Help! Love, MOM

 …let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured…

Hebrews 12:1-2¹

Christian, be encouraged and, no matter the struggle, continue in the faith!

Scripture as a means of grace

The Means of Grace – Media Gratia, Latin

This definition was first shared in the previous post and those following are based on Dr. Wayne Grudem’s excellent Systematic Theology, second edition, Desiring God speakers and authors, David Mathis and Ray Ortlund as well as a Ligonier Ministry’s Table Talk magazine article.

Means of grace are God-ordained channels which operate, often through the Church, that is to say, the Body of Christ.

They foster Christians’ ongoing growth and ability to continue in the faith and in their knowing and enjoying God in Jesus Christ.

The Word of God, the Holy Bible, the scriptures, are the chief, or the most important and foundational, means of God of grace.

Dr. Wayne Grudem – “Even before we become Christians, the Word of God as preached and taught brings God’s grace. It is the instrument God uses to impart spiritual life and salvation.”

As we continue in the faith we must also continue in the life of God that flows to us from the scriptures.

To endure, to continue, to remain a Christian, and to be joyful and content in the faith necessarily means that one is

~ reading, or

~ listening to, and

~ studying and engaging with

~ the scriptures, ideally, regularly.

Friend – God has great grace just waiting for us in the Holy Bible!

My soul melts away for sorrow;
    strengthen me according to your word!

Psalm 119:28 ESV

Did you hear that, my Brother? Are you listening, my Sister? God provides a means of encouragement to you and to me. His own Word is on record to help you (and me) to persist and to pursue Him and to be strengthened as we do so.

What does it mean to be encouraged? To have consolation, to be given comfort or solace, the feeling we have when another comes near us to help.

If you’ve ever had car trouble, you know the feeling when a friend, relative or roadside assistance arrives!

This is encouragement.

This is what the scriptures do for us and that’s what we do for one another in Christian community. We come near to bring light and a lift to the next destination.

Last year, I endured a very dark, heavy episode in my life where, based on my overreaction to a specific incident and then other related occurrences, I became depressed.

I wondered if I was even a Christian.

The temptation to hypocritically live a joyless shell of a life and to go “dutifully” on was strong; but, God’s grace, as ministered to me through the scriptures:

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – corrected my theology and informed my feelings;

• Romans 15:4 – comforted and encouraged me in the faith; and,

• Ephesians 1:4 – told me that I was chosen in Him before the world was created.

After the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness that [I] had done but according to His mercy, as mediated through the scriptures, He saved me – AGAIN from the works of darkness (my paraphrase of Titus 3:4-5).

Without the scriptures, the Holy Bible my faith may have been shipwrecked!

The Bible are the chief means to fight the enemies of our souls.

Pride and the devil teamed up to torment and drag me, to drown me with despair.

If you are wavering in your walk with the Lord, if you are in any distress, I pray today, in the name of Jesus, continue, endure, keep going by finding, that is, being granted the grace to do so in the scriptures:

• read the Bible with friends or alone;
• pray;
• follow your favorite Bible teacher or ministry,
• encourage someone else on their journey.

Next post, which I plan to be the last on scriptures as a means of grace, I’ll provide some resources to help you read the Bible more and with more understanding.

Be encouraged. We live in ludicrous yet serious times but you, Christian, continue to stand in the amazing grace of our great God!

~ Kimberly

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:57-58

1. Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ↩︎