I think I've shared this before on this blog, but these are notes I wrote down about 2 1/2 years ago. I was reading through some old stuff today and came across this.
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12/30/06 God doesn’t ask me to be “on fire” for Him. God doesn’t ask me to be “radical” for Him. Rather, before I was born again He told me I must die, and then He could come and raise me up to a brand new life and join His life with mine. So the life I now live is not a matter of me being radical or on fire for Him, but rather His radical life expressing itself through me – in whichever way He wills. The life I live in this earthsuit I live by faith. I most certainly don’t live by my own might or power or by my own attempts to live a powerful or radical life, or even a sincere, dedicated life. That sounds “unChristian,” I know! But as I let go of my own attempts at living any part of the Christian life, another Life takes over, with more power and dedication than I could ever come up with.
The gift of God that is in us, which Paul reminds Timothy to “fan into flame” (2 Tim 1:6), isn’t necessarily going to have an outward appearance that’s radical or sensational or impressive to other people, even to other Christians. Understand, I’m writing from the perspective of an introverted person who has tried in the past to live the extroverted, radical, effervescent Christian life, trying to prove to others that I’m “on fire” for God. I had faith – deep faith – and looking back, I can now see that my true faith was expressed in ways that weren’t always noticeable by others. But since I had come into a church culture that seemed to take greater notice of those with more visible and expressive demonstrations of faith, I prayed and tried very hard to have the same passion as others and for the Spirit to manifest Himself in me with the same sort of outward demonstration. Again, I now see that I really did have a deep faith, but at the time I didn’t think that was true. I wondered when the time would ever come that my faith would grow and I could truly be more expressive with my faith. When would I ever truly be “on fire” for God?
Thank God that I finally came to an understanding of who I really was. Or better said, I came to a better understanding of who Christ is in me.
The way that the life of God will be expressed in each of us individually will be different.
You can’t be what you’re not. Be who you are!
Monday, July 06, 2009
You are who you are, not who you're not
Sunday, July 05, 2009
GIG 198 - Freedom Comes Not Through Law But Through Faith
Christians, declare your independence from the Law! Many Christians, it seems, have not realized that Christ set them free from God's Law. But since it's the truth, we might as well know and understand it so we can live a life of independence from the Law and of true freedom in Christ!
There are over 600 Laws in the Bible. So which Laws are we talking about here? As everyone knows, there are two covenants - the Old and the New. In the Old, we see that there are laws that are broken into three categories: sacrificial laws, dietary laws... AND what is known as "moral laws," or The Ten Commandments. Most Christians have no problem with the understanding that we don't live by the old sacrificial and dietary laws. But as we check out Paul's words in Galatians this week, we find out what he has to say about the latter set of laws, which many Christian seem to think are there for us to live by. If you see things that way, you may be surprised at what the Bible actually says about that!
In short, let's just say that walking by Law means that we are in bondage! To walk according to God's promise - to walk according to freedom - means to walk by faith, not law. We are children of faith and of the promise, not children of the flesh and bondage!
Next week: If our lives in Christ are not to be by Law, then what is the motivation and source of good works and righteous living?
gigcast.graceroots.org
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Close to God (repost)
This is something I first posted almost 3 years ago (here) when this blog was still fairly new. Matthew's latest blog post, Wake the Sleeping Christians, which he posted on his blog here and on the Grace Roots discussion forum here, along with the comments on that forum, reminded me of this post so I thought I'd repost it.
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9/5/06
Yesterday I was listening to a tape of an old pastor of mine, named Mark, from 1997. He was talking about an ad he'd seen in a magazine, advertising Hosanna music. He explained that he and his wife are huge Hosanna music fans. They love that kind of praise and worship music. Well, the ad had a picture of a mountain, next to a picture of a Hosanna tape. The caption read something like, "Which will get you closer to God?"
So which will get you closer to God? Praise and Worship music, or climbing a mountain?
"Now wait a minute," Mark said. And I can remember his sarcastic grin like it was only yesterday. "I thought that Jesus came 2,000 years ago to bring us close to God!" He went on with something like, "And you're saying that now we can just bypass all that and listen to a Hosanna tape and be there in just a matter of seconds?!?!" You have to know Mark and his humor to get the full gist of his critical wit.
Anyway, this tiny break from the overall theme of the sermon had a huge impact on my soul yesterday. You know the feeling in life when nothing's really getting you down, and you feel like overall things are fine and you don't necessarily feel the need to release any heavy burdens - but then you hear or experience something and a heavy load that you didn't even consciously realize was there is suddenly lifted off of you? That is what I experienced while listening to Mark's humorous criticism of the ad he saw. The truth of what he was criticizing hit me in an instant.
And it's something I already knew... but yet the way I was trying to live wasn't representative of what I knew. I think subconsciously, even though I know that the person of JESUS is who already brought me close to God, and that NO experience on this earth, whether P&W music or prayer or good works - or anything at all - can bring me close or maintain that closeness with God, I was still trying to get close to God by the things I was doing, or by waiting for Him to do something "great" (tangibly or visibly) in my life.
Not that we don't want those feelings of closeness with God. Not that we don't want to experience it with our senses. Not that worshiping Him with music can't bring about great feelings and great praise for Him. But in the day-to-day, in the moment-by-moment living of life, we have been brought near to God and we remain near to God, solely by the blood of Jesus.
I poured out a great deal of emotion yesterday. :) Funny how something little like that, not even spoken with the intention of causing an emotional reaction, can cause such an emotional reaction! But I was balling - almost finding it hard to breathe! See, in the absence of "feeling" close to God we can often lose our perspective of the truth, that we are truly near to God all the time. We may consciously or subconsciously begin to try to create superficial atmospheres or experiences which we think will "bring us closer" to God, and when those things fail (to produce emotions, or feelings of closeness) it's very easy to think (again, either consciously or subconsciously) that something is wrong in our relationship with God. Our weaknesses and other failures in life just add to it. And for me, even though I know the truth, that Jesus alone is what has made me right with God and keeps me right with God - I still go off into that land where I have feelings of uncertainty about where I stand with God.
But this little bit of truth, presented as a sarcastic criticism of a magazine ad, caused MOUNTAINS of weight to be lifted off of me! Jesus alone has brought us near to God.
Here are just a few more examples of what Jesus accomplished for us by His blood – things that we could never do for ourselves. We have been purchased with His blood (Act 20:28). We have peace with God through His blood (Col 1:20). We have been sanctified with His blood (Heb 13:12). We have been justified by His blood (Rom 5:9). We have been redeemed by His blood (Col 1:14). By His blood, we have the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7). We have been cleansed and purified, and our sins are taken away by His blood (Heb 9:22-28). And "we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus" (Heb 10:19).
All these things are God's gift to us - not our gifts to Him! We have no offering that comes anywhere close to the blood of Jesus.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
People Are People
People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
So we're different colours
And we're different creeds
And different people
Have different needs
It's obvious you hate me
Though I've done nothing wrong
I've never even met you
So what could I have done
I can't understand
What makes a man
Hate another man
Help me understand
People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
Help me understand
Now you're punching
And you're kicking
And you're shouting at me
And I'm relying on your common decency
So far it hasn't surfaced
But I'm sure it exists
It just takes a while to travel
From your head to your fist
Birth, Not Performance, Determines Identity
Title of Chapter 5 of Bill Gillham's book What God Wishes Christians Knew About Christianity:
"That Birth, Not Performance, Determines Identity"
Your identity in Christ in solid and secure, not because of what you do or don't do, but because you've been reborn as a new creation!
From the book:
A toad is not a toad because it croaks and eats bugs. I wouldn't recommend it, but you could eat bugs till you croaked, and it wouldn't turn you into a toad. A toad is a toad because it was born a toad.The point here is that we inherited our sinful identity from Adam, just by being born. And now we've inherited a brand new identity - righteous, holy, alive to God - just by being spiritually reborn! Your identity is by your birth, not by your behavior or performance.
You're a human by birth. Your mom didn't pause between labor pains and pray, "Oh, God, please let it be a human!" Birth determined your human identity. This holds true in the spiritual realm as well. As a spiritual product of Adam, you are a sinner by birth (Romans 5:19a). Your performance has nothing whatever to do with your acquiring this identity...
...When witnessing to lost folks, I used to tell them that if they could live a perfect life they would go to heaven, but since they've already blown that one, they need a Savior. Although a person can come under conviction and get saved via this method, my theology was wrong. Even if it were possible for man to keep God's Law perfectly, he would still go to hell because of the spiritual identity he acquired at birth.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Display a Growing in Grace Banner on your site!
Mike and I are very thankful for all the wonderful support from friends and listeners of the Growing in Grace podcast. People are finding out about the program all the time, and many lives are being touched weekly through the message of God's unconditional love and grace. This is due in large part to people like YOU who are spreading the word! Thanks so much for telling others about the program.
Here's one more way to get the word out. If you have a blog or other site on the web, feel free to add a Growing in Grace Banner to your site. It's very easy - simply choose from the banners below, and then copy and paste the HTML code that's below the banner onto your web page.
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You are the righteousness of God
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5:21Paul says in Romans 1:17 that in the gospel a certain righteousness is revealed. It's not man's righteousness. It's God's righteousness. The gospel reveals God's righteousness that is given to man as a gift. Paul spends the rest of Chapter 1, and then Chapter 2 and over half of Chapter 3, making the case for man's unrighteousness. He does this to show how ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Finally near the end of Chapter 3 he gets to what he was really leading up to: "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe."
The law and the prophets were witnesses to this righteousness, but it's made clear in the gospel that man's attempts at righteousness, no matter how "good" or how "bad," ended up falling way short. And so: the gift of righteousness.
A little bit later Paul writes, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Rom 5:19). You were not declared a sinner because you committed sinful acts. You were made a sinner "by one man's disobedience." Even when you did "good," you were still a sinner.
In the same way, you are not righteous because of any righteous act or acts you have ever done. You are now declared righteous because you've been raised up together with Jesus, through faith. In the same way that you previously inherited sin, you've now inherited righteousness. Even when you do "bad," you are still righteous.
It's been given to you as a gift, and you can't earn gifts! To earn a gift is not only oxymoronic, it's moronic! Many Christians walk in fear of "losing" this righteousness through sinning. But remember, it's a gift.
Also remember:
...When the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7"According to His mercy" He saved us, washed us, regenerated us and renewed us. It's ALL about His kindness, His mercy, His abundant gift of righteousness! If we're mired down with a sin consciousness, worried about every little (or big) sin, worried that we'll somehow cross God (when His cross has taken care of it ALL!), then we're missing the point. A sin consciousness won't cause you to walk according to the gift of righteousness! (Hello?!!).
TRUST what God has done for us, and we won't have to worry about whether or not we're messing up His work. Good news: His work supersedes ours! God has made you RIGHTEOUS!
