Grace is the whole reason any of us has hope, and here at the Decker Prairie Church of Christ we don’t believe a person can put God in his debt by behaving well (). Some folks arrive expecting us to preach rules and skip mercy. Rather than argue about that, we’d rather walk you through the passages our teaching rests on and let you see for yourself.
Ephesians 2:8-9, Why Nobody Here Boasts
Paul puts God’s part and our part in one sentence: “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” (). We take that last phrase personally. If boasting is closed off, it’s closed off for the members of this congregation too. Christ died for us while we were still sinners (), so the rescue was underway long before any of us thought to want it.
Titus 2:11-12, the Grace That Trains
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” ().
Two things in that verse shape our preaching. Grace showed up in a person, not in a policy. And grace teaches. So when we ask each other to live differently, we’re not adding a fee to the gift. We’re doing what grace itself set out to do.
Acts 2:38, Where We Think Baptism Belongs
Here’s the point that gets us accused of works. We teach that a believer is baptized in order to be forgiven, because that’s the answer Peter gave a crowd asking what to do about their sins (; ). To some ears that sounds like a purchase.
Think about a gift, though. Opening your hands isn’t paying. Baptism is where a person stops trusting his own record and asks God to wash him (). We didn’t invent the arrangement, and we don’t feel free to improve on it.
Romans 6:1-2, Grace Is Not a Loophole
Somebody in the first century floated the idea that grace makes sin harmless, and Paul refused it: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (). Our congregation reads that as written. Grace pays for sin, and it never bankrolls more of it.
James 2:17, the Faith That Takes the Gift
“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (). James isn’t billing anybody. He’s describing what happens when a man says he trusts God and his week never shows it. We also read the New Testament’s warnings that a Christian can drift away and fall from grace (; ), and we’d rather hand those to you straight than trim them.
Worth saying plainly: we speak only for the people who meet in this building. There’s no headquarters over churches of Christ and no board directing us, so no congregation can answer for all of them. What you’re reading is generally true of non-institutional churches of Christ, and it’s certainly what we can promise about us.
Hebrews 4:16, Grace for People Who Fail
This is the verse our members lean on most: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (). With confidence, on the week you’d rather not talk about. One of our neighbors, Brinda Ritchey, described this congregation in a Google review as showing “Concern for everyones soul and teaching the truth on how to obtain salvation. Very warm and loving members.” That’s what we’re aiming at, and grace is the only reason we can aim at it.
You’re Welcome Here
If your days feel full and hollow at the same time, grace is where that starts to change, and it isn’t something you have to earn your way into first. We’re on Hardin Store Road in Magnolia, about half a mile east of FM 249, and when the front lot fills up there’s another lot in front of the portable. Plan your visit and come sit with us.
If you’d like to read what the Bible says about being saved, start here.
When we meet:
- Sunday: Worship 10am, Bible Class 5pm
- Wednesday: Bible Class 7:30 pm
