Grace For The Journey

  Father Knows Best was a 1950’s American radio and television comedy series that portrayed middle class family life in the Midwest.  The title character, in both the radio and televisions versions, was played by Robert Young, who later enjoyed great success with another television series: Marcus Welby, M.D.  The “Father” character was beloved throughout the country for providing wise, kindly advice whenever his children had a question or problem.  At the end of each program, everything always worked out for the best.

The title of this show reminds me of a deep Gospel truth that anchors the life of the believer on solid rock rather than shifting sand . . .

Our Heavenly Father truly does know what is best for His children.

The Bible says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

If we ignore our Father’s guidance, we’ll stumble along a rough and crooked path.

He really does know best!

• ·His plan is better than our plan 
• ·His way is better than our way
• ·His path is better than our path
• ·His life is better than our life

As one person has said, “Omnipotence is working on behalf of God’s children twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”  Now, if we assume a worldly perspective, some of the providences we face in life might not seem like they are the best, but they truly are!  God has promised to use everything that happens to His children for their good.

The Bible says in Romans 8:28-32, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all–how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”

Notice first what this passage does not say: it does not say that all things are good. There is a lot of bad that happens in this fallen, broken, sin-filled world.  But our Heavenly Father knows best how to make all things, including the bad, work together for the good of His children.

The ultimate purpose of everything in life is that

God uses it to conform us to the likeness of Jesus.

And don’t miss this . . . what God started He will finish.

The Bible teaches that all who have been justified (saved), God will ultimately glorify (fully sanctify).  You will not always be like you are . . . and I know that is good news for all of us who know just how much sin still remains in our mortal bodies!

One more Gospel point from this passage before we close . . .

If God is for us, who cares who, or what, is against us?

Regardless of the waves of challenge you are facing today – at the office, within your family, around your neighborhood, in your health and finances – your Heavenly Father knows best and will bring the best out of you, no matter what you are going through.

And what is the best inside of every child of God?  The Lord Jesus Christ!  As God is conforming us to the image of His precious Son, we are decreasing and He is increasing in our lives.  Our Heavenly Father is causing us to reflect more and more of the character of Christ with each passing day.  He grows more and more visible as we display the fruit of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23).

And one day, in the not-so-distant future, we will be brought home into our heavenly rest where we will be with Jesus forevermore.  To be sure, our Heavenly Father knows best!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

 

Grace For The Journey

  Did you know that faith leaves footprints?  So do doubt and fear.  The difference is found in the one making the footprint.  The footprints of doubt and fear are the ones we make; the footprints of faith are made by our Faithful Savior . . . and these are the ones that we are to walk in.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”  From this verse we are taught that the footprints of faith is the difference between walking (living) by sight (focusing on the natural) and walking by faith (focusing on the supernatural).  The Bible is full of both examples.  Today, we will take a look at both extremes in one passage:

“Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.  And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’  And they cried out for fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer!  It is I.  Do not be afraid.’  And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’ So He said, ‘Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.  But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord save me!’  And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.”  (Matthew 14:25-32)

When you think about it, it was really no big deal for Jesus to be walking on water.  He is the One who created the water and who sustains all things by His powerful word (Hebrews 1:3).  But for Peter to do it was another thing altogether.  For Peter to get out of the boat and walk on the water required that he walk by faith and not by sight.  He needed to trust in Jesus and not himself.  And this biblical account tells us that is exactly what happened . . . at least at first.

But Peter turned his focus away from Jesus and locked on to his circumstances – the winds and the waves. He began to sink as soon as he started walking by sight.  What a wonderful example we have of the difference between walking by faith and by sight!

The footprints of faith are only found when we

are walking in power of Christ and His Word.

In his natural ability, Peter could never have walked on the top of the water.  But when he trusted totally in Jesus, he was able to rise above the natural and walk in the supernatural.

So . . . where in your life do you need to shift your focus away from your circumstances – the winds and waves of challenge – and put them back on Christ?  What boat of unbelief do you need to step out of today so that you can walk in the footprints of your faithful Savior?  Take that step by faith, and take it now.  You’ll be glad you did.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

  Did you know that “groaning” is a great grace from God, and that it is to be the mark of the Christian on the way to glory?  The Bible makes it clear that groaning identifies those who are awaiting the glories of the life to come.

Between

Justification (the instant you were saved)

And

Glorification (the time you enter into your eternal rest)

Groaning is to be the default language of every Christian.

Is it yours?  Let’s see from the Bible why it should be . . .

The Bible says in Romans 8:22, “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now.”

The apostle Paul tells us that all of creation groans because of sin through deterioration, decay, and death.  Creation is awaiting the day when Jesus will make all things new.  Under the divine decree of Almighty God, creation suffers – not because of anything it did, but because of what Adam did through original sin and what we do through our continual sin.

The Bible also says in Romans 8:23, “And not only that, but we also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”

Paul confirms that not only is creation groaning, but believers are groaning as we wait for the return of our Lord.  We, who are sinners by both nature and habit, groan because of the corruption and futility that exists in us and the world around us.  We mourn because we do not do the good we want to do, but the evil we do not want in our lives is what we keep on doing (Romans 7:19).  The difference between what we currently are (great sinners) and what we one day will be (sinless sons and daughters) causes us to groan even more.

The Bible also says in Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Paul assures us that along with creation and the Christian, the Holy Spirit groans also, interceding for us with “groanings too deep for words.”  The Spirit of Christ testifies to the fact that something is terribly wrong with us and with the world around us, causing us to groan and long for the day when we will live with Jesus in the new heavens and the new earth.

The groaning the Bible speaks about is a deep, inward, agonizing ache of the heart in response to the sinfulness and brokenness of this fallen world.  It is not the whining, grumbling, and complaining we frequently engage in when our plans are thwarted, our agenda is interrupted, and our preferences are put on hold.  Broken people in a broken world are to be groaning for the return of our Lord, because then He will make all things new.

If we are not groaning, we have grown too comfortable with the things of this life.  Sad  this is the condition of far too many in the American evangelical church today.  When we find fulfillment in things other than God we don’t groan!  Yet, God in His grace wants to break the power our possessions have over us.  This will only happen as we look more to our Savior than to our stuff to meet our deepest needs and longings of the heart.

The life of the Christian is to follow the path of grace, groaning, and glory.  This journey focuses our hope beyond a life defined by the horizontal to a life directed by the vertical.  To be sure, the Kingdom of God has come, but it is not yet fully what it will be; therefore we groan!   And the only people who are groaning for the glory of God are those who have surrendered their will to His will . . . their goals to His goals . . . their desires to His desires.  They are living for the Kingdom of the Savior rather than the kingdom of the self.

What we need to remember is that He who began a good work in us” is not finished with us yet (Philippians 1:6).  And that should make us groan with anticipation of what we shall one day be – like Him!

In a sermon preached on September 28, 1885, Charles Spurgeon said: “We cannot help feeling that we need somewhat more than this visible world can offer us.  Many of us find our greatest joy in the cultivation of that feeling, for it is to us the token of our spiritual nature and the prophecy of immortality.  To us, this life is mainly worth living because it promises to be the introduction to a better life.”

Godly groaning brings our concerns and cares to the God’s concerns and cares, and this is the only place for the Christian to live.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

  In training athletes for the challenges of competition, regardless of the sport, the most successful performers are the ones who are the most disciplined in their preparation.  The ones who not only engage in team practices with 100% effort but also follow a rigorous personal training schedule are far more prepared to meet and exceed the demands of competition.

The same principle applies for the “spiritual athlete” as well.  Those who put forth a disciplined effort in preparing for the game of life receive multiple rewards.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 9:24-26, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave.”

The only way to have any measure of success on the spiritual battlefield of life is to go into it prepared through the consistent practice of the spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible intake, weekly worship, service, generous giving, etc.

The apostle Paul exhorted his spiritual son Timothy to train himself in godliness and holiness (1 Timothy 4:7).  In this context, the word “train” was borrowed by Paul from the realm of athletics.  The word originally referred to the training and discipline of athletes for competition in the games of that day, but came to include both mental and moral training.  Paul used it to set our minds on the need for consistent spiritual training.

To be sure, there is much for the committed Christian to do in pursuit of growing up into Christ, but it is never to be attempted in our own strength.  We are as much dependent upon the Holy Spirit to guide, govern, and grow us in the area of sanctification as we were in the area of justification.  As someone has said, “Without grace, there simply is no race!”  But without a disciplined effort there is no race either.

There are many instances recorded in the Bible where the concepts of both dependence and responsibility appear in the same sentence or paragraph.  For example, Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.  ”The psalmist sees God so intimately involved in the building and watching.  He does not say, “Unless the Lord helps the builders and the watchmen” but “unless the Lord builds and watches.”  Yet, it is obvious that the psalmist envisions the builders laboring to build the house and the watchmen standing guard over the city.  The builders cannot put away their tools and go fishing and expect God to build the house.  Neither can the watchmen retire to their beds and expect God to watch over the city.

In a word, when it comes to advancing in our walk with Christ we are to both “walk” and “pray” every step of the way.

We work and God works and it is all of grace.

Our next breath is a grace from God.  Our next heartbeat is a grace from God. Yet, we must be disciplined in how we use our breath and the beating of our heart in order to make progress in the Christian life.  Make no mistake, the discipline I am speaking of here in the life of the believer is not a “work of the flesh,” as some imagine it to be.  When the Bible tells us to train ourselves, it is not telling us to do it apart from the grace of God is working in our lives.

The apostle Paul never envisioned Timothy training through sheer willpower and “want-to,” but in fact he urged Timothy to be strong in the grace of God (2 Timothy 2:1).  He also never envisioned Timothy leaving it solely up to the Lord.  He was to both

Trust in God and Train himself,

Knowing that his disciplined effort would return multiple rewards.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

  I know that I have written many times about the sin of pride being expressed by the sin of comparison. One of the best examples of this is found in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:11-12, “The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’”  This Pharisee is the perfect example of what we are not to do in relationship with others.  Instead of lifting the man up in prayer to God, he was looking down on him.

But there is a time when comparing yourself to others is NOT a sin:

That is when we follow the example of the apostle Paul.

He writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 3:8, “Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me; to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

Paul looked around, and everywhere he looked he saw himself as “less than the least of all God’s people.”  Paul was expressing the depth of his absolute amazement in the God who would call him to be an apostle.  Paul knew he was an apostle only as a result of God’s unmerited, undeserved grace.  In Paul’s eyes, everyone else would have been a better candidate.  And so he readily acknowledged that his ministry was simply because of the grace of God that had been poured out into his life.

Paul expressed this grace two other times in the most remarkable of ways.

In 1 Corinthians 15:9 he stated, “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle.”  Later, he wrote to Timothy, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).

So . . . how do you see yourself in comparison to others?  Can you compare yourself to others and not sin, because you see yourself as the least of God’s people – perhaps even as the chief sinner?  To be sure, this humility is a wonderful grace from God, and it is available to every one of us if we understand that God’s grace is sufficient for our insufficiency and inadequacy.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

  The Lord Jesus Christ is many things to His precious people. He is . . .

• Creator
• Counselor
• Master
• Mediator
• Messiah
• Lord
• Light
• Life
• Protector
• Advocate
• Rock
• Redeemer
• Savior
• Shield
• Sustainer
• Bridegroom
• Brother, and
• Friend

Wait a minute . . . Did I say that right – Jesus is our Friend?  The King of kings and Lord of lords is our friend?

Yes, and not just our friend, but our Best Friend!  Jesus said to His disciples in John 15:15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you.”

In the times of the Old Testament, only a very special few had the privilege of being designated as friends of God.

• The Bible describes both Abraham (James 2:23) and Moses (Exodus 33:11) as “friends of God.”
• The Lord referred to David as “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22).

But all that changed through the work of Christ on the cross.

When the veil in the holy temple was torn from top to bottom on Good Friday, everything about our access to God changed!  Direct and immediate access to God was available once again, just as it was for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  We no longer need a priest to approach the throne of God on our behalf.  We may now “approach the throne of grace with confidence,” as Hebrews 4:16 assures us, “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

In John 15:15, the Greek word used for “friend” is much deeper than our general understanding of the word friend today. Jesus was not talking about a casual, “Hey, how-ya-doin?” relationship, but rather a deeply intimate covenant friendship that is marked by unconditional love, unwavering devotion, and total trust.

One of the best ways to demonstrate that we are pursuing this kind of intimate relationship with Jesus is by the amount of time we spend with Him.  Is He simply an item on your “things-to-do” list, to be checked off each day?  Or is He sitting atop the throne of your life as your highest priority?

To be sure, Jesus wants us to have a daily time of devotion with Him, but that is only the beginning.  He wants all of us!  He wants to be invited into every aspect of our lives, into every corner of our thoughts. He wants us to be focused on Him when we rise up and when we lie down, when we walk along the way and when we sit down to rest.

In his marvelous little book, Practicing the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence, a 17^th-century monk who worked as a cook in a French monastery, provided great insight into turning the most commonplace and menial tasks into acts of worship, praise, and communion with God.  Friendship with God for Brother Lawrence was not about what he was doing for God, but what he was doing with God and the attitude of thanksgiving that he brought to everything he did.

Please don’t think I am telling you to get away from your daily “quiet time” to get with God.  It is good to carve out a specific portion of each day to spend concentrated time with our Lord, but remember that this is only the starting line, not the entire race!  When we practice the presence of God in all our daily routines, we will develop a friendship with Jesus that will surpass all others!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

 

Grace For The Journey

  You may have heard the old adage, “The best defense is a good offense” which simply implies the idea of being proactive rather than reactive. You hear this phrase used in a variety of areas. Sports teams that constantly press their opponent and score lots of points will usually win the game. Armies that don’t wait for the enemy to mount an attack but instead go on the offensive tend to gain the upper hand.

This maxim proves especially true in the spiritual realm. On this side of eternity, we are surrounded by the powerful triple threat of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We face a constant battle on all three fronts, and at times the onslaught seems overwhelming. So how can possibly gain victory in this ongoing fight?

God gives us that answer in His Word . . .

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)

“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:11)

For the Christian,

The best offense is a godly, spiritual one:

Staying rooted in the Word of God.

Instead of waiting for the attacks of temptation to test the outer edges of our faithfulness to Christ, we go on the offense by learning of, meditating on, and memorizing the Scriptures – God’s living and active Word.

You see . . .

The more we are in the Word of God,
The more the Word of God gets into us!

In the apostle Paul’s famous “armor of God” passage in Ephesians 6:13-18, he exhorts us to take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  Bible scholars frequently point out that the Greek machaira, translated “sword” here, referred to the short sword that every Roman soldier carried on his belt for hand-to-hand combat.  It was a powerful offensive weapon that the Roman legions had used to conquer the world.

You will remember that this “sword” was the weapon that our Lord took up to confront and conquer every temptation Satan threw at Him during His wilderness experience (Matthew 4:1-11). Three times, Jesus slashed at the devil with these words, until the accuser retreated: “IT IS WRITTEN!”

Our Savior’s encounter with the evil one underscores the fact that, as important as it is for us to meditate on the Word of God, we must hide it in our hearts as well.  When we memorize the Word of God, it is readily available for us to decimate the wily serpent’s slings and arrows.

There is a powerful reality to stand on . . .

For every battle you face against the world, the flesh, and the devil,

God has a Scripture to address that specific fight.

Remember . . .

To know what is written,

We have to read what was written.

So read your Bible regularly and develop your godly offense.

One last thought: when you find yourself on the losing side of a particular skirmish – as we all will, for we are all sinners – God’s Word has a promise for you to tuck securely into your mind and heart and soul, so that you will get right back up after you’ve fallen and keep on fighting:

God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

I’ve written this on a number of occasions, but I want to remind you again that nothing – “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

You have God’s Word on it!

 If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ as your eternal Savior, there is nothing you can do, nor is there anything that the world, the flesh, or the devil can do to you, that will separate you from God’s amazing, gracious, eternal love.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

 

Grace For The Journey

We talk a lot about freedom.  Everybody wants freedom, but not everybody experiences or enjoys it.  The Bible says that Jesus came to set the captives free, and if the Son has set you free you are free indeed (John 8:31-36)!  But did you ever consider what freedom really involves?

The Bible says in Romans 8:18-21, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

I think you would agree it is one thing to be set free, but it is another thing altogether to be given a freedom that overflows with the glory of God!  Because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross and the empty tomb . . .

We rest in our current freedom

While we wait with confident assurance

For the glorious freedom that is to come.

In our current freedom we live with the assurance that God has done infinitely more than “wipe our sin slate clean;” He has taken the slate away altogether!

The Bible says in Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.”

In saying that our transgressions have been removed “as far as the east is from the west,” God is telling us that every sin – past, present, and still to occur – has been erased from our ledger forever . . . But the Good News doesn’t end there . . . God has thrown the ledger away!

The Bible says in Colossians 2:13-14, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

It should have been me nailed to the cross, not the sinless Savior.  It should have been you pulling against those cruel spikes in order to draw in each agonized breath.  And yet in our current freedom, provided for us by the sinless life, substitutionary death, and glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, there is “now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)!

We no longer have to work to please our God.  We work because our God is already pleased with us, regardless of the results of our work.  God not only sees us as sinless because of the righteousness of Christ, He sees us as having always done only that which is good, noble, and right.  Freedom is Jesus victory cry, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Our redemption is finished; our sin-debt has been paid in full by our Savior.

And, as good as our current freedom is, it will get even better on the other side of the grave.  When we are brought into the presence of Jesus for our eternal rest, it will be a “glorious freedom.”

This is a phrase which implies that the creation was also drastically affected by the fall. Therefore it is not at ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’ from the curse of sin.  This need for liberty from the curse brings the words into a logical order. Freedom from the curse is to be obtained through restoration just like the church.  Even the creation (as beyond the church, i.e. nature) will be liberated by the resurrection of Christ, just as we are. Therefore, creation will one day be introduced into the same liberty and fullness of glory that shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).

Our glory is essentially one of freedom and fullness, for we will be restored into a pure and incorruptible relationship with God forever, as objects of His underserved favor and riches.

It will be a glorious freedom because there will be no more tears, sorrow, decay, broken promises, broken dreams, fear, doubt, frustration, disappointment, sin, or death.  As one person says, “We will sing and dance in the new heavens and new earth, because the Master’s melody will be woven completely into our souls.”

Freedom filled with God’s glory is truly too hard to comprehend on this side of the grave. We still doubt, disobey, and die in our current freedom.  In our current freedom, we still stumble into our old patterns of self-rule, self-absorption, and self-centeredness.  And yet, in spite of all of this mess, we are still loved completely and unconditionally by the One who purchased us with His precious blood and is working toward our complete freedom from sin and death.

Paul’s letter to the Romans exhorts us to regard our present sufferings as not worthy of comparing with the glorious freedom that is our divine destiny.  Is this your hope?  Is this your desire?  I pray that it is.  Because of the freedom we have in Christ, it is every blood-bought, born-again child of God’s promised future!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

  Most Christians know the verse that assures us we are “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37), but we forget that we first had to be conquered in order to be conquerors!  Before God could make us conquerors, He had to conquer the dominion of darkness that resided in our hearts – the dominion of sin, death, and the devil.  He had to remove these from the throne of our lives in order to take His rightful place . . . and He had to conquer us to do it.

What a beautiful picture the Gospel paints of both the conquered and the Conqueror in the life of the Christian!  We see the very first picture of God conquering the sinful heart in the Garden of Eden after the fall.  When Adam and Eve sinned, they knew it.  How do we know that they knew?  They ran and hid from the presence of the One they were created to love and live for because they felt naked and ashamed.  God tells of His commitment to conquer the dominion of darkness that resided in their hearts:

The Bible says in Genesis 6:3-15, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’  He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’  And he said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’  The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’

“Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’  So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!  You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.’” (Emphasis added)

When God said to the devil “I will put enmity between you and the woman,” He was making it clear to Adam and Eve that He was going to conquer the newfound affections of their sinful hearts.  In order for Adam, Eve, and their offspring to return to their “First Love” the sinful affections of their hearts needed to be conquered.  God graciously conquered the hearts of the first two sinners in order to make them and their offspring more than conquerors.  This is truly a dust-to-glory story!

But after we have been given the life and power of God, which reorients and recalibrates the affections of our hearts, and been conquered; we then are made to be “more than conquerors” through our new King.  And what is the most important thing we have been called to conquer?  It is our unbelief.  We simply find it hard to believe that God is not angry with us anymore!  We see God’s unconditional love and continual forgiveness as unbelievable.  We know Jesus saved us, but our unbelief causes us to live like it’s all up to us to stay saved.  We are adopted children of the King living like orphans on the street.

Church historian Richard Lovelace wrote: “Many Christians, below the surface of their lives, are guilt-ridden and insecure . . . and draw the assurance of their acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.”

Why?  In a word, they have not allowed the power of the Gospel to conquer their unbelief.  And that is why the Gospel is for sinners – both those who are saved and those who are lost and needing to be saved.

To be “more than conquerors” we need to live by the truths of the Gospel daily so that the cross begins to cast a longer and stronger shadow over our unbelief.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

 

  When you look around you, it seems like everyone has an agenda.  People have plans, programs, things they want to accomplish, and specific ways they want to accomplish them.  They make lists, set goals and try to reach them.  Maybe you’ve got your own agenda as well.

God is no stranger to agendas.  In fact, He has an agenda, too; something He wants to accomplish in His way.  The Bible calls this agenda “God’s kingdom.”  The kingdom of God is the alternative to the kingdom of this world.  An “alternative” simply means that it is another way; there is another idea on the table.  As God’s people, we are not limited by the choices this world offers us.  God has an alternative plan for us – called His kingdom agenda.

The unifying central theme throughout the Bible is the glory of God and the advancement of His Kingdom.  The unifying thread from Genesis to Revelation – from beginning to end – is focused on one thing: God’s glory through advancing God’s Kingdom.

When you do not focus on that theme, the Bible is seen as disconnected stories which may be great for inspiration but seem to be unrelated in purpose and direction.  The Bible exists to share God’s movement in history toward the establishment and expansion of His Kingdom.  It highlights the way His kingdom will came and be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Understanding this principle increases the relevancy of this several thousand year-old manuscript to our everyday life, because the Kingdom is not only then, it is now.

Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:33).  Jesus is telling us that our first agenda in life should be to seek the things of God as a priority over the things of the world.  Primarily, it means we are to seek the salvation that comes through Jesus and the way of life He gives because it is of greater value than all the world’s riches.

Does this mean that we should neglect the reasonable and daily duties that help sustain our lives?  Certainly not!  But for the Christian, there should be a difference in attitude toward them.  If we are taking care of God’s business as a priority – seeking His salvation, living in obedience to Him, and sharing the good news of the kingdom with others – then He will take care of our business as He promised – and if that’s the arrangement, where is worrying?

But how do we know if we’re truly seeking God’s kingdom first?  There are a couple of questions we can ask that will help us answer that question:

1. Where do I primarily spend my energies?
2. Is all my time and money spent on goods and activities that will certainly perish, or in the services of God – the results of which live on for eternity?

God has promised to provide for His own, supplying every need (Philippians 4:19), but His idea of what we need is often different from ours, and His timing will only occasionally meet our expectations.  For example, we may see our need as riches or advancement, but perhaps God knows that what we truly need is a time of poverty, loss or solitude.  When this happens, we are in good company.  God loved both Job and Elijah, but He allowed Satan to absolutely pound Job (all under His watchful eye), and He let that evil woman, Jezebel, break the spirit of His own prophet Elijah (Job 1-1; 1 Kings 18-19).  In both cases, God followed these trials with restoration and sustenance.

These “negative” aspects of the kingdom run counter to a heresy which is gaining ground around the world, the so-called “prosperity” gospel.  A growing number of false teachers are gathering followers under the message “God wants you to be rich!”  But that philosophy is not the counsel of the Bible – and it is certainly not the counsel of Matthew 6:33, which is not a formula for gaining wealth.  It is a description of how God works.  Jesus taught that our focus should be away from this world – its status and its deceptive allurements – and placed upon the things of God’s kingdom.

The world is full of people who are scrambling to fulfill a miniscule mission as they race through life toward the finish line.  A miniscule mission is a one where self is on the throne and you live within the narrow borders of your own little life.  It is that place where your heart beats for you and only you.  It is a life marked by self-satisfaction, self-survival, self-importance, and schedules filled with self-satisfying pursuits.

We expect this kind of tunnel vision from those who do not know Christ; tragically, many in the church who proclaim His name are also embarked on miniscule missions.  They are more concerned about advancing the cause of their own little kingdom than expanding God’s BIG kingdom.

So . . . how is it with you?  Are you on a miniscule mission?  Or are you pouring yourself out to advance the cause of the kingdom of Christ?

Did you know that the Bible never tells us to simply seek the kingdom of God?  It tells us to seek it first!  We are not to pursue the advancement of God’s kingdom after we pursue the advancement of our own kingdom.  We are not to pursue it even at the same time.  We are to pursue God’s kingdom first!

The advancement of God’s kingdom is to take first place in our lives.  Of course we are to love our families, deepen our friendships, work hard at our jobs, save for the future, and serve in our communities.  But we are never to make these – or any other worldly pursuits – the ultimate priority in life.  When anyone or anything other than Jesus sits on the throne of our lives, we miss the One Thing that matters most.  When we make anything other than God our first priority in life, we embark on a miniscule mission that will eventually lead us to a place of dissatisfaction, disappointment, and ultimately despair.

When Adam and Eve exchanged their pursuit of the kingdom of God for the pursuit of their own little kingdom, desiring what looked good and felt good, their miniscule mission plunged all of the created order into ruin.  Our first parents literally denied their own humanity!  They were created for the pursuit of God and His kingdom, not their own.  We all know how that mission worked out for them: hiding in the brush, shivering with fear, blaming everyone but themselves for their catastrophic fall.

But thanks be to God for His indescribable love and grace!  He refused to leave Adam and Eve within the constricted borders of their sin-filled lives.  God pursued them and promised to send a Savior who would save them from their sins and the misery of pursuing a miniscule mission.  And God has done the same for every child born of grace.

God’s grace has broken the chains of our self-imposed imprisonment that pursues the advancement of our own personal kingdoms.  His grace has rescued us from living a miserable life of advancing our mediocre, miniscule mission; He has awakened us to live a life that truly matters.

Sure, His grace empowers us to love and serve at home, at work, and in our communities; but His grace empowers us to do so much more!  In His most gracious act after salvation, God gave us a desire to live for Him rather than for ourselves.  At this level of living, life becomes a journey of unimaginable joy, adventure, and excitement, because we are living for what – or more accurately, Who – we were designed to live for in the first place: God!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”