Category Archives: Grace

Storing Up Riches?

March 25, 2013 By in Faith, Grace, Gratitude, Life, Peace 7 Comments

walking_with_JesusYesterday, as some folks in our fellowship prayed for me, I had one of those rare times when I heard the Lord very directly speak to my inner man.

He said I had laid up many treasures in heaven from a life spend serving Him and His people.

He let me know I could begin a new season of life, in transition toward my life to come, with the settled peace of His pleasure and honor.

Then He asked, however, if I was willing to spend those treasures, over whatever remaining time He chooses to give me, by investing them in others?

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Beyond Scripture? (Part 3)

March 5, 2013 By in Bible, Frank Viola, Grace, Grace Movement, Sovereignty, Truth 6 Comments

The low view of God in the Old Testament, found among those touting a so-called “Christocentric hermeneutic”, comes from too high a view of themselves.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

They often take personal offense at how God dealt with humanity in the Old Testament – including His sometimes fierce display of holiness and punishment of sin and rebellion.

So they make God in the Old Testament an aberration. They substitute their own perceptions of Christ – rooted in their post-modern sensibilities – for the totality of Scripture, and make their resulting “Christology” higher revelation than God’s own external Word of Scripture.

They have joined Adam and Eve in choosing the moral autonomy of deciding for themselves what is right and wrong, and have the further hubris of then imposing it on God Himself.

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When “Intimacy with the Lord” Goes Bad

January 22, 2013 By in Existentialism, Fruit, Grace, Grace Movement, Pietism, Works 2 Comments

When “Intimacy with the Lord” Goes Bad is a must-read blog by Steve Crosby.

In the past, I was concerned with some of Steve’s blogs because they seemed to dance right up to the line with some of the “half grace” doctrines and existential nonsense going around these days.

With this blog, however, all’s forgiven! It strikes just the right balance between “being” and “doing”, which I’ve also tried to achieve in some of my own past blogs. But unlike me, he avoids obscure, big sounding words. 😉

Plus, I love his swamp analogy – especially since I often use it myself when I teach!

Though You Slay Me…

January 14, 2013 By in Faith, Grace, Gratitude, Pain, Redemption, Scleroderma, Struggles 8 Comments

I don’t know about you, but the Lord sometimes loves me enough to nearly kill me. And I’m not talking metaphorically.

In fact, for those who have given our lives to Him, the Lord loves us so much that some day He literally will take our lives so He then can give us eternity.

Short of death, however, the Lord sometimes kills something important to us or in us – some vision, some hope, some confidence, some quality or attribute, some accomplishment, or even something good He previously gave us.

It’s not that the thing He kills necessarily is wrong. It’s just that it needs to die so we then are free to be and do whatever He wants of us, and for us, as we move forward in Him.

As Job understood, in the midst of everything good in his life being stripped away, “Though you slay me, will I trust you Lord.” Job 13:15.

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Les Miserables

December 30, 2012 By in Epiphany, Faith, Forgiveness, Grace, Redemption 4 Comments

Marianne and I have never recommended a movie on our blog, but yesterday we went on a date and saw the new movie, Les Miserables.

Twenty or so years ago I saw the Broadway play in New York, and it was powerful. But the movie is … amazing.

I was hesitant to go to the movie, because I expected the original Christian themes of redemptive grace and forgiveness in Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel to be watered down, if not eliminated. After all, that’s the way of Hollywood. They take culture created by Christians and bastardize it.

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Touching the Heart of God

December 29, 2012 By in Grace, Gratitude, Life, Pain, Scleroderma, Struggles 1 Comment
Touch the Heart of God


Even in my sorrow, I also know gratitude. Jesus is able to handle both, and as they’ve merged I’ve touched the very heart of God.
https://crossroadjunction.com/2009/03/30/sufficient-grace/

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This last year has been marked by very painful and difficult health issues. Through it all, however, I’ve been grateful for what the Lord has done for me even as I struggle with the sorrow of diminished capacity.

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Hyper Grace – Part 2

December 13, 2012 By in Confession, Forgiveness, Grace, Love, Repentance, Truth, Works 6 Comments
Hyper Grace – Part 2

Real people want real answers and real freedom from real issues – not just the tidy platitudes of half truths.

Maybe that’s what has shaped my strong reaction to hyper grace, which is really half grace: It cannot offer real freedom from real issues because it seeks the grace of God’s affirming love and presence, but not the grace of His transforming truth and rule.

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Words

December 5, 2012 By in Abuse, Grace, Healing, Redemption, Sovereignty, Truth, Virtue 4 Comments

Words have the power to not only define, but to create reality – for good or for bad. Too often, we forget the power of words: not only ours, but of God Himself.

power-of-wordsI don’t think it was a coincidence that God spoke the universe into existence, chose to reveal Himself through His spoken Word of scripture, or came to dwell among us as the Word made flesh.

I also don’t think it is a coincidence that God still speaks to us today, or that He has empowered us to speak authoritatively on His behalf.

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A Doobie Brothers’ Gospel

October 26, 2012 By in Grace, Sovereignty, Truth 5 Comments

Jesus died on the cross because He accepted me, wholly and completely, just as I am…

By His Grace, He Bids Us Come and Die

So I could die to myself in order to accept Him, wholly and completely, just as He is.

This the true Gospel: Accepting me as I am cost Jesus His life, and accepting Him as He is costs me my life in return.

The mystery of the cross is that we die with Him to find new life in Him – but only on His terms.

Yet if you look at social media sites like Facebook, it seems that many Christians only know a Doobie Brothers’ Gospel.

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Love in Action

August 7, 2012 By in Grace, Homosexuality, Love, Postmodern, Redemption, Truth 22 Comments

You tell me how in Christ love is everything.

How it transcends morality, truth and even scripture itself…

How if we just expressed your concept of love, the world will beat a path to Jesus…

Yet you recoil at basic truth, like the reality of sin and moral precepts.

And you reject much that God has revealed in His Word to help us understand His own nature and thus the parameters of authentic love – for the good not just of individuals, but whole societies.

Somehow, you have been deceived into thinking that authentic love is freedom from truth, when actually it is truth set free.

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I Want More Religion (Part 3)

July 20, 2012 By in Faith, Grace, Joy, Postmodern, Spiritual Disciplines, Truth, Works 10 Comments

I figure that if half of the folks reading my blog say “amen!”, and the other half say “oh my!”, then I’m right where God wants me.

The Whole Picture

The consternation and angst – in blogs, Facebook comments, podcasts and the like – generated by this series have convinced me that what I said needed saying.

My point is simple, and 100% Biblical:

I go, do and obey because of who I am in Christ. It is His life in me, expressed through me.

But here’s the kicker: If I do not “do”or obey as Christ commands, then the life of Christ in me is a lie – at least in those areas where I choose to disobey or stay trapped in my own sensibilities.

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Finding Freedom From Life’s Hurts

July 9, 2012 By in Confession, Counseling, Forgiveness, Grace, Healing, Pain, Repentance, Truth, Woundedness Leave a comment
Finding Freedom From Life’s Hurts

This is a fifty-five minute teaching I shared with about thirty men, based on hundreds of pastoral counseling sessions where God showed up and brought freedom and healing from deep hurts – including abuse, abandonment and so much more.

My blog is a feeble attempt to upload a lifetime of service to the King of Kings. I believe this audio teaching, however, captures better than anything I’ve written some of the most significant things I’ve learned as I’ve walked with folks to those ugly places of bondage and hurt in their lives. When we get there, and they exposed their hurts and lies to the Lord, He brings His loving, healing truth.

In this talk, I also share some of my own very personal story about my own places of hurt, which I had to expose to Lord so He could then bring wholeness to me.

You may think you know me from my writings, but this captures my heart in ways that a written blog never can.

 
If this resonates with you, I also recommend my related blog, God Shows Up.

Feeling God’s Pleasure

June 15, 2012 By in Courage, Faith, Grace, Gratitude, Joy 3 Comments
Feeling God’s Pleasure

This scene from Chariots of Fire helped define my life when I saw it as a young man in 1981.

In it, Olympic runner Eric Liddell explained what motivated him: “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

What a wonderful way to feel, know and experience the Lord and His purpose.

Most of my life has been guided by the sense of His pleasure as I’ve been the man He created me to be and done the things He created me to do. Even when there’s been adversity, I have felt His pleasure as I serve the King of Kings with whatever gifts He’s given me.

There is no greater joy, no greater fulfillment, no greater purpose.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwyltmUR3MU%5D

God in a Box

May 25, 2012 By in Attributes, Gifts, Grace, Pride 13 Comments

We all tend to put God in a box bounded by our own biases, giftings and sensibilities.

I do it. You do it. We all relate to Jesus within the confines of our own God-given (and sometimes not so God-given) attributes. And we all tend to think our own box defines, or should define, the totality of life, reality and even Jesus Himself.

Maturity, however, is recognizing and affirming Christ – often in others (including their warts and shortcomings) – outside our box.

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