I have studied greatly and remember the scriptures.
I do use an Internet site called Bible Hub.
I also write things down, and keep journals.
But for the Bible hub, the rest if what you said above is the same for me.
Instead of Bible hub, though, I just use a KJV pdf. I simply enter a word or phrase in and hit "Find."
That's really what we ought to be doing - comparing methods and understandings - not tearing into others for their understandings.
Bad enough a sentence here; a paragraph there, never really does justice to where we are each actually coming from.
Believe it or not; every single Mid-Acts person on here agrees on the importance of works. Just not for salvation nor for standing after salvation.
Rather, because of it - after He saves us by His grace through faith - absolutely no merit of our own.
Ephesians 2:
8. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9.
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Romans 5:
1.
Therefore being justified
by faith, we
have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2. By whom also
we have access
by faith into this grace
wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
That is our standing before God - that is how He sees us in His Son - He is at peace with us - being that we
have been justified
by faith, we
have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Our walk after this, is also by faith - just walking by faith in this standing He has given us in His Son.
Note it again - received His gift by faith; walk in it by faith - Colossians 2:
6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
7. Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
9.
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10. And ye
are complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
11. In whom also ye
are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ:
12. Buried
with him in baptism, wherein also ye
are risen with him through the faith of the operation
of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
13. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
hath he quickened together
with him,
having forgiven you
all trespasses;
14. Blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us, which
was contrary to us, and
took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross;
Here is where we disagree with you - notice:
20. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
21. [Touch not; taste not; handle not;
22. Which all are to perish with the using;] after the commandments and doctrines of men?
23. Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body:
not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.
He is talking about works men add to grace - the commandments of men - works that never satisfy the flesh - tomorrow the guilt and the "need to please God" starting all over again.
Fact is, "we
have peace with God."
All we need do is walk by faith in it.
This is what these works here are about - Ephesians 2:
10. For we
are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them.
He ordained that He would save those who believe Him as to His Son's finished work in our place, that; once saved; we should walk in those works He saved us unto.
And these works are not about
our effort - "as ye have received Christ - by faith - so walk ye in Him - by faith."
These works are simply living out this grace wherein we stand in Christ; justified in Him by faith; and therefore at peace with God in His Son.
We can do that because; once saved, "we
are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them."
As when Paul reminded the Philippines that just as they had been able to work out, or manifest the salvation that God has placed in them - just as they had been able to manifest it when Paul had been with them, they should strive to manifest it toward one another, in his absence.
That all they had to do was revere that this salvation that God had placed in them, that He might manifest this salvation to the world through them, had cost Him His Son's life. That all they had to do was let this mind that had been in Christ; His humility - be their mind toward one another, Philippians 2 and 3.
