Falling From Grace - Part 2

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Friday, June 30, 2017

You were running the race so well.  Who has held you back from following the truth?  It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom.  This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!  Galatians 5:7-8^(NLT)

Paul wrote to folks he loved, who had started their journey with Jesus by grace, in faith, trusting God for their forgiveness.  But some false teachers came in behind Paul and were leading them to believe that, by being good, they would keep themselves saved.   And so they slipped into taking credit for their own salvation. 

Paul wrote as if he were beside himself.  His friends had chosen the bondage of the law; you know how that is:  do this…don’t do that….and, for heaven’s sake especially don’t do the other…keep this, get rid of that…burn this, sacrifice that…wear your hair like so…dresses must be…men sit here, children over there…and on, and on, and on…rules without end, amen! 

On the other side of the ledger from law is freedom.  The short version is, trust God and be thankful to him and gracious towards all.  In other words, be forgiven and then live like you’ve been given a gift of freedom.

It must have been a slow day at the grocery store.  The young girl at the checkout counter rang up our several items while carrying on a conversation with three other employees who were gathered around her station.  They were talking about this coming weekend.  One said:  I like lots of holidays, but the 4^th is my favorite; lots of fireworks and flags…so pretty…I just love patriotic stuff.

My immediate thought was that at Christmas she probably loves the trees, tinsel, and gifts all wrapped-up with hardly a thought to the incarnation of the Savior of the world.  Then I had to repent for having unkind thoughts about someone I’d never even met.

But the conversation did stir those thoughts in my mind that Fourth of July celebrations can be all about the celebration – parties, cookouts, beach trips and sparklers.  The problem with it all is that, if we’re not thoughtfully-careful, we can wind up celebrating the celebration, and not being renewed in our commitment to live-into the freedom purchased by the bloody sacrifice of our ancestors.  We can love and honor the idea of freedom more than actually living free. 

Living free has little to do with sparklers and grilling-out, even if the cook wears a stars and stripes apron.  This is exactly the point Paul was making to the Galatian believers.  They had all the trappings of religion – circumcision, feast days, and lots of rules; they had little left of the true freedom purchased by the cross. 

We also can slip into making our freedom a possession rather than a lifestyle of gratitude to Almighty God.  And when we do that we have fallen from the very grace that saves us.

For You Today

Christ gave his perfect life on the cross so we could be forgiven, redeemed and set right with God.  That is a gift of freedom I will not take lightly!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

Falling From Grace - Part 1

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Thursday, June 29, 2017

Listen! I, Paul, tell you this:  If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.  I’ll say it again.  If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.  For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ!  You have fallen away from God’s grace.  But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.  For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised.  What is important is faith expressing itself in love.  Galatians 5:2-6^(NLT)

The Christ-followers of Galatia had made an error that traps so many believers; they started their journey with Jesus by grace, in faith, trusting God for their forgiveness.  However, somewhere along the way they slipped into taking credit for their own salvation.  They began to believe that, by being good, they were keeping themselves saved.  Paul said it very clearly…they were thinking that all their good deeds, and their kind, unselfish, even Godly sacrifices were good enough to replace grace; they had actually moved away from trusting God by faith and fallen away from God’s grace!

The Galatian believers had crossed a vital line of understanding that God’s grace stands alone; when God forgives, He does not need any help!

Now that being said, our good deeds, clean living, and kind interaction with others is not valueless; in fact, just the opposite is true.  God actually demands that we work on that holy lifestyle.  We just cannot forget our self-righteousness cannot replace God’s grace.

By the way, this has nothing to do with eternal security – you know – that argument about whether you can lose your salvation or not.  Rather, this is a reminder that coming to faith in Jesus Christ is a matter of accepting God’s forgiveness, not earning it! 

And the offer is eternal; grace has no expiration date.  When we begin the life in Christ by faith, it is just that – a beginning.  From there we continue in faith, growing into the likeness of Jesus.  To somehow change the equation that, although we were saved by the blood of Christ, the gift of God’s grace…but now we are enlightened, and sin is merely our history, and we are good enough to somehow be above grace – this is the opposite of a disciple’s heart, and more like what Satan thinks.

For You Today

Grace is the dividing line between Heaven and Hell.  Drawing that line is way above my pay grade.  Let’s let today be governed by grace…believe, receive and walk in it again:

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!

Yonder on Calvary’s mount out-poured, there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all our sin![ii]

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

[ii] Grace Greater than Our Sin, Words Julia H. Johnston, Music Daniel B. Towner

Shrewd & Harmless

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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

“Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.  So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.  But beware!  For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues.  You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers.  But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.  When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say.  God will give you the right words at the right time.  For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.  Matthew 10:16-20^(NLT)

Jesus taught his disciples many things; in this teaching the main point could be missed entirely if connection is lost between the shrewd and harmless demeanor we are supposed to exhibit, and the reason why we are to be this way.

So let’s examine it for a moment.

Shrewdness is all about understanding your context, and then acting in the best interest of whom you represent.  For the Christ-follower, our context is that we are at odds with the world ^{(James 4:4).}  Considering the One we represent is Christ, shrewdness is a matter of knowing there is opposition to the things of Christ’s kingdom, and developing ability to discover how our actions will either enhance Christ or demean Him.

Harmlessness is readiness to engage the hostility the world will inflict, without regards to how it will affect our comfort or well-being; it means we are content to lay the outcome of such engagement squarely in God’s hands, and that God will use the confrontation of His good (our harmlessness) with the world’s violent evil.

Real time application:

I’m currently engaged in spiritual warfare over a health crisis.  I’m praying God may use what happens for the best Kingdom result.  And that may well depend on if I can manage to be shrewd and harmless. 

I have an appointment today with the throat doctor.  I don’t know if he is a believer or not.  The outcome of this thing could be quite benign…he might say:  take two throat lozenges and chill out; take the stress out of your life.  The other end of the spectrum could be that my vocal cords have a malignancy, involving removal of my voice box, or worse.  In that case the pulpit ministry of the past 40 years is at an end.

Now, I need to be shrewd and do the best I can to preserve whatever tools God gave me in this life, so I will listen intently to what the doctor says, while I invite the Great Physician to inform my mind from within.  But I need to be as harmless as possible also, understanding that my actions may be crucial to the faith of the doctor in front of me.  And those actions are either going to squander, or invest in, the opportunity God is creating with this situation to help my doctor know Him, and perhaps bring him to faith.

So…if you got to read this before 8:45am…that is the time for my appointment with the guy who’s going to stick that delightful tube-scope down my throat.  Here’s what I’m asking as your part in my prayer:  pray, if you will, not so much that I’ll be OK; pray that I’ll be shrewd and harmless, and will listen to the words God wants to put in my mouth, so I can be bold in the witness of Jesus Christ before a doctor and staff who may have need of a more eternal kind of healing.

For You Today

I invite you to pray – yup, right out loud, while you’ve still got a voice – this prayer of John Wesley’s…the kind of prayer for being shrewd and harmless…a tool in the hands of the Master carpenter:

I am no longer my own, but thine- put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.  Put me to doing, put me to suffering.  Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.  I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.  And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Thou art mine and I am thine.  SO BE IT

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

Reaction Time

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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth!  Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.  Psalm 86:11^(NLT)

Third base is affectionately known as the hot corner.  When a right-handed hitter hits a screamer at the third baseman there isn’t much time to think; you simply react.  You react according to the coaching you’ve received and the training you’ve done.  I know this from some painful and embarrassing experience!  The embarrassing experience came in a high school game against our arch rival.  Their third baseman launched a rocket off his bat that kissed the ground as it skipped right between my feet and into the outfield!  I was frozen in time; hardly saw it!  The painful experience was years later in a church softball game.  One of our board members hit a preacher-seeking missile towards third base.  Unlike the one in high school, this one found its target, my right ankle.  The blood clot that ensued meant three days in the hospital.  Never did find out why that board member didn’t like me!

Much like the action/reaction nature of sports are the moral and ethical dilemmas of this life which come at you broadside, blind-side and all-sides.  David prayed for God to teach him God’s ways so he could make decisions that were according to God’s truth.   He wanted a clean heart, pure enough so he would recognize the blackness of sin when confronted with a choice between righteousness and evil.

That’s a good prayer, but how does that play out in real time?

Several ways:

·       In school – you have a teacher who is loose on security, so you’re tempted to cheat on that chemistry test because you didn’t study.

·       At work – you underestimated the cost of that project, but you could make up the shortfall by getting sub-standard materials that would be buried; nobody would know.

·       Shopping – the clerk didn’t realize she had put a $100 bill in with the $1’s and she gave it to you by mistake with your change.

There are something like twenty-six gazillion other possibilities that can swamp you in a wave of unethical, immoral, and unlawful temptations.  And the worst are those which come silently and quickly, with little time to think. 

That’s why you pray David’s prayer early for God to teach your heart His ways, so when the reaction time calls for an immediate decision, it will be the ways of God’s truth that win the day. 

For You Today

A pure heart stays pure when you let God’s ways handle the hot ones that come from broadside, blind-side, and all sides.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

Complacency

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Monday, June 26, 2017

“I know all the things you do.  I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance.  I know you don’t tolerate evil people.  You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not.  You have discovered they are liars.  You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.  “But I have this complaint against you.  You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!  Look how far you have fallen!  Turn back to me and do the works you did at first.  If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.  Revelation 2:1-5^(NLT)

Complacency at any level just isn’t pretty.  It must have been a stinging, embarrassing moment when the church elders at Ephesus read this letter to the congregation.  It was one of seven letters Jesus dictated to the apostle John while he was being shown the future.  Mostly it was warnings to churches that had slipped off the serving trail.

Besides embarrassment, there had to be a wave of nausea rippling through the church as the gathered believers heard the warning that if they didn’t lose their complacent attitudes, their place of service in the Kingdom would be relocated to the unemployment line with other false prophets!  Jesus was saying, love me or leave me!  That is an either/or with no neutral choice!  In fact it is the choice against neutral!

This is a message any church can hear if we have enough sense to put our pride on hold and look past our former victories long enough to see how complacency, laziness, forgetfulness and just plain lack of caring have crept in and replaced what was once a passionate love for Christ.

If we can be objective enough to look at the clear handwriting on the wall (so to speak), we will see that most of the (so-called) “reasons” we have to explain why churches are falling apart these days is not a lack of programming, evil opposition, weak preaching, bad singing, too many choices, or indifference to God in the communities we serve.  The real reasons are unbelief in the pews, marked by unwillingness to tithe, serve, and give our time to the work of sharing the Gospel with lost people.  Joyfully serving Christ is the mark of first love in a believer; without that, how can we say we love Jesus?

Jesus told the believers at Ephesus they were at a cross-road, a tipping point, where their very existence as a church was at stake.  It was either return to first love of going all-out like they had at the start, or take the sign down from the door.

Complacency; not pretty and not honored in Heaven.

For You Today

There is a place to drop off the garment of complacency; it’s called an altar!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire (and Back!)

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Friday, June 23, 2017

The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.  They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.  But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out.  Then he told them, “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!”  So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching.  When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council—the full assembly of the elders of Israel.  Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial.  But when the Temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone.  So they returned to the council and reported, “The jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!”  When the captain of the Temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end.  Then someone arrived with startling news:  “The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people!”  The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them.  

Acts 5:17-24^(NLT)

Whenever you serve God wholeheartedly, and are following His leading, you can rest assured there will be problems, opposition, and the power of God confusing those who think they’re in charge, and dispatching the problems like mist lifting in the morning.

That’s the sum of jail time for the apostles: 

·       They were faithfully preaching Jesus, and got arrested.

·       An angel picked the lock on their cells and, there you have it, jailbreak…out of the frying pan!

·       The Sadducees in charge are stupefied, find the apostles preaching again and arrest them (this time more carefully) again…back in the frying pan.

There are a couple of really evident lessons here. 

1.     Problems and opposition are never the last word when you’re on mission for the Kingdom; they’re only proof God’s power is zeroing-in against the darkness of spiritual wickedness.

2.     When you encounter problems and opposition, never give them the power to end your mission, which is to always preach Jesus.  If God wants you to preach on the streets, in the church, or in a jail…He can arrange what needs to be arranged.  He’s good at that!

For You Today

What opposition or problems have caused you to consider backing-off preaching Jesus? 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

Asking

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Thursday, June 22, 2017

Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help.  Protect me, for I am devoted to you.  Save me, for I serve you and trust you.  You are my God.  Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am calling on you constantly.  Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you.  O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.  Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord; hear my urgent cry.  Psalm 86:1-6^(NLT)

Did you catch all the pleading verbs?  Bend, Hear, Answer,

Protect, Save, Be Merciful, Give, Listen, Hear; prayer like that is part of our life as believers. 

We ask because Jesus taught us to go to the Father; Paul took it a step farther and told us to come boldly to the throne[ii] for a large helping of grace!

But asking is only part of our prayer life. 

·       There is also adoration, when we look with loving hearts on the One who loved us enough to die for us and save us from our sinfulness. 

·       There is confession, the acknowledgement that we are sinful and humbly agree with God that there is no part of unholy thoughts and deeds that can be part of our relationship with the Heavenly Father.

·       And there is also thanksgiving, the praise of hearts that are forgiven and freed for service to our King.

Back to the pleading of our Psalm – there is nothing wrong with laying out your needs and the desires of your heart before the Lord.  But it is a good and helpful reminder of how God arranged the order answered prayer, and the kind of heart He wants to bless.  Note the Psalm once again:

Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you.

When we give ourselves unreservedly over and into the keeping of God, it is deferring our own will in favor of His.  It is like Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane:

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me.  Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”  Luke 22:42^(NLT)

For You Today

In your prayer of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and asking, whose will are you seeking…yours or His?  If you can say BOTH, you may be a Methodist after all!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

[ii] Hebrews 4:16

The Sacrifice of Praise

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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

On October 31 the people assembled again, and this time they fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads.  Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners as they confessed their own sins and the sins of their ancestors.  They remained standing in place for three hours while the Book of the Law of the Lord their God was read aloud to them.  Then for three more hours they confessed their sins and worshiped the Lord their God.  The Levites—Jeshuaj, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kenani—stood on the stairway of the Levites and cried out to the Lord their God with loud voices.  Then the leaders of the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah—called out to the people:  “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, for he lives from everlasting to everlasting!” Then they prayed:  “May your glorious name be praised!  May it be exalted above all blessing and praise!  “You alone are the Lord.  You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars.  You made the earth and the seas and everything in them.  You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you.  “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and renamed him Abraham.  When he had proved himself faithful, you made a covenant with him to give him and his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites.  And you have done what you promised, for you are always true to your word.  Nehemiah 9:1-8^(NLT)

The rebuilding of God’s temple in Jerusalem wasn’t the only restoration project on Nehemiah’s (or God’s) heart.  The people of Israel, who had been conquered time and again, had learned the lesson of humility; they now had to learn the lessons of victory.

Part of that re-training, to re-shape the children of God into usable messengers of God’s good news of salvation for the entire world, was to teach them to live in the sacrifice of praise.

Nehemiah called for a great praise and worship service, and all the people came dressed in sackcloth and ashes (not Easter bonnets and top hats!).  They stood in place for the reading of God’s Word for three hours, and then opened their hearts in response, confessing their sins, and their ancestor’s sins for three more hours!  Then the liturgy stopped, and the confessing stopped, and the priests called for the people to start praising God – to call out to Him.

If you noticed in the reading, every bit of the people’s calling-out praise to God was a rehearsing of what God had done for, and through the people of Israel.  This was a testimony meeting!  This was the sacrifice God was interested in…cleansed hearts in response to God’s Word, followed by the expression of cleared minds, speaking the praise of God’s lovingkindness.  Right minds that understood the presence of mercy!

It’s important to notice the pattern:  Word of God…Confession…Praise.

If ever our world needed to get this right, it is certainly now!

For You Today

When you take the Word of God seriously, how can you NOT confess your sins?  And once you’ve confessed those sins, is it not time to offer the sacrifice of praise?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

Keeping a Firm Grip on Biblical Teaching

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Tuesday, June 20, 2017

As for us, we can’t help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord.  We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation—a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth.  He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter.  2 Thessalonians 2:13-15^(NLT)

Years ago a leader in a church I served disagreed (rather strongly) with a decision I had made.  In the ensuing “discussion” I was trying to explain how I saw the circumstances and the reasons behind why I chose plan “A” rather than plan “B”.  The leader could not see it from my perspective and got frustrated.  His frustration took the form of an angry tone of voice and a shouted:  I know what I believe; don’t confuse it with facts!

That was not the kind of standing firm with a strong grip Paul the apostle had in mind!  Rather, Paul was encouraging the church to stand firm in the pathway of all the teaching he had passed on to them.

In the past several decades we have seen a loosening of the grip on Biblical truth, in favor of rationalizing human, sinful behavior.  The result in our day is a wave of individualism that has weakened the church and body of Christ.  It is easy to see some of those results in the life of the local church:

·       Church attendance comes in a distant third or less when compared to the beach, mountains or sleeping-in

·       Biblical standards of morality are merely suggestions – or just passed-off as superstitions of a past culture

·       Biblical authority is no longer questions; it is blatantly discarded, or, worse, denied as false.

It is rare to see a firm stand in the things of God today, and we can thank intolerance for accepting and learning the Word of God.  After all, how can anyone stand firm in the will of God if the Word of God is not known?

For You Today

What is it upon which you stand firm and grip strongly?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com