Attempts and Recovery

I am continuing to read Recovering Redemption by Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer.  It is a great read and I am only through three chapters.  Here are a few thoughts from Chandler and Snetzer from C
hapters 2-3:

Are you trying to tip the scales in your favor?  Are you hoping and working so that your good outweighs your bad?  Chandler says this, "Those scales don't exist. There are no scales. You're either completely justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, or you're not justified at all."

"And if you're trying to treat the "one thing" in your life by (1) trying harder, (2) using others, (3) escaping, or (4) upping your religious quotient--or any combination of these--all you're really doing is just mowing over the weeds." 

"The beauty of Christ's gospel is the great "unless" of life."

"So if you struggle with being able to run hard after the Lord because you feel so unworthy, so unclean, so unsteady, listen up: "While you were still weak, at the right time," God came to your rescue. And still does. And still is."

"Sounds like, then, His opinion is all you need, which means you just need to be a lot more tuned into that than into what anybody else is saying. . .God's rescue of us, coupled with His acceptance of us, enables us to walk in one fluid motion of humility and confidence."

"The reason why we study His Word, why we attack our sin, why we share generously from our resources, and why we serve the people around us is not to persuade Him to love us. We do these things because He already does love us. . .and because He wants us to dig even deeper into the treasury of His blessing, into the joy and sweetness and abundant living His gospel unlocks for us."

"As is so often true in Scripture, the bad is contrasted against the good, the warning alongside the promise."