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Q34. Grace and Persona


Pastor Ralph

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  • 4 months later...

Q34. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

How does your openness to God's grace define your persona, who you actually are?

How does your willingness to dispense God's grace to others mold you into who God has designed you to be?

If I, as Paul and others, allow the Holy Spirit full reign in my life, He, by His grace molds and makes me into who He wants me to be , to be used effectively where He has placed me. As His grace is then poured into my life , that same grace will then be used to reach others. To work with them. To serve them. In doing so I become more and more who God has designed me to be.  

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Q34. (1 Corinthians 15:10) How does your openness to God’s grace define your persona, who you actually are? How does your willingness to dispense God’s grace to others mold you into who God has designed you to be?
 

I know that I am a work in progress and  that God began that good work in me and will be faithful to complete it until Christ returns or I go home.

I know that I want to grow in faith and be the man that God wants me to be.
Being a man who can receive God’s grace and give it freely to those in need around me, to God’s glory, is a good thing. 

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  • I think when we really want to get to know ourselves through Christ, we get to know ourselves as He created us.  Unfortunately, there are many who never get to know their true selves.  Christians can depend on God's grace to show us the opportunities where we can perform the activities planned in our lives and receive the grace and strength to do so.  As we develop inwardly and perform outwardly, we become more defined and live closer to our life mission.
  • How does your willingness to dispense God's grace to others mold you into who God has designed you to be? 
     
    • When we dispense God's grace to others, we are glorifying God and the Trinity  This willingness stems from love for the Father.  It is not an obligation or a behaviour:  it is heartfelt.  When we have received so much from Him and learn more of His love for us, we WANT to show others how to grow in the same way.  I think Paul did not so much boast how hard he worked as he recognized the growing relationships with the Trinity and pushed himself to work harder, recognizing that it was the grace of God that did the work.
       
    • New American Standard Bible states it this way:  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
       
    • The Message Bible is a little more generous in translation of verses 10 and 11:  But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I’m not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven’t I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn’t amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it. So whether you heard it from me or from those others, it’s all the same: We spoke God’s truth and you entrusted your lives.
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Q34. (1 Corinthians 15:10) 
How does your openness to God's grace define your persona, who you actually are? How does your willingness to dispense God's grace to others mould you into who God has designed you to be?
Before I received God’s saving grace, Gal 5:19-21 reminded me of my previous depraved condition. There was no love in me of others. no love of God, only a selfish love of self. There was my sinful nature and my slavery to sin. And how by grace God totally changed me. I see this as the dying away of my old self and the coming to life of the new me. I was brought out of death into life, out of darkness into light. I am not what I used to be. Being renewed daily. Grace is the source of all my present blessings, and it is God’s power operating in me that defines who I actually am (1 Cor 2:4-5). Now I begin imitating my Lord Jesus Christ and the fruit of the Spirit starts slowly becoming more and more of a reality and more obvious (Gal 5:22-23). I like to think I’ve been given a unique spiritual gift composed of various percentages of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And our Lord gives me the willingness and power to dispense these graces to others. By doing this I bring glory to my Heavenly Father, and build up the church. Now, by the grace of God, I am what I am. 
 

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I'm very open to God's grace, eager for it, in fact. Such eagerness defines me and sets apart my days differently than before. I am what I desire -- I desire grace.

There seems to be two parts to Christian sanctification, the first occurs deep within and the second in stretching outward toward other people. I see both of them as aspects of His sanctifying grace. Specifically, as I reach outward, even in ways that don't directly touch others, I pray to be used by Him, that the words from my mouth are His, not mine.

 

 

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As I opened myself to God’s grace He began to change me, slowly but surely. I found I had more patience, I became less volatile and more placid, etc the fruit of the spirit became evident in my life. I became a new person, my old self was gone. If I am dispensing God’s grace to others I am in God’s will and that is where He wants me to be, and where I want to be.

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I know I am not what I should be but Praise God I'm not what I was!

As I allow God, through the Holy Spirit, to mould & shape me I am being 'changed from one degree of glory to another' into the likeness of Christ

As I allow God to use me to serve others & disperse His grace so that 'change process ' continues

The Potter

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I feel lighter each time I approach the Throne of Grace and pour my heart out to God and be open about the challenges that I go through. I believe that even before saying what I want to tell God, He already knows my heart and is there to listen to me. Whatever answer that God has for me is always the best because He knows the future. There are moments where I feel that the requests put before God have not been answered but I continue to plead my case and know that He will eventually answer me His way. I have seen the grace of God in my life and when I look back, I always say "I must have been God". I am forever thankful and grateful for what God continues to do in my life and I wish I could have ten thousand tongues to thank Him.

I am always willing to help people in need. I give myself to serve God's people and I believe that God has called me to serve His people. I know that I can do more and always believe that that which I do at the moment is not where my heart is and believe that at an opportune time, God will take me to the direct assignment as at the moment I am still working and looking to the time where I will have ample time to continue with His work. The lives that I have touched show appreciation of the services I have rendered but I know that the Glory belongs to God who has enabled me to carry out His tasks.

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Q34. (1 Corinthians 15:10) How does your openness to God's grace define your persona, who you actually are? How does your willingness to dispense God's grace to others mold you into who God has designed you to be?

All I know is that God has been very gracious to me even when I consider myself not worthy of such extravagant grace upon me.

Despite this grace, I feel I have not allowed enough of this grace to shape me to be gracious enough so as to pass this grace to others. So Lord, help be that I can be gracious service to others as a lifestyle.

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My openness to God's grace define my persona by displaying openness to share the gift's God has given me with others.

My willingness to share the gifts God has given me helps me to follow Christ ways for my life.  

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Q34. (1 Corinthians 15:10) How does your openness to God’s grace define your persona, who you actually are? How does your willingness to dispense God’s grace to others mold you into who God has designed you to be?

1. Accepting who I am in God and willing to do my best at it. I share with others the gift God has given me. I do what is needed to grow in God .

2. God's grace is help and encouragement to me which also means a lot. I grow when dispensing what I know to others while helping them understand to push forward. I get joy when helping others.

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When you are more open to God’s grace you serve God with more passion and dedication. We are formed to be the people we become by yielding to God's spiritual gifts placed within us by his grace. If we don't exercise those gifts, we stunt both our growth and limit what God has planned for us (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). With God's grace we receive spiritual authority to minister, not based on man's ordination, but God's appointment (1 Corinthians 3:10; Romans 15:15-16a). When God's favor rests on a person, so does power and capability beyond him or herself.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Q34. (1 Corinthians 15:10) How does your openness to God’s grace define your persona, who you actually are? How does your willingness to dispense God’s grace to others mold you into who God has designed you to be?

His Grace moves in me to act.  While I am definitely not a puppet, I do know the flow of that incredible Holy Spirit Power.  My persona does not always move to the prompting of the Spirit, but I find that as I spend more time in God's Word both studying and learning, His grace flows more through me into the lives of others I am in contact with and into my self to enable me to become what God wants me to become.

 
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