Fearless Grace
Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither
count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy,
and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the
gospel of the grace of God.
Paul was looking ahead to a life of bondage and even death
yet he saw it with joy and not sorrow.
Who are YOU? Have you asked
yourself that question? Are you a child
of God, first, last and always? I had
been a member of Faith Temple for twenty years and one day late at night I
found myself wandering around the halls in the dark. I was alone in the church waiting for a
printing job to finish for a funeral the next day. It must have been around 11 pm or so and my
family was all at home in bed.
There is a time in your life where you take stock of where
you are and who you are and think, “Will I be satisfied if this becomes my
legacy?” I wasn’t satisfied where I was
professionally but I was satisfied with where I was headed. It occurred to me…that night…that this was my
life. I lived to help bring life to all
who traveled down these halls and entered the sanctuary beside me. I lived to help them understand their God and
rejoice in His touch and move upon their lives.
I may become a millionaire or never have a dollar in the
bank but I will have a legacy of a word offered here or a hug there and someone
being encouraged in the Lord. On the day
I stand before the Lord and He plays my life back I don’t want to hear Him ask
me why I didn’t press more into the work.
I certainly do not want to hear that I missed the best of what might
have been because I chose to put my own fears or my own desires first. It is much better to press in until His
desires BECOME your desires and His boldness becomes your boldness.
Acts 20:31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the
space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
People do not always give God their best. They live lives of slipping and sliding until
God has to do something drastic to reel them in. I’d like to say that has never been one of my
faults but it would be a lie. As a High
School student I would read one page of comics and then do one math
problem. As an adult I would read one
chapter of scripture and then one chapter of a sci-fi novel. Those days are largely over but I must still
keep watch over my will and keep it in check and focused on the prize.
I have warned more than a few who ignored my concerns and
paid a terrible price for it. Some
children were lost because the parents could not place the good of the children
over their own lusts. Marriages were
dissolved because couples did not heed warnings given early on about their
actions. Money was lost when prophetic
warnings were given because the people chose not to believe. All these things happened to someone I had
previously warned or ministered to and this is multiplied over and over in the
churches of the world today.
Leaders and elders in the church have a responsibility to
cry aloud and spare not (Isaiah 58:1-2).
As individuals we cannot do it alone but if we train up our children in
the way they should go and gradually release them to minister to others as they
grow then our lessons will be reinforced from all directions. This is another reason why I consider it to
be important to spend as much time as possible fellowshipping in the church.
People in the world try to mock home schooling families and
call them isolationists. Perhaps they are.
Scripture says, “Come out from among them and be ye separate (2 Corinthians
6:17-18).” It also says if you touch the
unclean thing God will not receive you but if you keep yourself separate and
holy you will be His sons and daughters and He will be a father to you. Peer pressure is a terrible thing. Because the world calls evil good and good
evil (Isaiah 5:20, 3 John 1:11), they will pressure you to agree with their
blasphemous ideals. I don’t know if peer
pressure is an American trait or one that affects all mankind but I suspect it
is universal.
I have read some vicious and absolutely deplorable comments
from men AND women who are so deeply offended by the Christian lifestyle that
they have become beside themselves with rage and anger. The circumstances that led to these words
could be as simple as a family having a large number of children and raising
them in Christian schools or homeschooling or choosing to forego birth
control. I don’t agree that all forms of
birth control are a sin (though abortion and the morning after drug certainly are),
but if I feel convicted about any of them it is no one person’s business but my
own.
The world has made a woman’s womb the altar upon which they
sacrifice to the god of convenience.
Anyone who seeks to stop this murdering of children is publicly branded
an enemy of the State. That a woman’s
womb was created by God to produce life and not primarily as an amusement park
for any man who happens by is considered irrelevant. We in the body of Christ must learn to hold
fast to God’s Word rather than our own opinions. Our opinions CAN be wrong; His Word cannot.
Acts 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and
to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an
inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
Remember Paul’s second letter to Corinth? He stated that if we come out from among them
and live separated lives we will be His sons and daughters. You can’t inherit if you are not family. Only those lawfully adopted by God through
Christ have the qualifications to be adopted.
There is no other way to obtain this adoption (1 Corinthians 3:11). Your inheritance will not find you if you
live comfortably with the world. Your
inheritance will locate you only when you live among those who are sanctified
in Christ. God said, “Be ye holy for I
the Lord am holy (Leviticus 11:44, 45, 19:2, 20:26, 21:8, 1 Peter 1:16).” I believe He meant it.
Covering Grace
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in
sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin,
live any longer therein? 3-- Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Romans 5:20 says that where sin abounds the grace of God
abounds in even greater abundance. This
caused some jaded souls to agree with Romans 6:1 but Paul said, “No.” There is never any excuse to knowingly commit
sin when you know that Christ died for you.
He expects you to press in powerfully with your full will and strength
and live a life of holiness and sanctification (Mark 12:29-31). We are to be dead to sin. Baptism is unto death; it symbolizes drowning
so when John baptized his disciples it was death to the old actions; it was for
repentance.
When Jesus has us get baptized now it is so we can be
partakers of his death while we yet live.
Think of that. Jesus died for our
sins and when we are baptized we lay our sins at His feet and He takes them
up. When we rise out of the water it
symbolizes our rising into the newness of life and hope in Christ Jesus. What an awesome and wonderful thing. Old things have passed away, behold all
things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Have you ever had someone remind you of the evil you once did prior to
coming to Christ? Feel free to tell that
person that the individual they are thinking of died. You are someone else.
Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism
into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
The newness of life…
Old things are passed away, BEHOLD all things are made new. God wants you to notice, recognize and always
bear in your mind that you have been saved to walk in newness of life. Old things are supposed to have PASSED
AWAY. If we continue to walk in the old
ways then we are unlikely to be successful at killing the sins of our
past.
It is a requirement to live in newness of life. If it is new then it is something we have not
done before. Some people say, “I have
been saved all my life.” God is so
amazing, so filled with wonder, so awe inspiring, that you can live before Him
for centuries and not even scratch the surface of understanding Him. The longer you live, the deeper your
understanding of God, the greater your opportunities to learn. Learning more of God makes you a better
student so you can learn more of God. It
is a perfect and unbroken circle.
Thousands of years ago lives were hundreds of years
long. Now it is seventy or eighty on
average. In spite of this we have
mistaken scientific leaps for knowledge and flawed theories for wisdom. No matter the length of life you live, it
will always be fuller and more beneficial to you if it is lived by the nurture
and admonition of God. For all their
bragging and lofty tones, scientists can never be more noble and more virtuous
than when they are seekers of truth rather than trying to prove pet
theories. God promises to give
revelation to seekers and blindness to the self deceived.
Romans 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
I’m not addicted, I can quit at any time. Today I was reading about the famous actors
who have spent time in jail over the years.
The vast majority of them were arrested on drug and alcohol
charges. Not one of them would have been
arrested if they had been living a godly life.
People do not commit crimes because they are poor. People commit crimes because they are
spiritually dead and corrupt.
Law enforcement personnel tried to find some reason to blame
the accident that killed Paul Walker and his friend on something other than
speeding or behaving foolishly. The car
was especially susceptible to accidents at high speed. That is true.
The smooth speed dots on the ‘parking lot’ upset the cars stability. True again.
The driver was going 70 miles over the parking lot speed limit. Shhhh.
Just whisper that one.
We hate to take responsibility for our actions when they
bite us on the rear end. That is human
nature. Doing the right thing at the
right time because God said so…that’s His nature. God said in 1 Peter 3:17 that it is better to
suffer or be chastened for doing the right thing. A man lost his job for rushing out of the
store he worked at to put out a fire in someone’s car. In 4 ½ years of work there was only one minor
transgression in his job record. He made
$9.50 an hour working there which is very little in this country.
The store has rules and those rules were upheld. In today’s world there is very little room
for grace and mercy. The point is, there
are times when you will do the correct moral thing and still suffer for
it. Jesus did and we are not greater
than Jesus. We simply need to make sure
we do not do the wrong thing and suffer for that. God watches over all His children to perform His
will. Make sure you are not chastened
because your actions go against that will.
Romans 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments
of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Do you ever get tired of being gracious and polite? No? Do
you ever get tired of anger and frustration building up in you when others
treat you badly? Yes? Well, whatever you might have to deal with
personally, God expects us to walk in that newness of life as instruments of
righteousness and grace. We’re the ones
who don’t cheat on our taxes and don’t steal the phone or jewelry that someone
foolishly left out or left behind. We go
out of our way to find the true owners and return their property to them. Honestly, I think those things are the
easiest to accomplish.
I was at the airport the other day and as I stepped out of
my car I discovered a brand new iPhone on the ground by the curb. There was a brief moment of “Oooooo, pretty,”
as I examined the shiny new device before my spirit asked my flesh, “Oooooo
what?” My flesh wisely said, “Nothing,”
and sulked back to his shrinking corner.
The phone was locked and I had no way of discovering the owner’s name
that way so I called AT&T to ask if they could somehow tell me the owners’
name. Long story short…no.
I finally got through security and made it to my gate and
saw a gate agent. I asked her to make an
announcement that a phone had been discovered and a few minutes later an
elderly lady rushed up to the gate out of breath. She was able to unlock the phone proving it
was hers and waved as she gratefully rushed back to her flight.
Things like that are easy.
I have burned a few dollars worth of fuel to return excess change I
received at the gas station. Why? Because as much as I could have used that
extra $20, I need God’s hand on my life much more. I was much more strident (loud and bragging) about
my upright walk when I was younger but there is still one thing that I choose
to have define my life…integrity.
Between that and truth they are like two bookends of my life story. Integrity makes you do the right thing and
truth will MAKE you free. Both make it
easier for God’s grace to come through for you.
As I said though, they are the easy part of this life…for
me. I struggle with aggravation,
frustration and anger over people who go out of their way to make my life
difficult. About the only thing that
makes it easier to be gracious and kind when people around you are deliberately
being rude and shady toward you is the Jesus example. There have been a few events in my life that
have kept me awake nights grinding my teeth over the injustice of it all.
My son Joseph was injured and as much as it blessed us to
receive a settlement to care for him, there was one thing that would have made
a world of difference to me. An apology
for the lack of care he received. I really
don’t want to hear about all the reasons a company or government can’t apologize
because of being held responsible; but when you know you are responsible and
have to pay anyway, why not?
That has stayed with me for almost 24 years now. There have been a few other events that are
right up there but my reason for bringing it up was how I learned to deal with
it. How do you deal with your own
flaws? When you offend someone in a big
way and no amount of self delusion can make it their fault, how do you deal
with your own stupidity or mistakes?
I’ve learned to be quick to apologize when I make mistakes because no
matter how many I make, Jesus forgives me.
For all my many flaws He loves me.
In spite of falling short more times than I have met the mark, He died
for me.
There is one other reason I have learned to be gracious when
others around me are nipping at my heels and making me feel like a
failure. Jesus loves them and forgives
them as much as He loves me and forgives me.
That is what does it for me; to recognize that Jesus has a life changing
level of forgiveness that paid my debt to Hell and had enough change left over
to finance my entire life afterwards.
Knowing that, what right do I have to gnash my teeth over a bit of
disrespect or rudeness from immature and sin trapped people? None.
The law gave us an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth. If I had to give up a body part
for every time I missed God over the years I would have run out of parts. I am thankful and filled with wonder over the
grace and redeeming love that flows from Jesus to each and every one of us. I am not bold enough to dare to continue in my
anger or rage when I consider that simple but powerful truth. With a healthy dose of that understanding I
can apologize with total humility, even when I know the other party is at
fault.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for
ye are not under the law, but under grace.
This is a wonderful spiritual law. Sin has no dominion over those who have
accepted Christ as savior. That is not
to say that you will not be tested or tried by sin; only that sin will not have
the ability to force you to act against God.
His grace is sufficient to keep you faultless before God until your
renewed mind catches up with your calling.
A scripture came to mind today that fit with public attacks
against someone on television who made a bold statement about
homosexuality. Those who accept
homosexuality as a valid lifestyle (whether they are in it or not), were
absolutely tearing into Christianity for our nerve to believe in a God larger
than ourselves. The scripture that came
to mind is Proverbs 9:8 which says, “Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee:
rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.”
Time and time again I saw children of God trying to help a scorner understand
why God’s way is right and time and time again I saw the evil and vitriol
spewed by the scorner.
You cannot reach those God is not drawing. He stands at the door and knocks but you
still have to open the door and allow Him into your life. If it wasn’t so sad it would almost be funny
watching the blind to all things of God speaking with man’s wisdom and see
their ignorance displayed before all the world.
It is sad because the world hears their words and is in agreement with
them. They are part of sin’s dominion
and do not see that they are under its spell.
I’m going to stop here for now. I want to offer you an important thought to
consider. You can absolutely say and do
the right thing where angels in Heaven are rejoicing and your fellow Christians
laud you as a spiritual hero; and then you can say something so stupid to
seemingly wipe out all the good you did in your first statement. I have first hand experience in this. If you are not gracious to beloved brethren
when they fall short then God will not be gracious to you when you fall
short.
Scripture says that whatever measure you use to judge
someone, you will be measured exactly the same (Matthew 7:2). It also says if you forgive someone for
missing the mark, you too will be forgiven.
Remember, while under the anointing our words and deeds are perfect but
as soon as the anointing lifts and we take our minds off of God we are flawed
as any man and only your level of spiritual training will direct your actions.
I heard the man who commented on the Bible’s stance on
homosexuality and got trashed by the Media make a statement that was somewhat
thoughtless (or not wise) about race.
Whenever you do something wonderful for Jesus the Devil will pull out
all his tricks to make you stumble in word or deed. Be watchful and vigilant but most of all,
remember to be gracious because YOU can be EQUALLY thoughtless and stupid given
the proper circumstances. Really, you
can. I know this from experience.
Bishop J
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