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look up



Pray,  "I believe...Help my unbelief."

"Let Jesus live in my heart."

​"If I am restless and longing for a place I've never seen, then perhaps I was made of this other place." C.S. Lewis

"Look for Christ and you will find him. And with him, everything else." C.S. Lewis


​"Man, a little piece of your creation, desires to praise you, a human being 'bearing his mortality with him', carrying with him the witness of his sin and the witness that you 'resist the proud'. Nevertheless, to praise you is the desire of man, a little piece of creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."  Augustine.

Faith comes by Hearing,

Tasting & Feeding

on Christ

&

Seeing that GOD is Good.

"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will                       "Taste and see that the LORD is good, blessed in 
never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will                        the one who takes refuge in Him."  Psalm 34:8
never be thirsty."    John 6:35                                                                                                           


Hope takes root
as you receive Christ



God's love enters,
as you believe that word,
and turn from your sin (repentance)


repentance


What are other
words for
turn from sin ?


Redeem, save,
deliver from sin,
free from sin,
save from sin, convert,
absolve from sin,
purge of sin.


You receive Salvation
as a free gift
by grace through believing (faith)


​our debt,  his payment


According to Arminianism, a free will theology with Wesleyan roots, Jesus’s atonement procured prevenient grace that universally regenerates the free will of the entire human race. Those who favor this view see it implicitly implied from verses in John's gospel. Prevenient grace then, is the grace of God given to individuals that releases them from their depravity and bondage of their will and enables them to use their human reasoning to enter into faith but it does not guarantee that the sinner will actually do so. Thus, the efficacy of the enabling grace of God is determined not by God but by man. The danger of this view is that  it relies on one's own merit not only to receive it but to maintain it. Calvinism, often seen as the opposing view,  favors salvation from God and his quickening in regeneration. This view  emphasizes the natural man’s deadness in sin (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13), his need of a new heart (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26), and concludes that man does not need to be made “better” or “partially alive”; rather, he needs to be resurrected!

A metaphor commonly used to explain Arminianism is that God gives everyone a gift. The gift is inside the box, it’s not the pretty box. To get the gift, you have to choose to open the box. 
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God graciously will draw us to himself and it happens as we ask him to open our hearts and do his work within. Jesus described this birth through the Spirit as being like the wind which blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is not through human agency but a heavenly work from above. This is stated in John 3, the same chapter as people claim prevenient grace, which is intended to work with man's reason to make salvation more accessible, but like the wind, being born again defies our human understanding. It is a work of faith.



"For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do."
Ephesians 2:8-10 GNT
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walk in peace

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If that choice was up to us, it would be like something that depended on us, and that would disqualify it from being a gift. The verse above says salvation is by grace through faith and that it is not the result of our own efforts. We can't birth ourselves spiritually, and what we receive (his righteousness) is defined by Christ alone. Salvation comes to us as the Holy Spirit makes us willing (regeneration, not prevenient grace) and the  peace we receive comes from God alone "in Christ" and is applied to changing our hearts and renewing our minds. The ability to walk in peace belongs for the most part to mature Christians. "Resting in peace" eludes us when our cares, our worries, and our fears overwhelm us or interfere with our sleep or choices we make. Claiming Christ's promise "to guard our hearts and minds" means  surrendering them and our unbelief to him. We are not promised peace in this world, but we can have peace "in Christ" as our hearts rest in him.

As 
the Holy Spirit
Regenerates your heart (the new birth)
you believe,
imparting life and light
"in Christ"

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​"Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being;
the old is gone, the new has come."
2 Corinthians 5:17 GNT

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