Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

602. God’s Love: Jesus Became Sin; We Became Righteous

June 4, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Experiencing God’s peace and joy will be connected to gaining the understanding that His love for you has no strings attached. People often go through life wondering where they are positioned with God or they live in fear that God is angry with them. They have been smothered with teaching which proclaims faith, hope and love are based upon working at attaining a higher level of morality, an area where they are constantly falling short. God loves you because He loves you! He demonstrated this unconditional love through Jesus Christ dying for us, when all humans were still identified as sinners. He took our place by becoming sin, so we could receive His righteousness through belief, apart from works.

601. Clash of the Covenants: Kap Talks About His New Book

May 28, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Joel interviews Mike about his new book now available on Amazon Kindle. It's like a Growing in Grace podcast in written form! The target audience is for anyone who has had exposure to Christian churches or doctrines, but may struggle with wondering where they stand with God. It's for those who wonder if God can really forgive them and whether they have truly been accepted. It will help to bring a greater understanding of what the finished work of Jesus Christ provided for them, and the book will help remove some of the confusion associated with many common teachings that have mistakenly jumbled the old and new covenants together. The book addresses issues such as why the old commandments and rules will never work; the ministry of Jesus and why He taught things that weren't always meant for future believers; sin confession; repentance and other hot-button topics that have caused many to live in religious bondage.

The new book is available on Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0713ZSKY7) under the title of Clash of the Covenants: Escaping Religious Bondage Through the Grace Guarantee, by Michael C. Kapler.

If you do not have a Kindle device, no problem, simply download the Kindle app for free to your smart phone, tablet or computer and then purchase through Amazon.

600. Looking Back – How We Crossed the Grace Bridge

May 21, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

On the celebration of the 600th Growing in Grace weekly podcast, Mike & Joel reflect back on how they transferred from various forms of religious legalism found in much of Christianity, to the grace of God and unconditional love found in Jesus Christ. This is their story, but it’s not their song… It’s just blessed assurance.

599. The Lord’s Prayer Part 7: Forgive Us Only if We Forgive Others

May 14, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Under the law from the Old Covenant, a temporary covering of forgiveness was provided to the Jews based upon certain conditions. In the New Covenant, we now have the revelation that forgiveness from God came unconditionally through the blood of Jesus Christ. God took away the sins of the world and declared He would remember them no more. We recommend resting in Christ’s finished work, rather than going back to an Old Covenant mindset that will put the responsibility upon you instead of Jesus. The Lord was showing His disciples they needed to pray for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done (the cross), because they were in a hopeless situation in having to depend on their ability instead of God’s. In the New Covenant, we forgive because we’re forgiven, not to get forgiveness. Finally, it’s important to recognize that not a single apostle from the New Testament instructed or encouraged believers to pray this prayer… Because Jesus already fulfilled what the prayer was seeking. It was given to His disciples to pray prior to the cross.

Clash of the Covenants – new book from Mike

May 11, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

The brand new book, Clash of the Covenants - Escaping Religious Bondage Through the Grace Guarantee, from Growing in Grace co-host Mike Kapler is now available for Kindle on Amazon! Remember, you don't need a Kindle in order to read. Download the Kindle app on your computer, tablet or smartphone.

GOD IS NOT YOUR PAROLE OFFICER, HE BROKE YOU OUT OF PRISON!

Have you been robbed by religion? Have you ever wondered where you really stood with God? For everyone trapped in a mindset of wondering whether God is angry or disappointed with them due to a lack of performance or dedication, help is on the way. In fact, it already arrived more than a couple thousand years ago.

Christian churches are filled with people who have been hearing Bible teaching built upon a foundation of mixing together two very different covenants that are not alike. Frequently embraced in most Christian circles, the practice of combining the old and new covenants has resulted in a diluted version of the gospel. This religious formula has caused many to avoid the institutional church altogether, often puts them in a state of confusion, and leaves them hungering and thirsting for a new identity of righteousness, unaware it has already been provided.

The current reality of unconditional love, peace, freedom, forgiveness, and everything else that is good, has been gifted to us by God's grace through the finished work of Jesus Christ. This is the message most people have been longing to experience, but it may require a complete change of mind from a lifetime of traditional church doctrines that have left many drowning in guilt and feeling as though they are in a state of bondage. God has provided a way of escape from the burdensome religious business—it is through a New Covenant where it is impossible for us to fail, because Jesus is the mediator and guarantee of this better covenant, and it has been established on better promises.

598. The Lord’s Prayer Part 6: Broken Bread – Now Risen & Given

May 7, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Following up on Jesus as the Bread of Life that came from heaven… The bread (His body) had been broken, as symbolized during The Last Supper, but the Bread was also risen with a new body, and raised us with Him. Some assume The Lord’s Prayer is a model for us today and that it encourages us to ask God to meet our daily needs of food, drink, etc. However, shortly after providing this prayer to His disciples, Jesus told them not to worry about such things nor to seek after them, as non-Jewish people would do. God knows we need food and clothes! Instead, it would become their mission to seek the Kingdom of God, and the gift of His righteousness. As believers in a New Covenant, we no longer seek the kingdom and His righteousness, because we have received them through Christ, who now abides in us, and we in Him.

597. The Lord’s Prayer Part 5: Give Us Our Daily Bread (Jesus)

April 30, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

If we try to make an Old Covenant prayer relevant for us today, it results in all kinds of different and varied interpretations on how it should be applied to our lives. In spite of the repetition with The Lord’s Prayer, very few people can assert with much confidence what it is they are praying about. As we begin to understand the context of why it was given to Jesus’ disciples to pray before the cross and not after, we’ll realize why there was never any instruction to pray this prayer from the apostles who wrote epistles in the New Testament… not once. This week, on the subject of our daily bread, we’ll cross-reference John Chapter 6, where Jesus identified Himself as the living bread that came from heaven to do God’s will. What specifically was the bread that would give life to the world? Jesus said it was his flesh (body). Bread that would be broken through His suffering, but would rise when made new, and we were raised with Him. In a new and better covenant, there is no longer the need to ask for what God has given (Jesus, His Son).

596. The Lord’s Prayer Part 4: On Earth as It Is in Heaven

April 23, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

On the last program in our series with The Lord’s Prayer, we discovered “God’s will” in regards to redemption was the sacrifice of Christ, as explained in Hebrews chapter 10. The sacrifice would be done on the earth, but after the sacrifice, Christ would not enter a tabernacle that was temporary, made by human hands, which were only copies and shadows of the original. He would enter the perfect tabernacle, into heaven itself, where He would appear on our behalf with a better sacrifice that would not need to be repeated. The prayer Jesus taught His disciples before the cross was seeking this will to be done. For us who are under a New Covenant, we now recognize the will of God has been done and accomplished through Christ, on earth as it is in heaven. This poses the question: Why ask for God to perform (again) what has already been done?

595. The Lord’s Prayer Part 3: Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done

April 16, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

In Part 3 of our series on The Lord’s Prayer, we shed more light on why this was a prayer given by Jesus to Jewish people under the first covenant, and not for those of us who are Gentiles. It was meant to be used before the cross, not after. The kingdom has already come in the Person of Jesus Christ; a kingdom must have a king, and they cannot be separated. This wasn’t referring to a future kingdom to come at the end of the world, but Jesus was speaking about something more imminent, meant for those people, at that time. In referring to God’s will being done, this wasn’t pointing towards things that occur in our daily lives, or with world events, it was about redemption that Christ would bring by doing the will of God with a sacrifice to end all sacrifices. The Kingdom has come, the King is now within you, and God’s will was done through Him. There is no need to request something from God that has already been accomplished.

594. The Lord’s Prayer Part 2: Our Father In Heaven

April 9, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

Continuing with our series on The Lord’s Prayer and why Jesus provided it for Jews to pray; we look at the opening to the prayer, which acknowledges the Father in heaven. Some have believed the Jewish people under the law would not have understood the concept of God as Father, but there are a number of Old Testament passages that reveal otherwise. The prayer intro was not a new revelation to His disciples, they understood God as Father, in heaven, and that His name was holy. However, they didn’t have the concept that we now have in the New Covenant…That is, Christ in you. A better covenant has revealed to us that God doesn’t abide just in heaven, but has relocated by His Spirit to abide in us. Another clue this was a guide to be prayed only for those under the Old Covenant - Jesus did not instruct them to pray “in His name” as he would later tell the disciples to do under the New Covenant.

593. Context Leading up to The Lord’s Prayer

April 2, 2017 by Mike Kapler and Joel Brueseke

This is the first in a series of programs we’ll be doing on the subject of what is referred to as “The Lord’s Prayer.” What was it that led to Jesus telling the Jewish people under the law to pray in this way? Is it something that was meant to be repeated by people for generations to come? Right before Jesus encourages His disciples to pray in this manner during the Sermon on the Mount, He had given them a message of hopelessness and despair. He told them that by the standard of the law and commandments, they were required to be perfect. This meant right-standing with God was out of their reach, which is why they (the Jews) would need “to pray in this way.” But before the prayer is spoken, Jesus makes it quite clear it was not meant for us (non-Jewish) Gentiles who weren’t a part of that first covenant under the law.