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Ron Writes

It starts with forgiveness. God has forgiven us. He has justified us. He has saved us. This is not what we have done. This is what God does! We are redeemed (God has freed us by paying the price on the cross). God has declared us righteous (in right standing with Him). He has cleansed us (we are without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish). He has declared us to be holy (set apart for Him). Just think of all the words that describe this great salvation: propitiation, atonement, reconciliation, adoption, washed, conversion. Each word is ripe with meaning. And this is all by grace. It’s a gift from God to all who come to Him by faith. No wonder Christians are thankful!

It’s a walk. We walk with God (Col. 2:6). We walk by faith (2 Cor. 5:7). We walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25). We walk humbly (Mic. 6:8). We walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). We walk in truth (3 Jn. 1:4). We walk in love (Eph. 5:2). We walk in good works (Eph. 2:10). Even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we know God is with us (Ps. 23). We walk in the light (1 Jn. 1).

Unfortunately, sometimes we stumble. We don’t win every battle with sin. The only person who ever walked on the earth and won every battle with Satan was our savior, Jesus. Sometimes, we will fall. Sometimes we will be defeated. The question is not will we be perfect? The question is, what will we do when we fall? We get back up. We go to God for forgiveness and strength. We are His children, and He is compassionate toward us. It’s not we have made a mistake, “don’t let dad know.” But, we have made a mistake, “let’s go to dad.” He will help us, guide us, love us, tell us what to do. Christianity is a process of becoming more like God. Step by step we stay close to Him and learn His ways.

Those Christians who live in fear that they haven’t been good enough, or done enough, or given enough, or obeyed enough or enough, enough, enough haven’t understood the gospel. I cringe when I hear people say that Christianity made them feel guilty. They haven’t known the savior. They haven’t understood that Christianity is a lifestyle. It’s a walk with God.