GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
As I read my Bible I often have wondered what it would have been like to have been there observing the story as it unfolds — to have seen Moses part the Red Sea, to have seen Elijah on Mt. Carmel opposite the prophets of Baal, to have seen the crucifixion.
For me it’s always good to watch movies about the Bible because it helps bring the 
story to life, to help me realize the struggles and issues real people dealt with. Instead of just reading the stories out of the Bible and having to use my limited imagination, I can see what things could have been like. It always gives me a fresh perspective and helps me to better understand what the Bible is saying.
Wm. Paul Young does just that with his latest book Eve: A Novel.
He is the author of The Shack, a controversial yet great book on the love of God and the struggles we have with evil, forgiveness and our own self-righteousness. This time he writes a fictional work about the creation of mankind as seen through the eyes of The Witness, Lilly, a young girl who washed ashore inside a shipping container on an island between our world and the next.
Eve gets the chance to see the creation of humanity. This is a compelling story that gives us a deeper glimpse into the heart of God for humanity. Many times we read the creation story in the Bible but it’s very short without much detail. Young takes the liberty to give us an understanding of what it could have been like. The heart of God, and his great love for humanity, is well depicted in this story.
I believe that some Christians will struggle with the author’s depiction of creation and the storyline. They will cry out that the theology is wrong. But they will not take notice that it’s a novel. As many Christians had issues with The Shack, I am sure they will find issues with Eve: A Novel. For those that liked The Shack, I believe you will love Eve: A Novel. For those that didn’t, well you probably won’t like this one either.
For those willing to read with an open heart and mind they will discover a well-written story that 
desires to show us the greatness of God’s amazing love, grace and compassion for his creation. It will help you to see the longing God has for man, even after Adam’s fall. It will help you to get a better grasp of our free will and the great risk God took in giving us this gift.
This is certainly not a theology book, nor it is a systemic study of God’s nature. It’s a fictional story. However, from what I understand in my reading about the book, Young took a lot of time studying creation, especially a Jewish perspective. For me, it brought creation alive. It made me feel as if I were there witnessing the creation of humanity out of the very energy and life of the Father, Son and Spirit.
A perfect Being, who needed nothing, willing to create a free-will creation, capable of loving or rejecting Him is masterfully told in a compelling tale of trust, doubt, fear, questions, reassurances, and love.
For me personally, the book helped me to see God’s love in a deeper, more personal way. One part of the book really ministered to me. There is a place in the book where Adam feels lost. God responds by telling Adam that he is never lost because Adam is in God and God is never lost. This spoke to me in a very profound way because of some personal struggles and issues I was facing. 
What I liked about the book was the way I could see God’s love for humanity through the vivid imagery the author used to tell the story. I also liked his use of everyone’s struggles, fears, and doubts. His telling of the temptation and the subtleness of the enemy (satan) was a great reminder that the devil is truly subtle and conniving in his desire to destroy humanity.
The main thing I didn’t like about the book was that it took me a while to really get into it. I struggled to get through the first couple of chapters. Unlike The Shack, the story didn’t grab me right off the bat. However, a couple of chapters in I was hooked and didn’t want to put the book down.
Overall, I really liked this book, just not as much as The Shack. I would recommend it as good read.
Here’s a story that reveals the core-issue as to why many believers are not experiencing the full manifestation of all that Christ has done and given to them. At the same time it reveals the key how to experience an enjoyable relationship with God.
Anabel Gillham, who past away in 2010, has left quit a legacy including some great stories. Here is one of them.
Amy is seven years old. She has a loving mother and dad who have communicated that love to her through the early years of childhood – from her first breath of earth-air.
Her dad, especially, is her close companion – he holds her, teaches her, expresses his love for her in many and various ways – a thoughtful, protective, loving relationship.
But something strange begins to happen one morning as Amy seeks out her dad and asks, “Daddy, do you love me?”
“Why, of course, I love you, sweetie-dearly. You know that. Come let me give you a big hug to start the day.”
“Well, I just wanted to be sure this morning. And Daddy, will you please take care of me today?”
“Take care of you? What do you mean, Amy? I watch over you like a dog watches over a bone. Is something wrong, Honey? Are you scared? Is something going on at school? Have I disappointed you in some way?”
“Oh, no. I just want to ask you to love me and take care of me today. Will you please do that for me, Daddy? Promise?”
“I don’t understand, Amy. You know how much I love you and how very important it is to me to take good care of you. What’s going on in that mind of yours?”
“I just need you to convince me, Daddy, that you really do love me and that you really will take good care of me today…”
Every morning Amy comes to her dad with those same plaintive questions.
What do you suppose that does to her daddy? How does it make him feel?
Now consider this. Don’t we do the very same thing with our eternal Father?
Eph. 1:4 says that we are His children, living within His constant care.
Before the foundation of the world He chose us to become, in Christ, His holy and blameless children living within His constant care (Eph. 1:4, Phillips)
That means that I am living within His constant care. Doesn’t it?
The big question is: Do I believe this?
Do I accept this as truth or do I evaluate it from experience?
Watch the Vlog by clicking on the image:
If this is true for me, is it also true for my circle of loved ones who have through faith become His children?
If God has said He constantly cares and protects – this as being a part of my position…the position of any person in Christ Jesus – why do we go to Him constantly in prayer about it?
Pleading with Him, “Oh Lord, watch over my loved ones today?”
Did He stop caring?
Or we implore Him saying, “God, protect us from danger…Surround us with Your angels…Give us travel mercies, blah, blah.”
Or, “God, I’m broke, I need finances, give me money.”
At the same time reminding Him that I am trusting Him, “God, I trust You” – as though He might have forgotten since last night or yesterday.
Doesn’t that sound like a contradiction to you?
God says one thing, “I constantly care.”
We say the opposite, “God, please take care.”
Indeed. this mindset simply reveals a lack of knowledge of the truth, which results in faithless prayers and if that’s the way you are “praying,” than that’s why your prayers aren’t working.
Asking Him to do what He has promised to do?
Extracting more promises, more words of encouragement, insisting that God would tell me – just one more time – about His faithfulness to me, forgetting the days and months and years that I have experienced His constant care?
Wouldn’t this be an affront to God?
An act of unbelief perhaps?
Wouldn’t this communicate a basic insecurity to Him? That I just can’t quite believe His promises?
To have an enjoyable relationship with God is to chose to believe what He says is true.
And to not base your doctrines on what people have told you (even tough we do learn from others) or what you’ve made up out of your own thought processes, but to study the Word for yourself and trust in the Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth.
Otherwise you might end up using God as someone to come to for cleansing prayers or ask for things that are already a “yes” and “amen” through Jesus.
Or your relationship with God becomes one where you’re always expecting Him to give, to come through, or to somehow prove Himself in your life instead of just enjoying each others company, doing life together while you’re feasting at the table of the finished-work-goodies.
Friend, let’s continue to choose to believe what God says is true.
Life becomes a lot more fun and less boring when you live and pray in line with the finished work of Christ.
Solid,
Here’s a story that reveals the core-issue as to why many believers are not experiencing the full manifestation of all that Christ has done and given to them. At the same time it reveals the key how to experience an enjoyable relationship with God.
Anabel Gillham, who past away in 2010, has left quit a legacy including some great stories. Here is one of them.
Amy is seven years old. She has a loving mother and dad who have communicated that love to her through the early years of childhood – from her first breath of earth-air.
Her dad, especially, is her close companion – he holds her, teaches her, expresses his love for her in many and various ways – a thoughtful, protective, loving relationship.
But something strange begins to happen one morning as Amy seeks out her dad and asks, “Daddy, do you love me?”
“Why, of course, I love you, sweetie-dearly. You know that. Come let me give you a big hug to start the day.”
“Well, I just wanted to be sure this morning. And Daddy, will you please take care of me today?”
“Take care of you? What do you mean, Amy? I watch over you like a dog watches over a bone. Is something wrong, Honey? Are you scared? Is something going on at school? Have I disappointed you in some way?”
“Oh, no. I just want to ask you to love me and take care of me today. Will you please do that for me, Daddy? Promise?”
“I don’t understand, Amy. You know how much I love you and how very important it is to me to take good care of you. What’s going on in that mind of yours?”
“I just need you to convince me, Daddy, that you really do love me and that you really will take good care of me today…”
Every morning Amy comes to her dad with those same plaintive questions.
What do you suppose that does to her daddy? How does it make him feel?
Now consider this. Don’t we do the very same thing with our eternal Father?
Eph. 1:4 says that we are His children, living within His constant care.
Before the foundation of the world He chose us to become, in Christ, His holy and blameless children living within His constant care (Eph. 1:4, Phillips)
That means that I am living within His constant care. Doesn’t it?
The big question is: Do I believe this?
Do I accept this as truth or do I evaluate it from experience?
Watch the Vlog by clicking on the image:
If this is true for me, is it also true for my circle of loved ones who have through faith become His children?
If God has said He constantly cares and protects – this as being a part of my position…the position of any person in Christ Jesus – why do we go to Him constantly in prayer about it?
Pleading with Him, “Oh Lord, watch over my loved ones today?”
Did He stop caring?
Or we implore Him saying, “God, protect us from danger…Surround us with Your angels…Give us travel mercies, blah, blah.”
Or, “God, I’m broke, I need finances, give me money.”
At the same time reminding Him that I am trusting Him, “God, I trust You” – as though He might have forgotten since last night or yesterday.
Doesn’t that sound like a contradiction to you?
God says one thing, “I constantly care.”
We say the opposite, “God, please take care.”
Indeed. this mindset simply reveals a lack of knowledge of the truth, which results in faithless prayers and if that’s the way you are “praying,” than that’s why your prayers aren’t working.
Asking Him to do what He has promised to do?
Extracting more promises, more words of encouragement, insisting that God would tell me – just one more time – about His faithfulness to me, forgetting the days and months and years that I have experienced His constant care?
Wouldn’t this be an affront to God?
An act of unbelief perhaps?
Wouldn’t this communicate a basic insecurity to Him? That I just can’t quite believe His promises?
To have an enjoyable relationship with God is to chose to believe what He says is true.
And to not base your doctrines on what people have told you (even tough we do learn from others) or what you’ve made up out of your own thought processes, but to study the Word for yourself and trust in the Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth.
Otherwise you might end up using God as someone to come to for cleansing prayers or ask for things that are already a “yes” and “amen” through Jesus.
Or your relationship with God becomes one where you’re always expecting Him to give, to come through, or to somehow prove Himself in your life instead of just enjoying each others company, doing life together while you’re feasting at the table of the finished-work-goodies.
Friend, let’s continue to choose to believe what God says is true.
Life becomes a lot more fun and less boring when you live and pray in line with the finished work of Christ.
Solid,
Here’s a story that reveals the core-issue as to why many believers are not experiencing the full manifestation of all that Christ has done and given to them. At the same time it reveals the key how to experience an enjoyable relationship with God.
Anabel Gillham, who past away in 2010, has left quit a legacy including some great stories. Here is one of them.
Amy is seven years old. She has a loving mother and dad who have communicated that love to her through the early years of childhood – from her first breath of earth-air.
Her dad, especially, is her close companion – he holds her, teaches her, expresses his love for her in many and various ways – a thoughtful, protective, loving relationship.
But something strange begins to happen one morning as Amy seeks out her dad and asks, “Daddy, do you love me?”
“Why, of course, I love you, sweetie-dearly. You know that. Come let me give you a big hug to start the day.”
“Well, I just wanted to be sure this morning. And Daddy, will you please take care of me today?”
“Take care of you? What do you mean, Amy? I watch over you like a dog watches over a bone. Is something wrong, Honey? Are you scared? Is something going on at school? Have I disappointed you in some way?”
“Oh, no. I just want to ask you to love me and take care of me today. Will you please do that for me, Daddy? Promise?”
“I don’t understand, Amy. You know how much I love you and how very important it is to me to take good care of you. What’s going on in that mind of yours?”
“I just need you to convince me, Daddy, that you really do love me and that you really will take good care of me today…”
Every morning Amy comes to her dad with those same plaintive questions.
What do you suppose that does to her daddy? How does it make him feel?
Now consider this. Don’t we do the very same thing with our eternal Father?
Eph. 1:4 says that we are His children, living within His constant care.
Before the foundation of the world He chose us to become, in Christ, His holy and blameless children living within His constant care (Eph. 1:4, Phillips)
That means that I am living within His constant care. Doesn’t it?
The big question is: Do I believe this?
Do I accept this as truth or do I evaluate it from experience?
Watch the Vlog by clicking on the image:
If this is true for me, is it also true for my circle of loved ones who have through faith become His children?
If God has said He constantly cares and protects – this as being a part of my position…the position of any person in Christ Jesus – why do we go to Him constantly in prayer about it?
Pleading with Him, “Oh Lord, watch over my loved ones today?”
Did He stop caring?
Or we implore Him saying, “God, protect us from danger…Surround us with Your angels…Give us travel mercies, blah, blah.”
Or, “God, I’m broke, I need finances, give me money.”
At the same time reminding Him that I am trusting Him, “God, I trust You” – as though He might have forgotten since last night or yesterday.
Doesn’t that sound like a contradiction to you?
God says one thing, “I constantly care.”
We say the opposite, “God, please take care.”
Indeed. this mindset simply reveals a lack of knowledge of the truth, which results in faithless prayers and if that’s the way you are “praying,” than that’s why your prayers aren’t working.
Asking Him to do what He has promised to do?
Extracting more promises, more words of encouragement, insisting that God would tell me – just one more time – about His faithfulness to me, forgetting the days and months and years that I have experienced His constant care?
Wouldn’t this be an affront to God?
An act of unbelief perhaps?
Wouldn’t this communicate a basic insecurity to Him? That I just can’t quite believe His promises?
To have an enjoyable relationship with God is to chose to believe what He says is true.
And to not base your doctrines on what people have told you (even tough we do learn from others) or what you’ve made up out of your own thought processes, but to study the Word for yourself and trust in the Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth.
Otherwise you might end up using God as someone to come to for cleansing prayers or ask for things that are already a “yes” and “amen” through Jesus.
Or your relationship with God becomes one where you’re always expecting Him to give, to come through, or to somehow prove Himself in your life instead of just enjoying each others company, doing life together while you’re feasting at the table of the finished-work-goodies.
Friend, let’s continue to choose to believe what God says is true.
Life becomes a lot more fun and less boring when you live and pray in line with the finished work of Christ.
Solid,
Here’s a story that reveals the core-issue as to why many believers are not experiencing the full manifestation of all that Christ has done and given to them. At the same time it reveals the key how to experience an enjoyable relationship with God.
Anabel Gillham, who past away in 2010, has left quit a legacy including some great stories. Here is one of them.
Amy is seven years old. She has a loving mother and dad who have communicated that love to her through the early years of childhood – from her first breath of earth-air.
Her dad, especially, is her close companion – he holds her, teaches her, expresses his love for her in many and various ways – a thoughtful, protective, loving relationship.
But something strange begins to happen one morning as Amy seeks out her dad and asks, “Daddy, do you love me?”
“Why, of course, I love you, sweetie-dearly. You know that. Come let me give you a big hug to start the day.”
“Well, I just wanted to be sure this morning. And Daddy, will you please take care of me today?”
“Take care of you? What do you mean, Amy? I watch over you like a dog watches over a bone. Is something wrong, Honey? Are you scared? Is something going on at school? Have I disappointed you in some way?”
“Oh, no. I just want to ask you to love me and take care of me today. Will you please do that for me, Daddy? Promise?”
“I don’t understand, Amy. You know how much I love you and how very important it is to me to take good care of you. What’s going on in that mind of yours?”
“I just need you to convince me, Daddy, that you really do love me and that you really will take good care of me today…”
Every morning Amy comes to her dad with those same plaintive questions.
What do you suppose that does to her daddy? How does it make him feel?
Now consider this. Don’t we do the very same thing with our eternal Father?
Eph. 1:4 says that we are His children, living within His constant care.
Before the foundation of the world He chose us to become, in Christ, His holy and blameless children living within His constant care (Eph. 1:4, Phillips)
That means that I am living within His constant care. Doesn’t it?
The big question is: Do I believe this?
Do I accept this as truth or do I evaluate it from experience?
Watch the Vlog by clicking on the image:
If this is true for me, is it also true for my circle of loved ones who have through faith become His children?
If God has said He constantly cares and protects – this as being a part of my position…the position of any person in Christ Jesus – why do we go to Him constantly in prayer about it?
Pleading with Him, “Oh Lord, watch over my loved ones today?”
Did He stop caring?
Or we implore Him saying, “God, protect us from danger…Surround us with Your angels…Give us travel mercies, blah, blah.”
Or, “God, I’m broke, I need finances, give me money.”
At the same time reminding Him that I am trusting Him, “God, I trust You” – as though He might have forgotten since last night or yesterday.
Doesn’t that sound like a contradiction to you?
God says one thing, “I constantly care.”
We say the opposite, “God, please take care.”
Indeed. this mindset simply reveals a lack of knowledge of the truth, which results in faithless prayers and if that’s the way you are “praying,” than that’s why your prayers aren’t working.
Asking Him to do what He has promised to do?
Extracting more promises, more words of encouragement, insisting that God would tell me – just one more time – about His faithfulness to me, forgetting the days and months and years that I have experienced His constant care?
Wouldn’t this be an affront to God?
An act of unbelief perhaps?
Wouldn’t this communicate a basic insecurity to Him? That I just can’t quite believe His promises?
To have an enjoyable relationship with God is to chose to believe what He says is true.
And to not base your doctrines on what people have told you (even tough we do learn from others) or what you’ve made up out of your own thought processes, but to study the Word for yourself and trust in the Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth.
Otherwise you might end up using God as someone to come to for cleansing prayers or ask for things that are already a “yes” and “amen” through Jesus.
Or your relationship with God becomes one where you’re always expecting Him to give, to come through, or to somehow prove Himself in your life instead of just enjoying each others company, doing life together while you’re feasting at the table of the finished-work-goodies.
Friend, let’s continue to choose to believe what God says is true.
Life becomes a lot more fun and less boring when you live and pray in line with the finished work of Christ.
Solid,
I’ve been watching Sons of Anarchy recently.
It follows the story of Jax Teller – a young man struggling to follow in his father’s footsteps as leader of a biker gang.
Jemma is Jax’ mother.
She’s a real tough cookie – a biker mom. In one scene she talks to a priest who tells her:
Service to others is the only thing that keeps the self-loathing to a tolerable level.
I think he’s implying that his self-loathing for his own sin is so extreme, that his gratitude to God for taking His sin away can only be expressed through service to others.
Step 12 of the 12 Step Recovery Program is also all about service to others.
Jemma said she didn’t know how to serve others. She didn’t feel she had anything to offer. The priest told her she was serving him, now, just by listening to him, just by being there and being a listening ear. After all, we all need someone to listen to us.
The priest told her to look out for opportunities to serve because God presents them to us every day. We don’t have to sign up to volunteer for homeless shelters or drug rehab centers. We don’t have to train to be medics or join the Red Cross, although of course God needs people to do this work. But God presents opportunities for us to serve others every day in small, simple ways.
Look out for them.
It makes you wonder if it’s really going to be the people we think sitting closest to Jesus at that Great Wedding Celebration between Christ and His church in Heaven.
Me, I’m such a ‘bad’ Christian, I fail so much every day that I’ll just be happy to be there. I’ll be happy to be the homeless guy sitting on the floor, waiting for scraps to drop from the table (and I probably will be). Seriously, the way I fail in my life every day I don’t even deserve a place at the table.
But thanks be to God it doesn’t depend on how good at being a Christian we are. It doesn’t depend on what we do. It doesn’t depend on our good deeds. It isn’t our own ability to be great human beings that gets us an invitation to that Great Feast. Being ‘a good person’ doesn’t open the door for us to spend eternity with God.
We only get to go to God’s great party because He loves us so much. We only get to go because He loves us enough to die for us, in our place, on a cross. We only get to go because He has made us supernaturally holy by the power of His spirit as a free gift.
We have been made holy by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ…
- Hebrews 10:10.
I’ve received some messages on my blog recently about how, if we don’t live up to God’s moral standard for the rest of our lives, we will lose our place in Heaven.
I’ve received some messages saying we can lose our salvation.
I pity those who believe this.
I really pity them.
If they really believe their acts of goodness is the reason God invites them to that Great Feast then they have missed the good news of the gospel. The good news of the gospel is that God has invited us to spend eternity with Him because of His great love for us. It is a free gift. Paul makes this clear:
Not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.
- Ephesians 2:8.
Those people who believe they can spend eternity with God because of their own ability to live good lives will be so proud while sitting at that table. I expect they expect to have a seat next to Jesus. I expect they hope to be like John at The Last Supper reclining with their head on Jesus’ chest.
And I hope they are.
I must admit, that does make me a little jealous.
I want to be close to Jesus at the table. I want to recline with him. I want to be ‘the disciple who Jesus loved.’
Yet I know, in my heart of hearts, I’ll be lucky to even be there.
I believe, absolutely, that I will be there.
But I won’t be at the head of the queue.
If Heaven were a nightclub I won’t be the one who the bouncers wave in first. I won’t be given the royal treatment. I’ll be the one who has to wait out in the cold for ages, and then only get in because I know someone ‘cool.’
I’ll only get in because I know Jesus.
Perhaps, once inside, the Prince of that Heavenly nightclub might wave at me from a distance, across the dance floor. He’ll be sitting, enjoying the best wine, surrounded by beautiful angels and all those superstar preachers will be with Him. Mother Theresa will be there. So will Billy Graham. TD Jakes will be sitting there in that VIP section. So will Benny Hinn, Joseph Prince, Creflo Dollar. CS Lewis. John The Baptist. The VIP section will be awesome. All those superstar preachers and old school teachers. I wonder if John the Baptist will be dressed in a loin cloth or will he upgrade to Versace?
Me…I’ll just be a nobody, as usual. I’ll be lucky to be there. But I’ll be grateful. And if Jesus were to come over and say hello, shake my hand, or even give me a hug, I would be so proud – not of myself – just proud to know Him. And if he were to offer me a drink at his table, I’d be so delighted, so excited. But overall, I’d just be so grateful to be there.
Because I feel like Paul, who says:
Here is a trustworthy saying which deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.
To get invited to the party is something to celebrate.
We prodigals come home and our Heavenly Father kills the fattened calf, puts His best robe on us and puts a ring on our finger.
And in gratitude for that great gift, that gift that cost so much suffering, that gift that cost the blood of Christ on the cross, let’s keep our eyes and hearts open for those small opportunities for service.
Because Me, I want to say thank you. But not because I want a better seat at the table. Not because I want a seat with the cool crew in the VIP section of Nightclub Heaven. I know I don’t deserve that.
No. I want to help people because I know how much He has helped me. I myself am an ex-addict, ex-homeless, ex-criminal.
I want to help others because of these words of Jesus:
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.
- Matthew 25:40.
Like Jemma, let’s look out for those small, simple opportunities for service that God presents to us every day.
My first year here in Cambodia I was accused of being a ‘predator’ by the leader of a church because I would go out to nightclubs, reaching out to sex workers.
The reason I came to Cambodia was to battle the sex trade. Admittedly, I came to combat child sex trafficking but God didn’t open those doors. He opened doors to the nightclubs of Phnom Penh where not children but young adult women were working.
What did that leader think? I came all the way to Phnom Penh from England to stay in at night and watch TV?
I came here to reach out to the lost and the broken.
Often, in the clubs, the girls would stare at me with confused looks as I danced exuberantly on the dancefloor, praising Jesus, eyes shining.
The girls didn’t understand it when I looked them in the eye.
They didn’t see lust and sexual desire.
They saw the light of Christ.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
– John 1:5
I wasn’t a ‘predator’. I wasn’t out to pick up the girls. I was out to help them, to guide them to NGO’s that might be able to offer them a way out, a training program or a safe house.
I was misunderstood.
Tim Keller, in one of his podcasts says:
Unless you are vulnerable and being misunderstood, you are not in mission.
What a statement!
Jesus was a man of ill-repute. He hung out with sinners and ‘women of ill repute.’ He let a prostitute wash his feet with her hair. He was vulnerable. He was misunderstood.
That’s why I had to post this by Mick Mooney:
As much as we love Jesus, I think until we allow our own reputation to become as trampled and dirty as he allowed his to become, we’ll never quite understand him, nor his message. Until we break free from the prison of maintaining a religiously acceptable reputation, we will continue to read about the wild Jesus in Scripture, but we’ll struggle to truly understand him, and the way of life he exemplified.
Read the rest of the awesome article here.
