages of religion. And that is true because we are now in a relationship with God. And the beauty of this relationship is that once we accept Jesus Christ into our heart to be Lord and savior, this relationship grows in, it's such a beautiful growth because it's us in the Holy spirit. It's personal. You know, when Jesus walked the earth, he kept talking about the kingdom of God has come on to you, the kingdom of God.

(15:22): And I love the Bible because it defines itself in many places, Romans 14, 17 says the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy spirit. So again, we go back to salvation is a gift hearing. The gospel is a gift being immersed in the Holy spirit and being born again as a gift in then from the time we accept Jesus until the time we we go to be with him, this relationship with the Holy spirit is also a gift and he leads and guides us. And he's the one that brings us into the plan and the purpose that God has for our life. So if we were to stamp the hearing of the gospel, the being drawn by God, entering salvation, eternal life, I think we'd have to rubber stamp it. Renee, with a stamp of G R a C E grace step is through the grace, the love in the mercy of God.

(16:35): And I know Renee, you and I have walked with the Lord for a long time. You know, when I falter and when I do miss the Mark and we'll just call it sin, I have such a faithful advocate to the father. I run to him now, first, John one nine says that he, when we do sin, he's faithful. And just to forgive us, our sins cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But you know, that sin is really a product of an unrenewed mind. Our spirit man never loses the salvation that came into it. When we accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and savior.

(17:14): What a great point Theresa the sin is a result of our unrenewed mind. And if you've followed me or been in touch with me at all, you know, the word I love, which is brain training and because of what our brains were made to do, they were made to protect us as human beings. They were made to record data. We have things and behaviors that got recorded that are sometimes hard to break. And we're on this new path of this relationship with Jesus. But we fall back on old patterns because it's hard to break habits, or it's hard to get these things out of our minds. These ways that may not have been the good ways to do things. So it's that constant journey of renewing our minds, taking our thoughts captive. I think we talked about that in one of the last two episodes, Theresa, that the word says that we need to take those thoughts captive.

(18:22): And that's the, if there's any work that we need to do, it's just becoming less of me, more of him, less of these old principles, renewing my mind, working on those brain training things so that I can become more like Jesus. Every day. It's a journey. We will never be perfect because the word of God says there is no one perfect, no, not one only God himself, God, the son is Jesus. So that's a great reminder tree side that we are going to continue to send. And I know so often I hear people say, you know, these Christians are some of the worst people on the planet, you know? And so they say, I don't want to be one of them. We're not Christians. Aren't perfection. Christians are the ones who said raised their hand and said, absolutely not. I am a sinner. And I trying to change my ways, but people don't generally tend to understand that. And maybe Christians could all be a little more humble, but nonetheless, that's the truth of the matter. I am not perfect. In fact, Theresa opens every week with where two perfectly imperfect women, we're just on the journey, just like you striving to become more like Jesus every day.

(19:53): That is so true Renee. And when I understood that I am a spirit that I live in a body and that I have a saw, you know, and when I read Philippians two 13, it says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it has got all the while at work in you willing to do and to choose according to his good pleasure. My goodness. I just hearing that brings such peace to my heart. That's into that again, Renee, God, all the while at work in you willing to do and to choose according to his good pleasure. So there are times when a Christian might feel stressed, a Christian might feel defeated, right? But boy, when we bring two back to our remembrance and I'll tell you, the Holy spirit is going to bring the scriptures that you need, um, back to your remembrance because you know, we wage this war, this spiritual battle that we talked about in the last couple of episodes, you know, we wagered in the spirits.

(21:01): So when the thoughts come to our mind, right? And they often want to attack our mind, all, you're just an old sinner. You know, you're, you're unworthy. You're, you're good for nothing, right? I think we've all wrestled with those thoughts. We can say, Oh no, no, no, no. In my spirit, I'm perfectly safe in my soul. I'm working salvation out and God is in there like a great coach helping me to work out my salvation that came into my spirit because he's wanting me to succeed. And I can tell you on Renee. I know, you know, we say that we could keep the listeners here. Right? Many, many days talking about how we've been transformed. The salvation that came into our spirit is now working through our souls. The Holy spirit is leading and guiding us every step of the way and those sins or those, those habits that wants to plague me.

(21:59): They don't anymore. I walk in victory. I'm not perfect. I'm maturing. I, I love that the Bible uses the word naturation instead of perfection, we're all in a process and it's God, who's going to get us to the finish line. You know, the Bible says that he is the author and the finisher of our faith. So I love again, you can see the thread of grace throughout our entire life, on the earth in Christ. He's there every step of the way, leading us into the perfect day, right into our, into our individual destinies. I love the Lord.

(22:41): It's obvious Theresa. And that's just so incredible. So just a reminder, when we talk about that stillness time, that 20 seconds that we take before every episode, and I encourage you to grow that it is that stillness, that is going to allow you, the maturation that Teresa's talking about. It's the stillness, the alone time with God praying. And there's a whole episode on prayer and being in the word because the word is God. So that if you can carve out time in your life in your day, every day now, surely there'll be no perfection there either. But to strive for that time, stillness, prayer, talking to God and reading your Bible, reading the word of God, those three things coupled with

(23:46): A cozy blanket, a tiny room and a cup of tea is the recipe for the success and the strategy to draw closer to him and grow this relationship, right? Theresa. That is absolutely correct. When a, you know, and there are two, two of us and we give testimony to exactly what the scripture lays out, especially in this episode from 26 years ago, when I met the Lord till now, I've just been growing. I'm stronger. The kingdom of God that has come to me, you know, I'm passing along to others and I watched their life change. Renee. I watching their life in the lives of their families, changed to where they were not victorious to where they're gaining victory in their life, over habits and sins. And, uh, it's just a beautiful transformation. And it's an amazing witness to the power and love of God moving in our midst today in 2020. Mm. Amen. That's true.

(24:55): Thank you for listening. We so encourage you to stay connected with us. We have a Facebook community. You can simply request to be added to the well-versed woman, Facebook community. You need to have constant fellowship and people around you that can encourage you in this journey. Theresa and I have had each other for a very long time, and that's what allows us to grow exponentially. We want that for you. Join our Facebook community. We also have some well-versed women journals for you subscribe, rate, and review this channel and we'll send it right in the mail to you. And lastly, the show notes and the scriptures associated, maybe you don't have a Bible right now. Maybe you don't even know if you can stop and buy one. The scriptures for every episode are in the show notes, right on your favorite podcast platform. You just need to scroll down, click on the details button and get the scriptures that you can print out and meditate on those scriptures. If you have access to the internet, there's Bibles all over the internet today. So any way that you can get that word, stay connected in a great community. We would love to have you join us. And if you can't remember any other scripture, this is the scripture on which this podcast was founded. Theresa. Absolutely. Romans 10 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Amen. Amen. We love you. Yes, we do.