what's free?

making an easter card

quoted from a Good Friday missionary update I received from a family serving as missionaries in very rural China.

"The common US expression “Freedom isn’t free” describes how the blood-and-tear sacrifices of our militaries over two and a half centuries have secured for our citizens a freedom all can enjoy, though most do not fully appreciate its cost. In like manner, believers across the world enjoy a freedom in salvation which, although free for the taking, was never free for the giving, and most do not fully comprehend or appreciate its true cost.

If ever inclined to do so, sinful human beings can forgive others who’ve wronged them, simply “out of the goodness of the heart”; yet this is something that God could never do. Such arbitrary, inconsistent, and likely short-lived “forgiveness” finds little comparison to the forgiveness God offers (Matthew 18:21-35), for it truly costs us nothing. In reality, our holy and just God could never forgive sin simply because He’s kind and loving, for it is neither kind nor loving (nor holy nor just) to let a debt of sin go unpaid. God’s forgiveness had a cost: His forgiveness finds its kindness, love, holiness, and justice in the work of Jesus Christ, in the shedding of His Son’s own precious blood on the cross (Hebrews 9:22).

We often (redundantly) describe salvation as “God’s free gift,” and Scripture also speaks of our having been “freely justified” (Romans 3:24, ASV) and how God will “freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32, ASV; 1Corinthians 2:12, ESV), yet these descriptions are fully people-centered. We must never forget that—divinely speaking—our justification was far from free. At great expense to Himself, God provided the world with a Gift, the life of His own dear Son. In His death, Jesus “paid the ultimate price” for our redemption, and this cost—having satisfied our sin debt outstanding—is the very basis of divine forgiveness.

Christ’s sacrifice was so complete that when He “bought us with a price” (1Corinthians 6:20), His payment didn’t simply save us at a moment in the past, but instead continues to save us even now (1John 1:9). The death of Jesus Christ so many “Good Fridays” ago is truly the lynchpin to all history, human and divine, for it is the epitome of God’s immeasurable love, the declaration of His impossible mercy, and the foundation of His every grace. So as you celebrate this historical event this week, please remember: although it has cost us nothing, spiritual “freedom isn’t free.” "  AF family

Directly quoted from a missionary update I received; this family serves as missionaries in very rural China

Little Bear

"...Sin is powerful, even for those who have been reborn. 

Grace, however, is more powerful still. 

This is a true and trustworthy saying, that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of which I am the chief
 (I Timothy 1:15). 

To diminish the power of grace is to diminish the scope of our own sin. Jesus, after all, didn’t come to save the polite, well-behaved people. He came to save His own, and gave them first repentant hearts."    blog by rc sproul jr

why do I keep drumming the message of Christ Jesus?  because I know that without Jesus Christ as Saviour there is no life, and only the wrath of God awaits those who reject Him,  and that eternity is forever, and each and every one of us will stand before Lord Jesus Christ (even those who don't believe now),

and that the folks I love through  embroidery and blogging must realize we all need the Saviour! what I am called to do - PREACH the gospel : "...we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 corinthians 5:20-21

deserve?

This is a small portion of a larger project I have been working on - shown are little french knot flower drops.......

I am behind on TAST and have been (probably) too involved in the United States election coming up on November 6....but am so very thankful to live here where we can vote....and to have a military that protects that freedom.... here in the USA are we thankful, or thank less?  do we think we deserve this and that....or do we realize that God does not give us what we deserve, yet heaps blessings upon us?

 Christ Jesus is who He said He was....- folks can debate and fight about voting...
but Lord Jesus Christ is the ONLY way - there is no debating and fighting  with God - He reigns :D

how can you possibly reject the Lord Jesus Christ? only if you reject God's grace and mercy.  And if so, you will spend eternity without grace and mercy - in God's wrath - which killed Lord Jesus Christ on the cross as He bore the punishment of all the sins of the world and suffered God's wrath...so that you, me, would not - .....and  He lives :D

accept or reject - eternity hangs in your choice...

and the next four years? 
 - thanks be to God for the choice