Take some time and think about this. Suppose you had a close friend who needed some money and you gave it to him. Your friend took the money, used it, and now wants to pay you back. You politely remind your friend that the money wasn't a loan, it was a gift and therefore doesn't need repaid.
Everyday, your friend calls you, or comes to your home or job to tell you that he wants to repay the debt and every time he does you remind him that there is no debt to repay.
Your friend refuses to listen, he simply refuses to accept the simple truth that your gift to him was without condition.
After repeatedly telling him that he does not owe you anything. That the money was simply your way of expressing your love and kindness toward him you find yourself becoming frustrated with his unnecessary attempts to repay you.
Doesn't he know that he is my friend and because he is my friend I never expected to be repaid?
How do you think God feels when we foolishly attempt to repay Him for His amazing grace?
Selah
Been hearing this lately..."When are you going to teach on grace again?" I love that question every time I hear it for a couple reasons. I love to teach, and I love to teach God's grace. Nothing excites me more then the message of God's grace and nothing is more important to every believer than to hear the grace message time and time again for the first time.
Why? Because we forget so easily what we have in Christ. what was purchased on the cross. The all to simple, nonreligious reason for Christ's death and resurrection.
We love the grace message but we can't seem to keep the truth of it in our minds for very long. We back peddle to the "Your sins are forgiven, but..." message we've all been exposed to.
We pick up the burdensome yoke of performance and race to some imaginary finish line where we think righteousness awaits us. How sad it is to arrive at one finish line just to find the starting line on yet another and another and another race to nowhere.
We begin to judge others actions, words, dress, hair style, etc. in the light of performance salvation. We become judge and jury pronouncing judgement and sentence one anyone who might not be "as saved as us". We're only to happy to jump in and lend a hand when it comes to assessing another's eternal destination.
Thankfully, God doesn't hear our verdicts. He doesn't hear them because our judgment is Pharisaic.He passes no judgement; He doesn't hear us because of His grace.
Why can't we keep the truth of God's grace in our hearts and minds? Why can't we understand that our sins, ALL our sins, EVERY sin past, present and future is completely and eternally forgiven?
It lies in the last sentence...Past, Present and Future thinking. We can't get it into our heads that our eternal reward was purchased in the past, is not for the future, and belongs to us right now, this very second. Because of Christ, all our past sins are gone, all our present sins are forgiven and all our future sins are forgiven.
Every future moment becomes a present day reality. If Jesus is Lord of your life you rest with Him at the right hand of the Father. Your sins were forgiven the moment you made Jesus your Lord. That forgiveness, that transformation, that rebirth didn't remain in the past when you first came to Christ. It remained powerfully active in every present day step you into your next future moment.
Ephesians 2:8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." NIV
2 Corinthians 12:6-10 "Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." NIV
God says "I promise you..."
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
Isaiah 40:29-31 "He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint."
Philippians 4:19 "And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus."
Romans 8:37-39 "No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Proverbs 1:33 "But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.”
John 14:27 "I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid."
Romans 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."
Hebrews 8:12 "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Mark Twain wrote, “I must have an immense quantity of mind. It takes so long to make it up.”
The human relations manager had advertised a job opening, and a large group of applicants was waiting in her waiting room. The first young man was ushered into her office, and she began explaining the job to him.
“We need someone in this job who can make fast decisions,” she said, “someone who can really think on his feet. Can you show me that you’re capable of doing that?”
Without a word, the young man got to his feet, stuck his head out the door, and announced to the waiting applicants, “Okay, you guys. You can all go home – the job’s been filled.”
It is impossible to make difficult decisions without a sense of personal destiny. Jesus knew His divinely appointed assignment and would not be side tracked or seduced. His heart was fixed on the cross. Every decision He made was tested against His calling.
In order to hold to our objectives we must wear blinders, like a racehorse, that remove potential distractions from our lives. Jesus didn’t make decisions based upon human reason, but stood firmly on the sure Word of God. Proverbs 3:5,6 reads…”Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
Life can be simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. If we resist His will, our destiny rests in our hands, but if we are obedient to His will, our future rests with Him.
Author, John Boykin wrote, “Rather than viewing our circumstances as God-caused, we should view them as a point on a continuum. Our vocation as human beings is to make decisions, and God’s part in our lives is to work with us. (When we accept Christ as Lord – my emphasis added) He plants His Holy Spirit in our heart and He begins to change the kind of person we are. When we change, our values change, then our decisions change. Our relationship with God is a process of changing our values to agree with His so that the decisions we make will be godly ones.”
Ephesians 5:17 reads, “Do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
We can understand His will at every decision we face by coming before Him and saying, “Well Father, I want Your will in this situation, but it’s not clear to me what it is You want me to do. He’ll answer, He’s always right on time!
Have a wonderful day!
Let's say a guy named Roger is attracted to a woman named Elaine. He asks her out to a movie; she accepts; they have a pretty good time. A few nights later he asks her out to dinner, and again they enjoy themselves. They continue to see each other regularly, and after a while neither one of them is seeing anybody else. And then, one evening when they're driving home, a thought occurs to Elaine, and, without really thinking, she says it aloud: "Do you realize that, as of tonight, we've been seeing each other for exactly six months?"
And then there is silence in the car. To Elaine, it seems like a very loud silence. She thinks to herself: Gee, I wonder if it bothers him that I said that. Maybe he's been feeling confined by our relationship; maybe he thinks I'm trying to push him into some kind of obligation that he doesn't want, or isn't sure of.
And Roger is thinking: Gosh. Six months.
And Elaine is thinking: But, hey, I'm not so sure I want this kind of relationship, either. Sometimes I wish I had a little more space so I'd have time to think about whether I really want us to keep going the way we are, moving steadily toward . . . I mean, where are we going? Are we just going to keep seeing each other at this level of intimacy? Are we heading toward marriage? Toward children? Toward a lifetime together? Am I ready for that level of commitment? Do I really even know this person?
And Roger is thinking: ... so that means it was ... let's see ...February when we started going out, which was right after I had the car at the dealer's, which means ... lemme check the odometer ...Whoa! I am way overdue for an oil change here.
And Elaine is thinking: He's upset. I can see it on his face. Maybe I'm reading this completely wrong. Maybe he wants more from our relationship, more intimacy, more commitment; maybe he has sensed -- even before I sensed it -- that I was feeling some reservations. Yes, I bet that's it. That's why he's so reluctant to say anything about his own feelings. He's afraid of being rejected.
And Roger is thinking: And I'm gonna have them look at the transmission again. I don't care what those morons say, it's still not shifting right. And they better not try to blame it on the cold weather this time. What cold weather? It's 87 degrees out, and this thing is shifting like a stinking garbage truck, and I paid those incompetent thieves $600.
And Elaine is thinking: He's angry. And I don't blame him. I'd be angry, too. I feel so guilty, putting him through this, but I can't help the way I feel. I'm just not sure.
And Roger is thinking: They'll probably say it's only a 90- day warranty. That's exactly what they're gonna say.
And Elaine is thinking: maybe I'm just too idealistic, waiting for a knight to come riding up on his white horse, when I'm sitting right next to a perfectly good person, a person I enjoy being with, a person I truly do care about, a person who seems to truly care about me. A person who is in pain because of my self-centered, schoolgirl romantic fantasy.
And Roger is thinking: Warranty? They want a warranty? I'll give them a worthless warranty. I'll take their warranty and ....(edited)
..... .
"Roger," Elaine says aloud.
"What?" says Roger, startled.
"Please don't torture yourself like this," she says, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. "Maybe I should never have ... Oh, I feel so ... so ..." (She breaks down, sobbing.)
"What?" says Roger.
"I'm such a fool," Elaine sobs. "I mean, I know there's no knight. I really know that. It's silly. There's no knight, and there's no horse."
"There's no horse?" says Roger.
"You think I'm a fool, don't you?" Elaine says.
"No!" says Roger, glad to finally know the correct answer.
"It's just that ... It's that I ... I need some time," Elaine says.
(There is a 15-second pause while Roger, thinking as fast as he can, tries to come up with a safe response. Finally he comes up with one that he thinks might work.)
"Yes," he says.
(Elaine, deeply moved, touches his hand.)
"Oh, Roger, do you really feel that way?" she says.
"What way?" says Roger.
"That way about time," says Elaine.
"Oh," says Roger. "Yes."
(Elaine turns to face him and gazes deeply into his eyes, causing him
to become very nervous about what she might say next, especially if
it involves a horse. At last she speaks.)
"Thank you, Roger." she says.
"Thank you." says Roger.
Then he takes her home, and she lies on her bed, a conflicted, tortured soul, and weeps until dawn, whereas when Roger gets back to his place, he opens a bag of Doritos, turns on the TV, and immediately becomes deeply involved in a rerun of a tennis match between two Czechoslovakians he never heard of. A tiny voice in the far recesses of his mind tells him that something major was going on back there in the car, but he is pretty sure there is no way he would ever understand what, and so he figures it's better if he doesn't think about it. (This is also Roger's policy regarding world hunger.)
The next day Elaine will call her closest friend, or perhaps two of them, and they will talk about this situation for six straight hours. In painstaking detail, they will analyze everything she said and everything he said, going over it time and time again, exploring every word, expression, and gesture for nuances of meaning, considering every possible ramification. They will continue to discuss this subject, off and on, for weeks, maybe months, never reaching any definite conclusions, but never getting bored with it, either.
Meanwhile, Roger, while playing racquetball one day with a mutual friend of his and Elaine's, will pause just before serving, frown, and say: "Norm, did Elaine ever own a horse?"
“As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” 1Corintians 11:26
When we think of what God has done for us in the past, we can move confidently into the future. This was true for the people of Israel as they traveled from Egypt to the Promised Land.
In the final chapter of Genesis, we read that Joseph was dying, he made his brothers take an oath that they would carry his bones to the land God had promised to Abraham.
More than 300 years later, Moses took the bones of Joseph as the Israelite's left Egypt. (Exodus 13:19)
For the next 40 years the people carried the Ark with the tablets of the law and the coffin with the bones of Joseph. The bones served as a reminder of their yesterday. The Ark pointed to their tomorrow, for the tablets of the law anticipated the relationship they were to have with the Lord in the Promised Land. The Ark and the coffin were reminders that the God who was leading them forward had been at work in their past. Assurance and hope were carried together.
Once we've accepted the free gift of salvation and become children of God, we can have this same outlook when we gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We remember with assurance that Jesus died for us (1Corintians 11:23-25), and we look forward with confidence to His return. This living hope encourages us as we live each day for Him.
Christ’s death gives us courage for today and grace for all our tomorrows.
(Wrote this about 14 years ago....I am so old!!!)“There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.” 2Timothy 4:8In the mid-1970s, Ed Roberts created the world’s first commercially successful personal computer (PC). He hired a 19-year-old named Bill Gates to write software for him.
Roberts sold his computer business in 1977 and bought a farm. Seven years later, at the age of 41, he entered medical school. Today, Bill Gates is the head of the largest software company in the world. Ed Roberts is a physician in a small Georgia town.
Roberts says, “The implication is that the PC is the most important thing I’ve ever done, and I don’t think that’s true. Every day I deal with things that are equally if not more important here with my patients.”
How can we evaluate the significance of our lives? Something deep inside tells us that such a thing cannot be measured by wealth and fame.
As we look at the apostles Paul’s turbulent life, it seems noteworthy that he approached the end with a peaceful sense of successful completion. He wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2Timothy 4:7). Paul looked confidently not to the world but to “the Lord, the righteous judge,” for approval and reward.
How do you measure the significance of your life? Only God can tell you what matters most.
The measure of our lives is determined by the ruler of the universe, He places the measuring tape not outside but inside, around our hearts.
Make today and each after it significant and meaningful!
As an English-speaking person of faith, I've got to wonder: do my grammatical predispositions have an impact on my spiritual patterns? Is my ability to store up treasures in heaven impeded by my three separate views of of the past, present and future?
Yesterday, God so loved the world, today God is so loving the world and tomorrow God will so love the world. But God is timeless; the great I am. To God yesterday, today and tomorrow are all mysteriously part of the eternal now. While it's true that I now live within the finite confines of time, the Bible teaches me that I am also an infinite being - that an embodied me will go on forever. As will this world we're living on. According to the Bible, heaven isn't going to be some future place that is wholly different from this place. It will be this world made new.
So then, does our language betray us when we're forced to parse time the way we do? Right now, we're made new in Christ. Before we were even born God had us in mind. For eternity He will have us in mind. There's something about stating these truths in the past, present and future that's good; that illumines and enlarges our view of God.
But now I wonder if my future tense is also subtly and subconsciously keeping my ultimate union with God at a distance. A light just went on in you didn't it!? When I separate the future from the now (and the past) do I push it too far away, distance myself and then "treat it as if it's something different?” And in doing this, do my preparations for the future fall short? Is this why I said "I'll get my act together when I get older". "It’ll be a while before I meet God face to face". I need to see that guy about a property, buy that one last thing, work on my marriage". Then I'll get serious about all those God things.
But if the future is now, if our future God is with us now, then EVERYTHING CHANGES, doesn't it? Now is then. God is future present. Everything I do or don't do now is part of then, and the future is more present than it’s ever been.
Wow! Living spiritually in the future, present, and past changes our view and improves our decision making. I know, your wanting to ask me "How can I possibly live in three separate time frames?" Well, my friend, it's far easier that you think. The answer is to see yourself as God sees you and live your life in that reality.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the
Children of God. And that is what we are”. I John 3:1
“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being
rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to
grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”. Eph. 3:17-18
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come! All
this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…” II Cor 5:17-18
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God". II Cor 5:21
also see Romans 8: 1-39
