About The Author

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Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
I currently serve as Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Knoxville, Tn. I was sent out from Trinity Chapel of Knoxville in 1993 accompanied by my wife Sheila our four children Sarah, Hannah, Josiah & Isaac and a handful of bold, brave and committed believers determined to plant our first church. Pioneering is hard work but well worth the journey. That is why we desire to make disciples of Christ who will, like us, also embrace the call to plant churches.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Released From the Snare Part Three

Romans 14:1 ¶ Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. 2 For instance, one person believes it’s all right to eat anything. But another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables. 3 Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don’t. And those who don’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him judge whether they are right or wrong. And with the Lord’s help, they will do what is right and will receive his approval. 5 In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. 6 Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God. 7 For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. 8 If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and rose again for this very purpose––to be Lord both of the living and of the dead. 10 So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the LORD, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will confess and give praise to God.’” 12 Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. 13 So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall. 14 I know and am convinced on the authority of the Lord Jesus that no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat. But if someone believes it is wrong, then for that person it is wrong. 15 And if another believer is distressed by what you eat, you are not acting in love if you eat it. Don’t let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died. 16 Then you will not be criticized for doing something you believe is good. 17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. 19 So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up. 20 Don’t tear apart the work of God over what you eat. Remember, all foods are acceptable, but it is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble. 22 You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. 23 But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.

The opinions I am set free from are those that oppose the work of Christ and His will. Those that would oppose even the very work of salvation in my life, or the message I now carry because of my new life in Christ. But I am not set free to make others stumble in their faith.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Released From the Snare Part Two

Now, here’s what happens sometimes if this snare is not broken through grace.

When I became a teenager and began coming into my own, I had become frustrated and felt used by others. Now I had set this up by my own doing mind you. But something in me snapped in reaction to the bondage I had been in so long and I decided I didn’t care what anyone thought I was my own man and going to whatever I wanted regardless of how it effected others.

To deal with this snare in the flesh one must surrender to rebellion. That is what I did. I began to hold authority in contempt saying all they were trying to do was hold me down and keep me from all that I was entitled to.

See we must never forget that the root of rebellion is pride. See I wanted free from the snare because of selfish reasons. I wanted free so I could serve myself, not God.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that by being a rebel they are doing it for the right reasons when if they allowed the Holy Spirit to probe their hearts on the matter they might discover they are acting selfishly.

To break free from the snare just for my self is not a good premise. But to break free because I have come to realize that the only opinion in all the universe that truly matters when it comes to who I am and what I am doing is God’s, then that puts me in a position of trusting God for how that reality will be mine.

To be free to act in obedience to Christ without worry over what someone else may think about it is liberating. To be free to live by faith in Christ and to walk according to what the Holy Spirit has revealed to me about His purpose is true freedom. Not free to disregard accountability in the body but free to enjoy it. When I walk in faith with Christ I am properly connected with His body.

But notice this is not a rebellious attitude of release from opinions, it is a surrendered heart to Christ. A surrendered heart is submitted to the one to whom it is surrendered and we can be assured that it will act in accordance with His will as opposed to feeling free to act according to it’s own will.

So rather than going around fearful of what others think it is set free to by faith walk in an obedience. Instead of doing things out of fear of others opinions and wanting to be liked and approved it, through love, considers others and is set free to serve.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Released From the Snare Part One

In our modern culture there has been a snare that many have found themselves gripped by.

Proverbs 29:25 The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in GOD protects you from that.

Currently it is a common practice for churches to guilt people into activity, to utilize pressure to produce obedience to a preferred program, or event.

But is it pleasing to God for someone to act just because they’ve been made fearful of not doing it?

Do we actually get the mind of the Lord when we act from fear?

I cannot begin to tell you how often leaders themselves have been unable to get the mind of the Lord due to fearing the opinion of others.

The fear of man (other peoples opinions) is a snare. It disables our ability to clearly hear from the Lord about what we should be doing.

When I was a child I had this really bad. I was so afraid of others opinions I could not do most things I would have otherwise liked to have tried to do.

I was known around town as the friendly kid who was unselfish. But what most people did not know about me was that many times I let someone ride my bike, or borrow my toy, or use my stuff, it was because I was afraid of what they might think of me if I were to say no, which is what I really wanted to say sometimes.

I have witnessed more work done in churches that is rooted in the fear of man than I have seen works rooted in faith.

The fear of man disabled me as a child from doing many things I might have otherwise done had I not been afraid of the opinions of others about me.

Friday, March 20, 2009

It's Time To Believe Part Four

Your crossing the finish line of this journey depends on you getting it right when it comes to what Jesus has revealed regarding the goodness of God. That my friend is effected by grace.

Those Israelites died in the wilderness because they could not go forward with God. In order to go forward you must know His goodness and that He is trustworthy in all that He promises. If we’re not going forward we are going backwards. Back into the wilderness of sin, the wilderness of difficulties and despair.

This is why it is so important to know and to receive His grace so freely offered through Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 4:1 ¶ God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. 2 For this good news––that God has prepared this rest––has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. 3 For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. 4 We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 5 But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.” 6 So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. 7 So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.” 8 Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. 9 So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world.
11 ¶ So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. 12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two–edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable. 14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

We closed out chapter three presenting a position of knowing the goodness of God and that it was what was the real issue. Now we’ve read chapter 4 and find that it is exactly right.

If we are going to fear, the thing to fear is that we would through unbelief miss out on a rest freely offered!

Jesus said, learn of me…...and you will find rest…….

This rest is directly tied to the grace that came through Jesus Christ.

Grace points us to the goodness of God expressed through Christ!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

It's Time To Believe Part Three

It is by faith that we please Him. But it is not an abstract faith it is a faith in who He is, in who Jesus has declared Him to be.

Hebrews3:7 ¶ That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, 8 don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness. 9 There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. 10 So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ 11 So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’” 12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 15 Remember what it says: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.” 16 And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard his voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? 18 And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? 19 So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.

What was their unbelief? They believed well enough in the wrath of God and the judgment of God. They had seen Him judge their enemies, they had seen the mountain smoke and felt it tremble and quaked with fear. They had refused the invitation to be kings and priests to God because of this fear they had embraced regarding Him. Then when they come to the edge of the promise land the heritage God has so generously offered them rooted in His goodness, they refuse to go in because they do not know Him aright. They do not see Him as good and therefore they can only see the obstacles before them, the giants of the land.

Having our perspective wrong because we have not been established in grace and rightly understood the goodness expressed through Jesus will result in an inability to take hold of God and to experience Him as we should. Instead of running headlong towards knowing Him we will shrink back for fear we might get it wrong or He might not follow through because we have messed up along the way.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

It's Time To Believe Part Two

The warnings of wrath are for the lost who reject Christ not the church who has embraced Him. Those who do not approach the Scripture with an understanding of grace see wrath when they read them. They see punishment and fearful expectation of judgment. Then they preach these things consistently to the church as though they had not received the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

They fail to realize that when these things are mentioned in the New Testament letters they are in reference to those rejecting Jesus not the saved and if they are mentioned to the saved it is in the context of, these things will come upon the children of disobedience of whom you once were…, but now in Christ……

When we read the Scriptures without the understanding of grace we tend to leave off the “but now in Christ!"

2Peter 3:14 And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight. 15 And remember, the Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him––16 speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction. 17 I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. 18 Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.

Failing to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ causes us great grief.

It is through this means of expression that came to us through Jesus Christ that we can come face to face with the goodness of God.

Jesus brought to us the tangible expression of God’s goodness and thus the gospel is called the good news. Good news in Christ God is not angry or vengeful. He is not out to get us!

Good news in Christ we are no longer under a curse, we no longer are enemies. Good news all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus!

Good news we are more than conquerors through Christ! Good news Jesus paid our sin debt for us by taking upon Himself the wrath of God on the cross for us.

Good news we inherit all that Jesus inherits not because of anything we have done but because of what He has done.

The only we can now displease the Father is to not walk in the faith that knowing His goodness produces.

To not continue to accept His goodness expressed through Jesus and not trust Him is to walk in unbelief.

Monday, March 16, 2009

It's Time To Believe Part One

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.

I love the language used here. Do not be carried about. It could have also been said this way, “do not be led about.” What we embrace as truth is what shapes our lives. We act according to our belief and our belief is shaped by the doctrine we embrace.

Being led about by strange and various doctrines occurs when the heart is not established by grace. If we read the Word without having our vision corrected by the grace that came through Jesus Christ we will misunderstand it’s intent.

We are living in a day when various and strange new teachings are emerging continually within the church. Men and women claiming to have received insight from the Holy Spirit bringing some new revelation as it were.

If we have believed grace to give us license to sin then we tend to gravitate towards the reckless teachings that applaud weirdness as though it were a spiritual medal.

If we try to understand grace from a religious spirit we tend to gravitate to the strange teachings that require us to prove our devotion through rigorous strict adherences to rule and regulations written in lists.

We might seek to organize our righteousness before God in a to do list we can check off each day.

When this passage says Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. It is not in reference to the power for miracles, or supernatural phenomenon. Although I fully believe these things are still for today. The passage however, is referring to the grace that came through Jesus Christ. The ministry of reconciliation, the redemption, the atonement for sin. His reason for coming! He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He did not come to condemn the world but so that through Him the world might be saved.

Friday, March 13, 2009

A Greater Glory Part Five

The greatest enemy of the gospel throughout history has been a spirit of religion. It comes across as being so sincere and pious.

It seeks personal holiness at great expense to self, it can be so self abasing. But make no mistake it is full of false humility and moldy holiness. It is unacceptable to God because it opposes His grace.

Colossians 2:18 Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self–denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, 19 and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it. 20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self–denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.

You and I will never be beyond our need to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace teaching is not something we need only when we are young in the Lord and then we move on to personal holiness issues.

We must remain connected in relationship with Christ through grace so that as we behold Him we can be changed from glory to glory.

There is no set time or formula for your transformation in Christ. Only God knows your pace and process so there is no list we can give you to follow.

There is just a person (Jesus Christ) we can point you to and an assurance of His grace to keep you coming before His throne for help in your times of need.

Praise Him for His wonderful grace and mercy shown to us through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

A Greater Glory Part Four

Luke13:10 ¶ One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, 11 he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” 13 Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God! 14 But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.” 15 But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? 16 This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?” 17 This shamed his enemies, but all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did.

Religion was hung up on when this was done and could not rejoice because it did not line up with all the details prescribed for Sabbath worship. They hid behind their holiness excuse.

Unless we walk in the grace we are given by faith and thus begin to see things with new eyes we will have no other choice but to subject who God is and what His word declares about Him to our everyday experiences, and our traditions.

We begin to impose on Him what we believe He is like based on what has happened good or bad to us.

His word gets robbed of speaking out into our lives because our lives impose upon it what we want it to speak.

We can read over and over again how we are the righteousness of God in Christ and how are lives are hidden with Christ in God, but it will have little to no effect on us.

Jesus told the religious leaders of his day that they were blind leaders of the blind. They thought they could see and therefore they could not see. They even had the boldness to call Jesus on the carpet when they felt he was stepping out of bounds with the law of righteousness according to how they interpreted it.

I’m sure they felt they were being good watchmen in doing so. But Jesus called them blind because they could not see the Father being revealed. They could not see things from the vantage point of grace.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, if any man is in Christ He is a new creation and the old things have passed away, behold everything has become new.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A Greater Glory Part Three

One of the things Jesus came to do was to correct mankind’s perspective of God.

How we perceive things effects how we receive and what we will do with what we perceive.

For instance if a girl goes to her mirror and all she sees is an ugly girl she will carry herself as an ugly girl. Her shoulders will slump and she will walk with her head hung low seldom making eye contact.

Her father may tell her she is lovely, but until she sees it differently for herself she will be what she believes herself to be.

Christ gave Himself to change what we see in the mirror of the Spirit. Before we could only see the sin that fogged the mirror and marred our image. We were even afraid to really look at ourselves in the mirror because we knew we would see an enemy of God. We would see indebtedness so great it could never be paid.

Then Christ came! Here it is in a nut shell, we owed a debt we could not pay and Jesus paid a debt that He did not owe.

He paid our debt and took away our sin and shame nailing our offences to the cross. The instant we truly come to Him in faith believing He did what we could not do for ourselves, we begin to see the fog in our mirror lift and the image that was once marred begins to look beautiful.

The artist, called grace, transforms our image and makes us to be what we could not be otherwise.

Apart from the grace that came through Jesus Christ we had no hope, just the nagging fear of God’s wrath upon us. Everything good that happened was our doing and everything bad was God getting at us for our wrongs.

Still today believers who have a string of bad days begin to recount all the things they have done wrong and then begin to lay down and accept the idea that all this bad is God’s judgment against them for how awful they are. They will even drudge up past offences that have long since been forgiven and begin to wallow in condemnation over it.

Not only that, but when we fail to understand grace we hear of something bad happening to someone else and we immediately wonder what they did to have this happen to them.

The apostles would hear of something bad happening and they would ask whose sin was it that caused this to happen?

Luke 13:1 ¶ IT was just at this moment that some people came up to tell him the story of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with that of their own sacrifices. 2 Jesus made this reply to them: "Are you thinking that these Galileans were worse sinners than any other men of Galilee because this happened to them? 3 I assure you that is not so. You will all die just as miserable a death unless your hearts are changed! 4 You remember those eighteen people who were killed at Siloam when the tower collapsed upon them? Are you imagining that they were worse offenders than any of the other people who lived in Jerusalem? 5 I assure you they were not. You will all die as tragically unless your whole outlook is changed!"

If that is not enough to convince us that looking for fault when bad things happen is not seeing life through lenses of grace, consider this.

John 9:1 ¶ As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” 3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.

I wonder how many situations have been encountered in churches where it was intended that the power of God could be seen but it was missed because there were no eyes of grace to see it for what it truly was, an opportunity to manifest His glory?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Greater Glory Part Two

The beloved Apostle John speaks this regarding the appearing of Jesus.

John1:16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

John the Baptist had just screamed out that Jesus was the One of whom he had been talking about. This is the testimony of the Holy Spirit regarding Jesus.

It says of His fullness we have all received!

It does not say that we receive a portion of His fullness. It does not say that we receive a partial deposit of His fullness. It says of His fullness!

Then it goes on to say and grace for grace! Wait a minute here. We get what? Grace for grace! Now that is mind bending.

But it goes on to help us process the point. For the law was given but grace and truth came! Grace and truth are wrapped up in a person. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ!

Now this is not some deep mystical revelation I am speaking of here. This is super basic truth meant to be understood and believed by every one who is in Christ.

Verse 18 is meant to put some tennis shoes on our understanding. No one! What does that mean? No one! Randy used to use this line on his kids and now I use it on mine, “how old are you? 18 well I knew what you know now 28 years ago and I’ve been adding to it ever since.”

Here the Holy Spirit is letting everyone know right off the bat, religious leaders and common folk alike. No one has seen God at any time! News flash if anyone dares to say they have seen God at this point they have just been told by the Holy Spirit they are deceived.

I love the Cosby Show. I just enjoy the humor of Bill Cosby and the way they portrayed family life with a twist of wholesome humor. Bill would always make fun of how his wife Clair the lawyer would say, “let the record show.”

But in verse 18 we have the Holy Spirit declaring let the record show and he is not joking around. What is it the record is to show?

VS18b The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Jesus would often say, “if you have seen me you have seen the Father.” There is no more authoritative revelation regarding the heart of God for mankind than what Jesus demonstrated and spoke.

Monday, March 9, 2009

A Greater Glory Part One

Make no mistake about it, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the most glorious news in all the earth.

If you are someone who hungers for the glory of God then you need to be someone who is awed by, and in love with, the gospel.

2Corinthians 3:5 It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. 6 ¶ He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. 7 The old way, with laws etched in stone, led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away. 8 Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? 9 If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God! 10 In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. 11 So if the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new, which remains forever!

Moses, the man who God used to deliver Israel from Egypt and give them the law of God, had a glory that was fading. He had been to the mountain and spoke with God, and when he descended, the glory of God was on him so intensely that he had to cover his face. But the glory Moses had experienced that had shone so brightly was fading behind the veil.

When the law came to Israel it came with the glory of God. But the glory it brought was a fading glory!

The glory that Jesus brought with Him is a lasting glory that never fades. It is an eternal glory realized only through Jesus Christ and received by grace through faith. So why are so many believers behaving like Indiana Jones and going on a crusade to retrieve the lost glory?

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Do Not Receive Grace in Vain Part Five

Have you been feeling like you keep hitting a wall of opposition in your walk with the Lord? Those things that have been blocking your life for so long will never be removed apart from grace.

The grace that is ours only through faith in Christ is what will carry us in our most difficult times and keep us when we are enjoying the successes.

There will always be obstacles that will try to oppose us.

Zerubbabel was a man called to rebuild the temple after the Jews had been released from captivity in Babylon. The time had come for them to return home and start fresh with God.

It seemed at every turn they were opposed. The enemy did not want them to enter into the place they had walked with God in times past. He did not want them to experience God afresh.

Zechariah 4:7 ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"’"

A capstone is what is put in place when the building comes to completion. That completion is brought forth with shouts of Grace, Grace. If you wish to see your building all the way through to completion you will have to do so by Grace!

God is constructing a new temple for Himself in the earth today!

1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy
priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

No man can ever boast of a true spiritual sacrifice. A spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God is one where my flesh had nothing to do with it. It was all grace resulting from faith in Christ.

If you or I intend to never be put to shame we will have to learn to put our trust in Him and cease from trusting in our own works to merit favor with God. You will never be more holy than what true faith in Christ will make you.

No one will ever be able to add to what Jesus did seeing it was the only thing that pleased God to the point of satisfying His justice.

Therefore it is by grace we are saved and that through faith, not of works lest any man should boast.

We receive this grace in vain when we think we can do better ourselves and begin to act independently from the Lord.

I shout grace, grace to your situation. Grace, grace to whatever hinders you today. Grace, grace to uphold you in His righteousness and cause you to see how far He has brought you and not you yourself.

All glory and honor and praise belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ who has purchased us with His own blood and has brought us into right relationship with God the Father by His grace!

We should be giving Him praise!

We should be thanking Him today for His glorious work in redeeming our lives! Glory to Jesus for His abundant mercy and grace! Let’s not receive this amazing gift of grace in vain. Let Him warm your heart with a revelation of His grace and glory through Jesus Christ today.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Do Not Receive Grace in Vain Part Four

Ephesians 2:4 ¶ But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

A surrender to grace by faith produces an ability to be a new creature and to walk according to the will of God. Then when it happens others do not look at us and applaud our greatness. They can’t help but realize it was God who enabled us to be and to do.

Romans 5:17 said grace causes us to triumph over sin. It is when we receive the grace of God in vain that we dishonor the Lord. We dishonor if we lose faith in the ability of His grace.

Imagine a child who lives in a loving home where the food pantry is full, their closet is filled with nice clothes, and they have a room full of toys both new and old. They have everything they need to live and to grow.

Imagine you run into that small child and he is out working and you ask him why and he says to you that he needs to work to earn money because he doesn’t have all that he needs unless he does something about it.

What a dishonor to the parents that would be. What a lack of recognizing the gift of blessing, provision and love being poured out each day of his little life.

But here is the rub. Many a believer fails to ever truly appreciate the great gift of grace through Jesus Christ. The gift that makes our salvation possible, the only gift with the power to change us into His image. The only gift that can enable us to be identified with Him.

When grace is perceived as merely getting someone saved it is no wonder there is a lack of rejoicing and thanksgiving after having been in for a while. Grace warmed the affections at the start but now other things have to happen before one can get excited about the Lord. He gave them grace to get them started and now they have to work harder than they had ever tried before to stay right.

This my friend is receiving grace in vain.

Grace not only gets us in, it upholds us to the end.

There is a reason that the throne on which Jesus sits is called the throne of grace.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Do Not Receive Grace in Vain Part Three

Romans 5:15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. 16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. (This indicates a change in identity not a new work ethic, grace is a gift and a gift cannot be earned or it is no longer a gift)18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. 20 God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We can only experience grace through faith and by grace we stand, and it is by grace that we will be able to experience the things God foreordained for our lives. Effective grace never makes a lazy saint.

2Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

Here’s where I get to be like Billy Mays the infomercial guy who screams but wait there’s more! Grace releases us to walk in wisdom and prudence and brings us into God’s purpose.

Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth––in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,

It is only through grace that we can be identified with Christ and thus enjoy new life and the wealth of grace and kindness God so freely offers us in Him.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Do Not Receive Grace in Vain Part Two

Grace is the means of our salvation, Ephesians 2 makes this clear.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Grace took us out from under the law that proved us guilty before God and deserving of the justice of eternal damnation.

Romans 10:1 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. (This is called zeal without knowledge) 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in Christ are made right with God.

With regard to the law the Scripture also says in:

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

If that were not enough to begin to convince us we read in:

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Here we are never mentioned as doing anything to obtain this other that having faith in what Jesus did. It is clear that faith brings us into grace and it is by that grace we stand and rejoice in hope! No grace no glory!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Do Not Receive Grace in Vain Part One

2Corinthians 5:20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 6:1 We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

To be told not to receive grace in vain implies that one can receive grace without it being effective at accomplishing it’s purpose.

In vain means that it did not achieve all that was intended to achieve because it is not being utilized properly. It is being rendered as useless.

A vacuum cleaner is designed to pick up messes made on the floor. It can belong to me and even be plugged into the wall, but if turned on it does nothing when I push it across a mess on the floor. Actually you'll find it simply spreads the mess and makes bigger in a sense. Why? It has been rendered useless. I have this vacuum in vain. But if I turn it on amazingly it does what it is intended to do. I no longer possess it in vain. The switch is like the grace of God in my life. It is grace that allows the power of the Spirit to operate withing me and through me. If grace is not allowed to function as grace in my life I have it in vain.

Grace is unmerited favor. It is God’s free action for the benefit of His people. It is different than Justice and Mercy.

Justice is getting what we deserve.

Mercy is not getting what we deserve.

Grace is getting what we do not deserve.

In grace we get eternal life, something that, quite obviously, we do not deserve. But because of God’s love and kindness manifested in Jesus on the Cross, we receive the great blessing of redemption.

An acronym for it is Grace is:
G-God’s
R-Riches
A-At
C-Christ’s
E-Expense.

Grace rules out all human merit. We did not work to be saved.

Grace is the product of God that is given by God, because of who He is not because of who we are. It is a gift to us from God.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Christ in You Part Five

Those who are continually looking to write yet another book on how to succeed at the Christian life and enjoy the glory and favor of God are men and women who have yet to grasp the glorious message of the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

They are still struggling to find a way to get God’s attention with antics they call radical and passionate. But these radical deeds do more to point others to them than to point others to Christ Jesus.

When we do this we become the horse others mistake as the point, when Jesus who is the rider should be their focus.

You and I will never experience more passion than we will when we discover through a revelation of the grace revealed through Jesus Christ by faith that we are forever sealed by His Spirit, accepted in the beloved through Him and walk in the Divine favor because of what He has done.

This revelation does not lead true believers into sin, it leads them into victory over sin as they find themselves gloriously distracted by the sure mercies of God revealed in His Son Jesus Christ!

Your purpose and my purpose is the same as every believers and that is to become identified fully with Him! To be hidden with Christ in God!

I want to bring this to an end going back to Colossians and reading it from the Message.

Colossians 1:11 We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, 12 ¶ thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. 13 God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, 14 the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. 15 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. 16 For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. 17 He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. 18 And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. 19 So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. 20 Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross. 21 You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. 22 But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. 23 You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message. 24 I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering. 25 When I became a servant in this church, I experienced this suffering as a sheer gift, God’s way of helping me serve you, laying out the whole truth. 26 This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. 27 God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. 28 We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. 29 That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.

Identification!

Christ in you the hope of glory!

There is no glory apart from His finished work!

Faith in Him delights the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit is revealed through this faith in Him.

It is by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast!

Jesus our Savior and Redeemer has done it for us! He reconciled us so sufficiently there is nothing we can add to it to impress the Father.

We can rest in His finished work on our behalf and rejoice in the steadfastness of His power to keep us!

What keeps you from approaching Him?

What can hold you back from fully surrendering all that you are to Him?

Come to Him and find the rest you long for!