Which One Will You Be?

Often during my morning jog the praise songs from my i-pod move me along and the time I spend exercising becomes a time of my prayer and worship. What could be better? Exercising physically on a beautiful Florida morning while communing with God is hard to beat.

My spirit many times will latch on to words from a particular song and it is as if the Holy Spirit takes a highlighter to the words to speak something to me. Monday morning was like that. As I listened to the song Two Sets of Joneses by Big Tent Revival my heart leapt and my mind was full of thoughts about the two kinds of houses (life) one can choose to build as taught by Jesus in Matthew 7. In the Philips translation it is stated this way, everyone who hears and practices these words of mine is like a sensible man who builds his house on the rock.

I actually didn't read MLM's Monday post until Wednesday morning. When I saw she posted on this subject I got giddy thinking about how the Holy Spirit works in hearts. Since this message has been stirring in me since Monday I am going ahead with it here -- hopefully it will layer on top of MLM's post to speak to someone.

We can be certain the winds and the storms are going to come as long as we live on this earth. Whatever our beliefs, our thinking, our character, our opinions, our values, our insecurities, our strengths and weaknesses we've been practicing will be revealed when the storms of life rock our world.

I once had a house built on my own ideas, my own philosophies, my own understanding, and lots of mixed up doctrines and justifications. Sandy soil at best. What a night and day difference my life is now that I depend on my heavenly Father's word, wisdom and love to lift me out of the storms of life as I trust Him and know Him better and better all the time. It's vital to know Him and His perfect character of goodness and love toward us in order to trust Him. Trust is not automatic. Trust grows as we step out in faith on God's word and we experience the beauty of a life filled with joy, peace and blessing.

We Start by Grace and We Walk by Grace Part II

Continuing today from my last post of November 2…
…We didn't earn our entrance in the kingdom of God and we can't earn the blessings once we are in.

The Bible tells us that Jesus made us righteous by taking our sin on Himself. If I was made righteous then I am just as righteous as I am saved. Why is it so much easier for us to declare we are saved than to declare we are righteous? If we have right standing with God why do we try to work for His blessings? I submit to you that what God would rather us do is open our hearts wide to Him ---allow Him to love us completely, and as we renew our minds to His truths simply believe what He declares has already been provided for us. It is the very same process we followed to be born again. We heard the gospel which changed our thinking; we believed it and we opened our heart to His grace and mercy. This same course now will give us the desire to imitate Jesus in our walk and will bring the blessings in our lives.

Rom 3:24 tells us “[All] are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is [provided] in Christ Jesus.”

So again, in light of these scriptures, what is it we are trying to prove to God by all our doing? He isn’t impressed by our performance. He has already made us acceptable to Him. And why is it we berate and beat ourselves up every time we falter in sin or make a mistake? It is a waste of precious time when we could be moving forward in Him. God much more delights when we come running to Him in our weakness.

Much like the story of the Prodigal son... “And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.” The father in this story didn’t ask any questions, he didn’t make the son grovel around because of his bad choices & behavior, he didn’t make him wait a while before he showed him he was in good standing… no, with love, compassion and kisses he started the celebration immediately just because the son came back to him!

If you are a Christian today struggling with sin/condemnation in your life---run to your Father God. Accept His grace and mercy just as you once did – in the beginning. Allow Him to love you lavishly as He celebrates with you. All your right doing will follow… effortless change will come from the inside out as you respond to His love and goodness and as you believe you are righteous because of His sacrifice—not your own.

We Start by Grace and We Walk by Grace

It is interesting how we start out a whole new life being a follower or disciple of Christ by grace. It's a free gift. FREE. The FREE gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

It is by grace we are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through believing and not because of works or fulfilling any law. If it was by fulfilling any law then we could brag about what we had done to deserve it and subsequently take pride in ourselves.

No, our salvation or entrance into the Kingdom of God isn’t the result of anything we could possibly DO. I’ve never run across anyone who has experienced salvation who minds quoting that scripture and proudly declaring – it is by grace through faith we are saved.

I wonder then why so many Christians quickly feel like they have to DO all the right things in order to receive blessings from God. So much of the church-world goes right from receiving grace for salvation to behavior modification. We try to get ourselves all cleaned up and fix all our bad habits and behavior. We become very conscious of sin and spend a lot of our time before God reminding Him of how bad we are and what we have done wrong and then we wonder ...where did the joy go?

All the while God has said (Col:2:6), as you have received (by grace) me, walk in me (by grace). We start out by grace through faith and we continue our walk by grace through faith. God is more interested in transforming us from the inside out by our continual experience of His love and goodness than He is in our desperately trying to modify our behavior and struggling constantly with sin.

We didn't earn our entrance in the kingdom of God and we can't earn the blessings once we are in.

Stay tuned for more on this next post…

Taste and See

Open your mouth and taste,
open your eyes and see—
how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him. Ps 34:8

I bless you, Lord, with all my soul and all that is deepest within me. I won’t forget even one of your benefits. You forgive all my sins; You heal all my sicknesses. You redeem my life from the pit and corruption. You beautify, You dignify, You crown me with loving-kindness and tender mercy. You satisfy my mouth with good so that my youth, renewed, is like the eagles. Lord, You execute righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. You are merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy and full of unfailing love!

Lord, You made the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that is in them. I will sing praises to You while I have any being! You keep truth and You are faithful forever. You execute justice, You set free the prisoners and open the eyes of the blind, You lift up those who are bowed down. Lord, You protect and preserve. You will reign forever.

It is good to sing praises to You. You are gracious and lovely; You heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. You are great, Lord, and of great power; Your understanding is inexhaustible and boundless. You lift up the humble and downtrodden; You take pleasure in those who honor You. You fulfill my desires because I fear You; You hear my cries for help and You rescue me.

Blessed are You, Lord, my rock and my strength, my steadfast love and my fortress. You are my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and it is in You that I trust and take refuge. Lord, you are on my side and You take my part; I will not fear. Out of my distress I called upon You, You answered me and set me free. You have delivered my life from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. My heart is firmly fixed trusting in You. You sent Your word and healed me and rescued me from the pit and destruction.

The works of Your hands are absolute Truth and justice; and all your decrees and precepts are sure, fixed, established and trustworthy. You have commanded Your covenant to be forever; Holy is Your name. I give great praise and thanks to You, Lord, with my whole heart.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let Your glory be over all the earth.

Freely You Received, Freely Give

Since hubby and I vacationed in the mountains of N.C a few weeks ago and visited several waterfalls I have contemplated the significance and the effects of rivers. The passage in John comes to mind. I ask myself the question, “what does this mean for me in my everyday life?” …from my innermost being rivers of living water will flow.

Rivers are essential to the balance of all nature and life. Without the flow of rivers there is no life. Consider what it would be like to be so full of God- His power and love - that we just couldn’t contain the effects of Him. We would spill over much like a waterfall with power and strength affecting every one we encountered. I firmly believe Jesus was giving us the inside scoop to our real purpose, our destiny and where we ultimately receive true satisfaction in life.

By divine design, we have a God-imparted need to share with others. God set up a system whereby He pours into us all of Himself and we are to pour back out to others; every gift, every talent, every blessing, every promise manifested, every healing, every freedom, every characteristic and quality He has so freely given us.

Oswald Chambers says it like this in his devotional, My Utmost for His Highest:
A river is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, then it comes to an obstacle and for a while it is baulked, but it soon makes a pathway round the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, and presently emerge again broader and grander than ever.

… The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never get your eyes on the obstacle or on the difficulty. The obstacle is a matter of indifference to the river which will flow steadily through you if you remember to keep right at the Source. Never allow anything to come between yourself and Jesus Christ, no emotion, or experience; nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.

… If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has nourished in you mighty torrents of blessing for others.