{"id":28250,"date":"2015-10-22T00:15:32","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T04:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=28250"},"modified":"2015-10-22T08:23:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T12:23:55","slug":"were-it-not-for-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/10\/22\/were-it-not-for-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Were It Not For Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16629\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\" alt=\"psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv\" width=\"341\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg 341w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Time measured out my days, life carried me along<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">In my soul I yearned to follow God but knew I\u2019d never be so strong<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">I looked hard at this world to learn how heaven could be gained<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">Just to end where I began where human effort is all in vain<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>Were it not for grace\u2026I can tell you where I\u2019d be<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>Wandering down some pointless road to nowhere<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>With my salvation up to me<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>And I know how that would go\u2014the battles I would face<\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>Forever running but losing the race\u2026were it not for grace<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">So here is all my praise expressed with all my heart<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">Offered to the Friend who took my place and ran a course I could not start<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">And when He saw in full just how much His Love would cost<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">He still went the final mile between me and heaven so I would not be lost<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J9kgl42I89s?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><center><em>Sandi Patty<br \/>\nwritten by David Hamilton, Phil McHugh<\/em><\/center><center><\/center><center><span style=\"color: #800080;\">*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/center><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>\u201c<em><strong><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Were it not for grace<\/span>!<\/strong><\/em>\u201d (Were you belting out this chorus along with Miss Sandi Patty?) \u00a0I believe you (me, too!) are thoroughly and thankfully cognizant of the awesome goodness of Almighty God to mankind in the incredible provision of His grace. \u00a0And it is SO good to be aware of <em>where we would be<\/em>\u2026but perhaps even more important to recognize that,\u00a0because of grace, <em>we <strong>are<\/strong> where God would have us to be<\/em>. \u00a0We&#8212;all of mankind!&#8212;are constant\u00a0recipients of God\u2019s amazing grace! \u00a0Throughout the Bible, we find many believers well aware of and thankful for God\u2019s grace! \u00a0Whether it was James offering motivation to the Hebrews living in dispersion throughout Europe or David\u2019s exclamation of praise, these are just two examples of men who were assured of the truth regarding grace.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">But He gives more grace.<br \/>\nTherefore it says, \u201cGod opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.<br \/>\nJames 4:6<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory;<br \/>\nNo good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.<br \/>\nPsalm 84:11<\/p>\n<p>Equally we, too, should be assured of all that Jesus\u2019 sacrifice and death has given to us by God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">[All] are justified and made upright and in right standing with God,<br \/>\nfreely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy),<br \/>\nthrough the redemption which is [provided] in Christ Jesus,<br \/>\nRomans 3:24<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,<br \/>\nwe have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.<br \/>\nThrough Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace<br \/>\nin which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.<br \/>\nRomans 5:1 and 2<\/p>\n<p>And so we can also praise our God declaring how good and kind He has been to us! We are redeemed, saved, freed from slavery to sin and now live, in that freedom, under grace.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For sin shall no longer be your master,<br \/>\nbecause you are not under the law, but under grace.<br \/>\nRomans 6:14<\/p>\n<p>Paul shared the following with Titus as he urged him to encourage and reprove the people in Crete. \u00a0May we have the same heart\u2014keeping in mind the grace we<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> have<\/span> received<\/strong> and <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">do<\/span>\u00a0constantly receive<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,<br \/>\ntraining us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,<br \/>\nand to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,<br \/>\nwaiting for our blessed hope,<br \/>\nthe appearing of the glory of our great God\u00a0and Savior Jesus Christ,<br \/>\nwho gave Himself for us to redeem us\u00a0from all lawlessness<br \/>\nand to purify for Himself a people<br \/>\nfor His own possession who are zealous for good.<br \/>\nTitus 2:11-14<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Time measured out my days, life carried me along In my soul I yearned to follow God but knew I\u2019d never be so strong I looked hard at this world to learn how heaven could be gained Just to end where I began where human effort is all in vain Were it not for grace\u2026I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":16629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4937],"tags":[235,1287,425,9163,5204,852,1718,5524,4254,5521,3379,5520],"class_list":["post-28250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs","tag-coleen-hayden","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-gods-amazing-grace","tag-james-46","tag-psalm-8411","tag-romans-324","tag-romans-51-and-2","tag-romans-614","tag-sandi-patty","tag-titus-211-14","tag-were-it-not-for-grace","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-7lE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28250"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28260,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28250\/revisions\/28260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}