PBA

Some background: I have been a Christian for over 65
years and I think I have experienced every new thing
that has come along. I so wanted to please my Lord. In
recent years, I have turned from trendy things to the
men of God in an earlier century, like FB Meyer,
T Austin-Sparks, Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee,
and Oswald Chambers. My early years--Jesus came
into my life at age 5--I was so in Love with Him and
took Him everywhere, for you see, I had suffered a
tremendous loss and desperately needed a friend. He
was real; He was there! As time went on I came under
the tyranny of the word 'ought.' It was awful. I ought to
pray more, read my Bible more, give more, serve more.
I had head knowledge and the approval of man, sort of,
but my heart was starving. I was on the treadmill of
PBA
Performance Based Acceptance.
I was not living in relationship with God, I was living
to please Him through what I did for Him. When I
was fourteen I attended a Christian camp and was given
a passage of scripture to memorize. Philippians 3:7-11.
Over the years this scripture has become my life
scripture. Here are a few lines:

"The things that were gain to me I count as loss, dung,
worthless, because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. That I may gain Christ and be
found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own
that comes from obeying 'the law' but that which
comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from
God that depends on faith.--That I may KNOW HIM,
and the power of His resurrection, and may share his
sufferings, becoming like Him in His death."

To be continued...


"