Broken Not Depraved

Broken but not depraved:

We are broken but not depraved because God’s grace can be cooperated with in this life. When born again the Grace of God even comes closer by living inside. 

Broken:

Man is born into sin

Cannot do good apart from grace (can still cooperate with God)

Any good done is by the grace of the Almighty 

Sin and dysfunction is all man has without God

Anything Good is a gift of Grace 

Anything Bad is from man’s choice (world, flesh, or devil)

Not Depraved:

We are broken but God is directing all souls, all the time, and sometimes they choose to listen to good and do it, and sometimes they choose to rebel and do wrong. 

God loves every person and is always pouring graces on them. This is why people are still building families and societies etc. though they are broken there is a lot of good. If we were depraved no one could cooperate with Grace and there would be no good on the earth. 

We must be humble because any good we have done in our life has been a gift from God. 

Any wrong or evil has been a rebellion and needs repentance and forgiveness. 

We must pray for all men at all times because we are all weak and the world, flesh, and devil try to incite our rebellion instead of our cooperation with God’s Grace. 

Born Again:

People who consistently cooperate with God’s Grace must be extra careful because they have a tendency to start thinking it is themselves. It is the Grace of the Almighty giving them gifts to which they happen to cooperate with. It is not from them. Pride comes before a fall.

God, have mercy on our souls and help us all hear, and cooperate with your grace and give Glory to you for your gift!!!

Amen

The longings of the human spirit is feeling that it has been alienated from God and exiled from its true homeland because of sin. 

The human soul yearns for forgiveness – to know that it is loved unconditionally, generously, no matter what; 

the human mind longs for light – to know the truth of things, the reason it exists, where it is going, the meaning of life and the path to fulfillment; 

and all people and all communities pine above all for peace – the peace that is so much more than a mere absence of war, the peace that is fullness, prosperity, goodness, social harmony, creative expansiveness, cultural flourishing. 

All of this is only found in God! Jesus Christ is the only Answer and Fulfillment to Your Soul! Jesus is the reconciliation to God!

Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore

In the summer and fall of 1528 the country suffered a severe famine. That winter, Moore fed one hundred people a day. Then, just as a most welcomed harvest came, a fire broke out caused by the negligence of one of his neighbors. The result was the destruction of all of More’s barns, part of his house, and several of the neighbors barns as well. More was out of the country when he received word. 

Yet, without hesitation he sent a letter to his wife telling her, “We must and are bound not only to be content but also to be glad of God’s will. After all, it was God who sent us all that we have lost and since He has by such a chance taken it away again, His pleasure has been fulfilled. 

Let us heartily thank God as well for adversity as for prosperity, and perhaps we have more cause to thank Him for our loss than for our gain, for His wisdom sees better what is good for us than we do ourselves. 

Therefore, be of good cheer and take all the household with you to church and there thank God both for what he has given us and for what he has taken from us and for what he has left us – which, if it pleases him, he can increase when he will; and if it pleases him to leave us yet less, so let it be at His pleasure.

While still in prison More wrote, “The brothers of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred. 

Nothing can come accept what God wills and I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, even if nothing has ever appeared so bad, it shall indeed be the best.”

The Will of God

The Will of God

All Christ did, all he taught, was the will of God. 

• Humility in our daily lives, 
• an unwavering faith, 
• a moral sense of modesty in conversation, 
• justice in acts, 
• mercy in deed, 
• discipline, 
• refusal to harm others, 
• a readiness to suffer harm, 
• peaceableness with our brothers, 
• a wholehearted love of the Lord, 
• fearing him because he is God, 
• preferring nothing to him who preferred nothing to us, 
• clinging tenaciously to his love, 
• standing by his cross with loyalty and courage whenever there is any conflict involving his honor and his name, 
• manifesting in our speech the constancy of our profession 
• and under torture confidence for the fight, 
• and in dying the endurance for which we will be crowned
• this is what it means to wish to be a coheir with Christ, 
• to keep God’s command; 
• this is what it means to do the will of the Father.

If you do the will of my heavenly Father,

you will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever does the will of God,
he is my brother, and my sister, and my mother.
You will enter the kingdom of heaven.

EVERY SIN WILL BE FORGIVEN

Matthew 12:31 (ESV-CE): 31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 

EVERY SIN WILL BE FORGIVEN!

Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable?

St. Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a question of a sin that is "unforgivable by its very nature, insofar as it excludes the elements through which the forgiveness of sin takes place.

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the sin of rejecting the intimate giver of a genuine conversion he brings about in the conscience. This causes non-repentance. 

It is the radical refusal and rejection to accept conversion,  salvation, redemption, and the forgiveness of his sin, which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross.

It is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a "right" to persist in evil-in any sin at all-and who thus rejects Redemption. (Or believe that what you do is not evil or sin even though God declares it so.)

There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. 

If you do not listen to the Holy Spirit and repent during your life as a lifestyle, hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.

Put on the new self

which is being 

renewed in knowledge 

after the image 

of its creator. 

We have a new self that is being renewed. We must learn about this new self by knowing the Word of God and obeying it. We are to start to look like the creator so others get to know him through knowing you. 

Colossians 3:10 (ESV-CE): 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 

Because I am chosen, holy, and beloved by God

Put on 

-compassionate hearts, 

-kindness, 

-humility, 

-meekness, and 

-patience, 

-bearing with one another 

-Forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also MUST forgive. 

-Most of all put on love, 

which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 

-And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, 

And be thankful.

I am chosen, holy, and beloved of the God of the universe. He wants me to have a new nature of compassion, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, love, and peace in my heart. Because of all these wonderful gifts I should be thankful!

Colossians 3:12–15 (ESV-CE): 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, 

Let your speech 

always be gracious, 

seasoned with salt, 

so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. 

We are not to beat people up or condemn - we are to offer graciously the forgiveness and healing of God to them as we have been forgiven and healed of our sin. The salt is being able to convict not condemn so they too can be healed with the way you talk to them. 

Colossians 4:5–6 (ESV-CE): 5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. 

My new ring:

God is my only hope

You are mine

Save me

Matthew 19:25–26 (ESV-CE): 

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

It is IMPOSSIBLE for Man to save himself

Only God does the impossible 

ONLY GOD SAVES

HE IS YOUR ONLY HOPE!

Isaiah 43:1 (ESV-CE): 

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; 

I have called you by name, you are mine. 

Psalm 119:94a (ESV-CE): 

I am yours; save me,