file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db940722.txt
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Note from Ken Foster, from whom I receive my copy of ODB:
"Due to some difficulty, we do not have todays ODB or the weekend
ODB.  Please accept this one from the archives. It's an oldie but
a goodie."

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OUR DAILY BREAD                              Tuesday, June 2, 1992
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READ:  Romans 4:1-8

                          IT'S TOO EASY

       But to him who does not work but believes on Him....
     his faith is accounted for righteousness.  --Romans 4:5

I read about an instant cake mix that was a big flop.  The
instructions said all you had to do was add water and bake. The
company couldn't understand why it didn't sell -- until their
research discovered that the buying public felt uneasy about a
mix  that required  only water.  Apparently people thought it was
too easy.  So the company altered the formula and changed the
directions to call for adding an egg to the mix in addition to the
water. The idea worked and sales jumped dramatically.

That story reminds me of how some people react to the plan of
salvation.  To them it sounds too easy and simple to be true,
even though the Bible says, "By  grace you have been saved
through faith....; it is the gift of God, not of works" (Eph. 
2:8-9).  They feel that there is something more they must do,
something they must add to  God's "recipe" for salvation.  They
think they  must perform good works to gain  God's favor and earn
eternal life.  But the Bible is clear -- we are saved, "not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His
mercy" (Titus 3:5).

Unlike the cake-mix manufacturer, God has not changed His
"formula" to make salvation more marketable.  The gospel we
proclaim must be free of works, even though it may sound too easy.

                Salvation is a gift of God,
                Not something earned or won;
                He freely gives eternal life
                To all who trust His Son.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
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    We are saved by God's mercy, not by our merit --
        by Christ's dying, not by our doing.

Author:  Richard W. De Haan

Our Daily Bread, Copyright 1992, used by permission of Radio
Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49555, USA. Written per-
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