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GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION

981. Work Harder and Run Faster (Or Try Resting)

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Jewish people under the Old Covenant dedicated themselves to trying to follow a written blueprint (law) they believed would bring them to a place of God's acceptance. First, they felt favored and privileged as people who were born under the banner of such a covenant made between God and Israel. Now all they had to do was to actually do what the law said. They convinced themselves they were doing it—but they were really just working at establishing their own (self) righteousness, while being ignorant of God's righteousness.

Unfortunately, that failed blueprint is a considerable part of how many churches approach the idea of Christianity. Two different covenants get twisted and tangled leaving people frantically running a race in the wrong direction ... where the ditch seems to be the final destination.



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981. Work Harder and Run Faster (Or Try Resting)

by

Jewish people under the Old Covenant dedicated themselves to trying to follow a written blueprint (law) they believed would bring them to a place of God's acceptance. First, they felt favored and privileged as people who were born under the banner of such a covenant made between God and Israel. Now all they had to do was to actually do what the law said. They convinced themselves they were doing it—but they were really just working at establishing their own (self) righteousness, while being ignorant of God's righteousness.

Unfortunately, that failed blueprint is a considerable part of how many churches approach the idea of Christianity. Two different covenants get twisted and tangled leaving people frantically running a race in the wrong direction ... where the ditch seems to be the final destination.



Download  GIGBite  YouTube

Get the book

981. Work Harder and Run Faster (Or Try Resting)

by

Jewish people under the Old Covenant dedicated themselves to trying to follow a written blueprint (law) they believed would bring them to a place of God's acceptance. First, they felt favored and privileged as people who were born under the banner of such a covenant made between God and Israel. Now all they had to do was to actually do what the law said. They convinced themselves they were doing it—but they were really just working at establishing their own (self) righteousness, while being ignorant of God's righteousness.

Unfortunately, that failed blueprint is a considerable part of how many churches approach the idea of Christianity. Two different covenants get twisted and tangled leaving people frantically running a race in the wrong direction ... where the ditch seems to be the final destination.



Download  GIGBite  YouTube

Get the book

981. Work Harder and Run Faster (Or Try Resting)

by

Jewish people under the Old Covenant dedicated themselves to trying to follow a written blueprint (law) they believed would bring them to a place of God's acceptance. First, they felt favored and privileged as people who were born under the banner of such a covenant made between God and Israel. Now all they had to do was to actually do what the law said. They convinced themselves they were doing it—but they were really just working at establishing their own (self) righteousness, while being ignorant of God's righteousness.

Unfortunately, that failed blueprint is a considerable part of how many churches approach the idea of Christianity. Two different covenants get twisted and tangled leaving people frantically running a race in the wrong direction ... where the ditch seems to be the final destination.



Download  GIGBite  YouTube

Get the book

966. “Be Doers of the Word” (But What IS the “Word” in This Instance?)

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James made a statement in his letter to the twelve Jewish tribes ... believed by most historians to be the earliest writing in the pages known as The New Testament. "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22). This passage, along with what follows has a consistent but curious theme of externals, doing and works—and all under the topic of righteousness, salvation and justification.

In program #2 in this brief series, we continue to take a closer look at the entire context of what James said shortly before this (and after). Have you ever stopped and asked yourself what he meant by "the word?" Modern-day believers may skim over it and think that James is telling us to be a doer of the Bible (whatever that means). But in order for these Jewish believers to be able to meet this goal of identifying as a doer, it would have to be something specific that they were already familiar with ... and something they could see, hear and do—dare we say—something being read and heard in synagogues every week on the Sabbath.



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962. The Things We Do for Love

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This week, we take a look back at some of the things we were coaxed into thinking and doing as it was being fed to us through our legalistic religious surroundings and misunderstandings ... as we strived to do whatever we thought was necessary to make sure we were in "God's good graces." After all, we were told of the risks of potentially losing fellowship with God (although the specifics were mysteriously missing in the fine print). Do more. Pray more. We thought that maybe "more" would be enough. Maybe.

You may be able to relate to our experiences a little bit, because sadly, many believers in Christ have been in a consistent state of panic—wondering whether they are still loved by God or still accepted because of things they have done. They begin to feel a false sense of contamination—and then condemnation— and will attempt to get their compass pointed in the right direction by doing things to make up for it. Their "faith" or belief becomes centered around their dedication and commitment to God instead of what God has already done for us through His Son. There will be no need for us to graduate by earning a spiritual senior discount when we begin to understand the things that have already been freely given to us by God.



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948. Is Jesus Truly a Savior or Not? (19th Year-Anniversary Podcast)

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Welcome aboard ... as it occurred to us after starting this program that we have now been doing the Growing in Grace podcast for 19 years. Springboarding off of recent programs, we examine the typical mindset that is often adapted within a multitude of church buildings where they focus on what they consider to be wrong with people instead of the goodness we've received as believers in Christ. This leads to the futile attempt of doing or avoiding a variety of things that will "hopefully" bring people to a place where they are considered clean and more acceptable to God, but it is usually followed by repeating the same efforts over and over.

Anything that you are taught that you "must do" in order to be considered right with God is not the gospel but a fable. So let's ask the question ... is Jesus truly a Savior or is He not? Did He do everything necessary to save to the uttermost or are we responsible for our eternity by our actions? If the latter is true, then He died for nothing.



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817. Beginning in the Spirit – But Perfected by the Flesh?

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Doing good, avoiding evil. Those four words would seem to be a no-brainer within almost every religious creed. And this seems to be the foundation upon which Christianity has been built, at least within many church denominations. So if this is supposed to be the goal for believers in Christ—if this is the primary purpose—what is it that makes our faith unique?

Paul spoke to the Galatian churches in frustration because after receiving the Spirit of God freely by faith, they had been persuaded to begin trusting in the works of the old law in addition to faith in Christ. Paul called this a work of the flesh. Its roots go back to the same tree Adam ate from when everything collapsed. It was called The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was an unbelief problem as Adam decided to turn from trusting in the sufficiency of the life of God … and chose to begin trusting in the knowledge of both good and evil. He was told it would make him more like God, but it had the opposite result.

Many believers today are struggling with the same thing. They are working at trying to become more like God, and it becomes more about doing—or not doing—instead of being or resting in who God has already made them to be.



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