Voice of Grace

C.J. Mahaney Stepping Down From Soveriegn Grace Ministries...

2011-07-10T09:41:00.014-04:00

Well, in my last post I said I didn't comment much these days on the SGM Survivors blog...these days I am again because so many things are happening right now. In January of 2009 I wrote a short post in the form of a letter to C.J. Mahaney and company when Noel's story came out on the Survivor's blog and hope rose up in me and probably many others, that something would finally be done and the truth would come out. It didn't, and eventually the dust seemed to settle and SGM made it through seemingly unscathed once again. I thought things would always be that way, but maybe not, maybe not this time.

A few days ago C.J. announced on his blog that he was stepping down temporarily to deal with some issues. Shortly after this, Dave Harvey wrote about this on the Sovereign Grace Ministries website, including mentioning that he would be taking over in C.J.'s absence (no surprise here). And following all of this, hundreds of pages of documents written by Brent Detwiler were released anonymously to wikileaks detailing very specifically longstanding serious issues within the highest echelons of SGM leadership.

Aaron and I have been sitting together at the computer for too many hours reading through these documents, which I admit would be very boring to most people. To us, it is fascinating. You see, to hundreds of people who have been admiring followers of SGM leaders only to later leave for a variety of reasons, these documents say to us over and over "you are not crazy". We thought we knew this, we thought we had moved past the pronouncement of insanity we felt for leaving, but this solid tangible proof has been therapeutic I think.

Yes, some of the contents are disturbing of course, but it's truth. It's what really happened. Truth I can deal with! I know many cannot deal with the truth and will want to hide from it or try to hide it still from others, but many people will benefit from it, some even against their will.

This is not gossip, not bitter angry people trying to destroy a work of God, this is TRUTH. Truth is good, even if the truth of a matter is not good, truth itself is GOOD. With truth comes grace, Jesus comes with truth and grace. So the fact is that even if truth is painful and difficult sometimes, to reject it is to also reject grace. This is something we should all be terrified to do. Think about it.

As for my personal feelings and thoughts about all of this, I am already long past anger and bitterness thankfully. Overwhelmingly I feel sad, sad to think of what families are going through because of all this. Yes, including the leaders themselves. They have created an impossible system of works based righteousness and God endorsed condemnation that is a lie and sets everyone of for absolute failure. These failures are no surprise, they are/were inevitable. I've lived that way myself and the fact that I may have caused less damage to people than C.J. is only because my sphere of influence is smaller and my influence less powerful.

I want to see things properly dealt with, leaders who have hurt people should make it right, whatever it takes. Those who have shown themselves to be untrustworthy should be removed from positions that require trust. Trust is not to demanded as a law of God, it is to be earned and guarded as a rare privilege. Systems and doctrines that produce bad fruit over and over again should be very closely examined in a spirit of true humility, you know, that willingness to admit that you may be wrong. The willingness to own up to your wrongs, admit them publicly, and make difficult changes, real changes.

I want to see people set free from lies and legalism. Free from fear of man and rules and regulations. Free from pretending and trying and working and failing. I want to see people experience the unfailing love of their Father who is well-pleased with them! I want to see people learn to rest in that love.

So I'm thinking of you all and praying for you. Some of you I know and love, some of you I don't know but I still love. I haven't forgotten you, ever. Because I was part of SGM, you are still part of me in a special way. I still think of you fondly and I still thank God for you all. And I don't care what you've done or think you've done, or haven't done, THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE OF US WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS! NONE NONE NONE!!! So really, there is no reason to fear the truth.

When You Leave a Cult...

2011-07-01T18:24:00.000-04:00

I guess it has been 5 years since we left, it's so hard to believe. We live in a different country, have added another child to our family, and we are different people. Some of the people we left behind think we're different too but they don't see it as a good thing...

It's easy sometimes to forget how your experiences shape your thinking and everything you do. On some days I feel that we are so much freer and happier, and on others, well, I'm still just trying to survive. Though I don't often comment anymore on the blog SGM Survivors, I have always followed it and speak up now and again, especially if I think my words can somehow be an encouragement to someone else who is leaving (or contemplating it).   I think it's good to remember where you've come from, so I'm remembering. And I'm thankful.

I don't regret our time in SGM. We met some amazing people, learned theological perspectives that were new to us, and in the end we crashed and found that God's grace was there to rescue us from the rock bottom. We learned to never trust in the charisma of men, not to be fooled by fine-sounding arguments, not to believe false-humility. We learned through it all who we really are in Christ, and to NEVER let any human being dictate to us who we are or should be. I think we learned that freedom is the right and privelege of every single son of God; spiritual, intellectual, and emotional freedom. It's something that no one can take from us but we can be persuaded and deceived into giving it up. It's something I will never give up again by God's grace.

And there are some marks left from all that we went through. I'm still cynical and suspicious of churches and leaders. I can't bear even the slightest insinuation of male chauvenism. I will bolt like a frightened animal at the first sign of someone wanting to put me in a cage or control me. I don't trust people, or should I say, religious people. And legalism? Not on my watch.

I think as time goes on I grow and heal, but I'm sure I am forever changed in some way. Life is like that. Today I re-read the letter I wrote to Aaron a few months after we left the church. I read it once or twice a year probably to remember. I smile when I think of all the wonderful people God used to help us and love us during a time of such confusion and bitterness.    I told my husband I was moving out and leaving the kids behind. I was afraid I would become abusive toward them because I was breaking down, depressed, suicidal. I spent my days in bed crying and escaping the house alone whenever possible. The people we left behind didn't know us because we had spent all our energy trying to be who we were supposed to be, we didn't know each other anymore, or ourselves.

All I knew was that I didn't fit the roles I had embraced as "biblical". I was a failure as a wife and a mother, the very essence of who I was supposed to be as a woman ( as I was told) and I was miserable being chained to those roles, confined and suppressed for lack of male anatomy. And every time my mind dared to ponder even the edges of my feelings about it all the guilt would come crashing in on my head in powerful waves, I could feel the sickening weight of condemnation in my stomach. Because I had been well-taught and I knew that to think these things was evil and proud. How well I remember the feelings of condemnation! I used to think it was a mark of holiness and humility and worried if I didn't feel it for a moment!   I was addicted to guilt but it was killing me as surely as any drug.

Aaron and I had lost any sense true intimacy and connection. All that seemed to hold us together after leaving was the common misery we found ourselves in. Thank God for the gift of wonderful friends who had left or were leaving at the same time, we talked for hours and hours processing everything in detail in a way I'm sure anyone from the outside would not have understood.    We were warned about the dangers of anger and bitterness and unforgiveness by many but it was in the freedom of true friendship that we were able to let it all out and deal with it without fear of judgement. And then there were a few pastors from other places that loved us and prayed for us and helped us to know that not all leaders are power-hungry controllers. Not all pastors teach and train people to submit to all their wishes and worship them. Some just love people. It's true, they are out there.

Over time, our marriage became a marriage again. As we learned how to be ourselves (instead of trying to be the perfect husband/father and perfect wife/mother) I guess we discovered again that we like each other, the real versions. When you take the performance requirements out of your marriage, there is room for love again. There is room to make mistakes and laugh and move on. And kicking your pastors out of your bedroom doesn't hurt either. Ha. You see, at first we didn't know how to do anything on our own we were so used to having every detail dictated to us. How to discipline  your kids, how to submit to your husband, how to control I mean lead your wife, what to say if someone says this or that, how to pray, what to read, how your sex life should be, and on and on....there are always special meetingsto "help" you do everything and anything in your life.

But we started to figure it out together, the way God intended I think. We became a team, unified, best friends. You can't be best friends with someone who is not your equal but we discovered that we were equal and we needed each other. I wasn't just a slave anymore (gasp). I'm not saying that Aaron was to blame here, I was just as brainwashed as he was. I don't think either of us fit in to this pattern and acted contrary to it all the time but we felt so terrible when we fell outside the roles we were taught.

I am rambling...just reflecting...just throwing it out there that it's a hard thing to do to leave any religous/controlling culture, but it can be done! You can survive it, you can overcome it, you can be happy and free. Not always happy, not perfectly happy, but you can feel whatever you want, whenever you want. Yes, you can have your very own feelings and thoughts and words again. And when you do that, you'll find you start encouraging your husband/wife, children, friends, everyone, to be free too!   And you can read your old good-bye letters and suicide notes and be glad you pushed forward and moved on to greener pastures. There is only one true Shepherd and he won't lead you wrong...trust him.

My Ministry Bio

2011-06-06T22:05:00.001-04:00

Julie Morris is a dearly loved son of God. Joint heir with Christ, seated with him at the right hand of God, blessed with every spiritual blessing, perfectly 100% righteous and holy, royal priest, called to do the work of Christ with the mind and Spirit of Christ in her, minister of life, reconciliation, and the new covenant, chosen by God, partaker of the divine nature, and comes highly recommended by her Father who is extremely pleased with her.

Contact me if you'd like to have me come speak at your special event. Ha!

Legalism, Lust, Porn, and Adultery

2011-04-02T21:14:00.000-04:00

I'm tired so tired of all the smoke screens in churchianity. All the fakeness. ALL. Can't we just talk about life and be real? Can we just stop pretending we're perfect people living in a perfect world? Please?

I'm 34 years old I think, and I've been married for over 15 years of that time. To a man. A normal man with issues from his past and childhood, stuff he has to deal with just like anyone else. I'm a woman, formerly quite naive and stupid with no understanding of what it's like to be a man though having many other kinds of issues to deal with myself. This is what I like to call 'life'. Or more accurately, life in the fallen world which is only temporary.

Over the years, I've watched many marriages fall apart due to adultery etc...I've seen couples work hard to put up shiny happy images of their relationship for years only to find out they had all kinds of stuff going on in reality. They never asked anyone for help, never admitted they were having trouble. I know what that's like! We've had our share of stuff to deal with, stuff that's normal if we'd only stop hiding it from each other. Everyone thinks their problems are so much worse than anyone else's because everyone is LYING. Yes, they're LYING. I'm not saying there aren't any happy couple, but what I'm saying is that the truly happy couple are not perfectly happy and they will be honest with you about their problems. Yes, HONEST. What an idea, revolutionary! (As a side note, I find it quite funny and refreshing that some of the people we thought were the most screwed up because they let everything out there now seem to be happy and are still together!)

If you ask me about problems in my marriage I'll tell you. Send me an email and see. Ask me anything, yes, anything. You might not like what you hear but I don't mind sharing with anyone who would like to know. You wives out there, did you know that many times your husband is told not to be honest with you about lust, porn, or any sexual struggles they might have? That gets filed away under "she doesn't need to know, just share it with another man" . What a bunch of crap! The best thing Aaron ever did for our marriage was to tell me everything he was dealing with, everything.

And the best thing we can do now is not ever hide any of those problems from others but be honest about reality, because what's reality for us is reality for so many other people. And here's the biggest secret: once you stop hiding it the power is gone. Once you realize that shame and guilt are the lie, the power of whatever 'sin' you fight against so pitifully just kind of melts away in the light of truth.

This is a rant. I'm sick of the self-righteous fake holiness air hovering over the spiritual people who claim or pretend not to ever deal with these kinds of things. These are the very people who usually end up on the news caught doing the very things they vowed to have no interest in. Haven't we gotten the message yet? Have all the teaching and rules and regulations about what to look at, listen to, touch, or get near worked? Or have they turned people into obsessive compulsive slaves to anything that will destroy their lives and families?

Let's stop with the scarlet letter on people too, as if we were immune to any sin or temptation. Let's view people according to the gospel, as washed clean and carrying the life of Christ in them. And let's treat them as God treats them, not as their sins deserve. Because it won't be long until you might be needing a little mercy yourself, and you won't find that in the law you used to whack somebody over the head with.

P.S. I love you all and I want you to be happy and free. No condemnation even to you fakers out there, I know you're scared out of your wits...

Why the Rainbow Is the Perfect Symbol For the Gay Community! (says this christian...)

2010-09-23T18:23:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure if everyone is familiar with the Bible story of Noah and the ark, but I assume most people are. It's a pretty common story for children to grow up hearing, at least it used to be. God sent a worldwide flood to destroy the earth and every living creature except Noah and his family and the animals he brought with him by God's instruction (and presumably the all the fish survived the flood as well). Anyway, when the flood was finally over and the water receded enough for Noah to leave the ark, God gave us a sign of his promise never to judge the whole earth by flood ever again-- rainbows. You can read the Biblical account beginning in Genesis 6.

Nowadays we still have rainbows in the sky after it rains, and many groups and organizations have adopted rainbows as a symbol, including the gay community. You might see a rainbow bumper sticker or flag or t-shirt, probably even tattoos I"m guessing. You can find all sorts of info online regarding the history of the use of the rainbow to represent gay pride, I found a couple including this short blurb. I think perhaps some religious people might feel that the gay community has essentially hijacked God's special sign to us and are offended or upset, concerned about the precious promise the rainbow represents is being denigrated somehow. But I think God is very pleased to have his sign of the gospel being paraded all over the earth by the very people who seem to bear the brunt of so much judgement and condemnation!

Sign of the gospel? How did I come to that conclusion? Well, actually the whole story of the ark is a picture of Jesus and how he carried us safely through God's wrath and judgement for sin. When we are in Christ, we are never judged by God, can never be judged or punished for our sin, in fact our sin is all swept away in the mighty flood of God's wrath poured out on Jesus at the Cross. The rainbow comes after the storm of his wrath as a sign to all generations that his judgement is OVER, as in FINISHED! Think I'm stretching this too far, reading too much into it? There is a small reference in 1 Peter to baptism being like the ark...but one of the best passages ever is this one:

"To me this is like the days of Noah,

when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.

So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,

never to rebuke you again.

Though the mountains be shaken

and the hills be removed,

yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken

nor my covenant of peace be removed,"

says the LORD, who has compassion on you. " (Isaiah 54:9-10)

Is this not the main clause of the New Covenant??? He promises never to be angry with us or rebuke us, it's his promise of peace, NO JUDGEMENT!!!! I can't think of many more groups of people in the world that need to hear this message more than the gay community, and especially from true Christians who love and don't condemn. God is not counting men's sins against them! It's rainbow time!

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, 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 and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

I'm Not A Serious Christian.

2010-09-02T21:43:00.000-04:00

It's funny how in today's online world how we can be aware of people and places we would have long forgotten otherwise. I have links to much of my past, casual links, but almost daily reminders of where I've been. There are people I've known almost my whole life, leaders I admired as a child or teen, the truly serious Christians. They are passionate, radical, and outspoken. They are generally well-liked in their circles. I like them too. But sometimes I think "how tired they must be!". I can't imagine being a serious Christian for 20, 30, or more years, I know I couldn't do it and besides that, I have absolutely no desire to. I only tried my hand at it for 20 years or so, of course I started very young, but even for a young person it was tiring.

Today I'm a Christian still, but more because I can't stop being one (if your definition of a Christian is someone who believes in Jesus, that he is God, that he came in the flesh, lived and died to give us eternal life for free). I can't stop believing in Jesus, it comes natural to me these days, pretty easy, simple and uncomplicated. Some people hate this kind of faith, they don't think it's good enough or something. They want to condemn me, mock me, or just dismiss me altogether. That's ok. I've traded in my serious Christianity for something much more joyful and restful. I feel free. This flesh is not perfect and never will be but my spirit is alive with Jesus, completely righteous, completely FREE. I wish everyone would be free!

Love, Marriage (15 years!), and Other Stuff

2010-08-16T10:38:00.000-04:00

Wow, I guess I haven't written here for a long time! I've been busy, never forgetting about the good news but not having as much time to really write (uninterrupted that is). Looks like we'll be starting to have church soon and I'll keep everyone posted about that. It will be my Dad and Aaron taking care of worship and preaching/teaching for the most part, and I'll be figuring out something for children. Doesn't that sound really well organized? To be honest I'm pretty nervous about organizing anything, being part of 'church' in the formal sense but I'm also excited and so ready for fellowship and sharing good news, seeing people get free. I HATE seeing people suffering in fear and bondage and condemnation, HATE it. I want everybody to be happy! Not perfect, just happy--together!

Aaron and I got to go for a week long vacation to Mexico a month or two ago, all alone. He won the trip in a contest at work while I was still pregnant with Amilia, and it was so nice to be alone together just relaxing. When we got back home with Amilia (the other three stayed with their grandparents in Delaware for a few more weeks) I flew out to Toronto with her to visit my sister Kelly and her husband Mike and got to meet my nephew Fenn who had recently had surgery. He's doing well and is very very cute and personable. And cuddly too. We had a lot of fun together eating take-out Indian, battling each other on Super Mario Bros., going for walks etc...and I even got to see an old friend of mine that we once shared a house with way back in Fredericton. She's as crazy fun as ever, we had such a good time staying up way past our bedtime! Well that's the nutshell version of my summer so far! I've also been busy trying to get our health and nutrition in line so we all can feel better and have more energy and have been blogging about that on a different blog.

But the thing that's been on mind the most lately is relationships, you know, love and marriage stuff. In three days it will be our 15th anniversary. In one way it feels like some kind of accomplishment, in another way it seems that I've only just begun to get a glimpse of what unity in marriage really is. (And when I say 'marriage' I'm not talking about a legal contract or technicalities, I'm talking a true union of love, though we do happen to be legally married haha, can of worms now opened.)

Sometimes I feel almost as girlishly emotional and idealistic as I did at 18 walking down the aisle barefoot in my vintage dress, wreath of wildflower on my head. I still want to be loved and treasured far above any other woman by the same man, still dream of him being intoxicated by my beauty. I still daydream about him, and still get tingly at the thought of his touch.

Most days my main goal is to get him to myself for a few moments at the end of the day, not always an easy task with 4 kids to take care of. When I cook or clean, it's with him in mind, though I certainly am not the best housekeeper! When I wash dark clothes I put in lots of his socks because he hates it when he runs out of socks for work, and socks, or laundry in general, are not my strong point (I have a huge overflowing basket of unmatched socks ALWAYS). No matter what I'm thinking about, he's going to hear about it. We can still talk each other's ears off whether about our run-of-the-mill day or intense theological debates. We can still get on each other's nerves regularly, and we can still make the other cry though thankfully we don't fight as much as we used to!

Aaron is my best friend in the world. I can't imagine anything without him. He's the only man I've ever been with, the only man I need to be with. No one can make me feel as terrible as he can if he wants to (or unintentionally) but no one can make me feel so happy and loved either. I don't know if there are many people in today's world willing to risk the former in order to experience the latter, but I think many people are missing out on something amazing. We are one, we are so different but we are truly one. So many flaws in both of us, and we know each other's flaws very well. As we get older I think and hope we are learning to protect each other's weaknesses instead of selfishly exploit them or criticize them.

Coming into grace has been wonderful, really wonderful. I would go so far to say that it saved our marriage, getting out of legalistic religion. But, grace didn't make us perfect. We deal with many of the same issues we always have, maybe always will. But when we know that God loves us because he loves us, we can love each other 'just because'. Loving someone feels good, it is good. Of course it hurts sometimes, but it's worth it, I swear.

I write all of this even while being dissatisfied with some things, wanting more and yet, all the rest is still true. When will we make peace with the imperfection of our flesh? See it as so temporary, as so insignificant? The irony lies in the fact that until we believe we're ok exactly the way we are, in Christ, we will continue to fight an impossible uphill battle toward growth and maturity and change. We can only change when we know we are loved exactly as we are even if we never change, because then we are freed from shame and fear and feelings of unworthiness and we are able to truly love back.

So I hope you know, Aaron , that I think you're the sexiest man on the planet and I love you more than ever, you're the only one for me. Thanks for being with me for so long and hope you stick with me much longer. Happy Anniversary!

A Bunch of Rubbish or Jesus?

2010-04-10T08:56:00.009-04:00

"Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they're interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ's praise as we do it. We couldn't carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God's law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law Book.

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness.

I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back." Philippians 3:2-14 (The Message)

I could write my own version of this. While I don't think I was very successful at living up to all my self-righteous standards as a legalist, I did try. And I do think that others viewed me as spiritual, godly, etc... So here's my take on the pedigree I've torn up and thrown in the garbage in exchange for the far more glorious life of enjoying intimacy with Jesus:

Born into a Christian family, attended church since a baby, passionately sang worship and praise to God as far back as I can remember, prayed for lost souls with many tears, shared what I thought was the gospel with many, fasted, kept a spiritual/prayer journal, served faithfully and sacrificially in the church, served others by providing free childcare, cooking meals, etc.., tithed and gave money beyond the 10%, read many many spiritual books, read and studied the Bible, confessed sins regularly to God and others, was sorry when I made a mistake or wasn't consistent in my spiritual disciplines and committed to being more faithful, tried to be humble and submissive to my husband, submitted willingly and joyfully to 'spiritual authority', was very careful about what I listened to, read, or watched in the way of media to make sure it was glorifying to God, worked at trying to grow in all the fruits of the Spirit, acknowledged weakness and failures and sought God sincerely to help me change and do/be more like Jesus.

ALL THESE THINGS I COUNT AS RUBBISH. ALL.

They gained me NOTHING! In fact, the more I did the more self-righteous I became. This self-righteousness alternatingly gave me the high of success and the low of condemnation and failure. And I was addicted to this cycle, couldn't feel godly or spiritual without it.

But I've given it all up and am more than satified with Jesus Christ who has given me his perfect righteousness and completely unearned! I don't need any of those things any more to make me righteous, more holy, more pleasing to God, even more mature. What I need, is initimacy with Jesus. End of story.

You see, all those things can be done on my own. And while I was doing them on my own, 'letting' God help me a little if he would, rather then deepening my intimacy with him I was actally distancing myself from him, cutting myself off from grace and nullifying faith. It makes me wonder...who was more distant from the Father, the prodigal or the older son? The prodigal seemed to have a better understanding of his father's character and love than his older and supposedly more faithful brother.
I've been the older brother but I don't want to be suspicious of my father anymore. I don't want to work for him as a slave, not revelling in his love or enjoying the benefits of sonship.

As for my list of good (more like dead) works, it becomes of no use to me anymore. Everything I was ever trying to gain I've found in Jesus.

John Piper Taking Break From Ministry...

2010-03-30T17:18:00.005-04:00

My good friend Dan (who it seems likes Piper a bit more than I do, hehe, did not mean to offend you brother!) left a comment on my last post concerning Piper recently announcing taking a leave of absence from ministry citing pride as one of his reasons. He wants to wage war on this sin. While I think that's a really stupid idea in general, I was very much encouraged to read of his other reasons. Mainly, to spend some real undisturbed time with his wife and get things happier in that relationship. I completely believe him that things are not bad between him and his wife but still lacking. Years of ministry would definately take a toll on family life and I'm so happy he's stepping back for what I hope will be a true rest in God's Spirit and not a mad sin hunt. In my opinion, this kind of rest would do more than anything else to bring Piper back to the spirit of true humility he feels he's lacking at the moment. I wish more ministers would follow Piper's example in this BEFORE things in their families get bad and/or fall apart completely. So though I still don't agree with some of Piper's legalistic teachings, I'm very thankful to hear this news and will be praying that he and his wife have a gloriously refreshing time in God's grace. May they both receive more revelation of Jesus and his tender mercy and love.

John Piper, Log In Your Eye??? Blasting the Emergent Church

2010-03-26T09:32:00.005-04:00

Hmmmm. This little snippet made me angry on so many levels. First, the arrogance is palpable and sickening, the self-righteousness. Pointing a finger at the 'immorality' of the emerging/emergent (he ignorantly uses the two terms interchangeably) community when I know from experience that the same sin is in Piper's own doctrinal camp, just covered up better. And Piper refuses to do anything about these things! Because they buy his books? I don't know why but anyway....

Could it be that the people who are drawn to the emerging church have already been screwed up by so-called orthodox churches? By powerrful men who preach the 'truth'? Could it be that at least part of the fault of the implosion of personal lives lies with churches like Piper's church? I don't know what Piper's church is like, never been there, never looked into it. I do know what kinds of things go on in a SGM church, or Mark Driscoll's church, and all of it is endorsed by Piper by his words and by his silence. I've never heard him criticize or address any of these men in the way he is willing to blast and name men in the emerging/ent church. He blasts Mclaren's book even after admitting he's never read it! Isn't this more akin to slander? I mean, if he'd read it and has criticism, fine. But to spread negative things about it on hearsay just seems wrong to me.

And forget the whole pot calling kettle black! All the reform guys I'm familiar with are preaching at least some heresy. Yes, they are commonly accepted traditional lies that most people believe, but that doesn't make them any more true. Legalism is a doctrine of and from demons. Yet they continue to live it and preach it. I'm so done with the shiny man on the pedestal, book deal in hand. Am I cynical? I guess. But it's not that I have no faith in God, it's just I know God's heart is so far from these self-righteous moral judgements, the kind that can hardly contain the glee over people's lives falling apart.

Honestly? The emergent church and reform camp have a major flaw in common. They're both still trying to live under law, it's just the emergent crowd has decided to loosen up some rules and reorganize the priority of others. They will do away with rules about homosexuality and set up new standards in fighting injustice and poverty. In the end, people subsctibing to either of these sets of standards will end up falling hard, hopefully during this life and not standing before God on the day of judgement, however you believe that goes down.

The reform guys boast of their knowledge of truth, the emerging guys boast of their knowledge of the world and their compassion, as far as I can see, both groups are still being crushed and can't carry the heavy burdens they want to put on other people.

I love you both. You both have some good points, but you're both wrong. But Piper needs to wake up and realize that just like feminists exist because the arrogance and selfishness of men in the church, so the a large group of people have emerged from 'traditionsl' churches and religion due mainly to being very hurt and confused. Maybe it's time to take a look at the huge log in your eye...before you start casting stones.

Marriage, Some Introductory Thoughts...

2010-03-20T11:33:00.003-04:00

I'm posting this as a very small beginning of what I hope will become a much deeper discussion about marriage and the beautiful unity that can be experienced between a husband and a wife. This to me is one of the saddest things that has happened and is happening in the church today, the increasing rarity of true marriage. I don't think most divorces are the break-down of true marriage, but the break-down of superficial imitations of true marriage.

Can a superficial marriage that started with attraction and infatuation and then built on law and duty ever ripen into mature and intoxicating love? I whole-heartedly believe it can! But too many times it doesn't. So let the discussion and revelation begin, and may our God enlighten us about his kind of love! And as he pours it out his lavish love on us may it transform every other relationship in our lives. And let's also remember: THERE IS NOW THEREFORE NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE IN JESUS CHRIST! This is not the time or the place for pointing fingers at people in self-righteous disgust. This is about freedom and joy!

The wedding vows...Do we doom marriages to failure when we base them on legal contracts and vows that are impossible standards of perfection? Did Adam and Eve make 'vows before a holy God'? (Also posted on facebook at the Free Believers Network with comments following.)

This is one of my comments, modified a little:

There's nothing more deadly in a marriage than one or the other feeling 'trapped'. The idea of marriage taught in the church is ridiculous and damaging. As soon as you tell someone they are tied for life to someone else no matter what, of course panic sets in. Not to mention it isn't true, it's a contract that can easily be gotten out of .

The church has been so busy preserving the outward image of marriage, teaching that living at the same address for the rest of your life constitutes a major accomplishment( sometimes even inferring that the more miserable you were the more faithful you were), that they've completely missed the point of marriage as God designed it. It was for a man and a woman to enjoy--revel in-- the same kind of love and unity as God himself does within the Trinity. And that would be a beautiful picture of Christ and the church as she enters into that union through redemption. It would truly be an unbreakable bond of love.

More and more to find an honestly happy couple who are truly enjoying intimate union in all the ways God has provided, is difficult. A happily married couple is a complete rarity. And to me, this false marriage is much much sadder than divorce because divorce is just the truth of what a marriage probably was all along in most cases, especially in the performance based 'church'.

Marriage is wonderful when you are able to experience it as the freeing unity and love it is supposed to be. We are not bound together with chains of rules , vows, or promises, but we melt together over time until neither can imagine life or joy without the other. It's not perfecting of roles or duties that make a marriage work, but husband and wife both letting go and truly enjoying the other's love and companionship, sharing every part of themselves until it becomes difficult to draw a line between the two and divide them into two separate entities. This is the same way we are conformed to Christ, not that there is no individual still, but that the harmony is so beautiful and wonderful that there is no desire for a solo part.

This is in no way intended to make anyone who is married and not happy feel bad about it either! I just long for people to be free and happy in every part of their lives...and so we continue to share and enjoy the best news in the world until it gets down into every fiber of our being and transforms our minds and sets us free more and more!

The Spiritual Olympics

2010-03-05T12:58:00.003-05:00

Lately it seems I'm running into this problem everywhere I turn. Many of us have been set free from the law mindset, we know we never have to try to live up to the Law's standards of righteous in order to be righteous. We know it, we really do! But we don't. In the back of our mind we hear the accusations of our enemy, the little whisper that says "if this grace stuff really is true, you'd be performing better than you did under Law, see that legalist over there? Their marriage is better, they read the Bible more, they worship more passionately."

In fact, every time we make a mistake or something goes terribly wrong in our lives, we feel as if we are on display to every legalist we know, and the weight of the world settles on our shoulders. Now if they don't believe in the gospel of grace, it will be our fault. Grace isn't working for us right now because if it were, we'd be meeting or exceeding the standards of the Law. OOPS!!!! I thought we were no longer under the Law!?!?!?

We are DEAD to the Law. DEAD. DEAD DEAD DEAD! Stop comparing yourself to the Law's standard, or to anyone else's standards! If John Doe Christian out there is giving 75% of his income and living on oatmeal to do it, good for him! If Sister Sally Sadducee happens to pray 3 hours a day and moan and groan and go without food in order to see a hundred souls a day won, give her a pat on the back on your way to bountiful table of food your Father has blessed you with and enjoy! We are NOT in competition with legalists, and I don't care what it looks like, if we were in a competition they wouldn't be winning.

How do I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt? Because the race we're running is the race of faith. NOT the race of self-righteous performance. The moment anyone steps out of the race of faith to start running in the flesh, powering on through their own effort and striving, they've stopped off the same way the hare did in the famous tale of the tortoise and the hare. I think many legalists will watch those in grace and think we're moving far too slowly to ever finish the race, but they are deceived. They think they are running hard and fast when in actuality they've stepped out of the race altogether. If they make it to the finish line at all it will be because Jesus picks them up at some point and carries them across just in time. Even then, it will have nothing to do with their effort but will be due to their grain of mustard seed faith buried deep down under all their dead works.

Stop comparing yourself to the shiny legalist. All you see is the outside of the cup and dish, the whitewashed tomb. Take it from an ex-legalist: the inside is all death. But you, you are alive and free and resting in Jesus!

WWAD? We Should Tithe Because Abraham Did?

2010-02-26T08:35:00.005-05:00

Ahhhh, the old tithing question, next to universal atonement, maybe one of the most hotly debated teachings among the grace crowd. For a broader view of the no-tithing side of the debate I highly recommend Joel's series over on Grace Roots. Also Bertie Brits has some great teaching available on his website Dynamic Love Ministries.

Why do I think it's important to talk about? Well, I think if I've learned anything from the many grace preachers and teachers out there, I've learned how serious it is to mix in law with grace, even if it is only the tiniest whiff of the tiniest drop of it. Of course I don't believe any of us will live in 100% pure grace while living in this broken down world, but I do think we can avoid hanging on to bits of the law mentality in obvious teachings and practices.

In fact, I don't think anyone has a good excuse to be teaching tithing (and I think I've probably heard most of the excuses) because I know people have been questioning those teaching tithing, even bringing in applicable Scripture ect... I know this because I personally know people who have done this, including myself. I don't want any 'have to's' mixed in with my good news! This does NOT mean that I don't love and appreciate and learn loads from grace teachers who teach some form of tithing. Some of my favorite grace preachers still hang on to it as far as I know--some in a very gracious way and some in a much more blatantly Old Covenant way.

One important reason to stop preaching tithing is it is VERY confusing to people coming into the revelation of New Covenant grace. I am often questioned about why grace preachers are still talking abbout tithing. In the mind of someone coming out of legalism, they hear the good news that they've been set free from ALL law and requirements in the New Covenant and start to feel new freedom, then they hear the same preacher tell them they must still tithe and confusion sets in. How many other requirements are they still bound to? Maybe the good news is not as good as it initially seemed? Maybe there is still some bondage in some areas? As one of my fellow gracers once commented to me on the subject, "I just don't feel released from tithing yet". So is tithing the one thing Jesus didn't release us from??? Do I need to feel released or believe I'm released?!?!

Let me just say again, I do not want to disrespect anyone who still believes in tithing in grace. I'm not trying to offend and I certainly don't see this as an issue that should disrupt fellowship in any way. I love you tithers! And if you see something in my words that you think is legalistic in any way, please please tell me!

Ahem. So to Abraham. Joel touches on some of this in one of his posts but I want to talk about it a little more, mainly because it is one of the biggest arguments I've heard for New Covenant tithing. When I was first coming into grace, I was having a horrible time because financially it became impossible to tithe. Aaron never bothered much about that stuff, but I had a running tally in my head at all times of how much money we owed God and eventually it got to the point where I realized we would never be able to pay him back. Hahaha, it sounds so ridiculous now!

Anyway, as I said I was coming into grace so of course I was reading and reading Galatians and one day as I was doing this God just spoke to me: "replace circumcision with tithing and you have today's church". Wow!!! That was the end of it for me, I saw it clearly and ever since have been free from the bondage and constraint to give any particular amount of money to anyone at any time. Gone was the idea that part of my money really belonged to God, that I needed to give money to God in the first place etc., ect,... It's a crazy idea to think that giving money to a church or ministry is the same as giving money to God! All our giving is to other PEOPLE. It's more a matter of sharing if you ask me. If we see a brother in need of food or clothes, we share what we have with them. If we see the church needs money to get the good news out there, we see our pastor working hard to feed us spiritually, we share what we have!

Now, I've asked several pro-tithers who say "Abraham tithed out of faith 400 years before the law, therefore I tithe out of faith not under law"; so how is that different from circumcision? You see, in faith, Abraham was circumcised 400 years before the law. Actually, in faith, Abraham sacrificed animals, and was even going to sacrifice his own son, 400 YEARS BEFORE THE LAW. If I have faith should I also take my son up a mountain and lay him on an alter? I mean, Abraham did! So I find this line of logic extremely illogical.

Second point about Abraham: If this example of Abraham tithing was meant to be an example for new covenant believers to follow, why is it not taught ANYWHERE in the new testament??? In fact, Hebrews even refers to the story and still somehow the writer forgot the mention the very important fact that we should still be tithing! I gather that to mean that the point of Abraham tithing to Melchizedek was NOT to show us that we should tithe. In fact Hebrews tells us why that account is in Scripture, and the point of it is the opposite of the tithing idea. So what's the point???

This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace." Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.
Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, their brothers—even though their brothers are descended from Abraham. This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater. In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor. Hebrews 7:1-10

The point, as we can see is the whole point of Hebrews as well, is that the new covenant with the new Great High Priest is completely superior to the old system. I think it is safe to say that in the context of Hebrews the point of recounting this story is NOT to teach us that there is still one little rule we should keep from the old covenant, that is, tithing.

So, what do I think is the real reason most people still preach tithing? Well, I do think many people honestly just believe this Abraham thing, but part of it is definately connected to unbelief. It would be very difficult for a leader of a church or ministry to switch gears part way through and start telling people they don't need to tithe. Why? Because they rely and trust in the people's tithe for financial provision, not in God himself. Oh, they think God has given them the tithing teaching for their provision, but I say God is able to put in people a true desire and joy to give without any kind of rule or regulation about how they should give! It's the same argument that legalists use against those preaching grace all the time! If we just tell them they don't have to they won't! It's a panic issue, a fear that is based in unbelief in the power of God to produce sons in the image of Jesus. Sons who will naturally be generous, really!

And as many of these preachers have noted, sometimes when we kick out the props of law from under people they will wobble and even fall around for a time. But then they will learn to stand on their new grace legs and will infinitely healthier and stronger for it in the end. So couldn't we believe God to carry us through that time financially?

So those are some of my main thoughts on it all...What do you think?

Songwriter's Blog

2010-02-19T13:25:00.005-05:00

I've just started a new blog, I think I posted a bit ago to see if there would be any interest in some type of forum for sharing songs and feedback. I've made it by invitation only for now, so if you're interested and I don't know it, just leave a comment or e-mail me, maybe send me a song you've written. I figured private would be better in case people were worried about copywright stuff, not wanting their music stolen etc... There are a couple of people I'm already aware of who may be interested so don't be surprised if I e-mail you an invite.

Don't Make Me Come Over There Mark Driscoll!!!

2010-02-16T20:12:00.004-05:00

I don't know why, I don't know why we do it. Why were we watching youtube clips of Mark Driscoll last night? It's Aaron's fault. Ok, so not all of his stuff is bad, in fact, he's actually pretty good if you can block your mind (or in my case mouth) from screaming "hypocrite"! Hypocrite because in one segment he preaches grace and the gospel, in the next he's busy telling people what is allowed or not, even in the bedroom. Don't get me wrong, I very much appreciate his willingness to be real and talk about sex so openly, just don't necessarily agree with the reason why he's doing it. He's preaching from the wrong tree, and it's not his job or any other pastor's job to teach us from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Right?

Anyway, as angry as this man can make me (and you'll see what I mean in a minute) I still can't help hoping and praying he'll wake up one day and the veil that covers his face because of sitting under and perpetuating the false doctrine that we are as believers still under Law, will fall away and he will see Jesus clearly in all his New Covenant glory! And worse than angry, what follows makes me extremely sad.

If you still struggle with condemnation and especially in the area of sexual sin then I don't recommend you watch this at all. Aaron and I both felt the sickening evil spell of condemnation as we watched even though the 'rebuke' had nothing to do with either of us! One thing I truly appreciate about Mark is there is no subtlety, he is what he is. I much prefer this to the forked tongued flattery that often clouds the ministry of death and condemnation other preachers are peddling...

So here goes, (and Mark D., if you should ever happen to stumble across this post, I sincerely want you to know that my purpose is not to offend or insult you personally, but you (in this clip at least) have crossed the line when you speak to the Bride of Christ in such a terrible and accusatory manner. This is exactly the kind of teaching that puts people in bondage to sin. In fact, if what you say is true and there are many men in your church who have been there for years and are still entangled in such sin, then maybe you should examine the doctrines that are producing such bad fruit. MAYBE the message matters! MAYBE we should be careful what we preach! You can never never guilt, shame, scare people into becoming righteous, because righteousness is a gift from God by faith. Shame on YOU, for shaming those who don't live up to your self-righteous standards. Shame on YOU for misrepresenting our Father who has promised to never ever be angry or rebuke us again. If he is not angry, he is not rebuking us, what gives YOU the right? Please feel free to contact me with your answers in the unlikely event you ever read this.)

Ahem.

If anyone reading this sits or has sat under this kind of teaching then I am very sorry. I have been there, though Mark is an extreme version. These kinds of lies about who God is and how he sees you cut to your heart and fill you with despair. But there is good news! God is not angry with you, he's not counting your sins against you, there is freedom and joy in the Spirit when you believe in Jesus and his work on the cross! ALL your sin has been dealt with and whether you succumb to temptation in this world or not God will not put you to shame, there is no condemnation for you ever! So come and let Jesus give you rest, his burden is easy, his yoke is light.

When "Grace" Isn't Grace, How To Discern

2010-01-27T13:16:00.002-05:00

Lots of people and churches all over the world love to use the word "grace". It's certainly not an uncommon concept in Christianity and it's probably got several popular definitions such as unmerited favor or God's Riches At Christ's Expense. I'd say both of those are true but as Steve McVey has recently written on his blog, grace is NOT just another doctrine, not even if you call it one of the most important doctrines. Grace is a person, Jesus! "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:17)

So here's a simple little litmus test to use anytime you start to get confused by something being said or taught about grace: replace "grace" with "Jesus". Here are some examples:

Grace is wonderful but you can go too far with it.

Jesus is wonderful but you can got too far with him.

Hmmm...really?

You have to be careful with grace, it can lead to liscentiousness and people thinking they can just go out and sin all they want.

You have to be careful with Jesus, he can lead to liscentiousness and people thinking they can just go out and sin all they want.

Ummm....

It wouldn't be possible to appreciate grace if we weren't constantly aware of our sins and apart from our sin there is no need for grace.

It wouldn't be possible to appreciate Jesus if we weren't constantly aware of our sins and apart from our sin there is no need for Jesus.

And how about this...

Grace is good but we also need to obey the moral law.

Jesus is good but we also need to obey the moral law.

So....Jesus wasn't quite good enough??? He was merely an addendum to the Law, a great little addition? Not quite important enough to actually replace the whole OLD system completely? Methinks it would not be called the 'old' covenant if it were still in use. Mealsothinks Jesus is the mediator of a far superior covenant that has been referred to as "NEW".

Jamie, Jesus Saves!!!!

2010-01-14T20:55:00.004-05:00

Been thinking of this song for you ever since we finally met! You know it's true it's true!!!!!!!!!

I love you Jamie and Jesus loves you more!

Dear Struggling Christian...(from the comment section somewhere back there)

2010-01-13T21:01:00.006-05:00

I wrote this a while back in response to the question of whether or not we may lose our salvation. It was specifically in regards to fear and uncertainty...

I understand where you're coming from with the depression thing, I can so relate to the temptation to want to throw my hands up in the air and give up on it all! And in essence, that is what I finally did, just not in the way the old serpent was hoping for haha!

That merry-go-round you're talking about is lawgracelawgrace around and around, up and down. Roller coaster Christianity that depends on my performance, oh yes, by God's grace of course, but I must 'appropriate' the grace, or yes but we must 'balance' the grace. As a child of God slightly less brave than Paul, I can't write the words I really want to, but let's just say that's all a bunch of rubbish, I mean the kind that needs to be flushed down the toilet.

All the wrestling and fighting and anger you experience is the kicking of a living spirit! Before you were born again, you were dead in your transgressions, but you are alive! The fact that you are alive shows me that you have been born again, born in the same manner that Jesus was when he entered the world as a little baby. He had this weak flesh like us, but he was without sin. His father was not Adam, but the Holy Spirit. And he was the first born of many brothers--us! We are like him, we have been recreated in his image. He has already dealt with our sin and he will return, not to deal with sin, but to give us immortal perfect flesh to house our already immortal perfect spirit!

Yes, it's good news!

Here are a few warnings for you: if you stray from the flock, Jesus will leave the 99 to come find you. If you take your father's resources and go out into the world and spend it all on liquor and loose women, your father will wait for your return and he will not be disappointed. If you think you can escape his love, be forewarned! You never can! He is your bridegroom and however many times you play the whore to the old impotent husband he will receive you back with joy! If you are angry with him, he will comfort you, he will listen, he will win you back again. You will never reach the end of his mercy, you will never be able to outrun his love. Where ever you may hide he will chase you down and coax you out into freedom and joy.

You are his and he is yours, forever.

This striving you are now experiencing is not for no purpose! You will soon enter his rest.

Repost from 2007, Knowing God Under the New Covenant

2010-01-13T15:33:00.004-05:00

I still remember this post and the powerful revelation that led to it, it's still one of my favorites!

My kids are staying with their Grandma and Papa for a few days so I get to enjoy lots of quiet time to read, write, listen, and well, hopefully clean and do some painting in the house. I was just reading in Hebrews a bit ago and this passage really struck a chord with me.

Hebrews 8:10-12, quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother , saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

It just struck me almost my whole life in the church I have been taught "Know the Lord". I've experienced all kinds of methods, techniques, plans, motivational preaching, challenges to commit to this or that--all with one goal in view: That I know God. I tried to implement many things I've heard or read to the same purpose. Sadly, I have to say that they all pretty much failed. And for all my effort I managed to turn prayer, Bible reading, church, fellowship, loving others (even my own family) into great mountains of duty and obligation that I could never possibly fulfill. And this great mountain planted itself directly in the middle of the path to God. I was farther from him than ever.

When I read this today, I suddenly saw it. All those who teach "Know the Lord" are teaching Old Covenant, you know, the old obsolete broken inadequate way of coming to God-- the way that never lets you into the Holy of Holies where His presence is, the way that leaves us down at the bottom of his Holy mountain trembling in fear of death and judgement (Hebrews 12:20), the way that never cleanses us from our sin so completely that we can come boldly to the throne of grace in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). We have a new and living way! (Hebrews 10:20)

Under the Old Covenant, people have to be taught "Know the Lord". They must be pushed and bullied and forced to come near to God. Why? Because they are afraid. Their conscience is not clean, they are still fearfully conscious of their sin.

"For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." (Hebrews 10:1-4)

In Israel people longed to be in near God on one hand, but not toonear, because to enter into God's presence was a terrifying experience. It was so dangerous the high priest had to have a rope tied around his leg in case God struck him dead while in the Holy of Holies. Why? Because of sin.

And how many of us are still living and teaching others to live as if still under that Old Covenant? If we are still saying to ourselves and others "Know the Lord" then we have an Old Covenant mindset. Under the New, we already know him! We come to him all the time because nothing stands in our way! All our sin is not only forgiven but completely taken away! Christ has done such a thorough job that we aren't even conscious of sin anymore. Think about that. The Old Covenant sacrifices served to remind people of their sins even more , to bring condemnation but the sacrifice of Jesus did just the opposite. He did not come to condemn us for our sin but to remove our sin completely so that we are never again subject to any condemnation. (Romans 8:1)

When we remember the cross, we remember that our sins are taken away. We should NEVER NEVER NEVER look at the cross and mourn our sins and feel shame and guilt. If we do that, we are looking at the cross saying "it wasn't enough for my sin". It doesn't impress God and it isn't humility, it is a rejection of the Perfect Sacrifice and evil unbelief.

So from Hebrews, here are two signs of a legalistic,Old Covenant mindset:

1. A need for "Know the Lord" type teaching.

2. Having a consciousness of sin.

If we see either of these in our lives, we need to pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of the Cross to us. And let us enter into His presence with joy and peace, no longer being held back by fear of judgement or consciousness of sin.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T11:11:00.004-05:00

Enjoy Christ in you the hope of glory this Christmas!!!

Why Are You Trying to Stop Sinning?

2009-12-21T08:48:00.006-05:00

So, a question for all those who are working hard at changing themselves to be more like Jesus or grow in sanctification or whatever else you call it... You may believe in varying methods of accountability or starving the source of sin, avoiding temptations or memorizing Scripture, maybe you believe that prayer is a big part of becoming free of some besetting sin you're struggling with. Perhaps fasting will help or whatever. My question is, what's the point? If you overcome whatever sin or sins you're working on, what will that accomplish? I'm very serious here, I want to know why you're doing it. Is it to please God? To be closer to him? To be holier or more righteous? So your testimony will be stronger? Some other reason I haven't mentioned? I really am interested in knowing...so please leave me a comment (anonymously is fine with me).

Why I Don't Like the Puritans...

2009-12-19T13:18:00.002-05:00

I confess that I don't have a favorable impression of the Puritans. Maybe it's not fair or right and I hope some people can give me some reasons to like them at least a little... But when I pick up a book at random and find a quote like this right away, I ask you, can you blame me?

"Repentance is necessary for God's own people, who have a areal work of grace and are Israelites indeed. They must offer up a daily sacrifice of tears. The Antimomians hold that when any come to be believers, they have a writ of ease, and there remains nothing for them now to do but to rejoice. Yes, they have something else to do, and that is to repent. Repentance is a continuous act. The issue of godly sorrow must not be quite stopped till death..." Thomas Watson, from The Doctrine of Repentance

I'm sorry, but is it any wonder that many of the Puritans struggled with depression and suicide? How terrible a way to live! I agree with much of what I read of repentance concerning the unbelievers, except perhaps the general understanding of what repentance really is. And why in books from all eras do the references never have anything to do with the point the author is making? Do they think we won't look it up and read it in context and see that they have just put in their opinion with a reference tacked on to fool us that it's really God's opinion?

How random a post is this haha....

Oh and one more question: Why is Spurgeon considered a Puritan? I have certainly not read all of his writing but everything I have read seems much more grace-filled and cheerful (don't even get me going on John Owen!), it seems like Spurgeon doesn't fit.

Any Songwriters Out There?

2009-12-16T16:37:00.003-05:00

Now that I'm no longer pregnant I don't hate music anymore I'll will probably get back into song writing. I was wondering if any other of you gracers do any song writing and might be interested in some kind of online get together where people could share their stuff and get feedback, suggestions, critiques of song structure as well as lyrical content. I myself mainly do worship stuff but any style or type would be fine, just thinking there needs to be more songs full of grace and truth! Let me know, I think it could be fun...

Dear On-Fire Christian...

2009-12-07T07:47:00.004-05:00

Dear On-Fire Christian(/legalist):

First of all, I have to say that as infuriating a conversation with you can be at times, I really do love you. And I understand where you're coming from because that is where I have come from. Maybe that's why your words are so frustrating to me, I remember so clearly not so long ago living the 'life' you're living, speaking the same words to people, feeling the self-righteous rush of satisfaction when I thought I'd pleased God with my 'ministry'. I remember how good it felt to have said the right thing at the right time to someone who obviously needed my help to do better or be better, to get their life in order. What a high you can get from giving someone the answer to all their problems, the exact prescription they need, what they need to do to get what they want in life, to get closer to God, to become more holy and righteous and respectable in the church. Yes, I remember...

So thank-you for your good intentions, I appreciate your sincere concern and care. But you needn't waste your time worrying about me! I admit I don't go to church right now, I even admit that I don't want to go to any church I know of. I admit that church is either mind numbingly boring or alternately infuriating to me and I avoid going like the plague. I say 'church' with your idea of church in mind; the so-called organized church of any and all shapes, sizes, denominations,systems, theological slants, or various creative versions of it. And I don't think less of anyone who is part of that church, if you enjoy it then more power to you! I'm glad you can, and part of me wishes I could too...I'm sad that for me the 'meeting together' happens less often and regularly at my house or someone else's, on the phone or online...

It's a little lonely sometimes, and sometimes I dream of packing up and moving far away to live closer to people who know what we're talking about when we say 'gospel' or 'grace' ! But we belong here, here with the chickens and ducks, rabbits and cats, one dog and four children...and no grace church. But as lonely as ever I get, I can't come to your church and sit by while everyone is slowly crushed to death by the weight of the law, either by a little law or much more. Don't tell me all proud of yourself and your church that you only mix in a little bit, that really won't impress me. I'd rather you went the whole way and preached the entire Old Covenant and left Jesus completely out of it, you're tarnishing his Good Name, the name I love. So if you think you can guilt me or in some way manipulate me to go to church, yours or somewhere else, I think you might sooner convince me of my need to go to synagogue. Honestly I stay away from your church out of respect, I know I won't fit in there. I know I might get up some day in the middle of your service and scream because I can't take anymore of that bull dung (I forego using the appropriate word out of respect for you). See? Now you made me cry. I can't stop thinking about all the words you spoke to me, words of condemnation though you don't even know enough to see it. Condemnation is second nature to you in your spiritual world. You are the serious christian, and now, thank God, I am not. I'm just a beloved son of God with whom he is well pleased.

And I don't spend even a second of my days anymore worrying about the right or wrong of what I'm doing. I'm not busy trying to get close to him, to try and figure out his will about what I should be doing. I'm not anxiously trying to please him and there are no special conditions I need in order to worship him or experience his presence. So please forgive me if I politely ignore your advice to seek his face, to pray and ask him to show me his will, as though you already know exactly what his will for me is and what I should be doing. In fact, if you're right, why do I need to pray? You already graciously told me exactly what his will for me is, and if I don't do it then you can continue to graciously pity me because I must be miserable in my rebellious disobedience to your christian rules and regulations.

I don't mind you pitying me, really I don't. I am happier and freer than I've ever been in my life. I don't want to kill myself or divorce my husband, and attribute this largely to have gotten out of the horrible guilt system that we call the church. I am part of a happy church now, one that will hopefully materialize here physically some day soon...which is, after all, why we moved here in the first place. But it's hard to be in such a hurry when I'm resting in God, knowing that his timing is good and perfect. I'm sorry that it freaks you out to see me so calm and peaceful when you think I should be striving and working. How can I even tell you that I'm happy in God and he in me? You have no category for such a statement, you wouldn't even know what I'm talking about, it would just worry you more that I'm so casual about 'sin' and 'righteousness'. But you miss the passion I have for the gospel! Passion and burning joy in the truth that we have already been given everything need for life and godliness in Jesus! I lack nothing. I am excited to grow and learn more in grace, to receive more and more glorious revelation of what I've received, but I LACK NOTHING!

So though I love you very much on-fire christian, I will not join you in YOUR lack. I am not judging you, you have admitted your lack with your many different words and arguments and I can see that you want me to join you in your lack and your striving to be filled by God. You will never find what you seek as long as you are operating by old covenant strategies. There is only one way to have God and his loving blessing on your life and that is only faith in Jesus, not ever ever ever ANYTHING you may do. Not prayer, not fasting, not worship, not obedience of any sort...and conversely, not praying, not fasting, not worshipping, not obeying can never remove the loving blessing of God on your life once you have received him by faith.

But I too would love to talk more. I would love to talk about the gospel next time we talk, to revel in the goodness of God's love for both of us, instead of worrying about the knowledge of good and evil, trying to figure out right and wrong. Has that ever helped anyone do better or meet God's perfect standard of righteousness? I have probably heard thousands of such sermons and teaching over my lifetime and can tell you it never did me any good. I spent my days up and down between self-righteous triumph and suicidal self-hatred according to my perception of how well I obeyed the church's (God's?) law for me. Ironically I am still respected as a very godly person in many of my past circles because I was such a legalist! I hope that God uses my past legalism to give me some credibility when I meet these people and with you now that I am able to share the good news!

Sorry for my long long rant, and I apologize for rolling my eyes so much as we talked on the phone, I hope I will remember not to do that if you ever come over and talk in person...

Sincerly,
Jul

New Arrival...

2009-11-10T21:10:00.003-05:00

I'm a little late posting this, but I've been a little busy! Things are starting to settle down a bit, or at least it seems like it, so here is the official announcement:

Amilia Gloriana was born at 12:42 am November 4, 2009 weighing 8 lbs 12 oz 21 inches long.

That's my biggest baby by close to a pound! I made Aaron nervous during delivery, he said he's never seen me in so much pain. I say he's seen me in as much pain 3 times before, he's just never heard me in so much pain haha. Anyway, apart from the pain everything went well and I'm feeling better emotionally than any previous birth. I think that's because I got out all the craziness during delivery...

Anyway, here's a picture, there are more up on facebook of course!

Defining Sin...

2009-10-29T06:34:00.003-04:00

Very clever, I think you'll enjoy this read...it makes a very clear and importannt point. So check out "It's Time For Me to Confess".

The Ten Commandments and the New Covenant Believer...

2009-10-06T07:49:00.003-04:00

Exodus 20

And God spoke all these words, saying,
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

"You shall have no other gods before me.

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

"You shall not murder.

"You shall not commit adultery.

"You shall not steal.

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

"You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s."

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die." Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin." The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

2 Corinthians 3

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Now for those who claim that the Holy Spirit was given to help us obey the Law, to empower us to keep the Old Covenant, they must be crazy. It is so clear that the ministry of the Spirit is something separate and completely different from the Old Covenant, perhaps that's why God chose to call this the NEW Covenant. It is a whole new system, built on different and better promises, in that these promises depend on Christ's work and not on our obedience to any commands or standards. It is such an all-encompassing and vastly superior system that the old crumbles away to nothing as the temporary prop it was meant to be. You see, Jesus disarmed evil, that is, Satan and his principalities, by cancelling the written code that stood opposed to us. When our record of debt was cancelled on the cross, God no longer opposed us because our sin was completely removed.

If you try to incorporate any part of the old system, the law, that is the knowledge of good (morality), you will be blind to the truth of who Jesus really is and what he has done. You will nullify faith, because the law is not of faith. The Law KILLS faith,and faith, my friend, is your only hope. No amount of earnestness or zeal or striving will help you draw any nearer to our God who is perfect and holy, not able to bear any amount of sin in his presence. And no amount of fear or grovelling on your part will change that, only simple trust in the loving kindness of Jesus whose sacrifice has been examined and accepted by the Father. So if you will not accept the sacrifice God has called perfect, there is no hope for you. If you truly accept the sacrifice, you will not feel the need to add anything AT ALL to it yourself. You will not feel compelled to pay him back by your love or gratitude, by your songs of worship, by making hard choices, by tithing or going to church, by being in relationships with people you don't like, to clean your house or submit to your husband or love your wife, etc,etc,etc...

So what will be your motivation to live righteously and shun sin? You won't need motivation to behave yourself anymore! Because you will be free.

Not What My Hands Have Done, Horatius Bonar

2009-09-29T08:10:00.001-04:00

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

Words: Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, second series, 1861; these words come from Bonar’s longer hymn, “Not What These Hands Have Done

God of Second Chance or Chances???

2009-09-25T13:28:00.003-04:00

It may be a sign that I'm a little overwhelmed with being a mother that I find Veggie Tales so thought-provoking, or maybe it's just that I'm pretty careful to point out legalism to my kids in order to teach them the truth about grace...anyway, in the past I've thought quite a bit about the idea that comes out in Jonah, the Veggie Tales movie. I'm certainly not bashing Veggie Tales haha, but of course there is some moralizing that they do which is pretty Old Covenant sometimes. To be expected...Anyone who grew up learning Old Testament Bible stories in Sunday school will be familiar with that practice.

At first my line of reasoning was that God doesn't give us a second chance, but infinite 'chances', then I realized that was totally a legalistic mindset. There are only 2 chances in this life, the first is Adam , the second is Jesus. With a law mindset we are constantly begging God for just one more chance to do it right, to make up for our sin, to change. We want forgiveness for our past sins but we want to continue on to try harder next time. This is the kind of mentality that causes Christians to teach that we need to continually confess sin, repent, and rededicate ourselves to be holier or grow in sanctification. The law provided infinite chances to bring your sacrifice, to shred your clothes and put ashes on your head, to commit to doing a better job of obeying God.

But in Adam, we are doomed to fail every time no matter how many chances we get! Our nature is sinful through and through, we cannot meet God's standard no matter how many times we get our slate wiped clean, no matter how hard we try, even if we pray and fast and beg God for strength to obey. We will always fail, we will die trying and failing and falling short.

So God in his wisdom decided not to give us infinite chances, but instead to give us only two chances. The first chance was Adam...and he failed. The second chance is Jesus, and he completely succeeded in accomplishing every single thing the Father desired! So now, every single one of us has access to a second chance! Our second chance is Jesus, and as soon as we receive his righteousness we are placed into an unbreakable covenant, the one chance we needed, the chance to believe in the one who leaves nothing up to chances but is able to fulfill every promise he's made.

Some think that grace means unlimited chances to try to keep the law better,that God will sanctify our efforts somehow. But that is not grace. Grace is Jesus, and the only way to access that grace is by throwing yourself on him completely, not looking for any other 'chances'. Are you satisfied that Jesus passes God's inspection? If he doesn't, there is no hope for any of us.

God gave mankind only two chances, don't you think he took special care that we wouldn't be able to blow the second one??? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!!!!!

Searching For Grace

2009-08-24T06:31:00.002-04:00

Don't know how I missed this website but I'm enjoying it now! Thought some of you might like it too...here's a sample of one of the comic strips on there:

Church Orientation

And here's the link to the site:

Searching For Grace

Sunlight-- A Song I Like!

2009-07-31T16:08:00.003-04:00

Now let the revelation of the grace of Jesus and his New Covenant TAKE OVER all the musicians who as yet have just gotten a glimpse or two!!!!

Baby Names...

2009-07-31T07:55:00.002-04:00

In case you haven't heard, we've found out that we're having a girl. I already knew that, but some people needed some sort of confirmation. Anyway, Aaron and I always have a hard time agreeing on names but I thought it would be fun to see what other people think. Not that it matters really! I like old fashioned names, and I do not like trendy or popular names. Feel free to use trendy and popular names for you own babies, but I just don't prefer them myself. I also don't like soap opera names, or names that have bad meanings. A name should have a good (or at least not bad) meaning either literally or through being a worthy namesake. The middle name will most likely be Glorianna (glorious grace) so it's the first name that's up for debate.

Here are some of my picks, they'll be roughly in order according to which ones I like most:

Alice (noble, also my grandfather's mother's name)

Margaret (pearl, also a name hated by Aaron and most of my family haha)

Felicity (happy, with possible nickname Lettie)

Wren (small brown song bird)

Charlotte (little, womanly, probably go by Lottie)

Adeline (nobility)

Priscilla (ancient, famous woman I'm thankful shows up in NT, probably go by Cilla)

Sage (wise, healthy)

Agatha, Agnes (good, pure, probably go by Aggie)

Well, there are a few...we'll probably have a little list with us when she's born to see who she looks like!

New Nature Publications!!!!

2009-07-30T10:00:00.000-04:00

In light of my last post you will have guessed that this new website is very exciting to me! There is such a lack of good grace materials and God is providing the answer partly through the new website that Ryan Rufus has started. This is only the beginning! I know they will be offering more and more resources, and other ministries are as well. Here's one of the promo videos:

And be sure to check out the website! I have read Ryan's books and can wholeheartedly recommend them, and though I haven't read Rob's "Invading the Impossible", I've listened to the message series and they are excellent, one of my favorites. NEW NATURE PUBLICATIONS!!!!!

Grace, Not Your Safety Net!

2009-07-29T09:46:00.003-04:00

Well, I guess I haven't written anything for a long time. Don't worry, I'm just pregnant. I've been wasting a lot of time trying to find worship music that is not depressing/legalistic and have not come up with much. How sad! According to the Christian music industry, I guess grace is that thing that kicks in every time you fail to obey the law. Grace is just a safety net for those times you fall down and mess up, it's your 'get of jail free' card for every time you happen to sin. It picks you up and dusts you off and sets you back up to try harder next time.

What a bunch of lies. What else can I say? The truth is we live only in grace, to go back to the law is to fall from grace. We must choose between law and grace, not choose law thinking that grace is our back-up plan. If you choose law, then don't expect to find grace when you fail, expect to find judgement, condemnation, and shame. Until you finally give up that is...grace is always waiting for you to turn your back on the law and find life in Jesus.

The ANGER of God

2009-06-18T02:27:00.001-04:00

There is a bigger chance for the Himalayas to disappear than for God to be angry with you. Think of this for a moment. Have you ever heard of a mountain disappearing? No, not in all the history of the world. We can say with great boldness that the Himalayas will be there tomorrow, without having any doubt at all. We can have a billion times more confidence in saying that God will not be angry with us because of the covenant of peace in which we stand. God has to find fault with Jesus (God in Human flesh representing us) to be angry with us, for we are in HIM.Isa 54:9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. Isa 54:10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

Grace and Mercy

2009-05-22T02:22:00.002-04:00

Mercy – deeds of compassion that flows from the innermost being or the core of a person with the purpose to treat others better than what they deserve.

The seat that God sat on when he came into the most holy place in the Old Covenant was called the “mercy seat”. God sits and functions from the platform of mercy. If you cannot see God always treating you better than what you deserve it will be impossible to have a relationship with Him for we have a relationship with who a person really is.

Grace- The divine influence in the heart and its reflection in the life that includes gratitude. His love is so powerful that it simply influences us unto HIS LIFE AND LIFESTYLE.

“Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour to you all.“

What did Jesus actually tell Peter when he said he should forgive 490 times a day?

2009-05-20T01:49:00.003-04:00

(You can read the story in Matt 18:21 - for background and combine it with Luke 17:1-6)

The question that Peter asked was actually based on the Law. What Jesus heard was: "How many times should I forgive - in order to be seen as righteous?" Jesus answered him according to the Law of the standard of God and said, "7x70, and if not you won’t qualify." He used the New Testament example of how He forgives, and said we need to be like Him, need to be as righteous as Him. Then Peter said, “Increase my faith,” thinking that we should use faith to obey the LAW, live holy and forgive, according to the impossible standard set by Jesus in order to be saved (many Christians make the same mistake). Jesus corrected the disciple and said, "It is not the amount of faith (faith to have strength to obey the law) that makes the difference but the type of faith you have." A little (small amount) of the right faith (trust in Jesus for righteousness and not our works of the LAW) will make us righteous before God.

Jesus actually explained that He is the only way to the Father and not works, even works of forgiveness. Not even our forgiveness of others can make or break that Way.

Bertie Brits

Evidence of the Resurrection

2009-05-19T00:28:00.004-04:00

The most powerful evidence of the resurrection of Jesus is not an historic event but rather the reality of Christ in us. The life of God in a human being is miraculous, supernatural and true. Yes, the most powerful evidence, better even than an actual video of the resurrection, is the fruit it brings forth: a “born of God” life free from instruction of the Law; His life living in our lives, and us released from condemnation and guilt. We as Christians are the proof of His love and ressurection.

2Co 3:2 You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you.
2Co 3:3 Christ himself wrote it--not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives--and we publish it.
2Co 3:4 We couldn't be more sure of ourselves in this--that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation.
2Co 3:5 We wouldn't think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter..
2Co 3:6 His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn't written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It's written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!

God loves us, He truly does.

Bertie Brits

The Higher Life

2009-05-13T05:33:00.001-04:00

The wonderful thing about perfection in Jesus is that it is not contained within the boundaries of worldly standards. Perfection is contained in the power of identifying with the life of Jesus (our life) seated at the right hand of God. This truth gives us awesome power over situations wherein we would be seen as defeated according to worldly standards.

We never have to feel ashamed or defeated because of our situation for our situation is not the reflection of our state but His glory is the manifestation of the state we are in. Let’s grab a hold of eternal life and start to see beyond the 70-100 years of life we expect on this planet. We are more than what it might look like to the world. There is nothing this world offers that can add to the power that we voice in simply preaching and believing GRACE.

Paul was seen as a small Apostle compared with those that walk with Jesus yet he was the one that God gave the greatest revelation. Paul suffered the most; he was greatly persecuted by Jew and gentile. He was poor and suffered rejection of those whom he dearly loved. He was never seen as this great preacher by the church – he was seen as a troublemaker instead. This got to him at a stage but God said look at my GRACE (the revelation you have Paul) for that is enough.

Don’t look at the picture you think others see of you. Walk in the light of His strength that does not need any assistance based on worldly standards. We have been made complete in Jesus and need nothing but to be conscious of this truth.

Bertie Brits

The trap of the Enemy

2009-05-11T16:54:00.001-04:00

Difficult times become deadly times when we see them as originating from God. God does not bring on hard times in order to educate us. Tests and temptations are designed to bring us to a place where we will fall from faith.

Jas 1:12 Blessed is the man that endured temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

The word “tried” in this verse means to be “approved”. The approval spoken of her is not God’s stamp that says “you are good enough because you have proven yourself”. It is the life that remains in us because we didn't succumb to the death that was trying to get a grip during the difficult time. Death through difficult times manifests as follows:

1 Saying that God is the one who tests us – i.e. seeing the source of life and deliverance as the origin of our trouble.
2 Falling into deep introspection, seeking things we must do right in order to pass the test and be promoted to a higher level. This will result in a Law-mindset, causing us to fall from Grace as a basis for salvation, into Law as the basis of salvation - this is deadly!

Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the laws of the world, and not after Christ.
Col 2:9 For in him dwelled all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Let’s see the perfection of His sacrifice, which perfects us completely, and by doing so we'll make hard times powerless!!

Synchroblog on Tuesday, May 12 , "Performance-Based Acceptance,"

2009-05-07T13:13:00.002-04:00

Joel over at Grace Roots has come up with a great idea for us grace bloggers to get together and share a bit of our testimony about our journey out of law into grace.

In order to get a better idea of what this involves, check out the original post here. But to give you a little idea, here's the first part:

A stand alone sentence in Paul Anderson-Walsh's book Until Christ is Formed reads:

Each and every one of us has our own story to tell about the problem of Performance-based Acceptance.
I reckon that's true - and so I ask: What about you? What's your story? In what ways has Performance-Based Acceptance been a problem in your life? In what ways have you gained freedom?

Testimony is one of the most powerful weapons we have to help fight the lies of the enemy and inspire people to faith in the truth of the gospel, so I hope many of us can participate! Look forward to reading all your stories...

P.S. If you don't have your own blog and would like to share, please feel free to write your story and e-mail me with it. I would love to publish it here if you like.

A Fair Fight Between Sin and Grace

2009-05-07T13:08:00.003-04:00

Just read this excellent post over at Truth on the Way by Jon Sidnell, an up and coming grace preacher in the UK. So head over and read "A Fair Fight Between Sin and Grace"! You will be glad you did.

Forgiven and Loved--Jimmy Needham

2009-04-30T07:23:00.003-04:00

I was listening to the Christian radio station the other day and was pleasantly surprised to hear a song I liked... not so much the style but the words won me over. Whenever that happens (me liking a song on Christian radio) it's almost miraculous so I decided to track it down and put up here. Some of you may appreciate the style more than I do, and with a little digging around I found he's got some other songs with pretty good words as well. Could grace be starting to trickle into mainstream Christian music a little bit? Of course! God's up to something I'm telling you!

True innocence

2009-04-24T17:27:00.002-04:00

Before the foundation of the world God decided that there would only be one way in which we could stand holy before Him. This is manifested in us experiencing His love for us which is the adoption of man in Jesus and in no other way. As believers we are partakers of what God has done in Jesus and therefore holy, without blame before Him in love.

Enjoy the blameless life that can be lived with the mindset of true innocence that has been given to you by God in Jesus Christ as a free gift.

Eph 1:4 Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.
Eph 1:5 Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)
Eph 1:6 He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
Eph 1:7 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people--free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free!

Bertie Brits

His way of Provision

2009-04-24T06:51:00.001-04:00

God’s financial provision for all of us is WORTH based and not WORKS based.

Mat 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better (more worth) than they?

A Troubled Heart

2009-04-22T07:43:00.001-04:00

A Troubled heart

Joh 13:36 Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, where do You go? Jesus answered him, Where I go you cannot now follow Me, but you shall follow Me afterward.

Joh 13:37 Peter said to Him, Lord, why cannot I follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.

Joh 13:38 Jesus answered him, Will you lay down your life for My sake? Truly, truly, I say to you, The cock shall not crow until you have denied Me three times.

Joh 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me.

Joh 14:2 In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

Peter had a trouble heart and it manifested in such a classical way. He wanted to be with Jesus all the time and did not see that Jesus was preparing the way for him. In his ignorance and because of his troubled heart he was willing to sacrifice greatly to get to the place he desired and soon found out that human effort will always fail you when it comes to the things of God. A heart that is ignorant of the provision that is made by Jesus will always be looking towards self sacrifice to reach what is given for free.

Doesn’t matter what you face even when things does not make sense simply ask God to show you how Jesus has prepared the way and you will never have a troubled heart.

Shalom

Bertie

Peace! Based on HIS Righteousness !

2009-04-21T15:03:00.001-04:00

The peace we have with God is not dependent on our performance but on the righteousness of Jesus. Peace is the emotion that is in the heart of man when he knows he has no debt. We have no debt before God because wherever we fell short of righteousness by our works, Jesus supplied our deficit, as a gift. The reason we have peace is simply because we measure up to the standard of God. We couldn't say that until Jesus (the Son of God) climbed onto our side of the scale and balanced the whole thing out between us and God. Never do we need to feel that we come short of holiness, righteousness or any standard of qualification. We can have the peace of God – we don’t come short in JESUS.

Jesus gave us His peace not as the world gives but true peace He gave us.. The peace that the world gives is purely based on the “if you pay you don’t have to worry” basis. The peace of Jesus (the peace that He has) is based on the fact that Jesus is perfect before the Father, in His likeness and image.

HE GAVE US HIS PEACE!!!

Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither

Bertie Brits

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law (Tithing)

2009-04-20T12:18:00.001-04:00

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law

What makes our faith great is not how strong our faith is, but what we believe. What we believe is very important, for the power that drives our lives derives from what we believe. What we believe is a direct result of what we hear. I believe that correct doctrine is of utmost importance in having a stable relationship with God. Stability in our emotions can only be attained from stability in what we hear. Let’s have a look at a scripture that explains this truth.

Pro 4:20 My son, attend to my words; incline your ear unto my word.

Pro 4:21 Let them not depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart.

Pro 4:22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

Pro 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the power of life.

Pro 4:24 Put away from thee a forward (twisted) mouth, and perverse (deviating) lips put far from thee.

Let us see this as God speaking to us from a New Testament perspective. He states that we should incline our ears to HIS Word and stick to it without deviation. He also states that the power of life manifested in our lives is from the heart. I think it’s important to define the “heart of man” at this point. The heart of man is the belief system established in man, from where he functions. The belief system of man is powerfully influenced by what we hear and see. As believers we put a high regard on what is preached from the pulpit and what we read in the Bible. If what we hear from the pulpit is twisted and deviating from the basics of the Gospel (which I will explain) it will influence our hearts in a bad way and it will cause us to be driven by deadly and destructive emotions.

The basics of the Gospel: Jesus and what He has done on behalf of man, as the foundation of everything in our lives.

One of the most powerful deviations that I've seen in modern day churches, especially in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles, is robbing many people from the peace that Jesus came to give us, and is manifesting its deadly nature to the disadvantage of many..

We need to understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. He is the substance of every type and shadow that is in the Old Covenant.

1. Col 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days:

Col 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

2. Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Let’s have a look at how Jesus was the tithe and brought a blessing to all of man by what He did. For many years we have tried to apply the tithe principle outside the fact that it is also merely a type and a shadow of the true substance - which is the manifestation of Jesus and what He has done for and on behalf of us all.

I have found revelation in the type and shadow of the tithe.

MSG Translation

Deu 14:23 Bring your tithe into the Presence of GOD, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before GOD, your God, as long as you live.

Deu 14:24 But if the place GOD, your God, designates for worship is too far away and you can't carry your tithe that far, GOD, your God, will still bless you:

Deu 14:25 exchange your tithe for money and take the money to the place GOD, your God, has chosen to be worshiped.

Deu 14:26 Use the money to buy anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, or beer--anything that looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the Presence of GOD, your God, and have a good time.

KJV Translation

Deu 14:26 And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household,

We can see that the tithe was taken to the place of worship and then eaten by the person that brought it. It was not consumed by the priests, the tithe was eaten, a significant point. Remember, the person who tithed could not do with the tithe as he wished – he had to EAT it. Should he not use the tithe as commanded, it would be a sin, for he would be messing up the truth it represented.

Mal 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

Mal 3:3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Mal 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be MEAT in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Mal 3:10 Bring935 ye (853) all3605 the tithes4643 into413 the storehouse,1004, 214 that there may be1961 meat2964 in mine

The Word “ye”

את

'e^th

Brown-Driver-Briggs HebrewDefinition:

1) sign of the definite direct object, not translated in English but generally preceding and indicating the accusative

This wonderful word is a sign of the definite direct object, which in the case of Mal 3:10 is the tithe. So this word directly refers to the tithe which is the object in this sentence.

According to BDB it is not suppose to be translated into English for there is no English word for this. Even in the Hebrew and Greek there is no definition for this word. This word is a sign consisting of two Hebrew characters א (the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet) and ת (The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet). This is awesome when we see it in the Greek, for there it is translated as the alpha and the omega. We know that scripture clearly states that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega.

If we translate Mal 3:10 into this truth it should read as follows “Bring Jesus Christ, (who is) the tithe, into the storehouse that there might be meat in my house...”.

When we read Mal. three from verse one to ten we see that he is speaking prophetically about the restoration of priesthood in order that the curse that they were under should be removed from them. What God was concerned about is that there will be meat in His house so that His people can eat and be delivered from the curse pronounced in verse nine. The only thing that manifests a curse is the LAW. It is clearly stated in Gal 3:10 and 13 that any person who is under the LAW is cursed.

Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Gal 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

In verse thirteen we see how the curse is removed: by the death of Jesus. In Mal it states that it is removed by the tithe. By this we can conclude that Jesus is the tithe that brought meat into the house of God, and as people partake of it the curse is broken for His body is the meat we need to eat. When God was talking about the tithe that will come to the storehouse he wanted his people to eat it. Jesus is our lamb, He is our offering and He is our tithe, to be eaten before God.

HIS FLESH IS MEAT INDEED

Joh 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

Joh 6:56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

Joh 6:57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

Jesus is the perfection of tithing. To think that we need to give ten percent of our money to a church so that God will bless us is just as ignorant as thinking that by circumcision we will become part of God’s people and be saved.

IN CONCLUSION

Let’s look at our tithe and eat His flesh and drink His blood for in doing so we are fulfilling the Law. The truth of the LAW is that it points to Jesus, and as we believe on Him we are partaking of Him i, without there being any accusation against us. Never again do we have to think that we come short in any area of life, especially when it comes to money. When we believe in Jesus, all is done concerning our redemption from the curse and we don’t have to add a thing.

I have seen that not even God brings any accusation against His people, but many are willing to condemn the priceless CHURCH OF GOD when it comes to giving.

WORD FROM GOD: “Be free from the condemnation that is destroying you, it does not come from Me”

Bertie Brits

Another Great Grace Resource!

2009-04-20T07:10:00.001-04:00

If you haven't yet come across the website New Covenant Grace ( as opposed to Old Covenant Law haha), I highly encourage you to check it out. They also have a weekly newsletter you can subscribe to and so far the material has been excellent!

ARE YOU SURE?

2009-04-16T14:34:00.002-04:00

I want to begin by saying thank you. Thank you to my wife for letting me contribute on this blog. I also want to thank you for reading. This blog has been a great source of encouragement for Julie and I over the years. Your feedback has been key for us getting even more revelation of the Grace of God.

Today I want to ask you a few questions and hopefully encourage you in the process. On what do you place your certainty? What is your true north by which you set your internal compass? When all around you looks shaky and uncertain what is the one thing that is certain in your life? When scandals happen around you in the world what keeps you from giving up hope? Scripture points us to faith in the Gospel as our source of certainty.

Philippians 1:6 in the ESV says, “6And I am sure of this, that he who began(H) a good work in you(I) will bring it to completion at(J) the day of Jesus Christ.

Paul has confidence in the good work that God has started. He said, “I am sure of this…” He had no doubt about it. God has started something that He will carry out to completion “at the day of Jesus Christ”.

James 5:7-8 in the ESV says, “7Be patient, therefore, brothers,[a] until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives(N) the early and the late rains. 8You also, be patient.(O) Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord(P) is at hand.

These verses are found at the beginning of a section on suffering. Often when we suffer we are most tempted to let our faith unravel. Circumstances distract us and we feel our faith deflate with each distraction that comes. But James says be patient! We are to be like a farmer who knows that because he planted a seed he will reap fruit. The farmer has an established heart because he knows the truth about growing and harvesting. He has faith. We likewise should not allow what is going on around us to rob us of our faith in the Gospel. Verse 8 says to establish our hearts. To establish your heart is to believe the Gospel. Believe that Jesus came in the flesh, obeyed the Father on your behalf, became sin for you, died in your place as your substitute, cancelled the written code that stood opposed to you, freed you from the power of sin and death, and will return just as He left to clothe you with your new immortal body! Wow what good news! It is all based on Him not us or anyone else. That is the power behind the Gospel. It hinges completely on Jesus and Him alone. That is what our hearts should be established on.

So I ask you again, on what do you place your certainty? Do you place your faith in people, your self efforts, or circumstance which can change tomorrow? Or have you established your heart by believing the Gospel? You can be sure of this, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.

Access into the NEW LIFE

2009-04-16T02:21:00.004-04:00

There is a discovery waiting for each of us that brings us to a powerful new life. It is discovering what Christ has done on our behalf 2000 years ago. Once we grasp that and continue to look into its reality, we find the power of Jesus' obedience, death and resurrection influencing and manifesting in us effortlessly. Let’s put it simply: If we can see Jesus not as an example of what we must do to be saved, but as a man representing us, that brings us to the reality of ourself in Christ. We are new people, truly new by the blood and life of Jesus. This new life is not manifested according to our willpower or efforts to be like Jesus – NO! – it manifests in His resurrection power by us resting our minds in His wonderful work. We have been resurrected into newness of life. Oh, the power we have, to lead an incredible GOD LIFE!!

Eph 1:19 oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him--endless energy, boundless strength!

Eph 1:20 All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven,

Eph 1:21 in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever.

We can have this life, have access into this truth, by simply believing in what He has done. As we hear the truth, it produces the faith we need for it to manifest in our life. IT'S AS EASY AS THAT!!

Bertie Brits

Remembering What We Have...

2009-04-15T13:36:00.002-04:00

I read this great post today on a blog called New Covenant Believers so I thought I'd link it for you all to check out.

A time of reflection--A dog chasing its own tail

Here's a quote from it:

"In our Christian walk, we sometimes behave similar to this dog if we forget our birth right or our inheritance in Christ. In the case of the dog, it has forgetten that it is born with a tail too. We sometimes do chase after things of God when they are already resident in us when we are born again."

Justified By His Faith--Bertie's First Post!

2009-04-15T07:26:00.001-04:00

The greatest thing God is concerned about is if you know that He loves you. His love for you is not merely contained in day to day emotions based on your performance. His love has been manifested in one act that is the solid foundation from where we can experience his love for us. That act is simply what Jesus has done on behalf of man. We rest our minds in the fact that He has died the death of the law man, the man that seeks righteousness and justification by His works, and that He was resurrected for our justification. With this truth in place we will never run short of righteousness, holiness or any godly attribute because by this truth God makes his dwelling in man and in such a way we see God live in our lives.

In the following scripture we can see the working of this great love which is that we are justified by His faith. His faith brought the justification and our belief in that gives us access into this wonderful truth.

Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Bertie Brits

New Developments on Voice of Grace

2009-04-15T06:48:00.014-04:00

There are a few changes happening around here. Two new writers will be joining me on the blog, which is great news for everyone! For me, it means more frequent posting without any extra work, for you it means more grace writings to read. This is going to especially great for me since my writing will be decreasing during pregnancy and life with a new baby in the family.

So without further ado, I am excited to announce that my husband Aaron Morris and our very good friend Bertie Brits . will be joining me on the blog.

I'm not sure how often Aaron will be writing but he's been talking about doing this for quite awhile now. I'll be putting up Bertie's first post shortly...looking forward to seeing what God does with all this! Hope you all enjoy the new additions!

Happy Easter! (Amazing Love, Lou Fellingham)

2009-04-12T07:26:00.005-04:00

Well, we woke up this Easter morning to a beautiful sight! In some parts of the world people have to be content with daffodils and tulips, little girls in sun dresses, or maybe backyard barbeque...Well, not us! We have a real snow storm.

Of course, this brings a certain verse to mind...don't you think?

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

If we are willing and obedient we will eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19)! God saw his people suffering, covered with sores, pathetic but still going through the motions of bringing sacrifices and obeying the law. He was not happy! He invites his people to come reason with him, in the whole book of Isaiah he goes back and forth between the Old Covenant and the coming New, showing the curse and pain that come through the Old, showing the glorious freedom and goodness that will come through the New. Let God reason with you! He will show you how much better is his New Way, Jesus! Then you will be willing and obedient, the obedience of faith in his Son, the kind of faith that turns joyfully away from the law, repenting of dead works to trust in Jesus' finished work. And together we will learn to live in the good of all he has accomplished for us.

Anyway, here's a song I found by one of my all-time favorite singers in the world, Amazing Love.

Life Under the Law is Like This.... (Nickel Creek-Doubting Thomas)

2009-04-09T16:45:00.004-04:00

I've always loved this song so much, and I was inspired by Sheila over at A Season of Harvest to post some Nickel Creek. And, like my good friend Dan, I'm often moved by secular songs far more than Christian songs...and dare I say, often they are more truthful.

This song always reminds me of how difficult it is sometimes growing up in the religious church world, I mean, it is too often very confusing. And depressing. As I've often said, I'm very thankful I was brought up in the church learning lots of truth from an early age and coming into a relationship with God very young, but there is a lot of unlearning I've had to do as well. This song always reminds me of the prodigals, both those I know and those I don't. And it makes me long for them to come home to their Father who loves them and isn't waiting to load them down with heavy burdens but just wants to give them rest.

How To Love God, and Kim Walker, I Sing My Love

2009-04-06T21:55:00.003-04:00

Recently I've been getting tired of worship songs that focus on our love for God. It's not that I don't love God, it's that many of these songs miss the point. They are from an Old Covenant mindset of our obligation to love God and not the New Covenant way of loving God. In fact, when God defines love through John, he always starts with himself, never with us. We are the responders, we cannot love until and unless he loves us first!

"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10)

God is love. When we are in him, we love. When we believe in Jesus, we receive his love and then we have love to give. Ahhh, the simplicity!

So who of God's sons doesn't love to sing back in response to our father how much we love him? Once we have freely received his love for us, have experienced it, then we are free to love him back! If we try to love him under law, we will fail miserably and will not please his heart. We don't love God because we were commanded to but because he loved us first and our new nature was born to love him back! I feel like I keep repeating myself...

Anyway, I found this Kim Walker song and really like it. The verse is all about how God loves us and the chorus is our response, a beautiful picture of the love shared between Christ and his Bride I think. Hope you like it!

P.S. thanks to my husband for discussing these things with me passionately even though the rerun of the country music awards was on...

Hungry or Starving? The Problem of Malnourished Christians...

2009-04-03T07:15:00.006-04:00

There is a very interesting discussion going on over at Grace Revolution called "Define Glory" which I encourage you to check out if you're interested in such things.

Before I got into that discussion I had this post banging around in my head and I think it's somewhat relevant so I decided to actually write it. Basically, my church background is quite varied. I grew up in an evangelical holiness church (arminian slant), started dipping my toes into the charismatic world later on, then went into reformed (and slightly charismatic) for more than enough years. After leaving there, we started getting major revelations of grace and headed back toward more charismatic things again because we'd been starving for the presence of God. That's a brief summary anyway.

But one of the things that I found very different in attending Glory and Grace as opposed to conferences I'd been to in the past was the state I was in when I arrived. I wasn't desperate. I wasn't begging God to do some huge thing in my life, wasn't after the proverbial lightening from the sky or voice from heaven experience. Just wanted to enjoy God and enjoy his people, and hopefully come away with some fresh revelation of who he is, i.e., get to know him even better! Whatever else happened I was totally open to, I was expecting to have some fun. Coming to the realization that I was no longer starving but content and happy in Jesus was beautiful. So much better than any 'experience' I've ever had, and I've had some really wonderful experiences. (Don't think I'm saying I'm anti experience, they are a natural outflow of being in a real relationship!)

I don't know how clear I'm being, but I've been thinking of 3 types of malnourishment among Christians, all 3 I've lived in at different times.

1.The energy drink Christians.

These believers are trying to live on energy drinks, you know, those very dangerous concoctions invented for people who try to operate on too little rest and too little real food. They are concerned that they keep very busy doing, doing, doing, and serving, serving, serving. In fact, they don't often have time to eat or sleep, so they grab an energy drink. These people are driven, driven to do more and be more for God. It's hard to relax around these people and it's hard to have a conversation with them because they don't have time for things like that.

2. The candy Christian.

This one I can relate to more. I think these believers try to live on candy and pink fluff. They really are chasing after every feel-good experience out there in the charismatic realm. They are looking for their next sugar high, but if you've ever tried to subsist on sugar you'll know that it doesn't satisfy you for long and it has virtually no value nutritionally. And then there's the crash...

3. The vitamin and supplements Christians.

Been here too. This one is probably most deceiving because people who take vitamins are usually assumed to be very health conscious. These are the believers who try to live by technicalities, by correct doctrine and theology. They search the Scriptures thinking they can have life by them, but they never eat the real food, Jesus. True nourishment comes through true food, nothing else.

Now, in each one of these circles (and I'm sure we could think of more) I've often heard hunger encouraged and spiritualized. That is to say, they encourage people that the more hungry they are the better, you know, "holy discontent", and it is true that hunger can be good. But it is only good if it makes you eat! Hunger that is never satisfied, truly satisfied, leads to starvation and eventually death. It's good to remember that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled, but often we are hungering and thirsting for the wrong things and wonder why we are never feeling filled.

The truth is that even if you're eating every day you can still starve to death or get very sickly and malnourished. We must eat good food, real food: Jesus. in John 6 lets us in on the real food he has provided for us:

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty...I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

"I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."

There are many starving Christians who think they are more godly because they are so 'hungry'. But Jesus said that if we feed on him we will not be hungry or thirsty! WE WILL BE SATISFIED!!!! That is good news!!!
So believers who have not learned to feed on Jesus will be hungry, but if they refuse to feed on Christ and try to feed on any other thing they will never be filled. They will slowly starve to death, and it will not be pleasant.

Now, the reason I'm not hungry? I am constantly feeding on Jesus! I'm grazing in his green pastures every day! He lives in me and I in him! How can I be hungry??? I no longer feel the hunger pangs that come from living deprived of his love, a deprivation I experienced when I tried to live under law. He is my good shepherd and he takes care of me and makes sure I lack nothing. Why do you think he told us to remember him every time we eat?

So when we are truly well nourished we can then truly enjoy some dessert! Serving, charismatic experiences, and study of Scripture and doctrine can all be very enjoyable and good, but they never fill us or feed us. Only Jesus can do that!

Glory and Grace 2009...Here Goes

2009-04-02T10:03:00.003-04:00

Wow, a little nervous to be my honest self, seems like I'm too radical for even some of my grace friends! I feel over the past few days the enemy is coming at me from many different angles, and unexpected ones, to make me feel very alone and even tempting me to be apologetic for my passion for the gospel. This is not to say that there aren't some faults on my part for how I can often come barreling into people with too much at the wrong time and knock them over before they know what hits them! I don't ever want to lose the passion, intensity, and boldness that I believe God loves about me, but I would like my love and compassion to become more obvious to people, if you know what I mean. Some days we have to be content knowing God loves us whether other people do or not.

K, so none of that has to do with Hong Kong really. I don't know where to start. The trip was long, I think I already mentioned that. So, the first thing of note I guess was that I got to visit with Ryan and Kylie for an afternoon before the conference started, and it was so exciting to see the stacks of Ryan's freshly printed books! This is one new ministry that has me really excited, Ryan's vision to start making more grace resources available by publishing and distributing books and worship music. AMEN!!!!!Thank-you Jesus!!!!

The next thing of note is that when I went to meet Lydia at the airport we somehow missed each other so after a few hours I finally went back to my room and there she was! I was so proud of her for finding her own way, believe me, she must have had guardian angels. Having Lydia bunking with me was definately a major highlight of the trip, we've never gotten to spend so much time together, uninterrupted especially! And the girl is oozing the joy of glorious grace, and FREEDOM! We had some amazing fellowship, though I think we stayed up too late most nights. Also if you want to see pictures, head over to her blog, she's got quite a few up or to City Church's facebook group page, hundreds more there.

The conference started the next morning on Wednesday, and opened with Rob furiously preaching the gospel (after a couple of worship songs and an opening of the conference by a Chinese family from City Church). It was classic Rob grace preaching, doesn't get any better than that! The second session was Rob continuing in the same vein to lay the foundation for the conference. We had the afternoon off and mainly we rested and ate. Unfortunately we really didn't do any sight seeing except for an afternoon down at the waterfront with a ferry ride. Poor Lydia! But she claims she didn't mind...

The evening session was Joshua Mills I believe. He was sharing some testimonies and stopping every so often to pray for certain people in the crowd, Fini and Isi were among the first, he actually came out with their full street address though he didn't know them! He healed some, and came walking through the hall showing us the oil that was coming on his hands. A lady in front of us got some off his hands and let us smell it, it had a strange smell (some said like vanilla, others said other things) I think that was also the same night we were smelling other good smells all night.

Josh is very pleasant and joyful and I really like seeing people get healed and hearing testimonies so I found it all enjoyable. I personally didn't find he showed much of an understanding of the difference between Old Covenant Glory and New, though he began to talk about it a little more later on. He seemed to know the Old Testament very well but rarely if ever used New Testament. I was very glad that he was able to hear Rob preach the gospel and hope that God will use the experience to strengthen the foundations of his ministry even more, and that even more signs and wonders and miracles and salvations will come as he begins to see Jesus more and more as the glory cloud we now live in!

Some people were not bothered by any of this at all, but I found myself leaving not feeling satisfied, as I've begun to notice is what always has happened to me in the past when my focus is on experiencing some amazing thing. I found that being at the conference dredged up some old stuff that I've always had issues with in charismatic settings. Rob had talked a bit in the beginning something about not hindering what God wants to do, something in regards to manifestations or being self-conscious, I don't really remember exactly. This really really distracted me, probably in large part due to my history of interactions with charismatic ministy times in the past, having been criticized and judged for not falling or acting weird enough. I guess the assumption is that if nothing weird appears to be happening to your body then you are not free and must be resisting the Holy Spirit's work in your life. This has always left me feeling confused, self-conscious, and condemned. I want to state clearly that I KNOW this was not Rob's intention, and it is clear how much he loves people and just wants them to be free. Nevertheless, I ended up in the bathroom stall crying my eyes out to God during worship of the first session on Thursday morning.

Ahhh, God is good. Of course he spoke to me and loved me and comforted me. He is so happy with where we are in our relationship right now, and this may sound weird but he said he is not a rapist. He will never push me to expressions of love which are beyond where we are in our relationship, he will never treat me like a prostitute. He showed me that my intimacy with my husband has grown and evolved the longer we are together and the more we trust one another, but if it had been forced on me it would not have been love. The main purpose of experiences with him is to bless me, not to impress anyone or please him. It pleases him to please me, and he KNOWS me, really KNOWS me and knows exactly what I need, want, and enjoy. I don't know if I'm explaining this right, but after this I was much better and able to be much less distracted and worried about what people were thinking of me. After all, I just wanted to be able to freely enjoy God and his presence!

So the sessions, the order ect..I'm fuzzy on a bit. I'm sure there will be much more detailed accounts (and possibly at least some recordings) coming soon from others anyway. I know Fini spoke on ministering out of rest, out of God's presence and how church is just meaningless when God's presence isn't there. So true! His main text was come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. One of my favorite verses of all time! Fini seems very laid back and pretty happy, two qualities I always appreciate, of course he's still passionate in worship, I particulary remember one point where he started kicking up his legs dancing, it was quite funny!

Thursday night was probably my favorite night. Annaline (I think that's right) led worship doing lots of great songs with amazing words and then Rob preached and led ministry time, part of which involved getting those who knew they were lightening conductors that night to come forward and get extra-charged then go back into the crowd. We all held hands and Ursula, of course a lightening conductor, ended up miraculously right next to us though she had been way up in front originally. She didn't even know at first because she didn't have her glasses on. Anyway, Lydia and I were laughing hysterically, I was crying I was laughing so hard and Lydia was in a heap on the floor half the time. She kept trying to get up though, she was a little nervous of getting hurt down there, probably with good reason haha! Anyway, it was just fun and a delicious manifest presence of God with us.

Then Rob called down pastors/leaders and wives, at which point Ursula told me to go down so I did. The City Church ministry team was wonderful, so gentle and loving and of course powerful in ministry. The atmosphere became so quiet, peaceful and full of God love and Rob became this totally gentle father to us. I'm still blown away by him, and how much we love him without having to idolize him. Don't know if that makes sense, it's just that since coming into grace I love how I can love and respect and honor people without putting them on a pedestal or having to agree with them 100%. I think it's so freeing. We can let people be people and love them and realize we're all different and that's good for us!

Also, backing up a bit, Thursday afternoon we got to spend with some of the people from Grace Revolution, which was another major highlight. Ryan came with us, and we got to meet Wayne Duncan, Tony Yu, and many others. Meeting Wayno was not dissappointing! He and Ryan were mocking our supposed accents a bit though, talk about pots calling kettles black! They can't even distinguish between 'pill' 'pole' 'pull' etc...all just sounds the same, we had the same issue with Bertie, but in grace we overlook such things.

I guess I'll continue this in another post since it seems to be getting long! There will probably actually be two more posts, one to finish telling about the conference and time we got to spend with Urs, and another to sum up what I took away from the whole thing.

The Bible

2009-03-29T12:49:00.002-04:00

A true account of God's relentless redeeming love toward all mankind through Jesus Christ to all who believe, inspired by God's own Spirit.

NOT a rulebook, guidebook, or roadmap. NOT a weapon of fear and condemnation against men and women. NOT given to restrain or restrict freedom and liberty. NOT the living Word of God (hint: John 1). NOT given to self-righteous men in order to control and manipulate the weak and needy.

These are just some thoughts swirling around inside my little head lately, they are slowly starting to take shape...

Reporting From Hong Kong...

2009-03-17T01:01:00.002-04:00

I am seriously behind on keeping the blog up to date on relevant news. I have a few rather big announcements actually, and one is that I'll be attending the Glory and Grace conference '09 in Hong Kong! I'm actually already here and the conference starts tomorrow, I'll be meeting Lydia at the airport tonight and we'll be staying together in our somewhat flashy hostel, which God graciously allowed our room to be upgraded (believe me, this is a big blessing, I should have taken a picture of the room I stayed in the first night!). I've already gotten a chance to visit with Ryan and Kylie as well, and now have in my possession two autographed copies of Ryan's freshly printed books! So exciting, I believe they'll be putting up an online bookstore before long and plan on making more and more grace materials available, something that's very close to my heart as well. Finally, I'll have someone to send my manuscripts to haha!

So I left on this journey last Wednesday afternoon, taking the kids with me to drive down to NJ where I flew out from. The 12 hours of driving took me closer to 25 or so, do to the fact that I was very tired, probably having to do with the fact that Bertie had been staying with us up until Tuesday, and he kept us up half the night telling us crazy stories and sharing great revelations of grace (he might argue that we talked more than him but don't believe it). Seriously, I think we have entered into a lifetime friendship and partnership in grace and it was extremely encouraging, and very timely. I'm definitely going to be spoiled this month!

Oh, and back to another reason why the driving part of the trip took me so long. You see, when I'm pregnant I feel much sicker when I don't get enough sleep. So for those of you who don't already know, yes, number four is on the way. And NO, this was not planned by us and I was in quite a state of shock for a couple of weeks. On the positive side, I began getting sick while Bertie was visiting and one morning was on the couch feeling like I had the stomach flu (having already emptied my stomach 3 times) unable to move, which is typically how I spend all nine months of pregnancy day and night with varying degrees of nausea. Bertie prayed for me and I immediately felt much better and have not since been that sick. In fact, a few days later I woke up in a hotel and went downstairs and ate breakfast like a normal person. That my friends, is a miracle, believe me.

So, I should be able to post a little while I'm here if I find time. I'll probably be pretty busy once the conference gets going though!

Bertie Brits in Moncton!!!

2009-02-26T10:11:00.003-05:00

So I already mentioned this a while back, but here are the details...

Bertie will be preaching on two night, Friday March 6 at 7:30 and Saturday March 7 at 7:30. The meetings will be held at 1212 Mountain Rd. Moncton, at Water and Wine Assembly who have graciously allowed us to use their building for free. Bertie is also coming at absolutely no expense to us so we'll probably have an opportunity to give for anyone who would like to support Bertie and his ministry. If you're not familiar with Bertie, he is a wonderful and powerful grace preacher who preaches the gospel boldly with signs and wonder following! You can visit his website, Dynamic Love Ministries, to read testimonies, bio, or hear his teaching.

You don't want to miss this if you live anywhere near Moncton! If you or anyone you know is sick, injured, or depressed, please come ready to experience the real and dynamic love of God, it will change your life. If you are on Facebook, you can visit our events page, Bertie Brits in Moncton, and let us know you're coming. For all of you who sadly live too far away, pray for us, pray that people get revelation of the glorious gospel of grace and get SET FREE!!!!!

Responding to the New Covenant

2009-02-12T13:07:00.004-05:00

The Old Covenant clearly laid out how to respond to God, God was very specific in his directions to the Israelites. Beware of those today who say they are preaching New Covenant but are still informing you of how to 'respond' to God by specific actions on your part. Beware of 'application' that tells you exactly what you should do or how to 'obey'. This is always indicative of a mixture of the old into the new, and don't be surprised if this mixture explodes your poor little wine skin. It's very messy when that happens, and be sure the ones who preached the mixture to you will be nowhere in sight when clean-up time arrives!

I'm very disappointed in certain ministries and preachers who I respect, disappointed that after having heard them preach the glorious gospel they now weakly back down ashamed of the gospel. They go back to preaching balance or application or response, basically they can't trust God's people to Jesus but feel the need to push them to behave in certain ways. This makes me so sad...

There is only ONE response to the New Covenant: BELIEVE IN JESUS.

Just believe. To all you who are weary and heavy laden, come to Jesus, he will give you rest! Don't go to anyone who offers you anything but rest, it may sound holy and admirable but it's a lie and will steal your joy. Get established in grace, in his gift of righteousness and you will begin to find that you will work harder than ever before in the calling your Father has put on your life, but miracle of all miracles! It won't be you, it will be the grace of God within you, the Spirit of Jesus himself!!!! Lay down your dead works and your self-righteousness and receive freely all that Jesus has won for you.

I'm preaching to myself here...I need to hear this over and over and over and over...and it's good, it gets better every time!

If you haven't already checked out Rob's latest series Being Established in the Gift of Righteousness I highly recommend you do! I believe many of them are also available on GraceStream TV (video) which you will notice is available right here or at Dynamic Love Ministries.

Faith: Believing in God's Love

2009-02-10T13:17:00.003-05:00

Faith used to be such a vague concept to me. A very spiritual sounding word that people used the most when they hit hard times. Honestly, in my various religious legalistic experiences, 'faith' was an expression of self-righteousness, often displayed with the air of a martyr. You see, men and women of faith could often be found standing by God even when they thought him responsible for disease, poverty, and death. The worse off they were in life, the more people proclaimed them super-holy saints of incredible 'faith'. But really, it doesn't take faith to believe that God would inflict suffering on me, it's easy to believe I deserve suffering or punishment sometimes! It takes faith to believe that God will never ever punish or use suffering to 'discipline' me because Jesus doesn't deserve ANY punishment ever again and I AM IN HIM.

To be sure we all pass through trials and suffering at times (and I believe true persecution is in a different category altogether). We have an enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion seeing who he might devour. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against a spiritual realm of spirits who wish us harm and will constantly accuse us and oppose us. BUT we also have an advocate who intercedes for us!!! One who has defeated evil forever and has given us eternal righteousness that can never be defiles or stolen from us. One who came to sympathize with us in our weakness out of lavish and exorbitant love for us, his own people. He will not leave us to suffer but will always intervene on our behalf, there is already abundant grace available to deliver us out.

I understand faith in a way that I never could before since seeing grace. Faith is simple, it is a response to experiencing God's love in a real way, whether his voice or his touch. Faith sees God, sees Jesus, and says, "yes! he does love me, I am precious to him!" Faith is not ashamed of the sufferings of Jesus, but rejoices in his love just as a baby does not apologize for causing his mother pain but reaches out for her loving arms and feeds on her joy in him. Faith leans so fully on the love of Jesus that all fear is banished in light of his beautiful goodness. He is all Goodness! He is all Kindness! He will never never never hurt one of his own. I know this because I believe he is good and he loves me. He has shown me again and again and again. Which one of us will give our child a stone when he asks for something to eat? Doesn't our father in heaven know how to give us good gifts even more? Infinitely more?

Faith is not a work we use to obligate God to perform for us at our word. Faith just receives God's love simply without question, without trying to earn or deserve, without suspicion. Faith sees Jesus and is satisfied, is overwhelmed with joy, is full to overflowing. Faith approaches God without agenda or cunning, with no need for lobbying, begging, or persuading. Because faith believes, more than that, RESTS, in the wonderful free love of Jesus.

Submitting To Your Pastors

2009-01-29T10:45:00.002-05:00

I first became aware of this video a while back...my cousin Krista recommended it to me strongly. I think it's one of her favorites. I think more than anything it demonstrates the kind of committment and faith in one's pastors that most pastors probably dream about. As you watch I just want you to ask yourself "Would I be willing to do this if my pastor asked?" The answer to that question could be very revealing.

Find Your Voice

2009-01-28T07:20:00.005-05:00

When I first started blogging the name of my blog was "Looking For My Words". If I go back and read my early posts it's like I'm reading the words of another person, a sad and frightened little girl hiding in a corner. A person who was hyper-sensitive to criticism and condemnation either spoken or insinuated, sometimes just plain imagined. I had voices in my head and I listened to them, but they were not my voice, they were not God's voice. I thought they were my voice and God's voice...I thought my voice was speaking everything dirty and sinful, I thought the voice that then accused and condemned me was God's. I was wrong!

All day long I listened to the voices saying "you should, you shouldn't, you should, you shouldn't, you must, you must not, you will, you will not" followed by "you did, you're a sinner, you didn't, you're a sinner, you should have, you're a failure, you should not have, you failed again...try harder, if you love God you would try harder..." And then the other voices "run away you'll never get it right, you're a terrible wife, a lazy selfish mother, maybe you should end it all and then Aaron would be able to marry a godly woman and mother for his children". I lived in a constant state of confusion, I thought I was my own worst enemy. I thought God's main objective in my life was to convict me of sin every day every day and whip me into shape. I was wrong!

I was a broken and weary soul. I was starving for love, the kind of love that would not shatter and crumble when I made a mistake. I had faith that I would escape the flames of hell, but only just escape. I didn't know Jesus loved me because I couldn't hear him! He was shouting and waving his arms wildly but I had grown deaf and the veil of the law covered my eyes thickly. I was wandering hopelessly, my only hope was in death, heaven, so I could finally see Jesus and be changed. Others thought I was so holy because I longed for heaven so much, but it was not a sign of my 'holiness', it was a sign of my utter desperation, of my utter failure to grasp the Jesus of hope by faith, to live in him HERE and NOW.

Then everything changed. It didn't change all at once but the SON began to dawn and light slowly washed over my face, pale and cold first, then brighter and warmer, then, warmer and brighter! Then I heard a whisper, it was my Father, his voice was so much kinder and more compassionate than I remembered. I felt his strong but gentle hands begin to release me from the veil that covered my eyes, then he began to remove chains and I felt healing power begin to flow into my whole person. I realized he wasn't whispering, his voice was strong and clear now that my ears were open. Suddenly I could hear the other voices much more clearly and I realized that they were ugly, evil, and sinister. They were not my voice, they were not my Father's voice, they were evil demonic voices. And I realized they held no power over me unless I chose to listen and believe.

I looked up to see Jesus seated on the throne and he told me it was TIME. Time to crush Satan under my feet, to claim the victory that Jesus won for me by his resurrection, his triumph over and utter humiliation of the enemy. I began to join in with his church and declare the great battle cry of these last days:

I AM THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS, THIS IS NOT OF MYSELF IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD FOR ALL WHO BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The enemy trembles and his resolve begins to melt away. The fear in his eyes is palpable, he is confused about his next step. Oh, there are other people and other places where he feels his power is strong, but what of this growing revolution, this rising of GRACE, this restoration of the GOSPEL??????????? The power of God for salvation, the GOOD NEWS, it is ringing louder and louder all across the earth! Soon everyone will hear, and many many more will believe! And the faith of the sons of God will swell and grow and overcome evil and the kingdom of the Almighty God will conquer darkness, disease, sickness, sin, fear, pain, depression, insanity, and EVERY OTHER WORK OF THE DEVIL WILL BE DESTROYED!!!!! And the sound of murmuring will grow to the sound of loud shouting in joyful unison, "Look up, look to the sky, Jesus is coming back!"

Many of us are finding our voices, aren't we? And we are using them to spread the Good News that dead people can live, that sinful people can be made righteous, that hungry people can be filled, that thirsty people can drink. This is what we were made for! How amazing that we live in God's eternal exhilarating love! How wonderful that by union with the One who made us and saved, by finding ourselves in Him, we finally begin to know who we really are...and we have something to say, something eternally valuable and transforming!

Law: License to Sin

2009-01-20T13:17:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure why people never think of law as a license to sin but that's what the Pharisees and other religious leaders used law for. They were constantly trying to justify actions and beliefs that God hated, including accusing Jesus of sinning! They literally used the law to get away with murder (first Jesus, later the Christians).

Jesus took many opportunities to set them straight and time and time again. He was constantly trying to show them that to truly know the Father they should take their eyes off the law and put them on himself. The law was given as a guardian until Jesus came, but when the Father came many legalists chose the guardian over their own father!

Over and over, the religious people missed the point of the law, and still today they are doing the same. They continue to focus on whitewashing their tombs, on cleaning the outside of their cups and dishes, on preaching laws that keep people far from God trembling in fear and shame, on following rules and regulations instead of receiving and sharing God's love and mercy provided in the finished work of Jesus. They puff themselves up with a false sense of spirituality because they think it pious to choose the bad news over the good news, and they are deeply suspicious and condemning toward anyone who lives in the joyful simplicity of faith in God's good heart of love to his children.

"And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"— so that they might accuse him. He said to them, "Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Matthew 12:10-12

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Matthew 23:13-36

Legalism has never produced anything good. It can only produce death, hypocrisy, and self-deceived fools. Believe me, I know what it's like to be a legalist, I remember it well! If you believe that the law is a means to produce any good thing in you, you are setting yourself up for woe. You will not and cannot please God through obeying the law and he is never impressed by your attention to details and technicalities. He is looking for one thing: FAITH.

In the New Covenant, faith IS obedience!

"Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."
John 6:28

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20-30-31

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." Romans 1:15-17

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." Romans 4:5-8

"This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." 1 John 3:19-24

I will say it again! Faith is obedience! When we believe in Jesus our belief is credited as righteousness, we are pleasing God so much, he is so happy with us! When we believe in Jesus, our sins are no longer counted against us! When we believe in Jesus, we are born again by the Spirit so that the life we live in the flesh is by faith in the Son of God, not by adherence to the law.

Oh yes, I know it's not clear enough yet so I will say it, you won't find faith is impotent like the old husband law. The law of Christ, the law of liberty, the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life!!--yes, it will produce many good things in our lives in God's good time. In fact, it the only way anything we do will not be burned up in the fire as hay and stubble. Only faith can produce anything that lasts.

Now you can safely and confidently take your eyes off yourself and your performance, go ahead. Now you can let go of your striving and enter his rest. Now to him you can give all the glory forever! We are yours Jesus!

"Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen." Romans 16:25-27

Legalism in Sanctification

2009-01-19T11:48:00.003-05:00

One of the most frustrating things to deal with is people who understand that justification is by faith through grace and therefore believe there is no possible way that they are legalistic though they believe that they must follow laws in order to be sanctified. It's frustrating because the book of Galatians was clearly written specifically to deal with those who began in the Spirit by faith but were trying to 'be perfected' (hello, sanctification!) in the flesh. 'In the flesh' is clearly connected to 'under law' if you read on in chapter 3. So I was happy to find that Steve McVey addresses this very thing briefly in one of the 101 lies videos, Christian lies #30 "legalism is salvation by works".

If you are one of those who believe that salvation is from faith to works, I hope you are able to re-read Galatians keeping in mind that their problem was not beginning right but not continuing in faith. Don't worry! I'm not saying grace is a licence to sin! True sanctification will only happen if you believe God enough to totally abandon any hope in your obedience to the law and live by his Spirit. Do you think he will lead you into sin???????????

The Serpent in the Church

2009-01-12T11:40:00.005-05:00

I know, I know, same old stuff! I just am having a hard time understanding why believers want to cling to the Law. Why is it we have such a difficult time throwing ourselves at the mercy of Jesus? Why do we still think that we are somehow lacking, that we have not really been created in God's image, that we need to become like God by our own effort?

Adam and Eve were perfect, had perfect standing before God and perfect fellowship with God. They were created in God's own image!!! And yet they fell for the lie when the serpent came to them saying "don't you want to be like God?", they decided that God's word pronouncing them to be in his image was not enough and they decided that having the knowledge of good and evil ( MORAL LAW) would be able to make them more godly.

And so sin entered Adam's race through the seemingly good desire to be more godly
and our perfect standing and perfect fellowship with God was broken. God provided temporary forgiveness through the shedding of the blood of animals so that man could still have some semblance of relationship with his Creator. But the reason the blood of animals had any power was because of the blood of Jesus which would be shed at the right moment in history, once for all. God had a plan to completely destroy the power of Satan, and that plan was to forge a new covenant with man that was completely unbreakable!

This covenant was ratified by God the father and God the Son, Jesus, who became human in order to break the curse of sin and the law (which is the power of sin, not the other way around 1 Cor. 15:55-57) BECAUSE JESUS IS THE MEDIATOR OF THIS NEW COVENANT IT CAN NEVER BE BROKEN BY US. We enter into the new covenant simply by agreeing that Jesus may be our representative, by putting our trust in him. This, my friends, is the simple good news that we call the gospel!

So, Scripture is clear! We are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), we are the righteousness of God ( 2 Corinthians 5:20-21. I hope we can all agree that we've been reconciled back to God and our original position in Adam before the fall has not only been restored but it has been restored permanently without any fear of our breaking the covenant this time...once again...because of Jesus...

Now, though Satan can never ever affect our relationship with God the way he did with Adam, he can still tell us lies which, if we choose to believe them, will produce unbelief in God. This unbelief will drastically undermine the level of freedom and power we walk in. In fact, unbelief will lead us to live according to the flesh under law rather than by the Spirit, and it will cause us to sin.

The saddest thing about this is that most of the church seems to be falling for the same lie Adam did! The serpent has slithered his way into the church and he is still expounding the benefits of the Law! After being restored back to our Creator's original design, we are still tempted to believe that we need the knowledge of good and evil, the moral law (the ten commandments!) to perfect us, faith in Jesus is far too simplistic.

I don't believe that the Law was given to reveal the character of God, for one thing, there is no evil in God. And if that were the case, the law would have been given to Adam and Eve in the very beginning. The law was given to reveal the fallen character of man,to uncover sin, to provoke sin, to make sin spring to life(Romans 7:4-6, Romans 7:9). Jesus was given to reveal the character of God!

"And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known." John 1:16-18

Do you really believe this? We could not intimately know God through the law which came through Moses, in fact, any of the Old Testament people who knew God knew God by faith. Though for hundreds of years the Jews worked to obey the law and thereby know God, Scripture tells us that no one saw God until Jesus. The law was not given to reveal God to us, the law actually separates us from God by producing fear in us (Hebrews 12:18-21), it perpetuates death and curse, it can only uncover our sin and it keeps us in bondage as slaves(Gal. 4:1-7).

Jesus came to reveal God to us for the first time (as fallen man) and he came to do battle with sin and the law (which are the weapons that armed the devil against us Col. 2:13-15), to die through the law to the law (Gal. 2:18-20), to cancel the written code that stood against us, to become the end of the law for all who believe (Romans 10:4), because he did not come to condemn the lost but to save them and the law could not save us! That's why Jesus came with truth and grace, not the law!

So next time the serpent comes to you extolling the beauty and wonder of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, why don't you pass...why don't you take the bread and the cup and feast on the love of Jesus? The serpent doesn't belong in the church anymore.

Doubt, Discouragement...Hunger! (a bit of rambling)

2009-01-09T07:35:00.005-05:00

I am a passionate person, I don't know of anyone who knows me who would disagree. I am hot or cold, I am extreme, intense. I'm not saying I can't be relaxed because more and more I'm just peaceful and relaxed. But when I believe something, I really believe it! Funnily enough this can lead me to get discouraged and doubt I mean doubt everything. When I don't see healing, or financial provision, or changes in people/relationships, or whatever, I get angry sometimes. I start thinking that maybe this God stuff is all my imagination, that maybe none of it is real. Like I said, I'm either hot or cold!

But generally my extreme doubts, anger, discouragement, even depression all add up to one thing--hunger. I am starving for intimacy, a fresh experience, a fresh conversation, with Jesus. I just miss him. Do you know what I mean? I think my Christian experience has been pretty broad, non-charismatic and charismatic, arminian and calvinist, etc... But every church I've ever been part of has had legalism as a common denominator.

Some mixed in a little law, some alot. Some were honest about it, some called it 'grace'. But even if the methods or doctrines about getting God to show up or do something were different, they all had methods. Some believed that prayer was the key (yeah, I've read Ravenhill and God knows how many others), some believe if you really want something (revival anyone?) than add fasting to that. Some say confessions of sin and repentance is key, actually, many claim this on both arminian and calvinist sides. We must consecrate the temple, purify it, clean it out or the Holy Spirit will not fill the temple (this leans very heavily on OT imagery obviously). I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of people who believe that faith and the word of faith (speaking things out) is the key to getting whatever it is that you need.

I believe that faith and prayer are great, but they are the fruit of the answer, not the answer. There is no method for receiving any of God's blessings, the greatest of which is his constant presence. I'm tired of begging God for what I need or want, especially begging for him to reveal himself, manifest himself to me.

You see, when I first started listening to Rob Rufus, getting my first real glimpse of the glorious gospel of grace, I would be caught up in a crazy swirl of joy and love, it was euphoric and it would last for hours sometimes. I would wake up in the night and God's presence was so real! His voice was so clear! It was beautiful and wonderful. At any moment in the day I could say "God, you there?" and he would be there in this tangible powerful way. I was so caught up in his love!

But then something really weird happened, which I don't think I've shared with anyone but Aaron. One night after listening to some grace preaching I was lying in bed still caught up in God's glorious presence and I must have drifted off to sleep. I was woken up by such an evil presence that was paralyzing me so that I could not speak without a pronounced effort. Finally I said "Jesus" and the evil presence left.

Now, things like this had happened to me lots of times before, but for some reason this experience had a horrible effect on me. Because I fell asleep in God's presence and woke up in fear, in my mind God's presence just kind of turned on me so to speak. It's really strange, but especially at first I could not experience God's presence anymore the way I had been because every time he came I became afraid, I instinctively withdrew. Very very strange, since in general I'm not afraid of demons (apart from the initial reaction when you're first caught off guard or you're having a dream) Over time the effects have been dulled and of course I've experienced God's presence many times, but it has never been the same.

I know this is a very weird story but I guess I don't care what people think of me so much. I don't really know why I'm sharing it in relation to this post but I think I'll just leave it for whatever it's worth.

Anyway, I don't appreciate worship songs that are begging for God to come or whatever. I think they ignore the fact that he has come, Jesus has come and made a way for us to enter into the holy of holies! There is a new a living way, not a dead ritualistic way that sends in the holiest guy you can find with a rope tied around his leg hoping he can please God enough to get everyone safely through another year.

Now we have a great high priest who has entered the holy place with his own blood. Did God strike him down? Or is the blood of Jesus so superior to the blood of bulls and goats that God had to strike down the whole system? The curtain was torn from top to bottom because for any other sacrifice to be offered after the blood of Jesus had been sprinkled would have been blasphemy. Think about that!

We are not beggars, we are sons! We live in our father's kingdom, we carry out his word, his work, with authority. There is no power on earth that can stop us from victory! There is no power on earth that can keep us from our father and his love.

I'm putting up another song that I love. I love it because it doesn't say "will you come" it says "you will come". Now yes, he is already here, but he also promised to come! He said where two or three were gathered he'd be there, he also said "I will never leave you". So both are true, but in either case, there's no place for begging unless you are under the law and still a slave. But I am not!

Breaking Free From Fear, Control, Spiritual Abuse, Shame, and Guilt Manipulation

2009-01-06T13:17:00.005-05:00

I just wanted to post some links to a few resources for those who have come out of, are coming out of, or want to come out of legalistic control situations. The first and greatest resource is the true Gospel, the pure good news that Jesus came to bring. He himself declared that he did not come to condemn but to find and save the lost. He also declared that anyone who was heavy laden and weary could come to him for peace and rest, that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. If you are not living in the glorious freedom of this as a believer, than you have been listening to lies. No matter where the lies are coming from, the answer is to hear truth!

Any of the resources I recommend will be based on the fact that they unashamedly preach the good news. Here are some, which I'm sure I've recommended many times before:

Joseph Prince (New Creation Church Singapore)

Bertie Brits (Dynamic Love Ministries)

Rob Rufus (City Church International Hong Kong)

Steve McVey (Grace Walk)

I'm sure there are many others preaching the glorious good news as well, seek them out and allow God to restore your hearts and minds back to the truth of his loving goodness.

God is not and never will be angry with you ever again, any preacher who even hints otherwise (if you believe in Jesus for your salvation) is a liar perpetuating the agenda of demons. I don't mind stating things so clearly when I have Scripture that states things so clearly! (Isaiah 54) You will not be judged for any sin that Jesus has been judged for in your place, so stop letting arrogant men bully you into jumping through their hoops of godliness. Righteousness is a gift from God, and any true preaching of the Gospel will highlight that fact, not your sin.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

Romans 1:16-17

Do you see it? In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith for faith....not the sin of man is revealed, not from faith to works or obedience to the law. If anyone starts preaching another gospel then he is under a curse, and so are all who believe him. Basic Galatians here...

God wants to set you free from all curses and pour out his blessing on you, but you must believe that Jesus, Jesus alone, is enough for you and your sin, is enough for you and your righteousness. When we refuse to receive the righteousness of Jesus as a gift, we will be left to beating our flesh into submission and obedience. Our flesh will fail us every single time. If righteousness could be gained through obedience to the law, then Jesus died for nothing (Galatians again!).

So if you are not free, you are not sure of God's love for you, are not sure he's not ever angry with you, do not have an abundance of joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control etc... you can be sure the old serpent has unlawfully (1 Tim.) slithered back into your life to persuade you that you have not been born again into God's own image, that God has not given you every good thing in salvation, that you need to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Yeah, if you just have that knowledge what's right, what's wrong (thanks so much pastor for being willing to continually expound this for us) then we will be more like God, more godly. WAKE UP! THIS IS THE DEVIL'S OLDEST TRICK!!!

So people, come out into the glorious light of Jesus who loves you dearly! Hear the truth and believe it, it's not too good to be true, IT IS SO GOOD BECAUSE IT IS SO TRUE!!!! (thanks Rob! I think I really get it most days!)

( P.S. An easy place to start hearing the truth would be the grace stream channel posted right here on my blog...)

Dear Sovereign Grace Ministries, C.J. Mahaney, Dave Harvey, Joshua Harris (and all other SGM pastors and leaders...)

2009-01-05T21:01:00.008-05:00

I hate to do this. I know I run the risk of alienating people I love, of burning bridges I don't want to burn. You might think it ironic in light of my last post, but actually it is precisely because my last post is true that I am compelled to write this. I am torn! I am angry, but I am heartbroken. I am afraid, but I am fearless. Sometimes I almost understand, then I don't at all! I am so perplexed about you! Please please please just tell the truth and ask for forgiveness where there have been grave errors in judgement and sin against God's children. The world outside SGM will not be merciful when all those things begin to come to light, and they are already--time is short.

Noel's Story

A Call to Sovereign Grace Men

Phoenix Preacher

You are all in my prayers, leaders and families, members, and former members... And may the power of the one and only Gospel be revealed and proclaimed even in all of this.

"Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Romans 5:20-21

Remembering Old Friends...

2008-12-29T07:01:00.004-05:00

I haven't written very much, or at least not plainly, about our years spent in Sovereign Grace Ministries, mostly at Covenant Fellowship. But I guess we spent 7 or 8 years of our lives there, pretty intensely committed years actually. As a result, even though we left SGM behind more than 2 years ago, I still often find myself thinking and praying for many of the people and pastors we know from that time ( I would start listing off names but that would take a long time...). Not often do we actually get to see or talk to any of them though! I think this is in large part due to the fact that we now live in another country! But even before that, there seemed to be a painful separation that happened when we left, and though it was not all unnatural or unexpected it was still painful, difficult, and lonely.

Well, all water under the bridge as they say! The pain has passed and Jesus has brought us into joyful freedom such as we never dared dream could exist this side of heaven. But I still often remember many people very fondly and miss the amazing people we were privileged to get to know and serve beside. And I still pray for them all... So if you happen to be one of those people and you get to read this, then I hope you had a very merry Christmas and that the year 2009 will be a year of great joy, peace, and freedom. And may the unfading glory of the New Covenant light up your world with fresh revelations of who Jesus is! I also wanted to dedicate this song to you all with much love (including my newer SGM friends like you Janelle) because every time I listen to it I think of you all, besides, I just love it myself! Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys it, I think you will...

Rob Rufus on GraceStream TV

2008-12-27T07:00:00.003-05:00

More exciting news! Rob Rufus now has several preaching videos uploaded to Grace Stream TV. Just go to the on demand section to see what's available so far. I'm excited because some of them are of him in South Africa which I haven't heard before. Rob is definately one of those preachers who are fun to be able to see preaching so don't miss out...

Grace vs. Law

2008-12-18T10:10:00.003-05:00

This is a very cool video I found on youtube. It's so amazing to me that so many people worldwide are understanding the gospel like possibly no one has since Paul. The Spirit is truly doing an incredible work on the earth in our days! So exciting! This can only mean a huge gathering in of souls is about to take place, revivals of the past will look small compared to the deluge of glorious salvation God is pouring out right now on the whole world. As this message, the undiluted unashamed proclamation of the good news, goes out, we will see the power of God like never before. Many of us have already had a little taste...but there is much much more on the way, more of Jesus!

Great Preaching!!!

2008-12-16T15:20:00.002-05:00

I know I've already plugged Bertie Brits, but I'm watching the grace channel right now and it's AMAZING! You have to get listening, you will be so blessed and I promise you will experience God's love. He is preaching the true, one and only, GOSPEL!

And by the way, for those of you anywhere near Moncton (or not), we just found out that Bertie will be coming here in early March. Stay tuned for more details! I'm am SO excited! God's plans are so much bigger and better than ours...not to mention he gets things done much quicker than we ever dream!

Grace Stream TV--Bertie Brits New Internet Channel with 24/7 FREE GRACE PREACHING!!!

2008-12-08T08:52:00.004-05:00

I think this is pretty exciting news! Bertie has had this channel in the works for some time now, I'm not sure how long, but I know a lot of work went into this. This is going to be an AMAZING resource for people worldwide who need to hear the gospel of grace. I love that it's absolutely free and I love that it will be bringing us grace preachers from all over the world, some we're familiar with and, I assume, some we're not yet familiar with.

The channel is still under construction and I think Bertie plans to have it completely ready by February '09. I've embedded the channel on my sidebar and I encourage all of you to check it out and if you like it, put it up on your blogs too. It can also be embedded on facebook. Anyway, to see it, look on this page to your right or click on Grace Stream TV.

Oh yeah, my brilliant husband fixed our computer! Thankfully it was nothing serious or expensive!

The Reason For Being So Quiet...

2008-12-05T07:30:00.002-05:00

Well, Aaron and I just got back from a flying trip to Delaware for his grandmother's funeral. Our computer has been broken for about a week now, so I don't know when I'll be able to get computer time. Just wanted everyone to know and not be offended if I'm not answering comments or email.

The time with Aaron's family went well and we had a good time seeing everyone despite the sad moments. God was faithful to manifest his presence and we were able to bring encouragement, love, and lots of hugs. We even got to lay hands on one of his cousins for healing, he broke his back a few months ago and still suffers from nerve damage and pain but he's walking with cane and is recovering beyond expectation. So everybody pray for Bil (who is not a Christian) , especially that God would reveal himself to him in many clear ways!

Well, I'm in a hurry so I have to get going! I hope everyone is enjoying the weeks leading up to the holidays!

"I See Grace" from New Creation Church Singapore

2008-11-25T15:06:00.001-05:00

OK, I just stumbled across this on youtube, but you gotta love it!

Grace: But Shouldn't We Work Out Our Salvation With Fear and Trembling? (part 1)

2008-11-24T09:05:00.005-05:00

I don't know about you, but I've had this snippet of Philippians 2:12-13 thrown at me a fair amount. It happens in response to the gospel, you know, the entirely good news of eternal righteousness (right standing with God) that is not conditional on man's performance/obedience but is solely conditional on faith in Jesus' perfect and finished performance/obedience. Often when we bring grace into a conversation, we get an immediate response that begins with 'BUT', and believe me, I've contributed my share of 'buts' and still do on occasion! Some of the passages I want to deal with are ones that were big 'but' passages for me on my journey into grace, a few that I want to deal with I don't at the moment understand well myself; all the more reason to tackle them with my excellent and ambitious Teacher.

So, in this post I want to talk about about a particular 'BUT' passage that people have used to try and bring balance to the gospel. Why oh why do we seem to need a little bad news make the good news more believable??? Anyway, here are the verses:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

(ESV Philippians 2:12-13)

As you may have noticed, I emphasized the words "work" and "fear" in the title of this post. That's because these are the two words that I've generally heard emphasized when hearing these verses taught or preached on. I suppose I must have heard quite a few preachers bring them up over my years growing up in the church (3 mandatory services a week as well as special events like conferences and church camp) and then as an adult in various churches/church events and books or recorded preaching. And like I said, it's come up in conversation as well...

I have a few different issues to talk about, but I guess I'll start with the words themselves. For the word 'work out' (in the Greek this is one word) I'm not going to get into the Greek meaning since I think that this is a fairly reasonable translation. I don't want to get too complicated so I decided to try to understand what 'work out' means exactly in the context of Scripture and the New Covenant. There is definitely a connotation in the Greek of us doing some work, and if you read the verses in it's larger context Paul describes what working out our salvation may look like. Here are the next few verses:

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (ESV Philippians 2:14-16)

I think my first reaction to the idea of working is a sort of panic or fear. I easily can feel that this is in opposition to grace, to the gospel. And there is a kind of work that is in complete opposition to grace, these are called 'dead works' (Hebrews 9:14) But there are questions that can help differentiate between dead works and the good works that characterize a believer's life: What is the source of the work? And, what is the purpose of the work?

Dead works (mentioned in Hebrews) are produced when a person in their flesh (the source of the work) tries to attain righteousness (the purpose of the work)by obedience to any law or rule (as the Jews had done since receiving the Law of Moses). This is seen clearly in Romans 4:1-5 (ESV):

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin."

And also in Romans 9:30-32:

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone."

These passages clearly show that work that originates in the flesh in response to the Law in order to achieve righteousness or justification will not be able to attain justification before God. (And in Galatians 3 we can see that righteousness similarily cannot be maintained through works of the law.)

But it is clear in Philippians and elsewhere that we as believers do work! It is very interesting to see, however, that these good works that our lives demonstrate are always mentioned in a context of grace! That because the source of true good works is Jesus (grace!) and his power that has been given to us as his brothers, beloved sons of God. This is seen right in the passage we've been looking at.

"...work out your salvation with fear and trembling..." is immediately followed by "...for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work his good pleasure."

Can't we see that God is the source, the one who is constantly energizing our work, who is ever the power that is transforming us and causing us to work out, or live out, our salvation? He wants us to experience the fullness of the provision he has made for us in salvation. And (if you read the next verses) he wants the whole world to see our salvation being worked out so that they are drawn to our light...Jesus!

And that is the purpose of our works under the New Covenant, that men would see our good works and be drawn to the source of the power that has enabled us to live in freedom, not the slavery of Law and sin that so darkens and defeats the rest of the world. The purpose is not to attain or maintain holiness or righteousness because these works are fruits of the righteousness that is found in Christ, who has been given as a free gift to any who would receive him through faith by grace.

Here are a few more verses that help us to see the that the source of true good works is grace (as opposed to being dependent on our self, guilt, fear, or righteousness motivated efforts):

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (ESV Ephesian 2:8-10)

We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. (ESV Colossians 1:28-29)

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (ESV 1 Corinthians 15:10)

To me it is very clear that when we preach grace there is no 'but'. The good works that will lead people to see the Jesus of the Gospel in our lives are an effect of grace, not separate or contrary or even in tension with the true Gospel. They are the natural out-working of the resurrection life of Jesus that has made our spirits alive and also bring life to our natural bodies (Galatians 2:20)so that we can continue to bear the fruit of the Spirit in this earth and so attract more people to our glorious loving God.

So to sum up, to work out our salvation does not mean that Jesus' work is not completely finished, that we must add our work to his work since "... he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6) But to work out our salvation simply means to cooperate with God in the freedom of our sonship as he works in us, as he gives us the desire and the power to manifest the fullness his life and salvation as a light for the whole world to see. And this kind of work proceeds from faith (and needs no coercion, guilt/fear manipulation), it now being our desire to do good because we are good, through being restored to our original design (in God's own image!) when we entered into the new covenant.

I hope this is helpful and actually makes some sense to those who have begun receiving revelation of God's glorious new covenant of grace! Please feel free to ask questions or add your thoughts in the comments. There was a lot more I could have written, but I tried to keep it somewhat short and simple (don't know if I managed this though). I've decided to talk about the 'fear' part, which is fairly straight forward, in a separate post coming up soon.

Understanding Difficult and Confusing Passages of the Bible...

2008-11-22T09:49:00.003-05:00

A while back, o.k., a long while back I said I wanted to tackle some of those tricky Bible passages that seem to contradict the grace message. Overall, I've seen that these Scriptures do NOT contradict the true gospel (surprise surprise!) but only the way they have been taught by men and women who do not have revelation of the New Covenant and therefore wrongly divide the word according to their own lack of understanding. I will freely confess to you all that I am no Bible scholar, so I'm relying on the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to me , to reveal Jesus, through the black and white words on the pages of my Bible.

Also, I'll be using some basic study tools to help me understand the original Greek which will allow us to examine the verses beyond the inevitable slant of perception that will come through the translators of whatever English Bible we use. And very importantly, I'll be paying close attention to the context of these difficult passages, taking into account who the words were specifically written by and for, as well as the cultural context of the recipients of the words which were either in the form of a letter or historical account. As well, I want to let Scripture interpret Scripture where possible remembering that God will not contradict himself because he cannot lie.

All that being said, I'm hoping that people more (or less hehe) knowledgeable than me will chime in with their perspectives to help along this whole process. I don't feel I'm the most qualified in terms of worldly wisdom, knowledge, or intellect but I'm not sure this matters! I think it's time that more of us 'gracers' tackle some of these verses head on since they will be used more and more against us as weapons to try and cut down the gospel and the power of our faith in Jesus. It's time to get prepared so that these attacks of flaming arrows fall flat and powerless as being continually extinguished by our shields of faith.

So stay tuned! The first passage I plan on tackling is from Philippians 2 "...work out your salvation in fear and trembling..."

If you have any requests, just let me know in the comment section and I'll try to deal with it at some point.

New Covenant Grace Church, new link

2008-11-13T10:11:00.002-05:00

I've finally just set up, I think for real this time, a website for our church. It's just a blog and it's not finished or anything but at least I'll fix the long broken link on my side bar! We weren't able to figure out how to keep paying for the website we set up as it was linked to a U.S. account and we're now in Canada. Anyway, here's the link:

New Covenent Grace Church

Changing People

2008-10-21T10:40:00.004-04:00

I don't know if I put the right title for this post, but it's the best I could come up with. It seems lately that many of my grace friends have been coming under attack lately, having people close to them bring serious accusation and condemnation. Well, I guess I decided to join in! Well, not really...but I'm getting a small taste here and there. Honestly, it's been good for me and I hope it will be even better for my friends, since their attacks have been more brutal I can only imagine God will step up with an even more amazing demonstration of the grace and blessing they already believe in!

It seems that when people come to us with accusation, it is often a thinly cloaked attempt to change or conform us to their idea or standard of who and what we should be. They hold us up to themselves and/or other ideals they have invented as 'godly' and see us as fallen short. They are not happy with our performance or even our whole personality and therefore they come to us demanding us to change. They come assuming they know us, what we truly think and feel; they come presuming they can control us by humbling us (or perhaps more accurately, humiliating us) through judgements they pronounce on us. Often all this is very subtle, and most often it is a reflection of how these people live from day to day, under constant condemnation and fear of failure. They are not happy people, but insecure and beaten down. They are trying to change the people around them so they can feel better about their own lives.

My unbelieving response to this kind of pressure to change through guilt manipulation would be to try to defend myself against accusation, trying to justify myself even by repenting and confessing sin to the human accuser, apologizing for something that may not even be wrong. But the way I respond to accusation is changing, because the more I realize I AM JUSTIFIED ALREADY, the less power condemnation holds over me. I still struggle at times with people trying to put guilt on me, especially when those people are very close to me (such as husband or parent...) but God's grace is changing me.

This change is coming by a deep trust in God's love for me, that when I hear accusation I KNOW it is not from him. Immediately when accusation comes, the first thing I feel is God's love, his manifest presence, his voice speaking to me that he loves me just the way I am. He loves everything about my personality, my weaknesses do not concern him. I can trust that his grace IS changing me and I can live in rest and joy knowing that it's his timeline, his seed will grow and grow because it is supernaturally powerful to overcome all hindrances that may come. This amazing security I have in my Father and his love for me is producing fruit! I am able to handle accusation, even closely examine it without being angry with the person bringing it. Without bitterness, resentment, or fear or doubt!

My ideas about how to change people are changing. The more I understand that it is God's love changing me on his schedule, the more I have patience and love for my brothers and sisters who are also on God's schedule. There is only one thing we do to change people, or ourselves: sow grace. I recently listened to Rob preaching on the parable of the sower (which was excellent by the way!) so I've been thinking about it a lot.

"But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Matthew 13:23

Before we can sow the word of grace, we have to receive it, hear it and understand it. We have to let it stay in the soil of our hearts until it grows, not giving up when it doesn't yield a crop on the first day, or second, or third...being patient and trusting the power of the seed that God has planted in us.

I think the best way to deal with accusation is to boldly and unashamedly stand in the gift of righteousness before our accusers, understanding that ALL accusation ultimately comes from Satan and never our father in heaven. We can allow our shield of faith to quench every fiery dart and our temptation to pick up the same demonic weapons of condemnation and accusation will be overcome as we realize God has already fully equipped us to stand firm against these attacks. God has accused Jesus of ALL our sin (yes, past, present, and future), has completely punished it in his body, and given us perfect righteousness as a gift because we have believed in Jesus. He will never never accuse us of sin or faults. The more we understand this, the more accusation becomes irrelevant. God changes us by his loving presence, by speaking the truths of the gospel to us over and over in fresh ways.

So when accusation comes, I can peacefully recognize that someone is merely regarding me according to the flesh and not according to faith and I don't need to panic or hang my head in shame. I bring the accusation to my Father, and he says 'That's a LIE, I have declared you RIGHTEOUS!!!" I am free to be who I am because I am in Christ! And now that I am free, I can joyfully allow others to also be free without feeling I need to be changing them either. Changing people, either ourselves or anyone else, is not our job. We sow the seeds of grace that come from Jesus, and he makes the seeds grow!

Some more resources for overcoming condemnation:

Victory Over Condemnation (Rob Rufus)

City Church International message archives

Dynamic Love Ministries (Bertie Brits)

Joseph Prince Ministries

Better than Eden

2008-10-10T08:29:00.007-04:00

But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;
there they dealt faithlessly with me.
Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with blood.
As robbers lie in wait for a man,
so the priests band together;
they murder on the way to Shechem;
they commit villainy.
In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
Ephraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.
Hosea 6:7-10

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:15-17

Lately I've been thinking a lot about Adam, I mean the first Adam. I've often wondered why God gave the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Or more accurately, I've wondered why he put the tree there in the first place knowing that Adam would disobey one day. Now when I want to know something, I ask God! At one time, I would have just ignored my questions and told myself there are some things I can't know, but now I feel free to ask any question I want assuming that God will reveal answers to me at some point.

I think I may be starting to understand the 'why' of giving one command. I think it was a test of faith. Without a command, Adam would have been in relationship with God more out of necessity or ignorance, it would not have been rooted in faith. But by giving the one command, God wove a trust factor into the fabric of his fellowship with man. Because of the command, Adam could only remain in unbroken intimacy with God as long as he believed in God's honesty, love, and goodness. There was a covenant between Adam and God that depended on Adam believing God. As we all know, Adam broke this covenant and as the representative of mankind he broke it on our behalf as well.

Since that time, God has always desired a restoration of the relationship with man, a relationship where he would be loved for who he truly is, where he would be believed in. He desired a new kind of covenant that would be unbreakable, but Israel was always asking for covenants they arrogantly thought they could keep...they had no desire for an unbreakable covenant that would never make use of their self-righteous efforts. But peppered throughout the history of God's people there are those who stand out as highly favored of God, men and women who simply heard God's voice and believed him. Men and women like Abraham , Moses, Deborah, Esther, David, Daniel...they even received revelation by foreshadow of a different kind of covenant and put their hope in the mercy of God.

In Abraham's life we see some of the most amazing foreshadowings of both the old and new covenant. He entered into a covenant with God that he did not ratify himself, but was ratified on his behalf by God (Genesis 15) which is a picture of the way the new covenant would be ratified. Also, in the story of bringing Isaac to be sacrificed in obedience to God's command, we see an amazing picture of the redemption that would come through Jesus and his sacrifice. Abraham even believed that Isaac would have been resurrected from the dead!

In the covenant of circumcision (Genesis 17), is a foreshadowing of the covenant God would make with Israel when he gave the law to them through Moses. Circumcision would later be commanded in the Law (Leviticus 12:2) but it becomes clear in Galatians that circumcision is no longer necessary in the new covenant.

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart."
Jeremiah 9:25-26

I believe God is speaking loud and clear in all of this:

"YOU WILL NEVER BE SAVED THROUGH YOUR OWN FLESH, YOUR OWN EFFORTS!!!!!
TRUST IN ME!!!!!!!"

So I say all that to say this: we have it better than Adam and Eve. I know they were created without sin, perfect. But only one sin ruined it all for everyone. But in the new covenant we are born again into the perfection of Jesus Christ who will never never ever sin! We can never fall from the high place where we've been seated with Jesus! We enter in by faith, but even if we sin we will not be cast out.

There would be no need to cast us out, we have already eaten from the Tree of Life!

So stop dreaming of Eden and the good old days haha, we have it so much better now!

East to West....and Mixed Messages...

2008-10-02T13:10:00.004-04:00

I love love love this song. I first heard it on a Christian radio station, I very rarely even listen to Christian radio because I hate to hear all the mixed messages. Gods loves you, so do better, try harder, worship more you ungrateful worm! Of course there are wonderful exceptions to this. And this song, I cry every time I hear it.

I think it just sings out what so many Christians feel like, tossed about in a confusing storm, feeling that their lives are a sham. Feeling that they aren't who they say they are, or else where is the peace and joy they know Jesus promised? They don't realize that though they know the truth about Jesus' sacrifice, his love, his finished work, and the free gift of righteousness, they've been fed so many contradicting lies through so many 'christian' sources that believing these truths seems like a never-ending uphill battle.

They think the problem is inside of themselves, something to be ashamed of and they feel guilty. I'm saying 'they', but I can so easily remember living like this. It was a terrible way to live. If only God's children could stop accepting mixed messages from the church world at large! If only we would become militant about rejecting books, music, teaching, preaching...anything that reeks of the lies our enemy has devised to keeps us bound up in sin, fear, guilt, condemnation, confusion, and powerlessness. It's time to demand the TRUTH!

Chapter 1 "The Impossible Weight of the Law"

2008-10-01T10:29:00.006-04:00

Here is my second very rough installment of the book I'm working on, the first chapter...I've put a tentative title of "The Impossible Weight of the Law" to it...

I met Aaron during my first year of Bible College and we were married a little less than a year later. We entered into marriage not knowing much more than that divorce was not allowed! The first few years were pretty rough, full of fighting and dramatic displays of a wide range of emotions (especially on my part). From the beginning, self-righteousness and condemnation played a big part in our relationship. Whoever was the most 'spiritual' at any given time--that is, whoever was doing the best at keeping the rules of Christianity (Bible reading, prayer, etc..)-- usually won the battle of control for the moment.

During this time God miraculously placed a man in our path who began sending us tapes of himself preaching about grace. We had been driving through Fundy National Park (near our home at the time in Sussex, NB Canada), when I saw a car with a Delaware (U.S.) license plate and told Aaron to pull over . I thought he should stop and say 'hi' since he was from Delaware and it was quite unusual to meet anyone from there this far north! Of course, they turned out to be Christians, Hallelujah- Praise-the-Lord-charismatics to be exact. They had never been to Canada before and were driving up the east coast praying and taking the land for Jesus and had several testimonies of the people they'd met along the way. They laid hands on us and prayed for us, very excited to meet fellow believers and it was obviously a divine appointment. The tapes he sent us were my first exposure to teaching on grace and over the next few years God went to great lengths to start laying a framework for grace in my life. This was my first exposure to teaching on grace, my first taste of freedom!

When Aaron graduated we moved to a 'city' nearby where he was an assistant pastor. It was a church in the legalistic denomination I had grown up in and due to some unbiblical membership requirements I wouldn't join the church formally. All that year God continued to reveal grace, and it was an exciting time in many ways.

We met some people from Church of Christ the King in Brighton UK, a Newfrontiers church and God used them to tear down all our ideas of what church should or could look like, as well as challenge our ideas of who God really was. God used one of these men to speak to Aaron that we should leave the denomination we were with--I was so thankful! We were tasting a little more freedom, and I entered into an amazing time of feeling so alive in the Spirit and had some great life changing experiences in God's manifest presence.

After leaving the denomination and the professional 'ministry' behind, we ended up about 7 months later (through a somewhat complicated series of events) living in Delaware again. We desperately searched for a church but could not find anything that resembled what we felt God was calling us to. Finally we phoned some friends in the UK and asked if they could help us find a church. They gave us some information and we tracked down a church about 1 1/2 hours away from where we were living.

We visited the church we found the next Sunday and loved it. We finally felt at home, even singing some worship songs we knew. And they emphasized grace! We spent the next eight or so years with this group of churches, meeting many wonderful people, and for the first few years I could not find a single fault with our church. I loved the people, the pastors, the leader of the group, and anyone else they introduced to us. Aaron and I were completely in awe of the leaders and felt so thankful to be there. We would have defended any one of them vehemently against the slightest criticism, and many times we did.

We were accepted immediately, and our dreams of church planting in Canada were encouraged. We began ascending the ladder to leadership , passing through training and serving in any way we could. They had a very strict and narrow view on many things, but we wholeheartedly threw ourselves into the teachings and embraced everything. Looking back we easily recognize how legalistic the teaching and structure was, despite teaching some truths of the gospel very well and even often using the word 'grace'.

They (and we) believed themselves to be gospel and cross centered, but they were actually sin, man, and law centered. Guilt was the measure of your humility, and we soon became enchanted with their brand of puritanistic morbid introspection. We were always trying to hunt down sin and stir our flesh up to better works.

Our lives became consumed with trying to be holy, trying to live up to all the standards and principles we were being taught. Teaching and preaching always consisted of detailed instruction of how to identify sin and then detailed instruction on how to change our behaviour and thoughts.

Slowly we began to be sucked into a swirling vortex of conformity as we relentlessly tried to smother everything in ourselves that didn't fit the mold set before us. Aaron worked to conform to 'biblical manhood' and I tried to conform to 'biblical womanhood'.

The man that God supposedly called Aaron to be would be a strong leader who laid down the rules in our home. These rules for being a 'biblical man' were learned through the diligent teaching of our pastors and included things like:

-making sure your wife and children were joyfully submissive to your headship

-reading the Bible everyday (preferably early in the morning)

-prayer (lists are good)

-reading any assigned or recommended books

-serving in the church by committing to a specific ministry team

-tithing and sacrificial giving

-working hard both in a career and at home with little rest

-disciplining (spanking) his children every time they did not obey 'immediately and joyfully'

-being intentionally romantic (however that works!)including regular date nights and sex

-confessing sin often and freely

-correcting sin in your wife (and children) regularly

-helping your wife to organize her duties and make sure she's not wasting any time

-not rescuing your wife when she's overwhelmed (i.e. if you're a biblical man you will have taught your wife to be able to handle all her duties well without ever needing your help)

-teach your wife and children doctrine

-do not lust do not lust do not lust!

I think there were even more rules for the women. These rules came from the pulpit, women's meetings, and recommended books...as well as anything your husband could dream up for you--his word was your command! Here is a sampling of what I believed God required from me as a woman:

-have many children

-homeschool my children

-discipline (spank) my children every time they did not obey 'immediately and joyfully' expecially focusing on the areas my husband wanted me to

-read my Bible everyday, along with any other recommended or assigned reading

-confess my sins regularly to others, especially to my husband

-keep my house clean, according to my husband's preferences

-cook meals

-be organized (detailed schedules, very good) "God is a God of order"

-dress modestly adhering to a detailed list (yes, really)so as not to be responsible for any man's lust

-serve in the church as needed, as well as 'releasing' my husband to serve

-submit to ( or obey) my husband in everything

-never deny my husband sex for any reason (except prayer by mutual consent of course), be very good at it, enjoy it (not sure how you can mandate this!), and be sure to initiate it

-do not rest or eat unless you can get everything else on this list (or anything else your dear husband can dream of) done

If we failed in any of these things, we were in sin, and these lists are not exhaustive by any means. We regularly received teaching on just about any sin you can imagine. Worldliness, pride, gluttony, vanity, immodesty, selfish ambition, insubordination to leaders, slander and gossip (especially against pastors), grumbling and complaining, sloth, discontent, lust, coveting, idolatry, anger, fear of man, and on and on and on. All this we took to heart, and the more we did the more condemnation we lived under.

Day to day life was such a struggle! In the midst of being pregnant (and being very sick while pregnant each time), having babies and trying to do and be everything I was being taught, joy and laughter vanished. Our marriage took on an eery coldness and distance as we became preoccupied with implementing everything we were being taught. We were ever trying to say and do the 'right' thing and eventually lost sight of the real things! We talked about the things we were supposed to talk about, we had sex as often as we felt was enough, we confessed sin to each other and tried to help each other strategize stop sinning, we fought whenever my internal alarms started going off. I knew something was wrong in our marriage, I wasn't satisfied, but I attributed my dissatisfaction to one or both of us not living up to the standards! Or we would look for a new command to follow, something we must have missed somehow, putting all our hope in the one thing we hadn't done yet.

We would fight and accuse and condemn and manipulate to try to motivate each other to do better, but in the end neither of us won these battles. The harder we tried to follow the rules, the more we failed. Over time, we rarely if ever experienced God's loving presence either in church or anywhere else, and every blessing we'd been given--ministry, marriage, children--felt like impossibly heavy loads. We were just trying to survive and we constantly felt weary and overwhelmed. We were living in the wrong part of Galatians!

"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these." (Galatians 5:19-21)

Between the two of us, we had most of these sins covered--the harder we worked the more sin we produced! We could not produce, by working in the flesh, the fruits of the Spirit we were being told was our responsibility to 'grow' in. But we were also being taught that we should expect the results we were getting because we were still utterly sinful in every way, that the deepest core of our being was riddled with indwelling sin. The 'good news' of the gospel was that we could go back to the cross every day and beg for a little more mercy to forgive our latest failure, then start over with a clean slate trying to obey God again, trying to maintain our newly clean conscience. It isn't any wonder we were miserable, confused, depressed, and feeling distant from God.

But deep inside of us, put there by God himself, there was a longing for freedom, a longing to walk with God without fear or shame. And God never puts desires in us that he doesn't intend to fulfill! Though we thought freedom and right standing (righteousness) with Him could be won or maintained through obedience to the new-fangled law of the church world, God began to show us that freedom is only ever and always found in Jesus himself, that all our hope and faith is to be put in Him alone. He is the end of the law for all who believe.

Newsies Prophetic?

2008-09-30T12:29:00.004-04:00

I was sitting down to the piano to pick out some Newsies songs from a Disney musical I've always loved. I recently came across my old piano book for the soundtrack while unpacking another box. Call me crazy, but I started to get emotional as my spirit resonated with the themes of warring for freedom, of never giving up, of uniting together to stand for justice. God has been preaching the good news to us by every means possible since the dawn of creation and before. Throughout history, the story of redemption is repeated over and over in the course of natural events, clearly pointing to the truths of the kingdom of heaven!

If you've never seen Newsies, try tracking it down. It's a classic the whole family will love.

The Violent Love of God...(why it's not a good idea to get between God and his children...)

2008-09-29T08:48:00.002-04:00

I used a phrase a couple posts back that called God's love violent. I've since been thinking about that...a couple things came to mind. One was how mothers (and sometimes fathers) in nature viciously and fearlessly protect their young from harm. Another was this verse:

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

Nothing can separate us from God's love because he won't let anything come between us anymore! No matter who or what comes into our lives to threaten us or cut us off from God and his love, it won't be allowed. Our Father will rescue us every time, Jesus is our hero!

The Offensive Gospel...Clarification

2008-09-29T08:09:00.001-04:00

Yes, I'm aiming to preach a gospel that is so authentic that it is extremely offensive...

Do Not Yield

2008-09-29T07:13:00.004-04:00

"Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me...

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

Galatians 2:4-6, 11-14

I think there must be many secret societies going on behind closed doors of the church world. I can't understand why whole christian organizations get away with murder, while the people in other similar organizations smile and say "I think they're real nice". Preaching law is akin to spiritual murder. (*2 Cor. 3:6-8

Paul did not privately address a few false teachers (Galatians, he even publicly rebuked Peter! ch.2) with his concerns, he wrote very public letters, showing his anger very publicly, in fact, one might say he ranted and raved when it came to wolves trying to put God's children back under bondage and slavery. He actually pronounced a double curse on anyone who preached any other gospel but the one he preached (*Galatians 1:8-9). This should stop many preachers in their tracks, they should be trembling in fear, but instead they are swaggering drunk with conceit.

I'm tired of the so-called leaders of the church (I'm talking church universal) patting each other on the back, telling each other jokes, and writing up impressive intoductions to each others books all the while one or the other is teaching demonic lies that are destroying the people who follow them. These men are worse than dogs and mutilators of the flesh (*Phil. 3:2-4), they are mutilating souls.

I'm not one of those people who likes to be a watch dog, you know, going around barking about this person in error or that one. I don't think I'm nitpicky, but come on, can't we examine the fruits (or more accurately works) of a ministry and be honest? This peace at any cost idea, love means never telling the truth about the 'important' men of the church, this butter-my-bread-and-I'll-butter-yours doctrine is ridiculous. It's a ring of fear, each man fearing for his own name and reputation, not caring what God thinks of it all but choosing to be ashamed of the Gospel for the sake of his standing among the respectable religious of the 'church'. This makes me sick, really. And angry, angry for the souls of all those who pour out their lives, their families' lives, their wallets, and their hearts to these cowards, thinking that they are God's ambassadors on this earth. They are not. (And I can honestly tell you and I'm not thinking of any particualar ministry here, but more of a jumbled mess of things I've seen everywhere over my life growing up in the church world in general.)

But we are! Every one of us who put our faith in Jesus and his good news. We are not ambassadors who never make a mistake, but we are ambassadors who are not ashamed of the gospel once we have received revelation from heaven of who Jesus really is! And some of the men I'm talking about will live to receive the same revelation, just as Paul did. He was a persecuter of those who in the eyes of the law and religion were crazy fools, but in the moment of the thunderous voice of God and a flash of brilliant light everything changed! So it was for all of us who have received grace and mercy and know we are dearly loved of our Father.

I don't know why, but I feel very compelled lately to speak, or should I say write, very strongly against legalism in the church. At the bottom of it is the violent love of God for his people! I feel his love as I write, I read Galatians and my heart is breaking, tears are welling up in my eyes! God's people have turned away from his glorious grace, from the unsurpassed sacrifice of his only beautiful Son, and gone back to law as a dog returns to it's vomit. It's time to cast out the maid servant's son and stop allowing the legalists to bully the children of freedom!

Let's grow up in grace and stand strong and proud of Jesus! We must never yeild or submit in the face of even the most vicious attacks from those who have fallen from grace, but it is imperative that we preserve the truth of the gospel in these last days. It is not love to watch a brother veer from the truth of the gospel without speaking out, it is hate.

Even as I write this, I'm unsure of what it means for me. I have been careful to avoid publicly criticising people or ministries by name (on this blog, but have sometimes been more specific elsewhere) because of their serious and destructive false doctrines . At this point, I will continue to address the false doctrines without 'naming names'(on here), but perhaps the fear of naming names is not coming from the Holy Spirit. There are names that are named in Scripture, recorded for all time as falling prey to error! I think we have lost boldness and power, not because we love so much, though we like to think of this as the reason, but because we care very much what men think of us or how they might try to slander or persecute us in retaliation! I'm just not sure we can stand for grace without also standing against legalism...it's time to let our "yes" be "YES" and our "no" be "NO"!!!

* 2 Cor. 3:6-8 "He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?"

* Galatians 1:8-9 "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

*Philippians 3:2-4 "Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence."

Spiritual Bulimia

2008-09-26T13:42:00.003-04:00

There are those who, as they listen to the good news of Jesus, nod their heads and smilingly agree with everything. They say they love grace! They might even get tears in their eyes when telling of God's amazing mercies, of his salvation available to anyone who believes in his Son and his finished work on the cross. Yep, they might even be able to powerfully preach the whole truth of the Gospel, passionately expounding on the wonders of justification through grace alone, by faith alone. They will tell you that salvation is a free gift from God, that no man should boast.

And at the end of this feast of truth, this love feast of the body and blood of Jesus, they will stick their pointy finger of law down your throat and you will lose every benefit of what you just ate.

For health reasons, I recommend you avoid such teaching...

"For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."
Galatians 2:18-21

Please do not receive anything that nullifies the grace of God, no matter how much you may love and respect the person serving up law, and no matter how much 'grace' they may mix in with it. It can only make a mockery of Jesus' sacrifice and make you very sick.

God, God, lift the veils from our faces! We choose Jesus, and forever forsake the folly of self-righteousness! Open our eyes to you! We want nothing to do anymore with the lies of religion, lies that say we can accomplish anything for you, but we receive all that you have accomplished for us. We rise up into our new life, our new marriage, with our new Husband and we rejoice in your love! The old is gone and the new has come! Forgetting what is behind, we press on toward the goal, finding strength keeps coming to us when we know we should be tired. We have the high of all runners' highs, because we run with your everlasting everfilling power gushing into us and out of us. When our minds and bodies get tired, we rest with no fear of falling behind or missing a blessing, and you refresh us with your love. You, you are our greatest blessing and you promised to never leave us, never be angry with us, never fail us or stop loving us. In you I have everything I ever dreamed of, in me I have everything my heart desires; YOU.

Does Grace Come Through Anything We Do?

2008-09-25T17:36:00.004-04:00

Now, since I framed my question in such a way to make answering the question easy (I think), I'll put a few twists in to show you why I asked it. In case you're feeling a little slow today, the answer is "NO, grace does not come through anything we do".

Sometimes I'll be innocently, ok, not innocently, reading through a blog and something small will jump out at me and I have to respond. In this case, I was reading a post about having family worship, certainly an idea I'm not opposed to at all. But this little sentence came out:

"I've enjoyed seeing the grace that God has poured out on my own family through doing this and I know He desires to pour that same grace on other families."

{incidently, can anyone tell me if I need to source this quote? I didn't want to draw negative attention to that blog if it wasn't necessary...}

Right away, I knew it was wrong. Of course, I've heard lots of teaching on 'means of grace' or similar ideas. The general idea is that through reading the Bible, through prayer, through fellowship, through church, through meditation, through fasting, or through any other conceivable discipline or action on our part, God gives us grace. One small problem: this concept doesn't exist in the New Covenant (hint: the new covenant is the better covenant).

This kind of 'grace', the kind that God pours out in response to something we do, is not unmerited, and therefore, is not grace at all. It is wages, it is something we earn at least in part. It is similar to the Old Covenant formula of 'obey = blessing'.

Don't believe me? Check out Bible Gateway and see what a search on "grace through" brings up.

And from his fullness we have all received,grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
John 1:16-17

Grace comes only ever through Jesus and his work.

But didn't we already know that?

Jesus and Me

2008-09-25T13:13:00.007-04:00

Here's another pretty significant change I've been noticing lately in my life...

Since I've been very young I've always talked to God, I was a very shy child and I considered him my best friend. I had a perpetual conversation going on with him most of the time, I still do! But the older I got, the more I avoided reading the Gospels and missed out on getting to know God the Son, Jesus.

You see, under law, the Gospels are very discouraging and frightening to read! Jesus actually takes the typical human understanding of God's law and raises the bar incredibly and impossibly higher. I had always been taught that we were to follow Jesus' example of perfect obedience to the law, or a modified 'new covenant' version of the law that did away with the ceremonial parts but clung to the ten commandments merged with other so-called New Testament commands. But the good news, I was told, was that as a believer I now have the Holy Spirit who will empower me to obey this 'new covenant' law. If (or much more accurately when) I happened to break one of these commandments or another commandment of Jesus (or other NT writer), then I could repent *AGAIN*, confess my sin to God *AGAIN*, and be washed clean *AGAIN*, and start over with a fresh slate, all with the 'help' of the Holy Spirit.

There is a fatal error in this kind of teaching. God does not replace Old Covenant law with New Covenant law, he replaces law, an inanimate mediator, with a living mediator. We now live by faith in Jesus and a perpetual intimate communion with him by his Spirit in us. Nothing can ever separate us from him again!!!

Here is an extended quote of Joseph Prince preaching at Hillsong conference "Grace and Favour" ( if you can get a hold of these messages, they are great! you miss out reading him when hearing him is so much better!) , how we respond immediately after sinning is crucial:

"That's the point where the rubber meets the road. What do you do then? That the time when the devil comes to you and says: " You call yourself a believer? Look what you just did!" He's the accuser of the brethern. And that's the time you must recieve the gift of righteousness and the abundance of unearned undeserved favour all over again. Hallelujah! That's the time to say "I am the righteousness of God apart from my performance. And I tell you this, I've done it--you will rise above your anger. Hallelujah! Effortlessly, amen! You have not lost your righteousness, you cannot lose it! You see, the blood of bulls and goats in the Old Testament gave the people temporal forgiveness. The blood of the Son of God, the eternal blood of the Son of God, gives us eternal forgiveness!!! We are forgiven of our entire life of sin. Amen. You know for many years I was under the impression I only had my past sins forgiven, until I read in the Bible, the Bible says "in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness" --we have it!-- "the forgiveness of sins"--watch this now--"according to the riches of his grace..." Not according to the poverty of my repentance, not according to the poverty of my confession, I cannot remember all that I did. But according to the riches of his grace! The day you can measure the riches of his grace, that's the day you'll know how much you've been forgiven! We have forgiveness of sins, we're not trying to get it, we have it. It was given to us at a great cost, the blood of Jesus Christ was shed. Without the shedding of blood their is no forgiveness, amen church?"....

"The prophecy of Daniel says Jesus would come to bring in everlasting righteousness. If you sin and you lose your righteousness and you have to be re-righteous, it was not permanent, it was not eternal. Even the Jews under the blood of bulls and goats have it better, at least they are made righteous or they are forgiven for one year. For us believers under the New Covenant, we are hardly forgiven completely for one day! Something is really wrong. We are dishonoring the blood of Jesus, bringing it lower than the blood of bulls and goats. If the blood of bulls and goats gives temporal redemption, temporal forgiveness, the blood of Jesus Christ gives you eternal forgiveness. Amen."

I love that! The blood of Jesus is more than enough for me and all my sin. And my sin has been taken care of once for all! Jesus did not come to condemn me but to save me, not to lay heavy burdens of law on me, but to fulfill the law and cancel the codes that stood against me, the letter that was killing me. He came to give me rest and fill me with his gift of righteousness, and from him will flow every good thing through me as I just believe and receive.

Since understanding grace, I have come to know the Holy Spirit more and more. You can't receive the Spirit through works of the law! Our efforts are not only worthless in drawing near to God, they actually drive us further from him. The law will always stand between us and God, that is why we needed Jesus to set us free from it! Not through abolishing the law, but by fulfilling it, and dying through it and to it in our place. Through union with him, we too have died through the law to the law! WE HAVE BEEN SET FREE FROM SIN AND THE LAW, WHICH IS THE POWER OF SIN. This is just Scripture I'm putting together here. Read Romans 7,8 and Galations 2. If you struggle with reading any of this, please read and reread Romans and Galatians over and over and over and ask God to reveal truth and grace to you. You NEED this truth to live!

Ok, got a little sidetracked as usual! Since I've come to know the Spirit of God, he's been revealing Jesus to me more and more. I see and hear Jesus everywhere these days and I really love him! I've missed out on so much joy by fearing him! I can't wait to know him more and more and more.

Grace Changes, Life Inventory

2008-09-24T13:59:00.003-04:00

Lately I've been noticing some changes in my life, in me. These changes have been taking place gradually over time since I've begun understanding the real gospel, and I've been largely unaware that it was even happening (read: I wasn't working to change these things myself). That's right, I haven't been part of any accountability groups, have not sat under any 'convicting' or 'challenging' preaching (at least not of my own free will haha),have not tried to tackle any particular sin in my life, have not signed up for any special classes or studies, and haven't even had any plan for 'spiritual disciplines'. Clearly I can't point to anything I've done that explains any change in my life, I've been just living free and enjoying God and our relationship.

So here are some of the changes Jesus has made in me, solely by the power of his gospel (purely good news!) of grace (completely unmerited and everlasting favor) that I want to boast about:

1. I am not as often angry, or so my children tell me.

2. I'm more fun, also according to my kids.

3. I laugh more, have more peace, joy, gentleness, and patience.

4. I am not aware of any unforgiveness or bitterness against anyone, just the other day a memory of a formerly very hurtful and personal sin against me (that used to affected me every time I thought about it) came into my mind and I felt nothing but love for the one who had sinned against me, I had not one negative emotion regarding the whole thing.

5. I very rarely if ever feel guilty. Even if my house is a mess or I just did something 'bad'. (I think this is why I'm in general more peaceful and happy, and less angry!)

6. I love people much more, and rarely see them as burdens or ministry 'projects'.

7. I am more productive than I was when I felt there were things I MUST do. I still do things I don't like to do, but I don't do them out of guilt.

8. I am much freer in the bedroom. I don't care if that makes you feel uncomfortable, christians should be free to acknowledge that sex exists, God knows the world doesn't shut up about it, it's time to let the world know they've got the short end of the stick on sex by a long shot.

9. I am able to be honest with my husband and others, even bringing up things that need to be confronted without using guilt manipulation, control, or condemnation the way I once did. (Not that I have this mastered yet, but I think I've learned a lot in this area.)

10. It is almost too easy for me to consider whether I might be wrong about something and admit when I clearly am wrong, or apologize. I think it took 5 years of marriage before I ever admitted I was wrong about anything, this is NOT a trait that was naturally part of my personality! I think this might be something in the line of true humility.

11. I do not struggle with fear like I once did. At one time I was afraid to talk or even laugh out loud, but now I probably talk too much! I do not fear rejection anymore, I am so secure in God's love for me.

I think I could list even more things, but that should do it for now. I want to stress very clearly that all these things are a testimony to God and his love to me. As Paul said of his life, '...not I but the grace of God in me..." I don't want to hear a laundry list of all your sins and shortcomings, I want to hear what God is doing in your life! Do you really think it glorifies the one who shed his blood for you if you dwell on the imperfection of your flesh under the law, or should we all think about not considering people (including ourselves!) according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit at work in them? I love to be able to look people in the eye, the most screwed up people like I was, and speak words of faith and destiny to them!

I have absolutely no trouble believing the the power of God for salvation, THE GOSPEL OF GRACE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, CAN CHANGE ANYONE ANYWHERE. And it's simple, they just need to hear the good news and believe!!!

Introduction to My Testimony of How I Came Out of Legalistic Oppressive Religion to Live in Jesus Who Gives Grace and Freedom!

2008-09-24T07:25:00.003-04:00

I was in the mood to put a long title haha, this post is in response to some harassing comments you may or may not have noticed! I don't know why I haven't been writing much, but I've certainly been thinking. Anyway, I'm just going to put up the very beginning of the book I'm supposedly writing. Any and all input, critiques, suggestions are not only welcome but highly coveted (to use a very churchy word hahahaha) no but seriously, I value my fellow bloggers' and readers' opinions very much, so don't let me down.

I got saved when I was five years old. If you had asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up I would have said “be a missionary”. I used to hope that I would be martyred for my faith and from about the age of six read every missionary or other great Christian hero biography I could get my hands on, often reading the same books my parents did, my Dad being a pastor and avid reader himself. I have never tried a cigarette, much less any other drug or illegal substance, never tasted alcohol all my growing up years and still to this day have never been drunk.

I remained a virgin until my wedding night and certainly have never been in trouble with the law. From the time I could read I read my Bible every day and as a kid fell asleep ever night listening to ‘Unshackled”, a radio program that dramatized real life testimonies. I defended the kids being made fun of or bullied and witnessed to all my unsaved friends. Oh, and when I had money of course I tithed! No surprise I ended up at Bible college, it had been a dream of mine my whole young life.

As I got older and became a wife and mother, so many other godly duties got added to my list it became difficult to keep up. Now I had to work on being patient, submissive to my husband’s every desire, keeping my house clean , disciplining my children diligently, having meals on the table, maintaining a modest yet beautiful ‘feminine’ appearance, and serving the church in any way I could.

So there it is: the outside of my cup and dish, the whitewashed exterior of my tomb. That’s the game I kept up, or tried to, for most of my twenty-five years or so as a Christian. From the outside it looked pretty good, I think lots of people were impressed. But religion is a dangerous game to play, when you think you’re doing well you’re somewhat happy, comparing yourself favorably with those around you. But when you fail, there is no mercy to fall on. You fall into shame, guilt, condemnation, fear, and hopelessness, and no amount of guilt and fear can give you the power to make it out of that dark pit; the righteousness that God demands from us cannot come from us. Down in that pit the enemy constantly whispers in our ear ‘without holiness no one can see the Lord’ , ‘God hates sin, no sin can enter his presence’, ‘the prayer of a righteous man is fervent and effective’. You have to admit before your accuser that your aren’t sinless, holy , or righteous, because the law which you’ve been living under can only ever show you that you have fallen short of God’s glory and deserve to be eternally condemned. Despair overwhelms you and you are tempted to believe the lie that God is not fair, but a sadistic god who enjoys commanding us to do what he knows it is impossible for us to do, who puts burdens on us that are impossible to carry.

But Jesus said, “Come to me all you who labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt.11:28-30

Updating Links...

2008-08-15T19:52:00.001-04:00

Just letting all my readers know that I finally updated my blog links! If I missed you and you'd like to be linked, just let me know. You'd have to be quite a heretic indeed for me to reject you hehe.

Supernatural Transformation and Holiness--Joseph Prince

2008-08-15T19:29:00.005-04:00

This is a great clip of Joseph Prince preaching on holiness and the purpose of the law vs. grace. If you have a couple of minutes it's worth watching, and I'd love to hear what you think of it. I love this quote from it:

"All true transformation is unconscious."

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR HUSBAND IS A LEGALIST

2008-08-14T16:26:00.006-04:00

I know, a weird name for a blog post. I'm still mulling over the sanctification debate and will definitely be coming back with my take on it so far soon. But I wanted to write a little something about grace revelation and relationships. If you don't have a legalistic husband, maybe you have a legalistic wife, parent, child, sibling, friend....you get the picture. I've wondered many times "how do I deal with this person?" especially when it seems they are not understanding God's grace. And I've had many conversations with people about how to deal with many other persons in the same predicament.

First, how do you know you're dealing with legalist? Well, there are some signs...
Basically (and I've said this before) if you take a look at Galatians 5 you'll get a list of what the flesh, under law, produces when it works hard.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:18-21

Take a careful look at this list, don't just read quickly over it. I still have some signs of these at times myself, and I can tell you it's connected to trying to be holy myself, by taking my eyes off Christ and looking at law and methods of change. When we were really deep into legalism and completely unaware that we were, our lives and marriage could be pretty easily characterized by sexual immorality , impurity, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,and envy, to name a few!

Conversely, following this list you have the fruits of the Spirit (fruits NOT works!):

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." Galatians 5:22-24

The legalist lacks love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Under law, all these good things were completely ellusive, we felt like God was dangling these delicious fruits in front of us all the time but we could never reach them.

Back to the dilemma, what to do with a legalist... First you have to really get a revelation of grace yourself, an ongoing revelation from the Holy Spirit. Then you need to rely on God to reveal his grace in the same way to your legalist, being open for him to use you in this process. This often look like responding to the legalist's sin with grace and love. As we receive grace, we can't help but let it spill over to those around us.

Really, this is usually a case of log and speck, if you know what I mean. When I find myself most frustrated with my husband's legalism, is when I'm most lacking grace myself. Slowly, sometimes painfully slowly, I'm learning that I can turn to God when I'm disappointed or impatient, or just plain hurt. I can march into the throne room of grace with confidence that I will receive mercy from my Father, I will be loved and he'll help me in exactly the way I need him to. Most of the time, I don't even know what I need, but he always does.

Our habit as women is to look to a man, our husband if we have one, and direct our desires to him as if he were God and able to fulfill and satisfy us. No man is sufficient for us , but God and his grace is! The more we experience God's all sufficient love for us, the more difficult it will be to offend or crush us and we'll be able to love our husbands (or anyone else)with God's supernatural love, the kind of love that softens and changes people, the kind of love that is constant whether you fail or succeed.

Does this mean we should overlook serious problems such as abuse? No, of course not, but as God reveals his heart to us more and more, we may be surprised at how we want to respond to people who are in serious sin.

We stop setting them up for failure by creating ultimatums and consequences, rules and regulations, by putting them under law. We begin to stop making accusations and start believing that there is truly hope and power for transformation , because we begin to believe the gospel! And at every turn the good news comes springing like living water from the depths of our being which is rooted in Christ, the resurrected Redeemer. Our words become life-giving instead of condemning and the power of the grace of God goes out to everyone we meet and sparks hope in them by his Holy Spirit. People who once joyously embraced salvation simply by faith but became enslaved to law again, prick up their hearts and ears and remember the joy of their salvation. They want to turn to God, they want to believe in Jesus again and turn from futile efforts of the flesh that always fall short. Together, we take the leap of all leaps of faith and let go all control over our own eternity and put every ounce of trust in God and his fatherly love that was demonstrated clearly once for all on the cross. And then, THEN, we will begin experience together transformations that are nothing short of miraculous...because with God NOTHING is impossible!

Personal Holiness

2008-08-08T11:59:00.003-04:00

Did you ever notice that sometimes religious people make up new terms that sound really spiritual and good? What I'm realizing more and more that often these terms are veiling something, they are decieving and are designed (not usually by men but by our enemy the devil) to help us believe a lie. We believe because it sounds like it's something God would say somehow.

I grew up in a holiness church, don't worry if you have no idea what that means hehe. I've very thankful for my upbringing so I hope no one takes this the wrong way...Anyway, personal holiness was a popular topic, often thrown in with talk of sanctification. Today I was just vacuuming (again!) and for no apparent reason God just put the term 'personal holiness' into my mind and then 'self-righteousness'. Then he turned on the lights and I was amazed I missed something to simple.

Self=Personal

Righteousness=Holiness

Is this glaringly obvious to anyone else???

If you think there's a Biblical reason to define the two diffently, I'd love to know about it. Right now I'm just not seeing 'personal holiness' as something we're called to as believers...I mean, I'm not seeing it in the Bible.

More on the Breaking of Bread (communion)

2008-08-08T07:07:00.003-04:00

Recently I found a great blog called "See the World Through His Heart" through a comment someone left. He's got some amazing revelation on grace and recently wrote about communion. If you have time, read what he wrote and think about in which manner you come to eat and drink of the Lord's body and blood...

I believe that as we recover the worthy manner in receiving Jesus' body and blood, people's eyes will be opened more and more to the reality of the true gospel, and to the precious gift of God's righteousness given to us only by grace through faith. We need to get back to the simplest and most powerful expressions of our faith and allow the Holy Spirit to build his kingdom with supernatural power through us, and stop relying on our intellectual arguments and meager efforts.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." Romans 1:16-17

It's time to boldly come to the Lord's table and eat and drink without fear or shame, our confidence is not in our flesh but in Christ's. Our joyful confidence will be a sign and testimony to everyone who sees us and may we never apologize to any legalist for our boldness before God.