Sin Erased by Grace

Although I've been a Christian since before I can remember, I have only recently begun to understand the vast implication and glory of the new covenant of Grace. Our entire identity rests in what Christ has done for us. His death, resurrection, and ascension to the right-hand of the Father changed everything. If we don't understand who we are now in Christ, we won't understand ourselves, and we will fall short of our destiny.

Grace is the unmerited favor of God lavished on us through faith in Jesus Christ.
It's  H U G E. It's everything.
When we come under God's grace by choosing Christ as our savior, all our sins (past, present, future) are forgiven once and for all. The Father Himself said "I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.”Heb 8:12
There is no sin, in your past or that you may commit in the future, that Jesus Christ has not taken upon Himself and paid the price for by His death. He has pronounced you innocent and blameless. Now, you can live in the freedom Christ has purchased for you. Stop focusing on sin and shortcomings and remain focused on the Love of God, and your identity in Jesus.

Not only are we completely forgiven in Christ, but we are also now sons and daughters of the Creator, Sustainer and King of all things! God has adopted us into His family. There could be nothing more beautiful. Not only that, but because of Jesus, God sees us as His righteousness. (2 Cor 5:21) When He looks at you and me, He sees His perfect Son. What does this mean? Well, because of Jesus' finished work on the cross, our standing with God is no longer based on ourselves or our works. It is based entirely on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We never have to strive to earn the love of our Heavenly Father. It is unconditional. Our relationship and standing in the love and favor of God is unconditional.  In the eyes of God, you are totally righteousness and unconditionally loved.

We are now free to live according to the new covenant of Spirit and life in Jesus. If we only fully understood these truths and these realities, there would be no limit to our expansion of His Kingdom. The curse of the law and sin over us has been broken forever. Sin is no longer what's true of us. God himself has ERASED and forgotten our sin. Did you get that? Erased and forgotten! Even if you are feeling guilty because of sin struggle you are currently in, God sees you as 100% forgiven and 100% righteous. He sees the blood of His only begotten Son covering you, His adopted child.

Let God's kindness over you sink in. "The kindness of God leads you to repentance." Rom 2:4 Repentance literally means to "change your mind." To receive all the Grace (unmerited favor) God has for you, you must believe. So believe all that Jesus has done for you. Believe that you are totally forgiven of any sin you could ever commit, and that God himself has forgotten them. Believe that you are a son or daughter of God, and that He loves you every moment of every day. Believe that you are now the righteousness of God in Christ.

Jesus has defeated sin. So the only only way to defeat sin in your life is to apply the victory of Christ, and to live in the grace He has bestowed upon you. Let God's grace drive the spirit of condemnation (which comes from the Law & Satan's attempts to accuse) out of your mind. And the next time accusation rears its ugly head, remember and speak this truth. "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus."

Put your faith in Christ. Always remember whose you are. You are God's beloved child. You are dead to sin and ALIVE to God. (Rom 6:11)

Offensive Worship

Are you surrounded by enemies, struggles and fears on all sides? Lift up your weapon (voice) to the Lord! He is enthroned on the praises of His people.

The walls of Jericho crumbling beneath the weight of praise was no fluke. It is a model we'd be wise to follow. In fact, the same strategy was used several other times in history as God sent his worshippers to the front lines of battle. Suicide right? You'd think so, but no. The singers sang and the musicians played, and God used their worship as a vessel to destroy Israel's enemies right in front of them.

The next time you feel the weight of the world becoming almost too much to bear, lay down your worries.  Lay down your fears. Lay down your plans. Lift up your voice to the Lord and watch Him rescue you.

The Greatest (& Riskiest) Gift of All Time

Grace - unmerited mercy and approval ; a virtue coming from God

The economic and societal system that we live under in the modern age is one that prides itself in self-advancement. "Do whatever you can to climb the ladder of success. I had to work hard for everything I have. I earned it." These declarations are applauded, hence a self-made-man is held in reverence. Obviously working hard, diligence, and vision are all good things when stewarded correctly. But in God's kingdom, the things that matter the most, we cannot earn. In fact, the harder we try to earn our own salvation, righteousness, and grace, the more imprisoned we will become. 

Jesus fulfilled the law completely. Therefore, how could we ever expect to further fulfill it by following the rules it established? Did Jesus not do a good enough job? By holding the law up as something that still needs to be followed to live a righteous life, we are deeming the work of Christ incomplete, and taking the role of savior onto our own shoulders. No wonder we are so weighed down by our sins and shortcomings. We were never meant to carry them, and if we choose, they will crush us. 

We must learn to receive gracefully, to inherit the goodness of God in Christ Jesus. We must renounce the lie that something is not fully ours unless we earn it. That sounds good to our flesh, even humble, but it is really just a form of pride and arrogance. We are walking, talking, living beings and we have done nothing to earn our own lives. We didn't earn our DNA. We didn't earn our place of birth in this world, our gender, our heart, our spirit, our mind. All of these priceless gifts were lavished upon us by our Heavenly Father. It's time we take Him at His word and believe we are "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus."

Just as we received life at conception, we must also receive the new life that Christ is offering us through his death on the cross, and triumph over the grave. It is in this grace alone that we are actually made free: free from our sin, free from pride, free from striving, free from the curse of the law. 

If we fully receive Christ, we fully receive the life He offers. 

Use Your Imagination

Lately, I've been running across the idea of "setting your imagination on God" and it strikes me I suppose because the idea is somewhat foreign to me. I know that many people (perhaps more in modern times) have expressed a fear that heaven will be boring, and as absurd as that sounds, I have gone there in my mind as well. Obviously, we must have terrible imaginations because we couldn't be venturing further from the truth. Heaven is going be to all that we've ever wanted, imagined, desired, all for which we have longed.

Men smarter than myself have said that heaven is not going to be something foreign and other. God is making all things new. He made a great thing when he made the universe and all that is in it, the vast wonder of all the life on earth and the infinite complexity of human beings. He is going to reclaim this earth and make it perfect. I don't know all that heaven entails, but I know this is part of it. There will be eating, drinking, dancing, singing, laughing, talking, embracing, and yes, we will have bodies. We aren't going to be spirits floating about the universe. The scripture speaks multiple times of God transforming our bodies, making them perfect and everlasting. No more plastic surgery, wrinkle cremes, miracle diets, 20 minutes abs, organ transplants. We will be perfectly and gloriously ourselves.

Even more amazing that what heaven is going to look and sound like is who is going be there. God will be there, and we will know him: as our best friend, as our Creator, as our Savior, as our Father, as the Alpha and Omega. Try to imagine that. Imagine you die and instead of floating into a white light as an orb, something much more real happens.

You open your eyes to the doors of a beautiful banquet hall but you can barely see in. The door is cracked just enough to tantalize you. You hear booming sounds of laughter and joy and loving conversation coming from inside. You eventually muster up the courage to stick your nose in through the door to take a peek around. As soon as you do, at the far head end of the table a man stands up, and with him everybody else does as well. Although you've never seen him, you feel like you know this man, and then it hits you; the man is Jesus. Stunned by the revelation you then realize, every person's eyes in the room are glued to you and they are smiling from ear to ear, on their feet because you entered the room. Then Jesus exclaims "Welcome, my friend. We've been expecting you. Come sit by me. I saved you a seat and I hope you're hungry!"

Sounds like heaven to me.

We need to let our imaginations run wild about God, about his plans for us, about his infinite love, about his unmatched greatness, about the depths of his heart for his people like you and me. Nothing we can ever imagine will be too much for God.

God Doesn't Speak to Me...

If that sounds like you, my initial encouragement is do not lose heart. There is hope. And you're going to have to fight for it. First, let's see what we can find in scripture about the idea of God speaking. We want to make sure we begin with a valid foundation before we move forward. Jesus sheds some light on this subject when he explains to the disciples that He is the Good Shepherd and they are the sheep. "The sheep hear [my voice, and I call my] own sheep by name and lead them out. " John 10:3  What an intimate picture. Not only does he call out to us, but he knows us by name, and leads us towards Himself. I can just picture Jesus saying, this way guys. This is the way to life. Follow me!

Now, if we're unable to hear Jesus's voice, why would this example be given in the scriptures? That would just be cruel to get our hopes up. Well, Christ is not cruel. He desires that we know Him "just as the Father knows me and I know the Father." John 10:15 If your earthly father was mainly a source of pain and disappointment for you, that may not sound like much. But God the Father and Jesus are the most united, strong, intimate relationship in all of the Universe, and they are inviting us into that fellowship. And there is no way that we can become that close to Jesus if we cannot speak to Him and hear from Him.

All through the ages, and all through the Scriptures, God speaks to His people. He spoke to Adam. He spoke to Moses. He spoke to Jonah. He spoke to Elijah. He spoke to Daniel. He spoke to Abraham. He spoke to Jesus. And He will speak to you. The responsibility falls on us to listen.  It's not a question of if he speaks, but when. In the book of Hebrew it says "Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness." 3:7-8 The truth here is huge!When you hear His voice! Wow. There's more here though. When we hear His voice, it's our choice how we respond. He gives us free will. If you choose to you can rationalize His voice away and say that wasn't really God. Or you can choose to believe it was indeed God, but choose to disobey. God forbid we choose the latter.

There is another component to keeping your heart sensitive to God's voice, and that is the simple fact that we have an enemy. Call him what you wish: Satan, the devil, the evil one. He's real and he wants to destroy. He is constantly planning on how to steal the life God is trying to offer you through Christ and His spirit. One of the primary ways Satan does this through deception. He did it to Eve in the garden. And he does it to us all the time. He'll whisper in your ear, "God doesn't speak to you. He doesn't even care about you."

Here's the really scary part. Often, we believe Satan's lies. We swallow them hook, line and sinker. Once we've made an agreement with the evil one, he now has a foothold in our life. Believing that God won't or doesn't speak to you can actually keep you from hearing God's voice. Why? Because it kills your faith. You have to take back the truth and renounce that agreement you made with the evil one and take your freedom back. To do this you literally have to pull Satan's hook from your heart, and ask God to remove the lie from your body. Once you've discovered what the lie is bring the Cross and all of Christ's power against the lie, and break your agreement with it. Ask Jesus to fill you His Spirit. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom." 2 Cor 3:17 Then with faith, ask Him to heal you, to speak into your life and He will.