JOHN BRADFORD
John Bradford, a champion of the Church of England, was imprisoned by the Catholic Church for his loyalty to the King and the Church of England. When the King died a Catholic queen was enthroned and the arrest was made. When he saw many of his fellow prisoners heading for the gallows he made his famous statement; “there but for the grace of God goes John Bradford”. He was eventually hanged.
A true belief that God has a hand in our lives and blesses us daily is sometimes conflicted by our belief in free agency. Do we really make our own proverbial “bed”? Is our life a result of who we are and the choices we’ve made or are we blessed immeasurably by our creator? How many of our blessings come because of our “works” and what blessings are a result of the “grace of God”? Am I more deserving of my many blessings than the guy who lost his job and has had a lot of “bad luck”?
I recall many years ago a plane crashed into a mall in the city where we live. There was a Vietnamese lady who was badly burned because of the crash. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shortly after this incident she lost some members of her family due to other accidents. All were due to no fault of her own. Now could I say “there but for the grace of God, go I”?
We all should study Isaiah 55. This chapter contains the following verse:
8 ¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
Maybe the tragedies are blessings and the blessings are really only an earthly reality with no eternal value. Our lives are in the hands of God and it is up to Him how he will bless us. We are at His mercy. The works we perform on this earth are for His glory, not for our earthly blessing.
We believe we are saved by grace after all we can do. (2 Nephi 25:23) The only way we can partake of the atonement is to unselfishly glorify God. I certainly don’t mean with only words, but also with works. We then can be made “one with Christ”. We must be AT ONE with Christ in order to gain salvation and only Christ can do that.
A true belief that God has a hand in our lives and blesses us daily is sometimes conflicted by our belief in free agency. Do we really make our own proverbial “bed”? Is our life a result of who we are and the choices we’ve made or are we blessed immeasurably by our creator? How many of our blessings come because of our “works” and what blessings are a result of the “grace of God”? Am I more deserving of my many blessings than the guy who lost his job and has had a lot of “bad luck”?
I recall many years ago a plane crashed into a mall in the city where we live. There was a Vietnamese lady who was badly burned because of the crash. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shortly after this incident she lost some members of her family due to other accidents. All were due to no fault of her own. Now could I say “there but for the grace of God, go I”?
We all should study Isaiah 55. This chapter contains the following verse:
8 ¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
Maybe the tragedies are blessings and the blessings are really only an earthly reality with no eternal value. Our lives are in the hands of God and it is up to Him how he will bless us. We are at His mercy. The works we perform on this earth are for His glory, not for our earthly blessing.
We believe we are saved by grace after all we can do. (2 Nephi 25:23) The only way we can partake of the atonement is to unselfishly glorify God. I certainly don’t mean with only words, but also with works. We then can be made “one with Christ”. We must be AT ONE with Christ in order to gain salvation and only Christ can do that.
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