I Pray All Is Well With Everyone… And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion… For All God’s Children… And All God’s Creation. Remember… Everything We Think And Do In This World Matters… Somewhere; And Leaves An Everlasting Imprint In The Universe. Our Thoughts Becoming Our Actions Matters… And Affects All The World Around Us – Whether We Understand This Or Not.
But Every Moment Is The Right Time To Choose Love, Joy, And Compassion… Over The Hate, Misery, And Hostility… That The World Has Been Experiencing… Under This Present Administration. It Is Indeed A Fact… That Our Voice Matters… And Our Vote Matters! If They Had No Weight In This World… The Battle Wouldn’t Be So Devious… To Suppress Them!
Thus, Keeping In The Forefront Of Our Minds… Remember This… If It’s Love It’s God… If It’s Hate And Its Counterparts… It Is Not! Let Us Allow Ourselves, Then… To Be Guided By The Love Of The Living God That Dwells Within Each And Every One Of Us – Our Very Own “Mighty I AM Presence”; For It Is Truly… The Only Power… In All The Universe… That Can Save Us. Amen… 🤗💜💜💜
Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life… 🙏🏾💞
And Y’all Be Love… 💗💗💗
“… As the Divine utterances testify, “God is love, and he that dwells in love, dwells in God, and God dwells in him”, (1 John 4:16). Whoso therefore contends that love of God may be had without aid of God, what else does he contend but that God may be had, without God? Now what Christian would say this, which no madman would venture to say? Therefore, in the Apostle, true, pious, faithful patience, said exultingly and by the mouth of the Saints, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword! As it is written, For Your sake, we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us”, not through ourselves, but, “through Him that loved us”, (Romans 8:35). And then he goes on and adds, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is that “Love of God”, which “is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.”
But the concupiscence of the bad, by reason of which there is in them a false patience, “is not of the Father”, (1 John 2:16), as says the Apostle John, but is of the world. Here some man shall say, “If the concupiscence of the bad, whereby it comes that they bear all evils for that which they lust after, be of the world, how is it said to be of their will”, as if, truly, they were not themselves also of the world, when they love the world, forsaking Him by Whom the world was made? For “they serve the creature more than the Creator, Who is blessed forever”, (Romans 1:25). Whether then, by the word “world”, the Apostle John signifies lovers of the world, the will, as it is of themselves, is therefore of the world, or whether under the name of the world he comprises heaven and earth, and all that is therein that is the creature universally, it is plain that the will of the creature, not being that of the Creator, is of the world.
For which cause to such, the Lord says, “You are from beneath, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world”, (John 8:23). And to the Apostle He says, “If you were of the world, the world would love his own”, but lest they should arrogate more unto themselves than their measure craved. And when He said that they were not of the world should imagine this to be of nature, not of grace, therefore He says, “But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” It follows, that they once were of the world, for, that they might not be of the world, they were chosen out of the world.
Now this election the Apostle demonstrating to be not of merits going before in good works, but election of grace, says thus: “And in this time, a remnant by election of grace is saved. But if by grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace”, (Romans 11:5-6). This is election of grace, that is, election in which through the grace of God, men are elected. This, I say, is election of grace, which goes before all good merits of men. For if it be to any good merits that it is given, then is it no more gratuitously given, but is paid as a debt, and consequently, is not truly called grace, where “reward”, as the same Apostle says, “is not imputed as grace but as debt”, (Romans 4:4).
Whereas if, that it may be true grace, that is, gratuitous, it finds nothing in man to which it is due of merit, which thing is well understood in that saying, “You will save them for nothing”, (Psalms 56:7), then assuredly itself gives the merits, not to merits is given. Consequently, it goes before even faith, from which it is, that all good works begin. “For the just”, as is written, “shall live by faith”, (Habakkuk 2:4). But moreover, grace not only assists the just, but also justifies the ungodly. And therefore, even when it does aid the just and seems to be rendered to his merits, not even then does it cease to be grace, because that which it aids, it did itself bestow.
With a view therefore to this grace, which precedes all good merits of man, not only was Christ put to death by the ungodly, but “died, for the ungodly”, (Romans 5:6). And ere that He died, He elected the Apostles, not of course then just, but to be justified; to whom He says, “I have chosen you out of the world.” For to whom He said, “You are not of the world”, and then, lest they should account themselves never to have been of the world, presently added, “But I have chosen you out of the world”, assuredly that they should not be of the world, was by His own election of them, conferred upon them.
Wherefore, if it had been through their own righteousness, not through His grace, that they were elected, they would not have been chosen out of the world, because they would already not be of the world, if already they were just. And again, if the reason why they were elected, was that they were already just, they had already first chosen the Lord. For who can be righteous, but by choosing righteousness!
“But the end of the law is Christ, for righteousness is to everyone that believes”, (Romans 10:4). Who is made unto us Wisdom of God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, as it is written, “He that glories, let him glory in the Lord”, (1 Corinthians 1:30). He then is Himself our righteousness.
Whence also, the just of old before the Incarnation of the Word, in this faith of Christ, and in this true righteousness, which thing Christ is unto us, were justified, believing this to come which we believe come: “and they themselves by grace were saved through faith, not of themselves, but by the gift of God, not of works, lest haply they should be lifted up”, (Ephesians 2:8-9). For their good works did not come before God’s mercy, but followed it.
For to them was it said, and by them written, long ere Christ was come in the flesh, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show compassion on whom I will have compassion”, (Exodus 33:19). From which words of God, the Apostle Paul should so long after say, “It is not therefore of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.” It is also their own voice, long ere Christ was come in the flesh: “My God, His mercy shall prevent me”, (Psalms 59:10).
How indeed could they be aliens from the faith of Christ, by whose charity, even Christ was fore-announced unto us, without the faith of Whom, not any of mortals either has been, or is, or ever shall be, able to be righteous! If then, being already just, the Apostles were elected by Christ, they would have first chosen Him, that just men might be chosen; because without Him, they could not be just. But it was not so, as Himself says to them, “Not you have chosen Me but I have chosen you!” Of which the Apostle John speaks, “Not that we loved God but that He loved us”, (1 John 4:10.)”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III: St. Augustin: On Moral Treatises – Sections 15-18
