Kudzu Christians

“If we really are righteous, then why do we still sin? “ This was the question one man asked me after I had spoken about the believer’s righteousness in Jesus Christ. His question was a good one. Why do we still find ourselves committing sins at times if we have indeed been made righteous by the gift of God’s grace? (See Romans 4:5; 5:17,19; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 4:24; Philippians 1:11; 3:9)

It certainly isn’t because we still have an unrighteous nature. In Jesus Christ, we have received a new nature – His very nature! (See 2 Peter 1:3-4) The man we were “in Adam” was crucified with Jesus. (See Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20) However we haven’t yet been delivered from the presence of indwelling sin. Our spirits have been redeemed and our soul is being renewed. One day we will be delivered from the very presence of sin, but until we receive glorified bodies, we each possess the power of indwelling sin in our bodies. (See Romans 7:21-23) As we trust Christ at each moment, His life empowers us to walk in victory. However, when we fail to depend on Him, we yield ourselves to the power of sin.

It is possible to say no to sin! How was the power of sin in our lives broken? It is by the cross of Jesus Christ. Author J. Alistair Brown once shared a good example on the subject. He said:

Walking through a park one day, I passed a massive oak tree. A vine had grown up along its trunk. The vine started small – nothing to bother about. But over the years the vine had gotten taller and taller. By the time I passed, the entire lower half of the tree was covered by the vine's creepers. The mass of tiny feelers was so thick that the tree looked as though it had innumerable birds' nests in it.

Now the tree was in danger. This huge, solid oak was quite literally being taken over; the life was being squeezed from it. But the gardeners in that park had seen the danger. They had taken a saw and severed the trunk of the vine – one neat cut across the middle. The tangled mass of the vine's branches still clung to the oak, but the vine was now dead. That would gradually become plain as weeks passed and the creepers began to die and fall away from the tree. How easy it is for sin, which begins so small and seemingly insignificant, to grow until it has a strangling grip on our lives. And yet, Christ's death has cut the power of sin. Yes, the "creepers" of sin still cling and have some effect. But sin's power is severed by Christ, and gradually, sin's grip dries up and falls away.

In the southern United States, we have a vine that does the same thing to trees. It’s called Kudzu. Kudzu grows rampant and will eventually destroy healthy trees. That’s exactly what the flesh will do to the fruitful lives of victorious Christians. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

At the cross of Jesus Christ, the trunk (source) of sin in our lives was severed. The flesh patterns of our past may still cling to us, but there is no source of life to sustain them anymore. The cross of Jesus Christ destroyed the power of sin in your life by dealing a death blow to your old nature!

Do you want to walk in freedom over the flesh patterns of your past? Appropriate by faith that the cross was sufficient. Allow the life-giving power of Christ’s life to surge through you like nutrients from the ground passing through the roots into the tree to produce fruit.

You may recognize old fleshly vines clinging to you that grew over a period of years, but as you trust Christ to express Himself as your very life, you will see those vines wither and lose their grip on you. Don’t be a Kudzu Christian, allowing the flesh to grow in your life. Keep your eyes on Jesus. By His grace, He will prune away the life-draining patterns that rob you of His life flowing without restriction in and through you. He will free you daily from sin’s power and will produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

Your Father's Heart

From the book of Isaiah...

My dear child, I always long to be gracious to you, waiting to show you my compassion. (30:18) You are My servant and I have chosen you, not rejected you. Never be afraid because I am always with you. Don’t be anxious about things going on around you, because I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand. (41:9-10)

I am the One who has named you and you are Mine. (43:1) You are precious in My sight. You are honored and I love you. (43:4) Don’t dwell on things that have already happened or ponder things in the past. I will do something new. Do you want to see it? I will make a way when there is no way. (43:18-19) I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. I will shatter the barriers that block your way and will give you treasures, wealth from secret places so that you will know that it is I, the Lord God of Israel who calls you by name. (45:2-3)

Listen to Me. You have been carried by Me since the day you were born, from the womb. That will never change. I will still be the same, carrying you all the way to your old age. When your hair has all turned gray, I will still be carrying you. I always have and I always will. I will forever hear you and continuously deliver you. (46:3-4)

I am God and there is nobody else like Me. I determine everything – from the beginning to the end, even things which haven’t happened yet. My purposes will be established. Every one of them will be accomplished for My own good pleasure. Everything I say, I will do. I planned it and it you can be assured that it will happen.(46:9-11)

I have sworn to you that I will never be angry with you again. (54:9) My lovingkindness will never be removed from you. My covenant with you will never be shaken. I will always have compassion on you. (54:9-10) You will be called “My Delight” because I do delight in you. I will forever rejoice over you. (62:40-5)

Always,
Your loving Father

(I posted this video a couple of year ago but thought it was worth putting up again.)

Things I Never Said

Someone came to me recently after I had spoken about our freedom in Christ and said, "I don't agree with you that it isn't important to read the Bible and pray." "I never said that reading the Bible and praying isn't important," I responded. "I said that when we turn those things into laws, we rob ourselves of the blessings we can know from the Bible and prayer."

It always amazes me to see the capacity people possess to misunderstand the teaching of grace. It really shouldn't come as a surpise though. Everybody who has every taught the pure, undilluted grace of God has been misunderstood.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Paul never said that we should do evil so that good can come from it, but he apparently taught grace in such a strong way that some people thought that's what he was saying.

Others thought he taught that sin didn't matter and that since grace covers it all anyway, it was okay to go ahead and sin. He answered that one in Romans 6:1 when he said, "What shall we say then? Shall we keep on sinning since grace abounds? Perish the thought! How shall we who died to sin keep doing that very thing???"

The great Bible expositor, Martyn Lloyd Jones wrote:

The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel.

Whew! I'm glad to read that a man of his stature said that! It encourages me to stay the course, knowing that I'm not alone in the misunderstandings I've experienced through these past 17 years I have been teaching this amazing and radical grace of God.

It seems that the most common misunderstandings that have been "slanderously reported" against me are that I am teaching:

1. It doesn't matter how we behave.
I've never said such a thing because I don't believe that statement to be true. It does matter how we behave, but our behavior must flow from the indwelling Christ. Anything else is just "dead works" regardless of whether we are preaching sermons or getting drunk. It's not the activity that defines its value; it's the source of that activity that makes all the difference.

2. The Old Testmanent Law is bad and grace is good. Antinomianism is a word often used by those who studied somewhere just beyond the point of Sunday School and think they've nailed those who teach grace. It means to be "against the Law" and I'm not. I've never said the Law is bad. I have said that the Old Covenant of the Law is now obsolete, but I'm not the first one to say that. Hebrews 8:13 says, "When [God] said, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear" (emphasis added)..

The Law is out and grace is in! That's what God's Word says! Furthermore, the Apostle Paul said, "you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ". Was he lying? Of course not. The Law isn't bad, it's just faulty.

That's right - it is faulty. I have no doubt that if a person trapped in legalism reads this, he will be breaking out in a rash about now. But, wait. Do we believe the Bible or not??? If so, please read this verse and tell me what it means:

Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, 'Behold, days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.'

The whole book of Hebrews is about how the new covenant is better than the Law.

3. The grace walk is a passive lifestyle. When people have accused me of teaching this I find it laughable, considering the schedule I keep. The grace walk isn't a lazy lifestyle. It is an active one, but our activity is animated by Him and not by hyper-active, religious flesh. What the legalist calls motion is often nothing more than religious commotion. I have done more under grace than I ever did living as a legalist, but it's not me, but Christ who lives in me who has done it. I could never have made happen the things He has done through me. No, the grace walk isn't passive, but it can appear that way to those who are afflicted with the chronic-Christian-convulsion syndrome they believe they need in order to prove their "commitment to God."

4. Because of grace, we need to be "soft on sin." I've never said anything of the sort. Sin is why Jesus died. I've never said we should be soft on sin, but I have said that we should be soft on people who have sinned. By that, I mean that we should be long on compassion and short on criticism. I have never said that it is never appropriate to confront sin in the lives of other people. I have said that if we do confront their sin, it should be with tears of love that overwhelm them. I have said that, except for rare occassions, we should have earned the right to speak into their lives. I have said that we should realize that they have done nothing we aren't capable of doing too, apart from the protecting grace of God in our own lives.

Do you know what the worst sin is? Somebody elses. Of course, I'm using sarcasm here to make a point and the point it this: "Let him that thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall." Be careful what you say and how you act toward those who have sinned. It might come back to bite you one day.

Our default setting needs to be to love people who have sinned. That doesn't mean we love sin, just that we are being Christ to those who have.

Those are a few things I never said. Are there others you have been falsely accused of saying as you have shared the message of the grace walk? Don't be discouraged. The accusations prove that we are on-track and are declaring God's grace in its glory.

Rededication: The Most Subtle Form of Idolatry

For years I rededicated myself to live for Jesus Christ. By rededication, I mean that I promised God that if He would help me, I would try harder to live for Him. In my understanding at the time, living for Him meant that I would behave in a better way. I would read the Bible more consistently, pray more earnestly, witness more boldly, give more generously, avoid sin more vehemently, ad infinitum.

My understanding of what it meant to rededicate myself to Christ wasn’t uncommon. Many people view it the same way. When I was a local church pastor, I often used sermons to challenge the congregation to rededicate themselves to Jesus. This week it would be a challenge to read the Bible more; next week it might be to pray more. Every week, my challenge to Christians revolved around behaving better. It was all about trying harder. And the people responded — almost every Sunday without fail.

The reason for their response is because when we align ourselves with a legalistic paradigm that we use to judge our behavior, not one of us will get a perfect score. None of us are behaving at all times in all areas of life without room for progress. Judge yourself by law and you’ll come up short every time. The result will always be a sense of condemnation and guilt.

Jesus never once calls on us to rededicate ourselves. Instead he says that we should renounce our self efforts to do better and simply follow (enter into union) with Him. (See Matthew 16:24 – it says “deny” yourself, not “dedicate yourself.) Rededication generally focuses on bringing our behavior up to par.

Consequently, the focus of our lives becomes ourselves and how we behave. Most Christians are consumed with that endeavor. They constantly stare at themselves and their performance. They invest all their attention and energy on improving their actions. They may say they love Jesus, but based on the little attention they give to Him and the enormous attention and energy they spend on themselves and what they are doing or not doing, the truth becomes evident. They come first, not Christ. The evidence indicates that they are a god in their own mind.

Whatever we put before God is an idol. Consequently, when a Christian places his focus on himself and how he is acting more than He focuses on God Himself, he is guilty of idolatry. Remember that idolatry is placing anything before God. So to make our own demand for a higher religious performance the priority of life is a subtle form of idolatry.

Christianity isn’t about you and how well you behave. It’s about having an intimate love relationship with God through Christ. Where is your focus? Is it on you? On what you’re doing or not doing? Or is your attention and devotion squarely focused on Jesus Christ?

There is a real need for repentance in the modern church. It is the need to turn away from ourselves and our never-ending, never-satisfied demand for perfect behavior. It is the need for a turning-to Jesus Christ.

We must stop worshiping the false god of our own behavioral expectations. Stop worshiping our own self-efforts to improve. We must stop permitting our Christian experience to be about my efforts, my sins, my good works, my promises to do better. It’s not about me, me, me. Christianity is all Him, Him, Him!

May God grant the gift of repentance to His church so that we will quit worshiping ourselves at the Temple of Rededication. May we turn to Him and acknowledge that we never will be able to live up to our own self-righteous demands, so we are casting ourselves on His grace and love. Then, and only then, will we find that Christ and Christ alone is our Deliverer. He will free us from being held hostage in a prison of self-perfectionism. When we turn away from rededication and turn to Him, we will hear Him lovingly whisper, “I never intended for you to change yourself. I just want you to rest here in my arms. I’ll bring about the changes in your life. You just stay here and enjoy me.”

One Of Those Days

A brick mason was laying brick for a wall one day. He had reached the top when he finished and realized he had brought up too many bricks. He went down and hooked a barrel to a line and pulley. He pulled the barrel up to the top and then climbed back up. He then filled the barrel with bricks, then climbed down.

When he reached the bottom, he took the line to lower the barrel. He forgot that the barrel was now heavier than himself, so the barrel started falling down and he started flying up. It scared him so badly that he forgot to let go of the line.

When they finally met in the middle, the barrel cut his shoulder. When he reached the top, his finger was smashed in the pulley. The barrel hit the ground and the bottom broke out. Now the man was now heavier than the barrel, so he started down and the barrel started up.

When they met in the middle, it cut his shins. He fell down into the pile of bricks below. It was then that he let go of the line and the barrel fell back down, landing on top of him!

Have you ever had one of those days? I've had a number of them lately. Days when you are up, then down. Days when you don’t know whether to hold on or let go. What are we do to do when we have “one of those days?”

We trust. The psalmist had days like that too. His example is a good one for us today. He responded by talking to himself. He encouraged himself, saying, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (Psalm 43:5).

When life’s circumstances inflict bumps and bruises on us, we can trust our Heavenly Father. When we are disturbed, we can encourage ourselves by affirming the truth. Your Father cares about you, even when everything going on in your life would suggest otherwise.

Habakkuk 3 says,” Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength.”

When life falls apart, God is still in control. Keep trusting him. Place your hope in your loving Father. You will praise Him again. He is your help. His presence will guide you safely through your trial until you come out safely on the other side!

Having A Form of Godliness

The Bible talks about the days in which we live. Two thousand years ago, Paul warned Timothy that a day would come that he called "perilous times." Among many characteristics to identify that day would be a generation of people who would have "a form of godliness but deny its power" (2 Timothy 3:5). They would be religious people who look godly but deny the very power of authentic godliness.

What does it mean to deny the power of genuine, biblical godliness? The Apostle Paul answers that question in 1 Corinthians 1:18. He says, "For the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God unto salvation(emphasis added)." It is the power of God unto salvation. What is "it?" The preaching of the cross. That's it.

So, back to today. There are multitudes of people who appear godly at a casual glance. They go to a church building every week. They carry their Bibles and even read them at home. They give their money. Nobody can deny that they certainly possess a form of godliness. But upon closer examination, it can be seen that the focus of their message, their ministry and their mindset isn't at all on the cross of Jesus Christ. Their obsession is on themselves. On their behavior. On whether or not it's right or wrong to do this or that. On where Christians can go, what we can say, how we should worship, what we can eat or drink or watch or participate in. The list of preoccupations with anything - with everything - other than the finished work of Jesus Christ is endless within this group.

Ask them what it means to be "a good Christian" and they won't say a word about the righteousness (goodness) they received as a result of the finished work of Christ. They'll talk about the things a good Christian does or maybe even things he doesn't do. It's all about them and their actions. If you were to point this fact out to them, they'd deny it and say it isn't so. But listen to their words and what they talk about when it comes to Christianity. Watch their actions and see if they're not more focused on morals than anything else in life. See by how they talk and act what is most important to them. It's about practicing the right performance. That's a fact.

I don't make this observation with a sense of scorn or judgment in mind. I lived that way for the first three decades of my life in Christ. I understand these folks because I was one of them. They're sincere but they're wrong -- dead wrong.

The first temptation that ever came to mankind wasn't a temptation to do wrong, but to do right. Adam and Eve lived in union with God. It doesn't get any better than that. Then comes the serpent and tells Eve that she can be like God if she does this one thing -- eat the fruit. Eve didn't eat that fruit because she decided she wanted to reject God. To the contrary, she ate the fruit because she thought it was a good idea for her to know good and evil, to set up her own system for behavior (rules of right and wrong) instead of living out of the one (trust and union) that God had given her from the moment of her creation. She thought there was something she could do to become more godly and totally lost sight of the fact that God Himself had already made her like Himself.

So the first sin was an attempt to do something right; to do something to become more like God. We all know where that path led. Consequently, today we see the same prevalent sin. Religious people who have a form of godliness and who try to do the right things, but they've missed the whole point. The point is that God never calls on you to focus on doing right and avoiding wrong. Godly behavior exists in a totally different dimension than good behavior and most of mankind has stayed in trouble since the fall because he is blinded to the difference.

It's not about us. It's not about doing the right thing. It's not about figuring out what will please God and dedicating ourselves to whatever we imagine that to be. No, the gospel is the good news that the Father, Son and Spirit have called this great story we call History finished by His own work. Our joy -- our privilege -- our gift is to be able to rest in that finished work.

Don't fall into the snare of religion. Even if you could keep every one of its demands and score an A plus (nobody can), you would still discover that "the letter of the Law kills." Only Jesus can satisfy the thirsty soul. Religion is drinking salt water from the ocean while stranded in a life raft without hope. But the one who learns to drink deeply from the Living Water will never thirst again.

Today's "Sunday Preaching" Is Now Online

This week's message is now on our home page at gracewalk.org. The topic is "The Fight For Freedom." Through this month, I've been going through the book of Galatians exploring Paul's answer to the legalism that threatened the church at Galatia. The same threat remains today and needs to be boldly confronted.

The Barnabas Touch

I don’t think I would have enjoyed having the Apostle Paul for a friend. Does that sound wrong in some way? I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s true. Paul seemed to be the kind of guy who was too intense for me. Don’t misunderstand me. I believe that Paul is probably the most influential Christian who has ever set foot on planet earth. I look forward to meeting him one day in heaven.

But to have lived with him down here? I’m just not sure. Thank God for the Apostle Paul type Christians in the church today. They’re the prophetic, strong, on-mission types who get a lot done and motivate others to do the same.

But as far as somebody I’d want to hang around with goes, I’d pick Barnabas instead. When Paul first became a Christian, those in the early church had their doubts about the reality of his conversion and wanted to keep their distance from him. It was Barnabas who brought him in and convinced them to accept him. (See Acts 9:27)

Once Paul and Barnabas went on a mission trip with young John Mark. (See Acts 12) After awhile John Mark decided that he was ready to go home, so he did. Later, when Paul and Barnabas were going to return to the places they had visited, John Mark wanted to go. The Apostle Paul wouldn’t hear of it. After all, the boy had abandoned them earlier.

Barnabas, on the other hand, had a different viewpoint. He apparently felt that everybody deserves another chance and insisted that John go with them. Paul and Barnabas couldn’t agree on the matter, so they separated. Paul took off in one direction with Silas and Barnabas in the other with John Mark. (See Acts 15:39)

The name “Barnabas” means “the son of comfort.” He lived up to his name, demonstrating a comforting, encouraging way toward John Mark. My guess is that John never forgot how Barnabas treated him. I suspect that by his tenderness, Barnabas made a friend for life in that situation.

Sometimes Christians think that we all need to be like the Apostle Paul – strong, determined, trail-blazers in expanding the kingdom. The church does need folks like that, but don’t minimize the powerful effect of the Barnabas type Christians in the church.

You might start churches, like Paul did, or you might touch somebody who turned aside like Barnabas did. Don’t fall into the error of thinking that you have to act outside your basic personality and temperament type. God can use you with the personality you have right now, without changing anything about that aspect of your makeup.

Do you relate to Paul’s approach to life? Then go for it. But don’t be too harsh on those who are more comfortable with the Barnabas approach. The Pauls of the church may reach cities, but the Barnabases will impact lives too, one person at a time.

Wow

God help us ... some things leave you not knowing whether to laugh or cry!




Next Sunday . . . "Bambi and Damnbi Rhyme. A Coincidence? I think not!"

Losing Your Religion

I lost my religion years ago and I’m doing so much better now. I’m not exaggerating to make a point. I really mean it. Sometimes people will say to me, “What do you mean when you say you lost your religion?” The answer is simple.

Understanding the true meaning of the word “religion” will help clarify my statement. The English word is taken from the Latin word relgio, originally meaning “obligation” or “bond.” It was probably derived from the verb religare , which means to “tie tight.” (Taken from The Dictionary of Word Origins, by John Ayto.)

The origin of the word “religion” explains its problem. Religion ties people up tight, obligating them to a particular set of standards and behavior. In time the word became associated with the obligation men had toward ancient gods.

In modern terminology, the word denotes the idea of performing certain actions with the goal in mind of gaining divine favor. Religion is a greenhouse for legalism because it focuses on duty and performance. It puts the duty on man to reach God by his actions. It puts a bond on people, consequently leaving them in bondage.

Authentic Christianity is different from religion in many ways. A recent comment made about boxing illustrates what I mean. Somebody said, “To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography and the dancers hit each other.” His comparison between boxing and ballet illustrates the union that exists between authentic Christianity and religion, which is legalistic by its very nature. There is none.

Authentic Christianity is the grounded in the gospel . The word “gospel” means “good news.” What is the good news? It’s that we don’t have to try to reach God by our actions anymore, but that it is God’s actions that unite us to Him. It’s the good news that God has reached down to us in the person of Jesus Christ. It’s the good news that the cross and empty tomb were sufficient to cause God to tear up the score card on your life and to call the game over, with you as a winner.

All we need is to trust in the finished work of Christ. That’s it – nothing else. “What should we do that we might work the works of God?” the disciples once asked Jesus. The answer Jesus gave sounds strange to religious ears. He said, “This is the work of God – that you believe on Him who He has sent” (John 6:28-29). Believe – that’s it.

“Aren’t we to do certain things?” some might ask. The answer is that we will do certain things, not because we’re trying to score points with God, but because it’s a part of our spiritual DNA to produce godly works. Others may mistakenly think that we are behaving religiously, but we aren’t. We are simply acting like who we are – containers and conduits of divine life.

Religion will tie you down. Jesus Christ will set you free. Religion will obligate you to work for God, but Jesus will liberate you to serve because of love. Religion will leave you exhausted. Jesus will invigorate your spirit with divine life continuously.
Yes, I lost my religion. As a result, I’ve come to know Jesus intimately. I wouldn’t trade that knowledge for all the religion in the world. I still do many things that probably look religious to others, but that’s not the case. I’m just enjoying Jesus and doing what I want (which happens to coincide with what He wants).

Do you need to lose your religion? You’ll find yourself much better off when you find your life in Christ. Go ahead, do it. Say good-bye to the bondage of being tied up by religious duty and fall into the arms of Jesus Christ. You won’t be sorry.

Just Trust

Given the crisis our family has faced during the past week with the emergency we faced with our son's stay in the hospital, I was going back looking at articles I've written in the past about trust.

In case there are those who read this blog who don't see my daily posts on FaceBook, I want to thank you for praying for our son, David, during this past week. We brought him home yesterday and he is fine. He was told that he needs to follow up with his doctor at home and will be on meds to suppress seizures but the blood clot is gone and he's okay now. Thank you so much for your concern and prayers.

I wrote this article more than a year ago but it seems timely right now:

Your Father’s heart toward you is to do you good. Don’t allow circumstances that would suggest otherwise to be the authority in your belief system. When the details of life scream that He doesn’t care, that you have been left alone to make it on your own – trust.

It is the tendency of us all to want to understand, but understanding is no substitute for trust. It is our inclination to want to be in control of our circumstances, but control is no substitute for trust. Trust in Him is the key to all of life.

When Israel faced the Red Sea, the pathway across was the way of trust. When Daniel was thrown into a den of hungry lions, the ladder out of that pit was trust. When Mary wept beside the tomb of her brother, Lazarus, the remedy for her pain resided in Jesus, who said, “only believe.” Trust Him.

Trust Him when one you love betrays you.
Trust Him when your bank balance is less than your need.
Trust Him when you don’t get the credit you deserve.
Trust Him when you are misunderstood, criticized and maligned.
Trust Him when you don’t know which way to turn.
Trust Him when life screams that it’s over, that there is no way out, that a happy ending is no longer possible.

Just trust Him.

God cannot lie. (Titus 1:2) He promises that His plan for you is to give you a bright future and hope. (Jeremiah 29:11) Despite any appearance to the contrary, He will never leave or abandon you in your circumstances. (Hebrews 13:5) Goodness and mercy will follow you every day of your life, then you’ll go home to be with Him forever. (Psalm 23:6) If you’ll just believe Him, you can rest. (Hebrews 4:3) Will you enter into His rest by trusting Him instead of believing in your interpretation of your circumstances? To belief is to have peace. (Isaiah 26:3) To refuse is to forfeit the rest He offers. (Hebrews 3:18-19)

The Outlook Or The Uplook?

If you've read my Facebook entries or seen the earlier blog this week, you know that our son, David, has been in the hospital since Saturday. He collapsed due to what they now believe was a blood clot in his lung. As of yesterday afternoon, the doctors say there is no trace of it having been there. We praise Him for that and appreciate those of you who have prayed for him.

This past week has put me in the same mindset and emotionally vulnerable place where I found myself fifteen years ago. I wrote the article below some time shortly after that incident. Today, it reminds me again of our Father's faithfulness.

Don't think for a minute that my theological viewpoint is one that suggests things always turn out the way we want them to unfold. They don't. However things turn out in life, though, God is God and God is good.

Here's the article I wrote some years ago now...

“Your son may not live. He may be a paraplegic.” The words stunned me as the emergency room doctor spoke them to us in a somber tone. The year was 1995 and our oldest son, Andrew,twenty at the time,(now 34) had just fallen from scaffolding on a job site where he was working. Suddenly, life made no sense to me at all. My world became instantly dark at the very thought of the long term implications of this accident.

The doctor told us that Andrew would have to be transferred to another hospital which was better equipped to handle such an extensive injury. After following the ambulance across town to the larger hospital with tears streaming down our cheeks, we pulled into the parking space outside the emergency room.

I reached over and took Melanie’s hand. Through teary eyes and with a trembling voice I said, “We don’t know what the rest of this day holds for us. Andrew may not live. He may be crippled for life. Before we go in here, can we agree on one thing? No matter what happens in this hospital, God is God and God is good.”

Melanie nodded as she wiped tears from her own eyes. We got out of the car and walked into the hospital holding hands. A long journey was beginning.

Our son did survive that accident and after three years of therapy, he was restored to complete health. Today he lives a normal life with little residual effects of the accident. We give God the glory for that.

How are we to survive, let alone triumph, when tragedy strikes our lives? What do we do when the outlook is bleak? The answer is, “Try the uplook.” When John wrote the words in Revelation 4, he was exiled on an island – a prisoner in isolation. Humanly, things looked bleak. But the Lord showed John that life can’t be properly understood from a human perspective, but must be seen from His perspective.

As long as God is on His throne, we have every reason to trust Him and know that, despite superficial evidence to the contrary, everything will ultimately work out for our highest good and His highest glory. This is a truth which has sustained saints through the ages.

When he lost his children, Job said, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” “Job, how could you say such a thing?” He might answer, “Because I can see beyond the cemetery and I know there’s a throne fixed in heaven and Somebody is sitting on it!”

From a prison cell, Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord. I’ll say it again – rejoice!” “Paul,” we might say, “Those are strange words coming from somebody imprisoned for preaching. How do you keep such a perspective?” The Apostle might answer, “You see prison bars, but I can look beyond them and see a throne in heaven and Somebody is sitting on it!”

The list goes on and on throughout Scripture – those who looked beyond the temporal circumstances of life and saw a sovereign God sitting on a throne. Will you choose that perspective?

When the outlook is hopeless, try the uplook. Your Father loves you and is sovereign over every detail of your life. That fact is enough to sustain us in the darkest days of our lives.

Our Family Would Appreciate Your Prayers

Our 29 year old son, David, is in the cardiac care unit of a Tampa Hospital after having some kind of episode on Saturday that terrified us all. He had been acting totally normal, laughing and talking, when suddenly he made a guttural groan and fell backward to the floor. When I turned to look at him, he was having an indescribably horrible "seizure." It was horrifying to see. We called 911 and after what seemed like an eternity, the ambulance showed up and they rushed him to the hospital.

For about 20 minutes after he became aware of his surroundings, he knew nothing. He couldn't tell us where he was, why our family was all together. He doesn't remember the incident, but only remembers being in line and then waking up on the floor wondering why everybody was gathered around him.

They doctors say it wasn't actually a seizure per-se, but seems to be the result of a problem he was having with his heart. They don't really know for sure what the problem is, but think it is likely that he has a blood clot in his lung. Obviously, this is a life-threatening situation. They started him on blood thinner last night to try to dissolve the clot - if that's what they are indeed seeing on the cat scan results. His heart rate was dangerously high all day Saturday but, thank God, yesterday was normal. They said the EKG shows that the right side of his heart is working too hard to pump blood - another indication that it is likely a clot restricting blood flow.

Today they will do more tests. They said the EKG showed abnormalities in about four ways. His blood work returned abnormal. The doctors said, "right now we have more questions than answers." They are baffled that a 29 year old would experience this sort of thing. Thankfully, it is a teaching hospital, so they plan to do pretty much every test imaginable to find out the cause.

We would appreciate your prayers for David.

When Hurricanes Come

Remalia is a cab driver on the island of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. I met her a few years ago after sailing there with a group of friends. As she drove us around the island, giving us “the grand tour,” I began to talk to her about her personal life on the tiny island.

Anegada stands separated from the other islands in the BVI. It is only ten miles from one end to the other. Unlike it’s mountainous neighbors to the south, it’s highest point is only 28 feet above sea level.

As we drove the length of this flat spit of land in the middle of nowhere out in the ocean, I asked Remaila, “Have you ever been here during a hurricane?”

“Yeah, mon.” she answered. “Many times.”

“I would think that since the island is so flat, it would be destroyed by the water surge. You don’t leave the island when a hurricane comes?” I asked.

“No, this is my home,” she answered in a matter of fact way that suggested I should have perfectly understood.

“What do you do when you hear a hurricane is coming?” I persisted.

“We make our preparations, then entrust ourselves to God.” she answered.

Her words bounced around in my mind for the rest of the day. “We make our preparations, then entrust ourselves to God.” So that’s how one handles an impending hurricane.

Have you ever known in advance that some sort of hurricane was about to blow into your life? How did you handle it? With a tendency toward trying to be the “Lord of the Ring” in my own life, I have sometimes found myself trying to be the master of the wind myself.

We all tend to think that hurricanes must be avoided at all costs. We see the hurricanes of life as something evil, something that must be from the devil himself. But the Bible says that “the Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm” (Nahum 1:3). Amazingly, God can accomplish His own sovereign purposes in situations in our lives that threaten to be our total undoing.

When we suspect that a hurricane is coming, we want to run. We may renounce it as being from the enemy. We may see it as a threat to life as we know it. We often scurry around in a panic, hoping to either avoid it or at least ensure that we don’t lose anything if it hits.

Jesus, on the other hand, was in a storm one day while He and his friends were out on the water together. What was He doing while the wind howled? He slept. (See Luke 8:23) He had such confidence in His heavenly Father that storms didn’t threaten Him. He knew that His Father had everything under control.

What are we to do when we believe a hurricane is coming into our lives? We do what Remaila said. We make our preparations. We do so by making sure that everything in life is grounded in the love and sovereignty of the One we profess loves us too much to do us any harm. We give all that we are and all that we have to Him. We recognize that this world is temporary and choose not to allow ourselves to draw our identity from it. We hold a loose grip on everything and everybody, realizing that only God determines what we can hold on to throughout our lives.

Then we entrust ourselves to God. We affirm by faith (not feelings) that He is in control – that nothing can or will happen in our lives which is beyond the bounds of His authority or the scope of His love for us. We trust Him. It’s that simple. We don’t always understand. We just trust. We don’t always feel like He is loving us through our circumstances. We just trust.

We entrust ourselves to the love of One who promised to never leave or forsake us. We lash ourselves to Romans 8:28 and refuse to let go. The storms may rage. The winds may blow. The waves may surge. But we know that our security is in the love of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Do you see clouds on the horizon of your own life? Don’t be afraid. The Bible says that those clouds are “the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3). As storms approach, simply make your preparations and then entrust yourself to God.

Cling To Jesus

When you have a serious decision to make and aren’t sure which option to choose, cling to Jesus. When you read your Bible every day, but don’t seem to get anything out of it at all, cling to Jesus. When your bills are coming in faster than your paychecks do, cling to Jesus. When your children make decisions that contradict everything you’ve taught them their whole lives, cling to Jesus. When the doctor gives the diagnosis you most feared to hear, cling to Jesus. When you aren’t sure which church is teaching truth and which is teaching error, cling to Jesus. When grace is a subject you believe, but wonder how to move it from your head to your experience, cling to Jesus. When your heart has grown cold and you haven’t felt God’s presence in a very long time, cling to Jesus. When a friend betrays you in a way you never would have expected, cling to Jesus.

Cling to Jesus. He will guide you through His Spirit. He will nurture you by His love. He will provide for you through His generosity. He will comfort you through His tender compassion. He will heal you by His stripes. He will reveal truth to you through His Word. He will transform you by His power. He will touch you by His presence. He will sustain you by His faithfulness.

Cling to Jesus. He holds you in His arms at this very moment and will never let you go. You have been bought with a price and will display the glory of His grace throughout eternity. Cling to Jesus and know this for sure – He will eternally cling to you.

The Candy Closet

Our grandson was in our home when he opened the closet door in the kitchen. “Jonathan, what are you doing?” Melanie asked him. “I’m looking in the candy closet,” he answered in a matter of fact sort of way.

His answer struck me as interesting. That closet was filled with a lot of different things. There were paper towels and napkins, steel wool and detergents. There were cans of beans and bags of rice. There was a broom and dustpan. There was an assortment of household items. And there was candy.

Something else was in that closet – the kitchen trash pail. A can with a garbage bag in it that had the typical kind of trash that most people’s kitchen cans would have. It doesn’t escape my attention that Jonathan and that trash pail are approximately the same height. He couldn’t see anything else in that closet without looking around or over that pail. And that’s exactly what he did.

Jonathan apparently ignored the smell of that morning’s coffee grounds that was in the pail right under his nose. He didn’t seem affected by the dirty, crumpled paper towels on top of the pile. I suppose he had no interest in knowing what else was in that trash pail. He looked beyond it, to the third shelf – the one where the Butterfingers and Blowpops were located. Nothing else in that closet really mattered. The candy defined that closet to him.

Our lives are like that closet, filled with many things. The fact is that to enjoy life the way our Father intends, we need to set our minds on the right things. Some things in life are sweet and others stink. Sometimes the things that stink seem as big as we are.

But we have a choice to make. We can focus on the things we don’t like and whine about how God doesn’t bless us like He does other people, or we can focus on the sweet things He has given us. It’s all a matter of setting the mind.

In his childlike way, Jonathan has the ability to look over the imposing pail of garbage and see the candy on the third shelf. That’s a lesson to me from a four year old: you can always find garbage in the closet, but look above it and focus on your blessings.

The Bible says, “If you have been risen with Christ, set your attention on things above; not the things on the earth; because you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-2). In other words, look up. There may be garbage in your circumstances at eye level, but just above them is a Father who has given you His sweet life. Let that fact define your life.

The Sea of Forgetfulness

Imagine standing on the top deck of a cruise ship out in the middle of the ocean. It is night, but the moon is bright so that you can see the water. As you look around the horizon, you can see nothing but water in every direction.

You reach into your pocket and pull out a marble and toss it over the side of the ship into the ocean. Ker-plunk. It hits the water and disappears into its depths as the cruise ship moves right along.

Now imagine the next morning, you get up and want to go back to the place where you tossed the marble into the water and retrieve it. Can it be done? Not a chance. It would be absolutely impossible. The ship has moved on. The marble lies somewhere far behind you, on the floor of the ocean. There is no chance it will ever be brought up again.

Think of that marble as your sin. Two thousand years ago, the Father, Son and Spirit absorbed your sins into Himself in the Person of Christ on the cross. In the dark night of Golgotha, He cast them into the sea of forgetfulness. They were swallowed up by an ocean of grace. They are gone and nothing can ever bring them up again.

“Oh, but my sins were so great,” you might protest. Okay, forget dropping a marble in the ocean. Fill your pockets full of marbles if you want. More marbles change nothing. Drag a fifty-five gallon drum full of marbles onto the deck of that ship and throw it overboard. Even that won’t make any difference.

Your sins can never overwhelm the Father’s expansive ocean of grace. You have sinned? Okay, welcome to humanity. Now, it’s time to get past your sins. Stop trying to bring up something that Christ has thrown away. (He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. See Hebrews 9:26)

Don’t dwell on your sins – neither those of twenty years ago nor not those of yesterday. That ship has sailed. You are forgiven. Relax. Settle in on The Good Ship Grace and enjoy the journey. The captain of your salvation has a wonderful itinerary planned for you as you go. And you won’t believe how wonderful your final destination will be!

Who's Your Daddy?

Almost three decades ago, I experienced a thrill that still leaves a smile on my face today as I think about it. Melanie and I have four children, all grown now. The first three all said the word, “mama” before I was ever mentioned. Not so with our youngest. I will never forget the day when Amber said, “da-da.” It was a thrill that I won’t ever forget. She didn’t say “mama” first. She said, “da-da.”

I was lucky enough to have Melanie in the room with me when Amber said it. Otherwise, I’m sure that she would have insisted I was hearing what I wanted to hear. But the truth was that she said it. We both heard her.

Do you remember the first time your child called you by name? Mama or dada is often the first name used to address a parent by a small child. The words have a different connotation than “mother” or “father” – both which sound far more formal. Even the words “mom” or dad” tend to come later, after the child has grown a little. “Da-da.” It’s a baby’s word – a word that has thrilled many a new dad’s heart.

There is a word used in the Bible that is much like the word “da-da.” It is the word Abba. The word is from the language spoken by Jesus as a child. It isn’t the same word that would be translated as “father.” It’s a more intimate word, like a baby would use. It’s an affectionate word – very personal and intimate.

When Jesus spoke to His heavenly Father, He called Him “Abba.” (See Mark 14:36) Throughout His earthly life, that was the kind of relationship He had with God the Father. It was one of intimate, affectionate dependence. Jesus was His Father’s little boy, a Son “in whom [He] was well pleased.” The Father adores His Son. He always has . . . and always will.

Can you imagine having the same kind of relationship to God the Father which Jesus has? You don’t have to simply imagine it. You can enjoy that kind of relationship to the Father. The Bible says that we have been adopted as God’s children and now cry out, “Abba! Father!” (See Romans 8:15) In Galatians, Paul wrote that “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ (4:6)

God the Father isn’t a distant, emotionally reserved, “Father” who oversees your life with an authoritarian, harsh demeanor. He’s more like a doting daddy who laughs with delight over his little baby. Your Daddy is proud of you. At this very moment, He is watching you and thrilled that you belong to Him. I wouldn’t be surprised if He isn’t showing off pictures of you to everybody else in heaven. The point is that He adores you to the same degree that He adores Jesus.

Babies don’t always act the way Dads would like. Sometimes they have diaper problems. Sometimes they pitch temper tantrums. There are times when they just can’t be pleased. They act like babies. But their daddy never stops loving and adoring them. He isn’t thrilled with them because of how they behave. He’s thrilled because they belong to Him!

Who’s your Daddy? The Abba of Jesus Christ is your Abba. He loves you with a love that nothing will ever change. Your birth into His family was neither a surprise nor an accident. He chose to have you as His own child. He dotes over you with a pride and pleasure so big that it can only be contained by a God-sized heart.

So, relax. You don’t have to impress Him. You can just reach up with outstretched arms of faith and cry out, “Daddy!” and He will respond. He always does. He will forever hold you in His arms and eternally declare His love for you. If you listen carefully, you just might hear Him laugh with joy, saying, “Abba loves his little baby so much.

No More Score Cards

I seldom play golf anymore. Occasionally, if I’m with somebody who loves the game, I’ll go to the course and we’ll play. Playing golf with me will test a person’s patience. You can learn a lot about a man playing golf with him.

To some people golf is a game. Those are the ones who do okay playing with me. For the rest, it’s a sport. I drive those people crazy. They’re the ones whose adrenalin production triples the second their hand touches a golf bag. They hurriedly tee up their ball, violently drive it down the fairway, jump into the cart as fast as they can and drive at breakneck speed to get to the ball so they can slam it again. They act as if they’re paying to play by the second. Meanwhile, I’m off in the rough looking for my ball that sliced like a boomerang.

When I first played golf, it drove me crazy. I tried so hard to hit it straight and to hit it far, but couldn’t do either. Compared to most of the guys I played with, I felt like a little girl playing with her daddy’s power tools. I just couldn’t do it well, “Keep your head down,” well meaning golf partners told me dozens of times. But the only way I could have kept my head down was to set a five gallon bucket on my shoulders. I just couldn’t do it.

In those early days I became more and more frustrated. I thought I had to do well. Trying harder to perfect my game only added to the frustration and made matters worse. One day I actually experienced the feelings I’ve seen expressed by golfers in comedies on TV programs.

After knocking my third ball straight into the water in front of me – the water everybody else had cleared in one shot – the thought crossed my mind that I should throw the !$#! golf bag and all the clubs into the water and forget the whole thing. (I also came to understand at that moment why pastor’s usually play golf only with each other.) But I didn’t. Instead, a few moments later, something miraculous took place.

I was on the back nine, hole 11, I think. I was waiting for the other guys to hit when I looked around. For the first time, I really noticed that the surrounding area at that hole was beautiful. The grounds were perfectly groomed, the woods around us were brilliant with fall colors. The water hazard down the fairway looked like a serene, peaceful pond where a person would want to build a home and sit on the front porch just looking around for hours.

Suddenly something inside me changed. Hitting my ball straight and long didn’t matter anymore. I stopped caring about my score. I just began to enjoy being outside in this beauty. I began to enjoy the company of my friends. I finished the game experiencing a kind of pleasure I hadn’t known since I was a child. I saw rabbits in the bushes, squirrels in the trees – I even saw a hawk swoop down and pick up a chipmunk and fly back up toward a nest with him in the grip of his powerful claws.

From that day until now, I don’t care about my score when I play golf. I think I shoot around 115, but I don’t count my bad shots. And I don’t care. The score card doesn’t matter anymore. Now I play just to enjoy my friends and nature and the game.

I think that’s how we ought to live the Christian life, don’t you? For years I focused on my swing. I lived with the demand to “do it right,” like a “good Christian” ought to do. My performance was all that really mattered. I read books and attended seminars on how to be a better Christian. I kept meticulous watch on myself, scoring my actions at every moment. It was a frustrating experience, to say the least. I never felt that I’d be able to reach the level of performance that I saw in those to whom I compared myself.

Then one day something wonderful happened. My eyes were opened to grace for the Christian. I came to see that God wasn’t keeping score on me anymore and that, He has in fact, torn up the score card. What a liberating truth to understand and believe!

There is no score card in the Christian life! Do you understand that? Do you believe it? Because of the cross of Jesus Christ, God has stopped keeping score on you. Do you want to enjoy life to the fullest? Then stop keeping score on yourself! Your Father accepts you just the way you are.

So, relax. Enjoy what’s around you. Take in the scenery. Revel in the relationships you have. Go easy on yourself. You may never qualify for the Masters in life. That’s okay. Just enjoy the game. That’s what your Father wants most for you.

If The Pharasaical Shoe Fits . . .

Stay with me on this until the end. This information is important in order to make my point.

The word Pharisees (lat. pharisælus, -i) comes from the Hebrew פרושים perushim from פרוש parush, meaning "separated." (Ernest Klein - Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language)

There are two major characteristics of the Pharisees, their meticulous observance of obligations under the Law for purity, tithing, and Sabbath observances; and their emphasis on oral law as equally binding to the Law. (Edersheim, Life and Times, I:311-12)

The New Testament witnesses to their great concern over tithing and purity in Matthew 23:23-26 and Luke 11:39-42; and the many disputes Jesus had with the Jews over the Sabbath day reflects their concern for that law as well. Rabbinic literature also preserves such descriptions of the pious Jews: In Demai 2:2-3 and Hagigah 2:5-6 the dual obligations of purity and tithing are mentioned together; and Taharoth 4:12 stresses the "cleanness of Pharisees," whereas Niddah 4:2 scorns the Sadducees as being lax with regard to purity.

In the process of multiplying rulings it was easy for the Pharisees to become hypocritical because in attempting to be faithful to the letter of the Law they lost the spirit of the Law. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was well known; Edersheim says that some of the sayings in the Rabbinical literature on this are more withering that those in the New Testament.37 So Jesus warned His disciples to beware of the teachings of the Pharisees (Mt. 16:12), or the leaven of the Pharisees (Lk. 12:1); He also rebuked their hypocrisy (Mt. 23).

But they most easily exhibit the excesses and errors of Pharisaism as well. Perhaps this is simply the lot of those in any age who believe that they have the truth. They often ascribe a great deal of authority to the teachings they receive on the Bible, even to the point of elevating application to the level of interpretation, so that those who do not comply with the Word of God as they understand may be considered disobedient.

So, here's what a Pharisee looks like:

1. He is very zealous about keeping biblical laws.
2. He has little or nothing to do with other people or groups who don't share his passion for purity through keeping rules. He is proud to be a Separatist.
3. He is proud about keeping some behavioral practices that aren't even in the Bible.
4. In order of importance to him are clean living (as he defines it), tithing and sabbath day observances (church activity).
5. He can't stand those compromising Sadducees, who obviously don't have a clue about the pure truth of God's Word.
6. He elevates not only the Bible, but his own interpretation of the Bible so that those who don't share his views or live according to what he thinks the Bible means are vilified by his group.

Hmm... a Pharisee. Think they're extinct today?

The information in this article above the list came from this source: http://bible.org/seriespage/pharisees#P54_15117)

A Voice Whining In The Wilderness

I guess the word for my feelings would be “amused” or sometimes “amazed.” I’m talking about my reaction to those pastors (it’s always pastors-thank God for the good ones!) who fancy themselves to be doctrinal watchdogs for the whole Christian world. They are the ones who write verbose articles against what other people are teaching, but have very little to say themselves. They project themselves as scholars of the highest pedigree while their logic and biblical acumen reek of amateurish attempts to sound smart. Since they seem to have no thoughts of their own, they spend their lives reacting negatively to what others say. I mean, after all, when you’re a preacher you have to talk about something.

Somebody recently sent me an email calling my attention to another critic of my ministry and message who has gone to great lengths to show how dangerous I am. (I still can’t quite figure out why friends think this will bless me.) This pastor called me an antinomian. He suggested that I don’t understand the complexity and duality of human nature. He even questioned my trust in the Bible. The only thing his article lacked was the insinuation that my last name might be linked with the Oklahoma City bombings a few years back. (That was Timothy McVeigh, not McVey.)

As I browsed around, I was relieved to learn that I’m not the only heretic out there. Apparently, I’m in good company with Billy Graham, who supposedly is in danger of hellfire for thinking somebody other than middle-aged white men might be in heaven. With Joel Osteen, whom allegedly will one day have that smile wiped off his toothy face. With Rick Warren who, although he is going there, doesn’t worry about it because he doesn’t believe in it. I could list others noted as members of the Heretics Hall of Shame. Some of them are even my friends. People like Bill Gillham, author of Lifetime Guarantee, the book God used to open my eyes nearly 20 years ago. How could anybody say such a mean thing about such a sweet guy!

Well, anyway -- I didn’t know I was such a bad guy. Well, at least I’m sincere – you gotta believe me on that one. The guy who wrote me that “hell will be really hot for you” just doesn’t understand me. Like all Christians, I’ve traveled the road I’m on and have come to the place I am because I believe God’s Spirit has brought me here. And the truth is, if this is the wrong place, all I know is that I sure ain’t going back to where I used to live. Been there, done that. For the last time.

I’ve traveled the religion road and found it only led me in circles. Finally, after many years of driving myself faster and faster in an attempt to find my way, I pulled off in a Rest Stop and don’t plan to ever leave here. I like it. In fact, I plan to spend the rest of my life standing on the side of the road and motioning for others to pull in and rest with me.

Yes, there are whiners in the wilderness – those who whine and criticize because they don’t understand God’s grace and think they are light years ahead of those who proclaim it. As I began by saying, most of the time I’m amused or amazed by them. Truthfully, sometimes I am agitated with them – particularly when their criticisms are about things they think I’ve said or believe when they actually have totally misunderstood my viewpoint. I’m thinking of the one guy who accused me of not believing the Bible. Now that’s a cheap shot with not a shred of basis for such an accusation.

Sometimes I feel sorry for these whining voices, but not often. I save that for legitimately weaker brothers, not wacky ones.

Why this particular blog article? So that others who are criticized will know you aren’t alone. One person recently said she was tempted to just shut up about “this whole grace thing” because of the trouble it is causing her. My advice is: “Don’t!” People need this message of grace we share. Let the whiners whine but let us refuse to back down or water down the gospel.

There is much at stake. Time is short. Grace is true. So let’s keep proclaiming it!

God Is For Me

“God is for me.” Can you make that statement with a deep sense of certainty? He is, you know. When things are going the way you want, God is for you. When life seems to be falling apart, God is for you. When the Philistines chased David down in Gath, he wrote, “This I know, that God is for me” (Psalm 56:9). What a time to make a declaration like that!

Many of us have found ourselves in a place similar to David’s situation at times. Life is closing in . . . the enemy seems to have us cornered and there appears to be no way out. Pleasant circumstances disappear before our eyes and the world turns dark.

At times like that, we may be tempted to cry out, “Why is God against me?” Not David. He assured himself with the truth, “God is for me.” He didn’t say, “This I feel, that God is for me.” There are many times in life that we don’t feel like God is for us. No, he said, “This I know, that God is for me.

Will you affirm this truth in your own life? God really is for you. Nothing can ever change His mind or heart toward you. If you are His child, His lovingkindness toward you will last forever. (Read Psalm 136 sometime!)

Circumstances may be suffocating you at times, but God is for you! Negative feelings may seem to be strangling you, but God is for you! Life may not make sense at a given moment, but God is for you! Trust Him. When you feel like you’re drowning in an ocean of problems, cling to your Heavenly Father. He will prove Himself strong in your life by assuring you of His love.

Your circumstances may or may not turn out like you want, but He will hold you in His loving and sovereign arms and gently whisper His love to you again and again. Sit in quietness for a moment and listen to his loving voice assure you of that fact until, like the Psalmist, you may say, “This is know, God is for me!”

Annuit Coeptis

Take a one dollar bill and look at the back of it. Do you see the pyramid on the left, with the eye above it? Look at the Latin words bove that eye – “Annuit Coeptis.” Do you know what those words mean? “Our endeavors are favored.” That’s the meaning – our endeavors are favored! Favored by whom? You know who – God, of course!

The word favor is a synonym for the word “grace.” There, right on the back of every dollar bill you handle every day of your life is a message reminding you that your endeavors are favored by God. What could possibly be a more appropriate symbol for our daily lifestyle than a one dollar bill? A day hardly passes that we don’t handle one. Every time you do, your Father is saying to you, “My grace is upon you.” Every time you touch a dollar bill, why not affirm the truth, “My Father’s favor is on me.”"

It's amazing how many ways our Father will speak to us when we get out of the religious box that most of us have lived in for so long. He really does speak in a multitude of ways, and often not with a churchy dialect.

The enemy wants us to think that the only way we can hear the voice of God is when it comes to us through a religious means. How sad when we fall for that lie. Our Father uses the whole world as His pulpit. He declares His love for us in many ways every day, even through a simple dollar bill.

Do you want to expand your capacity to hear the voice of God? Ask Him to make you aware of the ways He whispers His love to you in the routine circumstances and events of your day. Then don’t be surprised when you hear Him in ways you’ve never even thought of hearing Him before – through music, movies, art, nature, hobbies, sports – you name it.

One person wrote me and asked, “Are you saying that God speaks to us outside the Bible?” My answer is, “yes.” He will never speak to us in a way that contradicts the Bible, but He certainly speaks at times other than we are reading Scripture. How many times have you heard the Lord speak through a sermon, a choir anthem, a book written by a Christian? Many times, of course.

What I’m challenging you to do is realize that our Father’s voice extends beyond the religious and into your regular daily lifestyle. Listen for His voice assuring you, “Your efforts are blessed. Your lifestyle is favored.” That’s what He wants us to know and He is willing to tell us that truth a thousand times a day if need be.

Conviction of Sin

The ministry of the Holy Spirit in bringing conviction into our lives is one of the most misunderstood truths of the New Testament. Many of us have lived for many years with a viewpoint that suggests that one of His main responsibilities is to point out our sins so that we will abandon them. Many are surprised to learn that, while the Holy Spirit does indeed convict us, it isn’t about our sins. He convicts us about something altogether different. Consider John 16:8-11:

8 "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

This passage says that the Holy Spirit convicts of three things: 1. Sin 2. Righteousness 3. Judgment. He convicts two groups of people: The world (not you) and you (the Christian).

Who does the Holy Spirit convict of sin? Verse 9 says that the conviction of sin is connected to the world. Why are they convicted? “Because they do not believe in Me,” says Jesus. It is the unbeliever who is convicted of sin. What is that sin? They are convicted of one sin in particular – unbelief in Christ. The Holy Spirit doesn’t convict unbelievers of their sins (plural), but of the singularly greatest sin of all -- their failure to trust Christ as their Savior.

Even if they stopped doing all the wrong things they do in life, the world would still have the fundamental problem of their unbelief. When your house is burning to the ground, you don’t worry that it needs a paint job. There are more pressing matters. So it is with those who don’t know Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts them of their great need to believe in Him. Everything else is incidental.

But what of the Christian? Jesus said the Spirit would convict of righteousness because “I go to My Father and you no longer see Me.” Conviction of sin is directed to a group Jesus called “they” – the world. Conviction of righteousness is associated with “you” – the follower of Jesus. The ministry of the Holy Spirit toward the Christian is to convince us of our righteousness. Jesus has put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself (see Hebrews 9:26). Now He seeks to convince (convict) us of that reality so that we will act consistently with who we are.

The Spirit of Christ doesn’t put you under guilt and condemnation about something Jesus Christ has already absorbed into Himself at the cross, defeated and put away. Remember that Jesus dealt with sin and then sat down by the right hand of God because there was nothing left to do regarding sin. Your sins have been defeated and put away. So at every moment, “There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”

When the Christian sins, the Holy Spirit causes us to realize, “This isn’t who I am. I don’t want to live like this.” That realization is a call to recognize our righteousness and act like who we are. If you sense feelings of worthlessness and shame; if you think you are a horrible person when you sin, that isn’t the Holy Spirit speaking to you. It may be your church or family history rising up to condemn you, but it isn’t God’s Spirit. He doesn’t do that. Ever.

You can be convinced (convicted) that the ruler of this world (Satan) has already been judged and has nothing on you anymore. Your sins have been defeated, so when you find that you have fallen, don’t beat yourself up because God doesn’t. Just get up and act like who you are!

This is the view of Jesus many Christians have....

The video was made by and for a church youth group. It's intention isn't to criticize or make fun of Christianity, but to show the silliness of faulty beliefs about Jesus.

(If you're looking for the blog on Being Out Of Fellowship With God, scroll down this page :) Some have emailed to say they can't find it)

Being Out of Fellowship With God - Not Possible

It is impossible for a Christian to ever be out of fellowship with God. Do you believe that? I begin this article with such a bold statement because I want to shake you into serious thought. As we grow in our grace walk we sometimes find ourselves having to rethink some of the things we’ve heard all our lives. This whole concept of being “out of fellowship” is one of those things we’ve all heard, but it just isn’t true. It isn’t true for one simple reason: the fellowship you have with God isn’t up to you. Your Father has embraced you with an eternal grip that makes it impossible for you to wiggle out of His love and acceptance.

If it is possible to be out of fellowship with God, what would cause that? Sin, of course. That’s the silver bullet against the Christian, right? Don’t be so quick to agree. The truth of the matter is that Christ has dealt a death blow against sin that will eternally keep it from ever interfering with how God sees you. Sin has been defeated. When Jesus said, “If is finished!” that’s exactly what He meant.

John wrote in 1 John 1:7, that “if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Know this: You do walk in the Light. Even when you sin, you are in the Light because He is the Light of the world and you are constantly in Him. Our perception of the light may be obscured, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are in the light. If I go outside into the bright sunlight and put on a sleep mask so that I see nothing but complete darkness, am I in the light? Yes, I am still in the light. My only problem is that my perception of the light has been blocked.

That’s what sin does in our lives. It blinds us to the fact that we are standing in the Light of His love and grace at every moment and to the reality that nothing can change that. John said that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” The word “cleanses” in the verse is the Greek word kathariz, a word which has powerful implications. The word is present, active, indicative – meaning that the blood of Christ at this moment and at every moment is keeping us cleansed of all sin. If we are being constantly kept cleansed of sin, what would cause God to be out of fellowship with us?

When the prodigal son was in the pig pen, his perception of fellowship with his father was totally changed. He would have said that he was out of fellowship but, in reality, his Dad’s attitude toward him hadn’t changed at all. His Dad still loved, adored and accepted him the way he always had done. The problem was in the son’s mind, not in the Dad’s attitude.

The same is true of us. Our Father adores us and nothing ever changes that fact. Our perception may be that we are “out of fellowship” at times, but God never sees it that way. He embraces and loves us even when we feel like we have broken fellowship with Him. You are cleansed of your sins and your Father accepts you. So put aside the notion that fellowship with Him can be broken by your behavior. It isn’t about you. It never has been. It’s all about His unconditional acceptance. He is in fellowship with us and we aren’t big enough to ever change that!

God's Grace Is Bigger Than Your Sin

One of the most amazing aspects of God’s grace is the way it blows sin right off the map of our lives. Make no mistake about it – sin lost the battle with God and is now a non-entity as far as its ability to stop His purposes for the life of the Christian. Are there consequences for our sins? We have all seen that often to be the case. Do our sins disqualify us from being used by God? Not at all.

David committed a horrible sin when he slept with Bathsheba, but after they were married and God wanted the temple to be rebuilt it was her son, Solomon, that He used to accomplish that project.

Peter flatly denied that he even knew Jesus, but when it came time for the sermon to be preached on the day of Pentecost, he was the man who God used that day.

Abraham had his wife Sarah tell a king that she was his sister so that the king wouldn’t kill him to have a chance to take her. Despite his horrible and cowardly sin, God reaffirmed His intention to make him the father of a great nation many times afterwards.

The list could go on and on. It’s a strange thing to hear debate in the church today about who God can and can’t use. The fact is that God can use anybody He wants to use. I learned this truth even before I understood the grace walk. Years ago someone asked me about a certain, flamboyant TV evangelist. “What do you think of him?” I was asked. “He’s an idiot,” I responded in my “I-haven’t-learned-a-thing-about-grace” way that was all too common back then. The woman then went on to tell me how God had used that man’s ministry to transform her life. “What do you think now?” she asked. Without hesitation, I answered, “I guess God uses idiots!”

While my response was far from graceful, it’s true. God uses idiots. I should know. He used me despite my years of legalistic idiocy. God can use you too. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you might have done something that is so terrible that your Father can’t redeem your past and use your life for His glory. He can use you and He will use you.

Jesus came to put away your sin and He fully succeeded at that. (See Hebrews 9:26) We need to stop worshipping our sins by focusing on them and glory in the finished work of the cross. God’s grace is bigger than our sins and He will use our lives for His glory. Let’s just trust Him to do it!