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Illustration
Object:
Verna along with her mother was shopping at local specialty shops in a revitalized downtown area of their town. The women were looking in a frame shop, wanting a custom frame. When Verna gave her name for the order, the shop owner stopped and searched her face. He asked if she ever taught at the local high school. When she said she did the man's eyes filled with tears. He told her his name and said she was the only teacher who gave him a grade higher than a "D." "You were the only one who didn't see me as a failure," he explained.
Verna thought back more than twenty years to her teaching days. She recalled how she felt unsuited for the job. "I had seen myself as unable to connect with the students and was haunted by incidents in which I thought I had treated students badly." Those years teaching she considered her "dark days."
Years later in a frame shop Verna realized that God works through even our most flawed efforts. The outcome does not depend solely on us or how well or badly we perform but on God's power at work in our lives and in the world.
The apostle Paul reminded his readers that we are saved by God's grace and not by following the letter of the law. People continue to struggle with this notion today, we do not earn our salvation but rather it is given to us as a free gift. Once we give our lives to Jesus, then as Paul states, "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." All of our thoughts and actions will be in accordance with Christ's.
Verna thought back more than twenty years to her teaching days. She recalled how she felt unsuited for the job. "I had seen myself as unable to connect with the students and was haunted by incidents in which I thought I had treated students badly." Those years teaching she considered her "dark days."
Years later in a frame shop Verna realized that God works through even our most flawed efforts. The outcome does not depend solely on us or how well or badly we perform but on God's power at work in our lives and in the world.
The apostle Paul reminded his readers that we are saved by God's grace and not by following the letter of the law. People continue to struggle with this notion today, we do not earn our salvation but rather it is given to us as a free gift. Once we give our lives to Jesus, then as Paul states, "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." All of our thoughts and actions will be in accordance with Christ's.
