Embrace God's Grace

This morning we talked about dying to sin and offering our bodies to Christ to be instruments of righteousness. We cannot do this without God's help. It takes focus. It takes determination. But mostly it takes the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit resides in all of us who have received Christ as our Savior. But we still have our free will whether to behave in ways we are prompted by Him, that is to obey, or to choose to continue to be an instrument of wickedness and disobey. The Holy Spirit is our Guide and He will give us warning when we are headed into danger.

But you still have to choose. I love the way it is stated in The Message:

That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. Romans 6:12-14

Are you "running errands for the devil" or are you on a mission of love for your Father? Each and every day we are all confronted with choices to do right (die to the flesh) or to do wrong and continue to be a slave to sin.

So think of it this way. When you choose wrongly, it is kind of the same thing as standing by your old dead fleshly self (that died with Christ) and shaking it and slapping it, saying "wake up!"

Do you really want it to wake up? I'm thinking no. Paul wrote that sin is no longer our master (v.14), but we have to choose to serve our new Master.

Thoughts? Talk to me!

A Contrast of Two Trees

Yesterday we talked about being in Adam when he sinned and therefore inheriting all of his sin automatically. I suppose one of the best ways to understand it is to liken it to a woman who is pregnant and ingests drugs or alcohol and her baby is born addicted or with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

It isn't a perfect analogy, of course, the point of it is that the baby suffers the consequence of a choice his mother made. He did not use drugs, but deals with the consequences. It's similar with us suffering the consequences of sin that Adam committed.

Interestingly, though we did not choose to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, we have chosen time and time again to sin because we have inherited that sinful nature. We sin because we're sinners, and we're sinners because we sin. And so it goes.

Finally, I want to end with the contrast of the two trees that we talked about yesterday. It is pretty awesome!

The First Tree: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.

The Second Tree: The Cross of Calvary

The First Tree was planted by God.
The Second Tree was crafted by man.

The First Tree: God forbade men to eat of its fruit.
The Second Tree: Men are freely invited to draw near and eat of the fruit.

The First Tree: Eating the fruit brought sin and death.
The Second Tree: Eating the fruit brings life and salvation.

The First Tree: When Adam ate the fruit, he was driven out of paradise.
The Second Tree: The thief on the cross ate of the fruit and entered paradise.

I suppose it could be said that eating of the fruit of the second tree (repenting and receiving Christ as savior) is an antidote for the poison you ingested by being in Adam when he ingested the fruit of the first tree.

Thoughts? Post a comment!

100 Monkeys

On Sunday morning, I shared with you the story of the monkeys who learned to wash their sweet potatoes in order to eliminate dirt that disagreed with their tastes. You'll recall that the washing trend grew slowly until the hundredth monkey started washing dirty sweet potatoes. At that point, it became a phenomenon that literally took on a life of its own.

It strikes me that this is exactly what happened in the early church.

If you read the book of Acts, which is the history of the first century church, it is a book about the struggles, triumphs, and persecution of those first followers of Christ.

I find it so interesting that there was such a widespread movement to eradicate this group of believers that literally had started with a ragtag group of people with little or no credentials. Why were they considered so dangerous? They had no education to speak of. They were not among the elite. They were not the ones who held political power. Why not just let them "do their thing" and let it just die out naturally?

The answer to that is simple. This ragtag group, the first followers of Christ, were literally turning the world upside down (see Acts 17:6). After the day of Pentecost when the fire of heaven came down and they received the Holy Spirit, they were from that point on a force to be reckoned with.

We don't know how many people were there in the house that day, but we do know that it couldn't have very many by the very fact that they were in a house. The point is that the gospel began to spread and the church began to grow exponentially from very humble beginnings.

A handful of men and women with no credentials allowed God to use them in a way that 2000 years later the Church continues to grow and thrive. That is their legacy. What will yours be?

Think about it, and tell me what you think?

The Great Exchange

This morning we studied Romans 5:12-21, which is a rich and complex passage. Paul is laying out clearly what we "got" from Adam and what we "get" from our relationship in Christ. As we said this morning, it is a passage of contrasts:

From Adam came the entrance of sin and death.
From Christ came the entrance of righteousness and life.

In Adam, many died.
In Christ, many received grace.

To those in Adam came judgment and condemnation.
To those in Christ came righteousness and justification.

Those in Adam are ruled by death.
Those in Christ rule in life.

One transaction brought condemnation to all associated with Adam.
One act of righteousness brought justification to all associated with Christ.

One man's disobedience made many sinners.
One Man's obedience will make many righteous.

The law augments and intensifies sin.
Grace always outdistances sin.

Sin ruled in death through Adam.
Grace rules to bring eternal life through Christ's righteousness.

It boils down to this: What do you choose? Do you choose death, judgment, condemnation, and being hopelessly mired in your sin? Or do you choose life, grace, righteousness, justification, grace, and eternal life? That's it. One choice can make the difference!

There's a line in the sand. Christ says are you with me or against me? If you step across that line, you step into all of the benefits of being in Christ. This is a transaction that is "trading up" if ever there was one!

Talk to me! What are you thoughts?

Rejoice in God!

Today we talked about rejoicing. That seems to be a theme of Paul's in the fifth chapter of Romans, doesn't it? We took a look at Psalm 145 and went through some of the things about God that cause us to rejoice. So today, in this post, I want to simply give you a challenge.

Take a look at Psalm 103. I want you to read through it and as you do, write down ten things that would cause you to rejoice in God. This psalm offers much to choose from!

¹ Praise the LORD, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; ¹² as far as the east is from the west, that's how far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; ¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
¹⁵ The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
¹⁶ the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children— ¹⁸ with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

¹⁹ The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

²⁰ Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
²¹ Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
²² Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the LORD, my soul.

Read it! List your ten reasons to rejoice in God! And then post a comment and tell me one or two that stand out to you.

One, two, three, GO!

Saved...Saved! Part Two

This morning we explored some of the things that salvation accomplishes in us and for us. For now I want to talk a bit about hope. There is much talk about hope, and for different people it means different things.

I think most people think of future hope. "I hope I find a good paying job." "I hope I marry a wonderful person." "I hope my friend recovers."

In the church, however, when we talk about hope we often are talking about future hope of heaven and all that goes with it. We think of no more trials. We think of streets of gold, dancing with the angels, and singing praises for an eternity. No more sorrow. No more pain.

But I think that Paul writes to the Philippians about hope that is past, present and future all at the same time:

"He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

PAST: We have hope in the completed work of Christ on the cross on our behalf. Our salvation is a done deal. Jesus said, "It is finished" before He died. It's done. We can add nothing to the pot to sweeten the deal. Christ's offer of salvation includes reconciliation with God and freedom from guilt, shame, and death. We are now friends of God.

PRESENT: Our hope in the present is that He didn't just save us and then leave us to our own devices to figure out how to be like Him. He is doing the work in us. We are fully saved from our sin, but still have our struggles in terms of behavior, attitude, and heart issues. We are learning to "walk out" our salvation. This means allowing God to bring our lives in line with who we are in Christ. Another word for this is "sanctification," and it is the process of putting away those old things of the flesh and becoming more like Christ. It isn't instantaneous. It's a process, but it takes us submitting to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

FUTURE: Our future hope is the hope of one day being like Him and not dealing any more with the pressure and trials of our flesh. We will have new bodies and will be with Him in eternity. Again, we don't have to figure out how to get there. He said, "I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:2-3)

Also, consider this:

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory."
I Corinthians 15:51-54

So allow me to paraphrase Philippians 1:6. It's the verse we started with at the beginning of this blog post. It kind of puts hope in perspective of how God sees it.

"He, in the past, began a good work in you by totally buying and providing salvation. He didn't stop there, because He is presently doing His work in you, and He will not stop until it's done. He will continue to carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus when you are with Him in eternity sporting a new body, and a heart that is like His."
Philippians 1:6

Tell me what your thoughts are! What does this past, present and future mean to you? How does it impact how you live your life?

Saved...Saved! Part One

We talked this morning about the amazing gift of salvation that we have through grace. We have done nothing to achieve salvation, nor have we done anything to earn it.

We talked about God putting His stamp on the work He's done, similar to the work of an artist who signs the picture he paints. God wants us to know that He alone has accomplished this.

It makes me think of the creation story. After each part of creation, the Bible tells us that God saw that it was good. I wonder if that is how He feels about His work of salvation as well.

Think about it.

Remember the terms we went over this morning to describe our condition apart from Christ? Let's review:

citizens of the kingdom of darkness
dead afar off lost sheep
children of wrath treacherous
sons of the devil sinners enemies
helpless without strength condemned
ungodly unrighteous adulterous
stiff-necked arrogant without life
sons of disobedience in bondage

Then there were the words that describe what we have become in Christ:

citizens of the Kingdom of light
alive in Christ brought near saved found
sons of love selfless sons of the Father
saints friends empowered
forgiven and justified godly righteous
faithful obedient humble free
obeying from the heart full of life

We come into this life broken, belonging in the first category--ungodly, treacherous, and stiff-necked. He does His work of grace in our life and we now fit into the second category--saved, sons of love, friends, and righteous. What a difference He makes in our lives.

"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10

Just like an artist admires and signs his amazing work, I kind of think that God does the same thing. Just like in the creation story, He sees that His work is good and then He says, "I did that!" He is pleased with what He has done, but we need to keep in mind that He has not just created us so that He could be pleased with His work. He also has prepared good works for us to do. We are not to sit idly so He or others can admire us. We are to do whatever good thing He has in mind for us.

Thoughts? Post a comment!