4hisglory

For me, faith being the outstanding "requirement" for salvation is awe inspiring. It's not works, not how much money I tithe on Sundays, it's not even the amount and depth of my past sins that hinder me from entering His kingdom! As long as I believe in God and trust His promises I can be assured of salvation. To me, true faith brings about a series of events: because I have faith I want to learn more about my Savior, because I have faith I believe in his word where it says "If I repent my sins will be forgiven," -- all I have to do is believe. Some days my belief is stronger than others and other days I feel like I'll never make it into the kingdom but, as always, I am justified -- made right, reunited with, in relationship again with God solely because I believe. WOW. For Abaham what has always stood out to me is that he was willing to place his son on an alter for sacrifice. As a Mother, I can't imagine the amount of faith that it took! Would I be able to do that? Abraham's faith brought about repeated justification when he sinned and his sins went deep. If God forgave and justified Abraham then, there's a chance for me.

Interesting question... I have an online blog which I began writing during a time when I was working at a highly stressful workplace. Back then I relayed how I was constantly being given additional duties each time a teacher left or someone was fired. I even added up all the hours my job description had inflated to become and it was an amazing 90 hours per week. The anxiety was unbelievable as I tried to respond to all of the additional dutiies on top of my own! However I discovered this anxiety drove me closer to God as I made a conscious choice to surrender the worry and pressure to Him. I even marvelled at my writings during that "high pressure" period--I can't believe that I wrote those cool headed, spiritual affirmations and devotionals. I'm amazed today as at this present moment I'm not sure I could write something so comforting, encouraging and assuring. Apparently, the "pressure made me do it as," I had no reserves to call upon and without anywhere to turn, I had to trust that God would get me through each worrisome day...and He did. I didn't know it at the time but, through my suffering and tension I was brought closer into Christ's presence. Many positive things came out of that experience because I was driven close to God. From it I learned that it was during the hardest times of my life God was the nearest to me...it was also during those times that when I rested on His promises He brought me through to the other side and I am a better person today than had I not endured (with all of his help). It's certainly not a pretty situation and nothing we'd consciously wish for but... had I not had that experience I wouldn't have known the extent that God was with me teaching, guiding, directing and comforting.

Hi Everyone... I'm so excited about this study and can't believe how in-depth and intellectual it is... like a college level course. And, of course, I'm deeply grateful to Dr. Wilson for providing this study for all of us. I live in Summerville, South Carolina, having moved here after being an almost life-long resident of New England (Boston area). I look forward to learning more about Romans 5 - 8 as, I want to increase my knowledge of the Christian Life. I was raised Catholic and although I learned much about worship from that Religion, at times I have difficulty switching from a performance-based Religion to a Grace-based one. Thank the Lord I have a clear awareness of the Grace of God now and when I subconciously slip into a performance versus grace mode I am able to identify it more quickly. I attended a Sovereign Grace Church - church plant in South Carolina for the first 5 months or so when I first moved here and loved the expository preaching but God has now guided me to an established Baptist church with topical ppreaching. I have learned so much about the Christian Faith in the past nine months since I moved to the south I am excited to learn more. My son has a Master's in Divinity and now, living with him, I am saturated with Bible thinking and tenets of our christian faith that I wandered away from living "up north". I'm 61 years old, have two children, am retired because of a number of physical disabilities and am loving the extra time I have to spend with the Lord. I worked all my life as a Social Worker and Counselor... working in the jail system for about ten years as a substance abuse treatment manager and counselor and a Career Development Coordinator for persons with major mental illness. God bless you all and I'm looking forward to meeting you through this forum.