Nurturing Grace

My sweetheart is finishing up his bachelors degree through Liberty University. I am so proud of him. He works full time and goes to school full time and still has enough strength left over to be my amazing husband. He recently finished a philosophy class and offered up the following thoughts upon finishing his paper.

Ephesians 2:4-9 "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

"After writing a paper discussing the nature verses nurture philosophy, I reflected on one of the statements I used to compare and contrast the different effects. If Adams character was inherited from God (nature) and Eve was moved to violate God’s law with influence by the serpent (nurture), which had the greatest effect on the future of mankind (Gen 3:1-13)? Is God’s grace not a the most powerful example of the influence of nurturing? Of course the answer is yes, but what of the genetic argument. If eve was made from the rib of Adam, she too had the character of the lord within. So why was she so susceptible to outside influences? Why was the serpent successful? Answering these questions gave me peace. God gave us free will (nature) so we could enjoy and appreciate His grace (nurture). There will always be serpents in this life. Someone or something will consistently attempt to draw you into new cultural norms and ignore the values your Godly grandmother taught you. Let us not ignore the teachings of the Lord for the pleasures of the here and now. Let his grace be enough to fulfill every desire and use his word as a litmus test for the necessity to change. Pray your ideas to God. If the plan is not for His glory, then for who’s glory is it? Stick to your guns my Christian friends, the days of the serpent are here and we are being challenged more than ever to give up our Christian values and join the crowd of progressiveness. Follow Him daily and He will guide your path. I wish you peace and comfort in the knowledge that God’s grace is the gift of our nurturing heavenly father."--Mark Welch

copyright2013, Mark Welch
photography by Michelle Welch, all rights reserved
“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”