[Still working on writing this step, please visit this again in a few weeks--to see this step completed ...]
Grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin ...
From the Hymn:
Grace Greater Than Our Sin
by: Author: Julia H. Johnston
Julia Harriet Johnston, who was born on Jan. 21, 1849, at Salineville, OH, in Columbiana County. Her father was a minister and he mother was a poet. She began writing when she was nine years old but really started writing verse in high school. She lived in Peoria, Ill. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916) Go to person page >
Without grace, we simply will not survive: the judgment of God.
The wrath of God is the justice of God. It is the necessary action of God to protect all that is good, all that is pure, all that is right, all that is true, all that is holy, and perfect in God's Heavenly kingdom.
The one thing that protects us from the wrath of God, is the grace of God. This is not anything we can earn. Grace is the free gift of life.
In order to receive this gift of Grace, we must have faith.
In order to have faith, we must have humility.
So you can see the progression here:
Step one--humility.
Step two--faith.
Step three--grace.
Each one is built on the one before it. As you grow in grace, you will also grow your faith. As Humility, Faith, and Grace worked in Abraham's Life, so they can and should be alive and working in yours and my life.
And we also grow humility, we will grow in our favor in Faith and Grace. Each one of these characteristics reciprocate the others. And hence the others will deepen, with each step we take deeper into the Kingdom of God.
As you seek to apply the scriptures to your personal life, many things will begin to work deeply in you personally. That's God's Grace at Work in You!
{More material will be added to the topic soon.}
The 3th Step: GRACE
10 Dictionary DEFINITIONs:
GRACE, noun [Latin gratia, which is formed on the Celtic; Eng. agree, congruous, and ready. The primary sense of gratus, is free, ready, quick, willing, prompt, from advancing.]
1. Favor; good will; kindness; disposition to oblige another; as a grant made as an act of grace
Or each, or all, may win a lady's grace
2. Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him.
And if by grace then it is no more of works. Romans 11:6.
3. Favorable influence of God; divine influence or the influence of the spirit, in renewing the heart and restraining from sin.
My grace is sufficient for thee. 2 Corinthians 12:9.
4. The application of Christ's righteousness to the sinner.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Romans 5:20.
5. A state of reconciliation to God. Romans 5:2.
6. Virtuous or religious affection or disposition, as a liberal disposition, faith, meekness, humility, patience, etc. proceeding from divine influence.
7. Spiritual instruction, improvement and edification. Ephesians 4:29.
8. Apostleship, or the qualifications of an apostle. Ephesians 3:8.
9. Eternal life; final salvation. 1 Peter 1:13.
10. Favor; mercy; pardon.