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Don’t Let Sin Be Your Master

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Don't Let Sin Be

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

This is such a freeing verse. Many Christians today believe that they will never get above sin. They believe that they are still sinners who are just saved by grace. But this is not the truth. We are not still sinners because sinners have sin as their master. Every born again person is the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). Sin is no longer our master. Jesus is our Lord and Master.

If you see sin as your master then you will always see yourself as a slave to obey sin. It will always be your focus. You will never truly live free. You are not under law. The Mosaic Law is no longer valid for a New Testament Christian. We are under grace. We do not live by a long set of “thou shalt nots”. We get to live under freedom which is relationship based, not rule based.

I know that many people still struggle with “sins”.  They might be addicted to pornography, have anger issues, or gossip.  They may live with incredible insecurities which cause them to do things to find security, rather than find their security in Christ.  Does this make them a sinner?  I don’t believe so.  If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.  Therefore, he can’t be a sinner if he is a new creation.

The issue here is how we see ourselves.  Perspective is everything.  Now, I am not saying that one can do whatever they want.  Just because we live under grace doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want.  May it never be!

What is does mean is that when we understand our standing in Jesus, that we are sons and daughters of the Most High God, we will not want to sin because sin is beneath us.  It is not who we are anymore.  We may struggle with it at times, but it is not our master!

Don’t allow the thought that you can’t conquer your vices, addictions, sins, bondages, etc. hold you back any more. You are under grace. God’s grace is sufficient. Will you mess up? Most likely, but you are not counted out because you messed up. Under grace, you are not guilty because you messed up. You are declared righteous because of your Lord and Savior. That is amazingly great news.

Don’t allow sin to have one more day as master over you. Begin to declare grace over every imperfection, weakness, addiction, and bondage you might be experiencing. You are free in Christ.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any area where you have allowed sin to master you. Then submit that area to the Lordship and the grace of Jesus. Declare you are free and live as a free person.  The way you see yourself is the way that you will live!

What about you?  How do you see yourself?  Does it affect how you live?

The above blog was taken as part of a daily devotional page from my FREE 30 day devotional, Going Deeper in Grace!  It’s yours free if you sign up to receive updates from this blog.  Just fill out the form on the sidebar near the top on the right.  

Bound By ‘Oughts’? God’s Grace Gives Freedom

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oughteries

Someone once told me he knew why so many Christians look so miserable. "They are all suffering from the hardening of the ‘oughteries’. They never feel they’ve done as much as they ought to have done."

I was going to be the guest speaker at a church in central Texas one Sunday. I arrived early and waited in the foyer for someone to open the doors to the main auditorium. A lady came in and waited with me. Making conversation, I asked, "Do you regularly attend church here?" "Not as much as I ought to," she replied sheepishly. Realizing she felt examined, I tried to relieve the tension by saying, "Well isn't it wonderful to go to church because you want to rather than because you ought to?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to as much as I ought to."

What a trap the oughteries are! You can never do enough. If you pray for two hours, you ought to have prayed more, or you ought to have been more intentional. If you’ve fasted for one week, you ought to have tried two. Just think how much more would have been accomplished if you hadn't quit so soon.

Jesus didn't live with the oughteries. He wanted to do the will of His Father. He was so conscious of the Father's love, He could think of nothing better than to trust Him. When Jesus was only twelve, he gave His parents a good scare because when they started for home after a temple visit, He stayed behind, discussing his Father's business with the religious leaders. (Luke 2:41-49) He was so caught up with being there that He completely forgot about going with his family. I don't think He stayed because He felt He “ought to.”

On another occasion (John 4:1-34), He stopped to rest by a well in Samaria while His disciples went to town for food. His rest was disturbed by a woman coming to the well to draw water. Jesus could see that her thirst was for more than physical water. He gave Himself to her so fully that when the disciples came back He was no longer hungry. "I have food to eat that you do not know about." He told them His intimate partnership with the Father was better than eating. Even though he was "off duty," He was energized by loving the way He was loved by His Father. He was focused on opportunities rather than oughteries.

Believers have been given His very life. We have the same privilege of being loved and sharing it when the opportunity arises. There are no interruptions to a life lived with God. He is constantly flowing His love through us and by it empowering us with a joy that is unspeakable. Gradually our desires change as we look forward to such exchanges. We get to do what we really want to do. The "oughts" are replaced by the delight of sharing the moment with God himself.

We are highly privileged to share in such heavenly dynamics. God is not measuring our performance, nor scrutinizing our motives. He is granting us the privilege of being his instruments of love. We will forget our sense of ought when we are captivated by his grace. Jesus has performed for us and has been declared RIGHTEOUS. We can do no better. Since we are righteous in him we can begin to practice what brings us the greatest satisfaction, loving as he loves.

 

Excerpted from Dudley's book Grace Works. Kerygma Ventures Press, Kerygmaventures.com. Used by permission.

544. Why Jesus Taught Two Covenants (Part 1): The Law Tree

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We begin a series on why Jesus ministered both the Old Covenant and the New. Before we get to some of the teachings of Jesus, we'll lay a foundation that provides reasons why Jesus did this. We'll start at the beginning with Adam in the garden being faced with an element of law already at work when he was commanded not to eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It's the tree of law, and Adam's motivation on why he chose to eat from it may sound familiar in the lives of many Christians today.



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Our Breakthroughs Come By God’s Grace, But Grace Must Be Received

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I thoroughly enjoy processing my grace journey by thinking through how God’s grace plays into every single part of my life. I had a pretty rough period of time for about 12 weeks earlier in the year, but God has really given me some huge breakthroughs recently. I’ll tell you more about those in the future, but my whole experience got me thinking about how our breakthroughs come.

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How do our breakthroughs come? By God’s grace!

How do we receive God’s grace? By Faith!

Faith is not a feeling we have to work up. It’s simply trusting God.

So God is always extending His grace to us, but if it’s true that we receive His grace by faith – by believing – then it would also be true that we could stop receiving His grace through unbelief or wrong believing.

This doesn’t mean God stops extending His grace. He is always supplying grace to us, but we still have to do our part which is to receive His gift of grace by faith. 

There are many ways we can stop-up the pipeline of God’s grace through unbelief. Maybe, after you read this post, God will show you something specific that you’re doing to stop up that pipeline. One way I used to do this was by receiving guilt and condemnation. Instead of receiving God’s forgiveness provided to me through His shed blood, when I sinned I would try to pay for my own sins by feeling guilty and condemned. As a Christian, I was believing wrong by thinking I had to pay for my own sins.

I very rarely ever mess with guilt and condemnation anymore because… (see Romans 8:1)

If the devil does try to bury me with guilt and condemnation I turn away from it and turn instead to God’s grace once again by believing (trusting) that I am: 

1.) Unconditionally Loved (see Romans 8:35-39) and (Psalm 36:5)

2.) Completely Forgiven (see Matthew 26:27-28) and (Ephesians 1:7)

3.) Righteous through Jesus!! (see Philippians 3:9) and (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

So remember that the breakthroughs in your life come by way of God’s grace and you can always choose to receive God’s grace through faith!

You can’t earn it. You can’t do enough to deserve it. You’ll never be able to merit it. But THAT’S O.K.  because God’s grace is His unearned, undeserved, unmerited favor and it is a free gift to you. It’s for your salvation, when you trust in Jesus and receive Him as your Lord and Savior, and also for your everyday life, as you choose to receive it by trusting in Him to help you through the circumstances of your daily life instead of trusting in yourself and your own efforts! 

Have a great weekend living in God’s grace!

#FreedomLiving

If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!

Sandra McCollom

Freedom From Legalism

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Do you find yourself wondering if you have done enough for God? Are you looking for a to-do list to accomplish for God in order to be acceptable to Him? When you struggle with sin do you think you would be able to overcome if you would just try harder? Do you have a hard […]

The post Freedom From Legalism appeared first on Sandra McCollom.

Your Struggle Is Not With People

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It really helps me to remember that my battle is not with people, but with the devil and his evil spirits that are holding people captive. It even helps me pray for people with a greater level of compassion when I keep this in mind.

When I pray, I don’t come against the person themselves in prayer, but the spirit of fear, jealousy, control, manipulation, violence, anger, pride, intimidation, depression etc. – whatever that spirit is that seems to be holding that person in bondage.  

I pray for myself this way as well. For instance, I might pray, “I bind up this spirit of fear that is trying to hold me captive in this particular area in the name of Jesus. I loose a spirit of peace and calm over my life in this area right now. (see Matthew 16:19) God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (see 2 Timothy 1:7) I receive God’s love afresh for myself and I know His perfect love drives out every fear. (See 1 John 4:18)

Jesus gave us Christians authority over all the power of the enemy! This is really good news!

Colossians 2:15 says, “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the cross.” – AMP

and

Luke 10:19 says, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” – NKJ

I told you it was really good news. We have been given authority over the devil and his personal assistants and we need to use it!

I do want to make one clarification here in case anyone would have this question. Am I saying there’s never a time to confront a person directly? Definitely not. In fact, I believe in Spirit-led confrontation, but it must be Spirit-led and it must be done in love for it to do any good.

We have to remember that only God can change a person’s heart by His grace. Remembering this keeps us doing our job and allows God to do His job. Sometimes the person is living in such deception that they either can’t see or purposely won’t admit to the fact that they are not living their lives led by the Holy Spirit, but have succumbed to living under the influence of another kind of spirit. We can pray that the blinders of deception be removed from their eyes.

Steve prayed for me all those years that I was living under the influence of a spirit of legalism and thank God he did. I am now free from that spirit’s influence and I am living my life once again under the leadership of the Holy Spirit!

If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!

Your Struggle Is Not With People

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image

It really helps me to remember that my battle is not with people, but with the devil and his evil spirits that are holding people captive. It even helps me pray for people with a greater level of compassion when I keep this in mind.

When I pray, I don’t come against the person themselves in prayer, but the spirit of fear, jealousy, control, manipulation, violence, anger, pride, intimidation, depression etc. – whatever that spirit is that seems to be holding that person in bondage.  

I pray for myself this way as well. For instance, I might pray, “I bind up this spirit of fear that is trying to hold me captive in this particular area in the name of Jesus. I loose a spirit of peace and calm over my life in this area right now. (see Matthew 16:19) God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (see 2 Timothy 1:7) I receive God’s love afresh for myself and I know His perfect love drives out every fear. (See 1 John 4:18)

Jesus gave us Christians authority over all the power of the enemy! This is really good news!

Colossians 2:15 says, “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the cross.” – AMP

and

Luke 10:19 says, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” – NKJ

I told you it was really good news. We have been given authority over the devil and his personal assistants and we need to use it!

I do want to make one clarification here in case anyone would have this question. Am I saying there’s never a time to confront a person directly? Definitely not. In fact, I believe in Spirit-led confrontation, but it must be Spirit-led and it must be done in love for it to do any good.

We have to remember that only God can change a person’s heart by His grace. Remembering this keeps us doing our job and allows God to do His job. Sometimes the person is living in such deception that they either can’t see or purposely won’t admit to the fact that they are not living their lives led by the Holy Spirit, but have succumbed to living under the influence of another kind of spirit. We can pray that the blinders of deception be removed from their eyes.

Steve prayed for me all those years that I was living under the influence of a spirit of legalism and thank God he did. I am now free from that spirit’s influence and I am living my life once again under the leadership of the Holy Spirit!

If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!

Your Battle Is Not With People

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image

It really helps me to remember that my battle is not with people, but with the devil and his evil spirits that are holding people captive. It even helps me pray for people with a greater level of compassion when I keep this in mind.

When I pray, I don’t come against the person themselves in prayer, but the spirit of fear, jealousy, control, manipulation, violence, anger, pride, intimidation, depression etc. – whatever that spirit is that seems to be holding that person in bondage.  

I pray for myself this way as well. For instance, I might pray, “I bind up this spirit of fear that is trying to hold me captive in this particular area in the name of Jesus. I loose a spirit of peace and calm over my life in this area right now. (see Matthew 16:19) God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (see 2 Timothy 1:7) I receive God’s love afresh for myself and I know His perfect love drives out every fear. (See 1 John 4:18)

Jesus gave us Christians authority over all the power of the enemy! This is really good news!

Colossians 2:15 says, “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the cross.” – AMP

and

Luke 10:19 says, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” – NKJ

I told you it was really good news. We have been given authority of the devil and his personal assistants and we need to use it!

I do want to make one clarification here in case anyone would have this question. Am I saying there’s never a time to confront a person directly? Definitely not. In fact, I believe in Spirit-led confrontation, but it must be Spirit-led for it to do any good.

We have to remember that only God can change a person’s heart by His grace. Remembering this keeps us doing our job and allows God to do His job. Sometimes the person is living in such deception that they either can’t see or purposely won’t admit to the fact that they are not living their lives led by the Holy Spirit, but have succumbed to living under the influence of another kind of spirit. We can pray that the blinders of deception be removed from their eyes.

Steve prayed for me all those years that I was living under the influence of a spirit of legalism and thank God he did. I am now free from that spirit’s influence and I am living my life once again under the leadership of the Holy Spirit!

If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!

Sandra McCollom

Good Parenting

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Wow, I love to write. I think I could write all day long and not get bored, especially if it meant helping someone. Although I don’t have time to write all day long these days, I get excited when God puts something on my heart to write and post for your encouragement and then the Holy Spirit helps me put it into words. I hope this post on good parenting helps you. Of course, all the glory goes to God…always!

Good parenting takes time…lots and lots of time. This is one big reason us McCollom’s don’t plan such a tight schedule that we end up running from thing to thing to thing. We learned years ago that to be able to listen to our kids and to be able to train them according to the Word of God this would take many, many, many, many conversations over the years; therefore, we purposely leave time in our schedule for these conversations. 

Of course, just like everyone else, I have over scheduled our lives before. (I say I instead of we because Steve really doesn’t fall into this trap) But every time I do over schedule, I find that those parent/child conversations that are suppose to be positive and bring a positive outcome become more of a frustration. When that happens our kids can begin to feel like they are a frustration to us and that is definitely not God’s plan for parenting! 

I just had a conversation with my girls this morning that was not in my plan, but the extra time was in my schedule helping me be able to calmly listen and talk through what we needed to talk through. And most importantly, having that time and not being in a hurry helped me remember to stop and hear from the Holy Spirit before making any decisions or saying anything I would regret. 

I believe this kind of parenting leaves our kids feeling loved. 

Today I encourage you and remind myself with this: 

Let’s leave lots of extra time in our daily schedules for good parenting! We’ll all be glad we did because good parenting is an investment we are making into our kids lives and we will reap the benefit of investing well! 

Let’s pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and then be willing to click the delete button on as many things as we need to in our schedules so good parenting doesn’t end up getting deleted! 

If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!

Sandra McCollom

God’s Treasure Chest – Romans 15

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Here’s some of the treasure I discovered while reading and studying Romans chapter 15. I hope this brings you encouragement!

Romans 15:1-2 say, 

1 We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. 2 We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. (NLT) 

Well, I have to admit that I failed in fulfilling this verse recently. Keep in mind, this example I’ll be giving does deal with weakness, but not specifically in regards to what one eats as Paul discussed in Romans 14.

In my situation I was ministering to a lady that a friend of mine put me in contact with purposely so I could help her. There were several areas where she was really struggling to trust God and those same areas, which had also been a struggle for me in the past, are areas where I am now enjoying freedom, BUT the ONLY reason is because of God’s grace .

She just kept making excuses for her situation and blaming others and I was thinking, “Lady, do you want help or not.”

The next day I started reading Romans 15 and verses 1&2 immediately stood out . I knew right away that it was no accident. 

It’s not what I said to her that day that was wrong. In fact, I believe I was able to offer her some genuine help. It was my attitude toward her weakness that was wrong.

This situation reminds me of 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which say,

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (NASB)

This is what seeing Romans 15:1-2 did for me. It taught me, reproved me and corrected me. This is something I have no problem with now, but for many years I would have taken something like this in a condemnatory type of way, even though that was never the way God intended for me to receive it. 

I talked about this in my book, I Tried Until I Almost Died. In it I said, …after coming to a grace revelation, I started seeing and reading the Bible from a completely different perspective. Instead of seeing a book of rules, I now see a book full of promises – promises made available to us by a heavenly Father who, rather than waiting to punish us when we step out of line, invites us to step into His presence just as we are.

You see, God wasn’t saying to me through His Word, ‘Wow Sandra, you’ve really blown it royally this time. Man you are so self-centered. Come on. Get your act together girl,’ although this is exactly how I would have perceived the correction prior to understanding God’s nature of goodness, love and grace.

Here’s what I felt God was showing me through His Word this time, now that I was reading it differently. First, God brought the situation from the day before to my mind immediately when I read Romans 15, verses 1 and 2. He showed me that the conversation was frustrating to me as a result of my perspective of just wanting this girl to get over her insecurities and get on with her spiritual journey and that I really wasn’t looking out for her or looking to please her, but myself. Basically, I wanted her to stop feeling sorry for herself, stop making excuses and just listen to me so she could get the help she needed. But God reminded me once again that only He can change a person’s heart. I don’t know about you, but once in a while I still try to take matters into my own hands by attempting to do God’s job. 

This has been a great reminder for me to bear with the failings of the weak!

Romans 15:5 says, 

May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. (NLT)  

See, I love this. Even when we are impatient with another person’s weakness, we don’t have to go into a fix ourself up mode. This verse tells us that it is God who gives us patience and encouragement. It is Him who helps us live in complete harmony with others. And if we want His help all we have to do is ask for it!

Romans 15:7 says,

Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. (NLT)  

This Biblical truth has helped me in so many areas. For many years I tried to accept others, forgive others and love others, but I didn’t have the revelation that God accepted me, had forgiven me and loved me unconditionally. It was when I got this revelation that I was able to begin to give out what I had finally received from God. 

Of course, I’m not perfect, as you saw by my example at the beginning of this blog post, but I can testify for sure that accepting, forgiving and loving other people comes so much more naturally than it did before I understood how God truly felt about me. 

Romans 15:13 says,

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.  (NLT)  

One of the most amazing things that I have discovered on my grace journey these past 4 years is how much of our Christian walk hinges on us being willing to trust God.

Jesus provided everything we will ever need to live in victory through His finished work on the cross… but we have to believe this is true in order to receive. In the New Covenant of God’s grace all of His promises are yes and amen… but we have to believe to receive. God is so amazingly good. He doesn’t just do love. He is love. But again, we have to believe in God’s goodness to receive the enormous benefits that come with right believing! 

Romans 15:14 -15a says, 

I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them. Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder. (NLT) 

I simply love the Bible and I love how the Apostle Paul ministered to the church! He ministered with a gracious spirit, believing the best of them, always teaching them wisdom and reminding them (when they got off track) who they were in Christ Jesus and what was available to them through Christ Jesus. 

The apostle Paul said this in Romans 15:16:

I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit. (NLT)  

I’m getting the biggest kick out of studying this chapter. I know I’ve said this before…many times, but I don’t think I’ll ever get over the difference in how I see the Bible now that I am reading it through the lens of God’s grace. It really is like a huge treasure chest to me!

It’s so cool here that Paul said bringing the Good News to them was going to make such a dynamic change in them that he would be able to present them as an acceptable offering to God. Why? Because this Good News was not just any ordinary good news. It was (and is) the Good News about Jesus and what He did for them (and us) through His death and resurrection. Paul knew they would (and we would) be made holy through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit when they chose (and we choose) to believe this Good News!

Wait a minute Sandra? I thought I had to do all these “holy acts” in order to be holy. 

Nope. All you have to do is believe the Good News about Jesus! But guess what? When you do believe in and receive Jesus as your Savior and you know you’ve been made holy because of Jesus, you will most definitely end up living a holier lifestyle than ever before because your who always affects your do.

But guess what else? You can live as a Christian for years, even decades, and not see the fruit of holiness in your life that should be there. Guess why? Because you somehow skipped getting ahold of the who you are in Christ part and went directly to the what you need to do for Christ part. Sadly, this happened to me.

and…

I believe there are a good number of Christians attempting to live out their Christianity without knowing who they are in Christ. This, my friend, is a very bad recipe for F.R.U.S.T.R.A.T.I.O.N.

But guess what? It can all be turned around when you begin to learn who you are in Christ Jesus! When you do, right doing will begin to flow naturally from your right believing about who you really, truly are in Jesus!

How do I know this? It happened to me! Thank God that He has restored everything the deceiver (satan) worked so hard to make sure I missed.

THIS is why I will be spending the rest of my life reminding others of their true identity in Christ.

Romans 15:24 says, 

I am planning to go to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off in Rome. And after I have enjoyed your fellowship for a little while, you can provide for my journey. (NLT) 

This is very interesting to me how the apostle Paul boldly asked for financial help from the Christians in Rome so he could continue his missionary journey. In today’s world if Paul said something like this some might accuse him by saying all Paul ever wants is our money. But it seems to me from reading some of the different verses in this chapter that this was not the mentality of the early church at all. They were in it to preach the Gospel. They were in it to spread the Good News. This is what they lived for.

Now, I realize one of the reasons there is so much suspicion out there in the area of money is because of the way some churches/ministries have mishandled money. I really do understand that. Believe me, Steve and I are very careful who we give to.

All I’m saying is that reading this chapter really made me want to see the church get back to being united for the purpose Jesus gave us – to Go Into All The World And Preach The Gospel!

And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mark 16:15 -NASB)

Of course, as you know, there are plenty of great churches and ministries out there that are really fulfilling The Great Commission. I’m inspired, after reading this chapter, to begin to pray that Christians worldwide will both find and get planted in a great church that is Jesus-centered and preaches the Gospel and find great ministries that do the same and begin to partner with them to fulfill the purpose Jesus gave to us, His church!  

I can’t think of any better way to invest my money than to invest it into the lives of people who don’t yet know Jesus!

My next and final God’s Treasure Chest post will be on Romans 16.

To find my other God’s Treasure Chest posts on the book of Romans, just click here on My Grace Journey and then scroll down to the topic that says God’s Treasure Chest – Romans!

If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!

Sandra McCollom

I’m Almost A Parent Of Teenagers

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Starr (L) and Angel (R) are gonna be 13 this weekend!

Unbelievable!

You know, I used to think that as a parent, I wasn’t suppose to be my kids’ friend, but I was only suppose to be their parent until they became an adult at which time I could then start being their friend. The only problem was, I tried this approach for 9 years and it didn’t work for us.

I was legalistic and, although I never abused my girls, they felt more afraid in my “authoritative presence” than they felt comfortable around me. Not all the time, of course, but far too often.

Really, what was happening was I treating my girls the same way I wrongly thought God was treating me. I was rarely comfortable in God’s presence and was almost constantly afraid of what He was thinking or how He was feeling about me.

But THANK GOD that by His grace, my view of God and my view of parenting changed; therefore, the past 4 years have been very different for my girls and I. The results have proven to me that it’s a very good thing to be both friend and parent to your kids. In fact, it’s worked so well for us that our girls absolutely LOVE spending time with us. It’s certainly not because we’re perfect parents, because, of course we’re not perfect.

We just all do life together. We’re a team. We love each other. We allow each other to be human…to fail. And we forgive…often.

What better time for a child to feel like they not only have a parent, but a really good friend that they can lean on other than while they’re growing up and trying to navigate all the mazes that life brings!

My goodness I love my girls with all my heart. I’m not afraid of having teenagers. I’m looking forward to it.  AND the best news is …we get to spend eternity together!

If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!

Sandra McCollom

Major Breakthrough!

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First thing I want to say is Thank You All For Your Prayers in regards to my health situation that I talked about in my last post, Going Through A Trial? Here’s Some Encouragement! 

Since that post was published on February 18th, I have received a major breakthrough!

If you have not had a chance to read that post I encourage you to do so before you read this one. I linked it above for your convenience.

As I mentioned in that blog post, I have been dealing with paresthesia for probably the past 6 weeks. In addition to this, I’ve had neck pain, jaw pain, ringing in my left ear that seems to be getting louder, bouts of nausea with the neck pain, periods of disorientation, headaches (which I almost never get) and so, so, so much trouble focusing and concentrating.

As I have continued to do the things I recommended to you in that blog post I have received a breakthrough in regards to my health!

I’ve had a history on and off with iron deficiency, but several years ago my doctor recommended a supplement called Iron Complex from Integrative Therapeutics. I wasn’t currently taking this supplement, but as my symptoms became worse and worse I began taking it again one week ago. The difference in the way I felt within just 24 hours was so significant.

The first thing I noticed is that I could think again. Wow, was that nice!

I’m thrilled to say that at this point almost all of the symptoms I was experiencing have been greatly reduced.

Oh, and I didn’t even tell you that whatever was going on with my health seemed to be attacking my nervous system. Especially over the past couple of weeks, before I started taking the Iron Complex, I had felt an increasing amount of nervousness, to the point where, on several occasions, I basically flipped out. Not that I haven’t flipped out before in my lifetime because I certainly have, but this was different. I knew something was really wrong. I was getting overwhelmed so easily from feeling like there was too much information coming at my brain. Believe me, I was NOT myself. It was a horrible feeling.

In fact, 2 weeks ago while driving my girls to Friday night church I was having one of my flip out sessions. I was having a super hard time feeling overwhelmed and even screamed out on the way, I don’t want to go to church. I don’t want to do this. Those of you who know me know how much I love my church and actually count down the hours until church every week, so this was not normal behavior.

It’s funny now, looking back on it and remembering how I was acting, but it sure wasn’t funny at the time. In fact, I even threatened to not go into church and just sit in my car in the church parking lot while my girls were in their middle school class. I knew I wasn’t really going to do that, but I came close.

Right in the middle of my meltdown I asked my girls (who were sitting in the back seat hearing all of this) to pray for me. My daughter Angel prayed the most beautiful prayer over me. I’m getting choked up right now as I type this, recalling her prayer.

CeCe Winans was at our church that night leading worship and oh my goodness, that’s exactly what I needed. I needed to worship God right in the middle of my storm. Indeed, God answered Angel’s prayer that night as well as my own. The only thing I could manage to get out of my mouth before I walked into the church was, God, please help me. Please give me a breakthrough tonight!

It was not an immediate breakthrough, but only one week after that awesome night of worship I’m thankful to be able to sit here and type that the nervousness and feeling of being overwhelmed is now completely gone. I am so relieved to be feeling like myself again.

This coming Monday I am scheduled to get an MRI of my c-spine. After my symptoms started decreasing I prayed about if I should cancel my MRI or not, but I did not feel led to cancel it. I am still having some symptoms and I feel it’s wisdom to go ahead and get the test done as I  probably needed this test several years ago.

And the good news is, I’ve already had an MRI and an MRA of my brain to check for tumors and aneurysm’s in conjunction with the ringing in my left ear and both tests came out perfectly fine. Praise Jesus!

I also went to my regular doctor last week and explained everything to him, including how much the Iron Complex seemed to be helping me. I had only been seeing my chiropractor for this issue up to that point. In fact, he is the one sending me for the MRI. But my regular doctor sent me for a blood test and I am waiting for those results. He also wrote a prescription out for me to get a type of physical therapy called Myofacial Release which I start in a couple of weeks.

So, I’m not all the way there yet, but as you can see, God is bringing me through and God is Who I give all the glory to! God may have used an iron supplement to help me and I believe He is leading me to get this Physical Therapy, but, no matter who or what He chooses to use, it is God who gives the breakthrough!

Someone may say, Sandra, since you still have some symptoms, how can you title this blog post Major Breakthrough? Believe me, if you knew how bad off I was, you would know why I feel like I have received a major breakthrough…and besides, my total breakthrough is on it’s way!

As I said in my post last week, when we continue to trust God in the midst of our trials, He will work everything together for our good. It’s a Biblical promise.

I have actually had issues with my neck and jaw for years now, although the pain was greatly elevated recently. I have also had ringing in my left ear for a little over a year. So some of the symptoms I am experiencing have been around for a while, BUT you better believe this girl is not giving up for anything. Healing is mine. Jesus already paid for it and He said It Is Finished.

I told my Mom the other day, wouldn’t it be cool if I got this physical therapy and it not only took care of my current set of health issues, but also resolved the longstanding problem with my neck pain, jaw pain and the ringing in my ear? 

That’s what I’m believing for. In fact, I’m convinced that God will once again take what the devil intends for my harm and turn it around and work it all together for my good!

My trust in God has really grown over the past 4 years, since I have come into a revelation of His grace. I’ve begun to play a little game when I have trials. When I do, I immediately think, Oh my goodness, I cannot wait to see what good God is going to work out of this situation. And guess what? GOD NEVER FAILS. Every single solitary time I go through a trial I am able to look back and clearly see all the ways in which God has worked on my behalf. I’ve already seen it over this past week and know that I will continue to watch God bring me through to a complete breakthrough and actually to a place of being better off than I was before!

I invite you to play this game along with me. What shall we call it? The Believing God Game? The Trusting in Jesus Game? 

Regardless of what we name it, let’s determine that no matter what the devil tries to attack us with, we will never stop believing in God’s goodness, love and grace toward us!

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13 (NASB)

Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. – Hebrews 11:1 (AMP)

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
– Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)

Overhearing what was being said, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; only keep on believing [in Me and my power].” – Mark 5:36 (AMP)

No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.
– Isaiah 54:17 (NKJV)

For when we believe we enter God’s rest. (see Hebrews 4)

If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the cross has provided for you to live in, please visit my page here titled Jesus In The Driver’s Seat. On this page I explain the good news of the gospel and you will have the opportunity to pray a prayer of salvation, making Jesus your Savior! Jesus loves you and His arms are wide open!

Sandra McCollom

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