GIG 214 - Repentance Means to Change Your Thinking

The word "repent" has traditionally been taught as a word that means "change your behavior." "Repentance" is taught as a necessary part of being saved. But if repentance means that we have to change our behavior in order to be saved or in order to keep ourselves saved, then doesn't that mean that it's our own works/effort that saves us?

What does it really mean to repent? We'll get into that this week on Growing in Grace.

gigcast.graceroots.org

Growing in Grace Together - John Lynch, Coauthor of Bo's Cafe

This week I'm happy to present a new feature on Growing in Grace, in addition to my regular weekly podcast with Mike Kapler. "Growing in Grace Together" will feature informal conversations with various people, simply chatting with them about their own grace journeys.

For this inaugural edition, I speak with special guest John Lynch, coauthor of the new novel Bo's Café (boscafe.com), a book he wrote along with Bruce McNicol and Bill Thrall.  In short, Bo's Café is a book that will help people who are struggling with a performance-based life, and with various issues in life that never seem to get resolved. Even after hearing all the "right" things preached and knowing all the "right" things to do, we find that our lives are still mucky and falling apart, and we live with guilt and shame - and yet we make ourselves appear nice and shiny to others as we wear masks and as we hide our guilt and shame well, presenting ourselves to others as the person we wish we would be, rather than being real and genuine with others about how things really are on the inside.

As John shares, we need to find a place where "the worst about me could be known and I'd discover that I'd be loved more and not less in the telling of it, and just that alone would start breaking my shame that would allow me to enjoy this health."  Listen in as John talks about the various characters in Bo's Café, and how they come to find that Christ-in-them is enough, as He works in and through them - not with quick fixes to their problems, and not through well-laid-out and well-lived-out rules and principles, but rather as they learn to be vulnerable with one another and as they learn to trust in God's grace to work powerfully and dynamically in them through the safe - and often messy - place of genuine relationships.

gigcast.graceroots.org

Repent and BELIEVE the good news

I was first going to title this, "If I had an 'altar call.'" But it turned out to be much more about what "repentance" is.  I'll leave it as I wrote it, but I just thought I'd explain my first few words about the "altar call."

First off, let's get it straight that the only "altar" I would be talking about is your heart, not a group of people flocking down to the front of a church sanctuary.  We are the temple of God.  We don't "go" to one.  The Holy Place of God is YOU!  And who says it would have to be me, or who says that it would have to be a pastor or someone with a "title" in the church.  If I had an "altar call" in the heart, let it be about a body of people all helping one another out.

And just what would this "altar call" be?  Are we talking about getting your act together and changing your behavior?  Are we talking about doing something to get yourself right with God?  Are we talking about dedicating or "re"dedicating yourself to God or to living better?

None of that is what I'm talking about.  If we could get together and speak heart to heart with one another about "repentance," here's what it would mean to me.  Repentance (metanoia) means a change of mind - a rethinking of things in the heart.  Jesus said, "Repent, and believe the good news."  So we would get together, and instead of asking one another how good we're doing at living the Christian life, or what behaviors we need to change in our lives, I'd rather have the discussion revolved around these questions:

Have you been believing the lie that you're not accepted by God because of your poor behavior or performance?

Have you been walking in guilt and shame for the things you've done?

Have you been holding others to a standard that you yourself cannot keep?  And even if you feel you've kept that standard, do you really think that that's what the Christian life is about?

Have you had various expectations of yourself, or do you feel God has had expectations of you, that you've failed to live up to, and those failures are keeping you from intimacy with Him?

Have you seen God as judgmental, condemning and angry towards you?

Have you felt weak and burdened, and you feel it's up to yourself to make yourself strong and to bear these heavy burdens?

Have you been believing the good news (and that it really is good news) or have you been believing the lies of performance-based acceptance and sanctification?


As these questions are asked and discussed, I would hope for the conversation of our hearts to turn to:

Let's renew our minds daily to the good news.

Let's repent of the whole idea that it's up to us to maintain our salvation or to sanctify ourselves, and realize that God Himself has saved us to the uttermost and that He has already sanctified us and has already made us complete in Him!

Let's repent of the whole idea that we need to work on all our issues in order to present ourselves to God, and remember that He Himself is at work in us, living His very life in and through us to will and do to according to His good pleasure.

Let's repent of dragging around our heavy loads, and of being rushed to "grow" into something mighty for God, and instead let's slow down and rest in Him, walking in His "unforced rhythms of grace."

Let's repent of wearing masks and acting all cool as if we've got it all together.  We don't have it all together - none of us - and as we act like we do, it's sort of like a virus that spreads, and before you know it we've got everyone wearing fake, plastic smiles and talking fake, happy talk, when inside we're dying!  Let's be safe for one another to share our junk with one another without condemning one another and pointing our fingers.  Let's be real with one another and help one another work through our issues rather than walking with a false notion of "repentance" (changing our behavior), thinking that if we only change our behavior, things will be all better.  Let's REPENT of the idea that that's what repentance is, and realize that it never works anyway!

Let's repent of struggling and striving to get our acts straight before God, and allow His love and grace to work in and through us over a period of time, again as we work through these things together gracefully, and to let His love and grace work out those changes that we really do need in our lives.  Yes, it's often very beneficial and profitable when our behavior changes - but it's not up to "us."  God began a good work in us and God IS faithful to complete it!  We think that if we change good enough for Him, He'll accept us.  But He knows we can't do squat for Him, so He faithfully does it all and is so gracious to let us come along for the ride... and to ENJOY the ride!  The Christian life is not meant to be a struggle.  We rest in Him and He produces His very best stuff through us.

Let's repent of wallowing around in guilt, shame and condemnation.  Jesus took ALL our guilt and shame, and He came into the world not to condemn but to SAVE.  So let's repent of all of this, and let's begin walking in the fullness of His salvation!  Again, let's repent of making it about our performance, and let's walk in His ongoing work in and through us.

Let's repent of making life in Christ out to be some moral crusade.  We can't change ourselves, never mind the rest of the world!!!  If we realize that it's only by God's faithful love and grace working in and through us that our lives change and we bear His fruit, then what in the world are we doing placing all these moral expectations on everyone else in the world???  Instead of protesting the sins of the world, let's bring to them the very message that saved us, the message of reconciliation, by which we ourselves have been saved and kept by grace alone.

So let's repent of making this about us, and let's understand it's all about Him.  And let's understand that since it's all about Him, and HE is all about US, then we have a win-win situation at work here!  It really is good news!  Let's repent and believe the good news!

GIG 213 - Faith, Works and Dead Works

"Faith without works is dead," says James. We talked about that a little bit last week, and we'll talk about it a little more this week. We'll dig into the idea of how faith and works work together, so to speak, and we'll show how we believe this phrase from James does not mean that we do works in order to "prove" our faith or in order to make our faith genuine. We'll also talk a bit about how "works without faith are dead works!" (See how we cleverly moved the words around a bit). ;)  Anyone, even people without faith, can do good works.  People can be good imitators, and their imitations can appear very close to the real thing, and yet just as an imitation is not the real thing, in the same way people can do works that appear really, really good, but are nevertheless dead works.

gigcast.graceroots.org

GIG 212 - Justified By Faith AND Works?

James, James, James... Why'd you have to do it? Why'd you have to say it?  Why'd you have to go and say it the way you said it? Why'd you have to say things like, "You see then, that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only" (James 2:24) and "Wasn't our father Abraham justified by works...?" (James 2:21). Didn't Paul say, "For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God" (Rom 4:2) and didn't Paul repeatedly say that we are justified by faith apart from works? (Rom 3:28, Gal 2:16, Gal 3:24). And James, what's up with that "faith without works is dead" statement?

Were you having a bad day when you wrote that letter?  Did you simply disagree with Paul?  Was Martin Luther on track with his comments about your letter being a "right strawy epistle?"  Is there another way to look at your epistle?  Do Kap and Joel have anything to say about this?

Hmm... Let's see if they do!

gigcast.graceroots.org

International Grace Party \O/ \O/ \O/ - Friday, October 23

Attention All GraceWalkers!!!! Attention All GraceWalkers!!! This is a Grace Walk Internet Radio Special Report!!! ;) :D ..... There are up to 250 freed up grace believers meeting at your house this coming, Friday!!! ... We're from all over the world!!! woo hoo!!!!! We are free, crazy, love life, love each other, and most of all love, Jesus!

Make the time, prepare the coffee and cyber goodies!!! It's even ok, if you're not home ... we'll still be there, if you want!!! :D

Come join us Friday morning at 9am Central USA Time.

You can call in via your phone or even listen in LIVE via internet.
Visit the new International Grace Party website for more info.

Hope to see you at the party! \O/

Dave Lesniak
Joel Brueseke

You ran well - who hindered you?

You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? (Gal 5:7)

 It's a long story to tell about the years leading up to the beginning of what some would call my "walk with Jesus," but suffice it to say that I can't remember a time in life when I was not a believer.  Yet I do recall a specific day - January 7, 1992 - when things really changed in my life and I began "running," so to speak.

I was 22 years old, almost 23, and life really did change dramatically.  I "quit" doing a lot of the stuff that I used to do and I began intentionally going to an evangelical (pentecostal) church and hanging out with evangelical people.  AT FIRST, I ran well.  I truthfully felt like there was a literal "halo" around my head!  I mean, I knew there wasn't, but the freshness of this new thing the Lord was doing in my life made it feel like heavy weights had been lifted, and my head felt light and happy.  I loved the Lord and I naturally (with no one pressuring me to do it) went around sharing this new thing with other people. It was as supernaturally natural as it gets!

But eventually the supernaturally natural life began to fade and I became hindered from obeying the truth.  How did this happen?  Did I "slip into sin?"  Did I go back to my old carousing ways?  No, it was nothing like that.  What happened is that I began listening to the things that were being taught to me (!) (in church, on Christian radio, etc) and it began penetrating my soul. The result - I began "trying" to live the Christian life that I had begun living without a whole lot of thought about what was right and what was wrong.

See, I knew that the changes in my life were not "of myself."  (See this post that I wrote a couple of years ago, about my full understanding that all of this - even my being drawn to God - was by grace alone).  As one who had already believed for years, I had previously been through a few "phases" in which I ignorantly thought I could live the Christian life, but there had never been any lasting effects. So by this point, I knew "I" couldn't do it.  But this time, it really was different.  It was very obvious to me that the Lord was doing something in me that I could not do by myself.

But again, it didn't take long before I began listening to all the teachings about what I'm "supposed" to do as a Christian.  I began soaking up all of the "shoulds" and "musts," and all the rules and principles for good, holy Christian living.  Eventually the joy and the love faded.  I had been "running well," and my Christian life had been a living testimony to the power and life of God in a person.  But now, I was hindered from running well, and the problem (although I didn't know it at the time) was that I'd fallen from a supernatural life of grace into a life of rules and law.

What's interesting (and sad) is that the verse above, which is part of a passage in which Paul is trying to help the Galatians go back to grace and freedom and leave behind forever their futile attempts to live by law, was (and still is) actually used in the church to get people like me to see how they were hindered in their walks with Jesus by not following all the supposed rules and laws and principles of good, holy Christian living!

Of course as we look at the entire passage in Galatians, we see that the Galatians had been "running well" because they had died to the law and had trusted solely in the life of Christ in them.  But they were hindered from obeying the truth because they went back to trying to be perfected by the law.  Paul told them that they had fallen from grace - not because they were sinning but because they were trying to maintain their righteousness by keeping the law!  He told them a little leaven (the law) leavens the whole lump.

I found that to be true when my "run" slowed to a very bumpy and unsteady stagger.  I had begun with much freedom, and with a trust that it was God's work that He was doing in me but I was now burdened and weary with musts and shoulds.

There is one verse in particular that really helped me along the way, during those years before I came back to grace again.  "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it" (Phil 1:6).  I was definitely walking a legalistic line, but yet in the midst of all the leaven, grace was working its way back through, and I knew deep inside me that it wasn't up to me - it was up to God.  And I knew He'd be faithful to do His work in me.  And HE TRULY HAS BEEN!

If you're hindered in your "run" with God - who has hindered you?  How did you lose sight of His freedom, love and grace?  I encourage you to go back to the deep end of the impossible Christian life that is made light and easy because it's Christ-in-you who is living it, and it's solely God's work in you, not your work for Him!