From the last section of Thomas Oden's book The Justification Reader.
Faith frees the repentant sinner to approach God with confidence, by the power of the Spirit. God the Spirit is providing sure and definite means of grace to encourage the reconciled life: the pure preaching of the Word, baptism, the Lord's Supper, daily scripture reading, worship, and pastoral care.
We approach God with confidence because the Holy Spirit has encouraged us to trust that what God says is true...eternally true. Therefore, there is no reason in the world that we cannot approach our God and begin to live within what I often call the Reign of God. To remind us and to keep us nurtured by God's grace, we are invited to take part in a life that will provide us with regular and active encouragement. It will come in the form of one Christian caring for another, public and private worship, the daily reading of scripture (it doesn't matter how much or how little), and what is traditionally call Word and Sacraments (the visible word) that is shared within worship. There is much that takes place in the community of the followers of Jesus that is a part of what the Holy Spirit whips together in order to make sure we are continually hearing God's word of Grace and in that hearing, we are able to stand on the solid rock of God promises.
Connection: There are too many times within this day when we have to hear about conditional acceptance and conditional relationships. Sometimes, people will even try to sell our relationship with God as conditional. And yet, we can be assured that God awaits us and longs to hear from us and is eager to be for us that sold rock without exception.
Lord of New Life, we trust in you for you have promised to be our source of strength for life no matter what might come upon us. By the power of your Holy Spirit, continue to nudge us and woo us so that we will never be afraid to confidently begin and end our day within your peaceful and gracious embrace. Amen.
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