Grace – Page 36

Turning the Screws: A Friendly Warning to the Church

December 20, 2015 by John Long

Originally posted on SOARING IN GRACE / GROUNDED IN TRUTH:
For over a year now, I have had a stirring within. I have heard things being said about the wonderful grace of God that seem to be freeing, but clearly contradict…

Turning the Screws: A Friendly Warning to the Church

December 20, 2015 by John Long

The Holy Spirit is a Better Teacher than the Law

December 18, 2015 by Clint Byars

I get confused when I talk to some Christians about the Old Covenant Law and works. It’s as if as soon as you bring up the Law the conversation drifts toward works. It’s almost like some Christians don’t know that the Law was for a 1500 year period of time before the Holy Spirit was given. It’s almost as if some Christians think that God still relates to us based on our works rather than based on the indwelling of his spirit. It’s almost as if some Christians think that saying we’re no longer under the Law means our actions are of no consequence. Hmmm, go figure

Of course our actions matter now but they don’t affect out right standing with God. Righteousness is a spiritual condition that doesn’t come through keeping laws. The OC Law was never meant for righteousness because again, keeping laws doesn’t give you spiritual life.

So…do works matter now? Of course, but why bring up the Law when we start talking about works? Do you see where I’m going? The Law is fulfilled and had its place. If you’d like to discuss Christian behavior, that’s another subject all together.

I believe the Holy Spirit is a much better teacher than external laws. Believers are under the influence of God’s inner presence that is ever present and leads us according to his truth and life. By the way, the Holy Spirit will never violate any of his previously revealed morality and justice.

Our deeds and works will be tried at the final judgment but that’s not for righteousness, that’s for reward. Even unbeliever’s works are not judged for righteousness. The righteousness issue is settled. One must understand that it’s settled when taking the conversation to how we’re to live as believers. The Holy Spirit has the power, whereas the Law did not, to empower us to live worthy of the holiness and righteousness we’ve been given in Christ. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t empower you to keep the Law, he empowers you to have life and that more abundantly.

Now that the Spirit of God has been given, let’s teach people to look to him for guidance rather than rules than only reveal sin. Let’s inspire people to trust God because when they do their hearts will be open to him and they will be infused with a power that is not their own, the power of grace, the power of sonship.

Galatians 3:23 NLT Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. 26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

I pray that when you mess up, you don’t wonder if you’ve lost position with God. I pray that the next time you mess up you rest easy knowing you’re forgiven and God still loves you. And I pray the next time you mess up you make the decision that you don’t want that behavior in your life anymore and you turn to God for grace to overcome those destructive behaviors.

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When God Recalculates Your Journey

December 15, 2015 by Michael Wilson

Most of us have been there . . . in the car, going on a trip using a GPS to direct us where we are going. Maybe you missed a turn or didn’t want to follow directions. Then it happens, you make her mad and she starts in . . . recalculating! A GPS is great and very handy, especially when you come up to an accident or road construction and you have to take a detour. A GPS can help you find the shortest route.

But what do you do when life throws you a detour. What do you do when your life’s journey is going well and then all of sudden because of a wrong turn, a bad decision or someone else’s bad decision, you are suddenly lost, facing a dead-end, looking at a major detour or just simply broke down at the side of the road?

In a GPS, you can update the maps to stay current with new roads and shorter ways to get you to where you want to go. Life isn’t that easy. Sometimes, you might know exactly what to do in order to keep moving forward. Sometimes, there will be people who can give you directions. There are going to be some times that your journey is so overwhelming that you just want to sit and have a good cry.

It seems that I have been on a major detour for a couple of years now. My life was going along pretty good, and I was enjoying the journey. However, there was a major roadblock that required me to get off the fast lane and spend some time in the middle of nowhere trying to get things sorted out.

Every time I would seemingly get started again I would end up down another deserted road or dead end, for which my “life’s GPS” didn’t have a map for. Every other time in my life that I had faced adversity I usually knew what to do to keep moving and get out of the situation. This time, I didn’t. My “life’s GPS” just keep repeating over and over…..recalculating.

Have you ever been there? It sucks and it’s frustrating.

I remember many times crying out to God, “I’m so lost.” Finally, one day the Lord spoke back to me and said, “Michael, you are not lost. You are in Me and I know exactly where you are.” My response: “I am glad you know where I am but could you tell me where I am because I haven’t a clue.” My prayer changed to, “Lord, I know I am not lost, but I don’t know where I am.” While I chuckle at that, it can get frustrating at times because I want to be in control. I want to be able to chart my course. I want to know where I am going, how I am going to get there and how long it’s going to take.

But, if Jesus is going to be Lord of my life, then I have to yield control to Him and trust Him that everything is going to work out.

Sometimes, though, I struggle in my trust of God. I know that God loves me, that He is good and kind, and that He has a plan. It just feels that He went on vacation and won’t be back for a while and I can’t reach Him. I know that most Christians have felt that way before.

The good news is that God does know where we are, we are never lost to Him. He has a way of recalculating our lives and the journeys we are on in a way that will always work out for our good. It just seems that sometimes the GPS is always on recalculating while we are anxious to get back to the interstate so that we can zoom along again to our destination.

There are three things I’ve learned through my journey of constant recalculation.

1. Along life’s journey, there will always be times when you have to recalculate.

I think that’s been one of my biggest struggles. That is, what happened to me wasn’t supposed to happen to me! I was supposed to be exempt from that. It wasn’t fair, and I have let God know that on many occasions.

God knows the trials, bumps, detours and roadblocks that we are going to face. He knows when we are going to slam into an obstacle in the road while we are flying 70 miles an hour down life’s highway. He knows about everything that is going to jump out at us and the things that are going to blindside us.

He knows. And He has a way of recalculating our journey when needed.

2. God is not afraid of detours.

Many times we think that God is surprised by our detours. He always has a plan. He’s not afraid of our detours.

For most of my life, I have been too focused on the destination. I have been learning that God is focused on the journey. It’s how we handle ourselves on the journey that God is looking at. Remember the story of Jairus’ daughter in Matthew 9? Jairus asks Jesus to come heal his daughter. Jesus agrees but on the way, a women who had been hemorrhaging for many years touched his cloak and was healed. Jesus was on a mission to heal a girl but there was an interruption, and a woman was healed.

It was a detour and God was not messed up by it. And He isn’t messed up by your detours either. You never know when a miracle might take place in the midst of your detour.

3. The destination isn’t the goal . . . the journey is.

Growing up, I heard the word destiny a lot. It was all about reaching your destiny. We all had a destiny that God was going to get us to. For me, my destiny was to become a Senior Pastor. I remember my first day as a Senior Pastor. I had reached my destiny . . . now what?

I was so focused on my destiny that I wasn’t paying attention to the journey. And detours along the way were points of depression and frustration to me, not opportunities for miracles. It thought that each detour, roadblock, and dead-end was a hindrance to my destiny.

It’s in the journey of life that we find God. It’s in the detours of life that we discover his grace. It’s in the dead-ends of our journey that we find God’s redemption. God is more interested in our journey than He is in our destination. In reality, the journey is the destination.

Each moment is the destination because this moment is all we have. I am learning to live in the moment.

Although we may not like detours, dead-ends, and road blocks, they are a part of life. God’s not afraid of them. God will use them. God will recalculate your journey whenever you face a detour, dead-end or road block.

Recalculating . . . . . . .

You Are Valuable Beyond Measure

December 9, 2015 by Bas Rijksen

You are valuable, you are loved, and someone knows you even better than you know yourself.

There is an image and likeness imprinted upon your being that is the basis of your value…a value beyond your wildest dreams.

Coins used to have the face of the person who guaranteed their value, minted onto them. Any note or coin has a guarantor, a person or institution that guarantees its value.

Even if a coin gets lost, the coin never loses it’s value.

The one who invented and designed you, stamped you with His own image and likeness.

He knows you better than you know yourself … He knew you even before you were born.

You might not know Him, but He has always known you. You might not be aware of Him, but He has always had you on His mind.

You might think ‘why’…

Why would anyone have such an obsession with me.

Well, the Creator of this universe sees a value and a beauty in you beyond anything in this natural world. He even sees a possibility of romance!

When, Where and Why you began

Whatever age you are, you have a beginning that cannot be measured in time.

You have the most awesome origin. In the beginning, before creation, before time as we experience it, before the existence of evil, there was a dynamic exchange of love, a relationship without boundaries, an enjoyment of total abandonment … a being we now call God.

It was in the very midst of this fiery love, at the core of this passion, that the idea of…you came into being!

The God who is love planned to share this love with beings created in His image and likeness.

This God, who is all-knowing and able to accomplish all of His purposes, planned a love-affair that would span over eons and conclude with a final victory in which His love conquered all – no contradiction; no evil.

This good news is not some new idea, but the ancient, original thought of God.

Let’s imagine this beginning, let’s allow the spirit of God to draw us to this place in which all things had their origin.

Although no science can explain it, although the greatest minds have tried and failed to define it, God is confident that you are able to comprehend the unsearchable; to appreciate the motivation that gave you birth; to remember where you began.

In this place there is no space, yet no limit; no creation, yet no emptiness – there is only God in all His fullness.

He is not lonely or in lack.

It is out of His fulness, out of the overflow of love that you are conceived.

God did not imagine a pet that would simply entertain Him!

This God-dream is about a being who has the capacity to intelligently appreciate, to receive, to produce and to exchange the same quality of love that flows within God.

His plan is not vague or speculative philosophy, but clear and specific…so clear, that He uniquely identifies and names the individuals who would form part of the plan and become part of creation.

And so before the foundation of this world, He saw you in Christ.

At this point, He made up His mind about you!

No matter what detours, no matter what contradictions would come, He determined that you would be His treasure – blameless and innocent before Him in love.

When did you begin?

Before creation, before time itself.

Where did you begin?

In the very heart of love, a love relationship we call God.

Why did you begin?

To be loved, adored…and ultimately for that love to be awakened in you.

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The Word made flesh

The original, authentic Word was face to face with God from the very beginning.

God Himself is the content of this communication – revealing His personal presence and unique expression in all that exists.

In fact there is nothing original or innovative outside of Him!

He is the only Creator and the source of all inspiration and creativity.

Everything that is, has ‘Made by God’ stamped on its existence.

The very life of God is what ignited the existence of man. This original light still shines even in darkness and no amount of darkness can put this light out. (John 1:1-5 Breath of Life)

The time lapse between the original thought of God and now is obviously vast.

Has this original thought not been lost through time?

No, this authentic dream began before time and was preserved, set apart, in a person called Jesus Christ.

In Him the logic of God was kept until the right time when it was made visible in flesh.

He came and demonstrated in human form, the kind of life God had in mind from the very beginning…a life where God and man is so fully united that we cannot even tell them apart.

Man began in God.

No matter how far man has fallen from his original place of innocence, God has never been confused about the true identity of man.

Jesus Christ is the place, the event and the person in which God and man meet once again.

In Christ Jesus, God has taken the initiative to reconcile man back to Himself – to restore man to blameless innocence.

Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, and as such does not only represent God’s initiative, He also represents man’s perfect response of faith to God’s initiative.

Jesus reveals the heart of God more than any other story ever told or any scripture ever written.

In Him God reveals that He does not want to be God apart from us. He does not want to be a distant or unknowable God.

The only way in which He wants to be God, is with man, in man, and as a man.

Jesus reveals the truth about man more accurately than any other story, or even the factual history of man.

In Him we see that the only way to be fully man, the only way to be fully free, is in union with God.

This passion of God to restore man to that place of union, would drive Him to pay any price, to go to any depth to see it accomplished.

And so in the act of becoming man, He places Himself in a position of conflict.

Everything that has ever stood between God and man, every obstacle and every form of separation (called sin in the Bible) would meet and come to a final conclusion in this God-man, Christ Jesus.

When your timeless Creator became a man, He mystically united Himself with you, so that He could bring an end to everything that stood between you and release you to be fully and truly yourself again.

In this unity He faced everything you faced…and conquered!

In His death, you died!

That old state of being, separated from Him and united with sin, was brought to a final end in Him.

He has wiped your slate clean, forgiven you of every wrongdoing.

In His resurrection, you were resurrected to newness of life – that original life that God imagined for you from the beginning.

In His ascension, you were raised to the most glorious place of honour – a place where God delights in you!

The only thing that has ever kept you from enjoying these realities, is blindness.

Not seeing what He sees, keeps us from enjoying what He enjoys.

But these very words you are reading now, are reminding you of your union with Him.

As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake in thy likeness (Psalm 17:15)

What should I do?

You might ask, what should I do…how does one respond to such news?

Well the good news is that the hard work has already been done for you!

Jesus defeated everything that stood between you!

Gratitude…love awakened, is all that’s left to do.

Some call it faith.

Here’s a simple suggestion to give expression to this faith.

Turn your focus inward.

Become aware of the One who made you and united Himself with you…within you.

In your own thoughts and words respond…something like: Thank you for who You are and what You have done for me. As You gave yourself in love to me, in Jesus Christ, I give myself in love to You. You made me in Your image and likeness, I acknowledge Your ownership. You made me to be loved … here I am, love me!

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Take Care, Comb your hair,

Bas