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The Amish Voice 11
Fortunately, Job understood:
Job 42:1-3—Then Job answered the Lord,
and said, I know that thou canst do every-
thing, and that no thought can be withholden
from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel
without knowledge? therefore have I uttered
that I understood not; things too wonderful
for me, which I knew not.
I wish there were more space, as we only
have room for a few verses. However, my
friends, it is very clear that God is looking
for more than our best. Remember that Job
was called perfect, and by God himself! If
any man ever had reason to think his right-
eousness counted for something, Job had that
reason.
Now, let’s look at Romans:
Romans 3:23-24—For all have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God; Being justi-
fied freely by his grace through the redemp-
tion that is in Christ Jesus:
Romans 3:27-28—Where is boasting then? It
is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay:
but by the law of faith. Therefore we con-
clude that
a man is justified by faith
without
the deeds of the law.
Romans 4:5—But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungod-
ly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.
Friends, we are clearly saved by grace,
through faith in our Savior Jesus Christ
alone. We must be followers of our Savior;
not for the sake of righteousness, but because
we are fully committed to him! There is so
much trouble because people do not rightly
divide the Word of God!
2 Timothy 2:15—Study to shew thyself ap-
proved unto God, a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word
of truth
.
(Our works are no longer filthy,
because we have Christ. Christ finished work
cleanses us, and makes us and our works
clean; therefore we no longer need to be
ashamed.)
We must recognize that the Bible speaks of
different topics, and that indeed we must
work for the Lord. Indeed, our reward is
based on our works, but not our salvation
(another column could be written about the
difference between
‘reward’ and ‘salvation’
,
and even
‘saved’ versus ‘salvation’
). We
must read the entire Bible; not only the vers-
es that allow us to find our own way into
heaven. Jesus Christ alone is the door, our
robe of righteousness. Our righteousness is
as filthy rags to God. In spite of that, we tend
to be so proud that we ask God to accept our
filthy works, pleading that He’ll like what we
do! This is a shame, a terrible shame, and it’s
time we accept Christ as our righteousness
and fully consecrate our entire lives, spouses,
families, occupations, goods, and yes, even
our own righteousness. Only then can we
come into His Glory. J. Martin
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They were hesitant in letting us get married.
It got to the point that I thought why not
leave the Amish and then get married, if they
don’t trust us enough to have a wedding for
us.
All I wanted was to be with this young man
and away from that rigid life. We finally got
married, but first, I was forced to say that my
brothers who left the Amish are wrong for
having left. In my mind I was planning to get
into the Bible and find some answers after
I’m married.
I am happy to tell you that my husband and I
are both born again Christians now! And my
husband is proof to me that not all men are as
I feared they are. He is a great man. I thank
the Lord many, many times over for having
brought that special man into my life.
We have a precious little boy about 2 years
old and I often worry that we will mess up in
child training. I just try to give it to Jesus and
ask for guidance. He is our little jewel and a
blessing to our life.
I think a huge missing part in my young life
was trust. I had no confidence in myself.
There was so much tension in the home
where I grew up.
—Name withheld
—Continued from page 10—