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“In him you also, having heard theword of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14 WEB
July 2018 QUESTIONS
These are some questions we talked about tonight.
The youngsters all got Bibles and lots of encouragement to read them….
There is real faith in theses young hearts…
Francis Crosby 1890-1915 94 years
Francis was born in New York in 1820. She was a regular baby, until she contracted a virus at six weeks old and a fake doctor prescribed mustard poultices on her eyes, which completely blinded her. She went to a school for the blind and became a teacher. She taught English, speaking Roman and American history.
At around thirty years, she started to write words to music. She became well known and met some important people. She was the first woman to speak in the American Senate and she read a poem there on one occasion. Her poems were published in the newspapers and her name became known by many people.
She is known for her writing of hymns and Christian songs, of which she wrote thousands. They were well known and printed on hundreds of hymn books. Francis was concerned that her name would be on too may pages of the books, so she wrote using other names- pseudonyms. She used two hundred of these. Her hymns were full of feeling and persuasion to come and trust in the Saviour Jesus.
Francis became a Christian very early in her life. She did not blame God for what had happened to her, but could see great positives and strengths. She knew that God intended it for good. Blindness is a very difficult disability, and Francis’ faith shines clearly when she would speak about it.
She said that God kept her from many sins that are associated with the sight. She said she escaped many temptations by not being able to see!!
She would say that if she was offered earthly sight she would say “no” because the first face she would every see, was her Saviour.
God took this ability away from Francis, but gave her other abilities instead. She had the inner sight of wisdom and to be able to understand God’s word very well and deeply. She loved the Bible. She memorized the first four books of the Old Testament and also the four gospels before she was ten years old. She was able to memorize five chapters every week… She memorized most of the Bible over the time of her life.
She was abandoned by her family in her twenties. She went on to lobby the Senate and the Congress for rights of blind people. She was very effective because of her great skills. She became involved in politics and making an impression on the society in which she lived.
Francis married Van Alstyne another blind believer. They tried to work together on words and music, and to live frugal lives to give to the poor. At the age of 54, Francis was destitute. She worked and gave all the money to others, leaving none for herself.
An outbreak of Cholera where she lived, kept her helping the sick and dying. It went on for some time and Francis became worn down by it and became sad inside herself. She found it hard to resume her teaching after that and the sense of lack of spiritual development in her life. The fact that so many died and she worked so hard to save people, had a depressing impact on her life which she found it hard to overcome.
Throughout her life, she served God in writing many great hymns. She wrote 2,500 hymns and many were published in hymn books and other publications.
Whatever we do in life, what we do will be judged by other people. Francis’ work was no exception. Many appreciated her writing, but many did not. Her respite was the fact that she did it for God and to glorify Him, and to help other people to believe in Christ and be forgiven. This was her measure and she trusted it all to her God.
Her life was not without controversy or difficulties in the public place. Other people tried to get a benefit for her life or say they were trying to raise money for the poverty stricken hymn-writer. They wrote books and articles to persuade people to give to Francis, even thought she continually said she was not in need and her family were looking after her.
It caused her a lot of grief, but she had family and friends around her to encourage her. She spoke at events twice a week, well into old age.
Francis died of heart failure and bleeding on her brain. She was ninety-four years old. Christian people put up memorials to her in different places in America, and she was included in the “Gospel hall of fame”
People still sing her hymns today…
Verse 7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us…”
We are looking at part 4 of Ephesians chapter 1 and the long list of blessings that the Christians believer enjoys because they are part of God’s family. We will also think about things the unbeliever seriously misses out on because they refuse to believe.
We are looking at this small part of verses verses 7 and 8. Regarding the grace of God and His supreme mercy to sinful people.
We start at the point of the forgiveness of sins. This is where everything starts for the Christian. We reach the place of repentance, and bring our confession to God. We understand that our need can only be met by God. So we humble ourselves and repent. We give our lives to Him. We have redemption from the slavery of life under sin, and the atonement made for us, buy the blood of Christ. As Jesus paid for us to be free so we have complete forgiveness for all our sin and moral failure.
This is because of the grace of God. There is no other reason why we are saved for sin, except for the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. We do not deserve it, and we could never earn it. It is free, undeserved grace…!
Now the Christian life is all about grace.
Seeing God’s grace in our lives can be difficult, because we are not used to thinking about life as God see it. We are born into this world and are automatically earthly minded. A mind centered on God, starts when you become a Christian. God sets you free from sin and its deadly hold on you. He wakens up your soul and you become alive to God. That is the first glimpse of grace we see.
All our life from then on is a growing understanding of that amazing grace, and how we are totally dependant on it. The trouble is, we have a tendency to depend on ourselves, and try to keep control of things. This stops us seeing it.
Sometimes we might notice it when we are feeling very weak, and don’t think we can do certain things today, and God just gives you power to do what you are supposed to do…
Maybe someone is troubling you. God gives us the strength to do and say the right thing, even though we might feel we can’t do it.
Maybe we feel afraid about things in our lives and don’t know how to face up to them, or how to talk to people about it. God will give you the strength. We must pray and examine our lives as well, but God promises that His grace is sufficient for you—- every day.!
God’s grace strengthens us in trouble and in the good times too. When we are in trouble we know we need God, and we pray and stay close to Him. But when things go well, we are tempted to think we can manage. We stop depending on God, and temptations come along we are inclined to do wrong things.
God’s grace keeps us in dangers, and in temptations and in good times too.
Some Christians suffer great hardship and trouble, and yet they keep on believing.. God’s grace keeps them.
Some Christians have blessings and temptations along with them. God’s grace keeps them…
The Christian walks through their lives seeing this grace and experiencing this grace, and walk closer and closer to God. They realize more and more what the grace of God is, and their love for God grows.
God also teaches us to be gracious. As God treats us, so we treat others with kindness and grace.
“all things work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 NIV
It couldn’t be more clear. Everything that happens to the Christian is in His control.
It takes all our lives to see this at work.
The Christian has tremendous liberty and can live confident lives in God’s mighty strength. We get in trouble when we worry and stress and try to do things by ourselves. Worry and fretting leads to evil…
The unbeliever has none of this. There is no promise to the unbeliever of protection or help of any kind. They are on their own. The enemy of their souls we see to it that they end up paying for their own sins. He will keep them just comfortable enough so that they never repent. He will tell them they are ok. This is a terrible place to be.
To be an unbeliever is not a life of blessing at all. The only person you have is yourself and you cannot stand against the powers of darkness. Without God in control of your life, you only have your own wit and wisdom. There are so many things we do not understand. We don’t understand how our minds work. We do not understand about our souls because they are dead to God. We don’t understand the Word of God, because we don’t value it. We don’t love God, because we don’t know Him.
We are left at the mercy of these negative things, with no protection from the powers of darkness.
Please young people, run to God and seek Him urgently..
Get your sins deal with and experience the grace of God in your life.
Lettsom Inn 