Lord, you are wise... powerful...merciful... Amen is an exclamation point of hope after a prayer for help.
Confidence in someone's future reliability is grounded in a history of past faithfulness.
the Holy Spirit is called a down payment; there is so much more future grace yet to come; an he is the guarantee of it. [Eph 1:14]
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
You Can't Take It With You...
Counting Forever
In the inaugural issue of the newsletter A Higher Purpose, published by the Great Commission Foundation, Campus Crusade for Christ president Steve Douglass says, “Frankly one thing that doesn’t count forever is wealth that is left over at the end of our lives, wealth unused in any worthy cause whatsoever. From a biblical point of view, you see that some day, eventually the end will come. As we read 2 Peter 3:10, we see that the earth will be burned up, there will be nothing left — just an ash heap. On that day, in the midst of all these ash heaps, the only thing a wealthy person will be able to say to a poor person is, ‘Oh look! My ash heap is bigger than your ash heap!’ Not significant!”
As we strive for significance, it is wholly appropriate that we should call others to significance as well, to join us in the quest, to make something of eternal value during our earthly lifetime.
* Like what you just read and want to learn more? Check out, More Than Money: The Truth About High-Capacity Givers.
In the inaugural issue of the newsletter A Higher Purpose, published by the Great Commission Foundation, Campus Crusade for Christ president Steve Douglass says, “Frankly one thing that doesn’t count forever is wealth that is left over at the end of our lives, wealth unused in any worthy cause whatsoever. From a biblical point of view, you see that some day, eventually the end will come. As we read 2 Peter 3:10, we see that the earth will be burned up, there will be nothing left — just an ash heap. On that day, in the midst of all these ash heaps, the only thing a wealthy person will be able to say to a poor person is, ‘Oh look! My ash heap is bigger than your ash heap!’ Not significant!”
As we strive for significance, it is wholly appropriate that we should call others to significance as well, to join us in the quest, to make something of eternal value during our earthly lifetime.
* Like what you just read and want to learn more? Check out, More Than Money: The Truth About High-Capacity Givers.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Faith in Future Grace vs. Pride - ch. 6
C.S. Lewis - "The pleasure of pride is like the pleasure of scratching. If there is an itch one does want to scratch; but it is much nicer to have neither the itch nor the scratch. As long as we have the itch of self-regard we shall want the pleasure of self-approval; but the happiest moments are those when we forget our precious selves and have neither but have everything else instead."
Jeremiah 9:23 - 24 "...boast of this... understands and knows Me, ...lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness... delight in these things"
Humility can only survive in the presence of God. We can expect to find humility applauded in our society about as often as we find God applauded.
Belief is not merely an agreement, is is also an appetite... More than what we think, but what we drink...
God's competitors are our wisdom, might and riches [Jer. 9:23]... Our intelligence, our strength, our material resources.
Pride is an issue of whee your satisfaction is... what you are trusting in for your future.
Look away from your own resources and rest in God.
God's reality is overwhelmingly intrusive. "If the Lord wills..." [James 4:13-17]
Weak pride = self pity... The wounded ego wishes to be viewed as a hero, not as helpless. Self pity comes from a sense of unrecognized worthiness, and not a sense of unworthiness.
Freedom from anxiety in trusting someone else who is wiser and stronger - cast cares on Him, He cares!
Jeremiah 9:23 - 24 "...boast of this... understands and knows Me, ...lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness... delight in these things"
Humility can only survive in the presence of God. We can expect to find humility applauded in our society about as often as we find God applauded.
Belief is not merely an agreement, is is also an appetite... More than what we think, but what we drink...
God's competitors are our wisdom, might and riches [Jer. 9:23]... Our intelligence, our strength, our material resources.
Pride is an issue of whee your satisfaction is... what you are trusting in for your future.
Look away from your own resources and rest in God.
God's reality is overwhelmingly intrusive. "If the Lord wills..." [James 4:13-17]
Weak pride = self pity... The wounded ego wishes to be viewed as a hero, not as helpless. Self pity comes from a sense of unrecognized worthiness, and not a sense of unworthiness.
Freedom from anxiety in trusting someone else who is wiser and stronger - cast cares on Him, He cares!
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
The Freest of God's Acts - ch. 5
Grace is free because God would not be the infinite, self-sufficient God he is if he were constrained by anything outside himself.
Future grace is that grace that carries me from this moment on.
Grace and mercy are fused together, every act of one is also an act of the other.
Grace is goodness toward the one who sins, and mercy is goodness toward the one who suffers / misery.
Pain seems to constrain mercy, but guilt does not seem to constrain grace... looks more free.
If God's grace is his natural response to sin, it is owing entirely to something amazing in God, not in the constraining power of sin.
Suffering constrains pity; but sin kindles anger - not grace - therefore, grace toward sinners is the freest of all God's acts.
Grace is occasionally conditional - though you have not earned the gift, but you met a condition [also a work of God's grace]. Add Ephesians 2:8,9 - the faith is a gift, meeting the condition for grace to save.
Exodus 33:19 - "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious" - to be God is to be free.
God does not look outside his own will for an impulse to move his grace.
Free grace produces life. We were dead and unresponsive before God acted unconditionally. Dead people cannot meet conditions, there must be a totally unconditional and utterly free act of God to save them.
What act could be more one-sidedly free and non-negotiated than one person raising another from the dead?
See Ephesians 1:4-6 - Unconditionally chosen before the foundation of the world - predestined.
Eph 2:6-7 "...in the ages to come....His grace....toward us" Most of the grace toward us lies in the future.
God's freedom nullifies the power of pride [next chapter].
Future grace is that grace that carries me from this moment on.
Grace and mercy are fused together, every act of one is also an act of the other.
Grace is goodness toward the one who sins, and mercy is goodness toward the one who suffers / misery.
Pain seems to constrain mercy, but guilt does not seem to constrain grace... looks more free.
If God's grace is his natural response to sin, it is owing entirely to something amazing in God, not in the constraining power of sin.
Suffering constrains pity; but sin kindles anger - not grace - therefore, grace toward sinners is the freest of all God's acts.
Grace is occasionally conditional - though you have not earned the gift, but you met a condition [also a work of God's grace]. Add Ephesians 2:8,9 - the faith is a gift, meeting the condition for grace to save.
Exodus 33:19 - "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious" - to be God is to be free.
God does not look outside his own will for an impulse to move his grace.
Free grace produces life. We were dead and unresponsive before God acted unconditionally. Dead people cannot meet conditions, there must be a totally unconditional and utterly free act of God to save them.
What act could be more one-sidedly free and non-negotiated than one person raising another from the dead?
See Ephesians 1:4-6 - Unconditionally chosen before the foundation of the world - predestined.
Eph 2:6-7 "...in the ages to come....His grace....toward us" Most of the grace toward us lies in the future.
God's freedom nullifies the power of pride [next chapter].
Monday, September 17, 2012
The Life That's Left is Future Grace - Ch. 4
The life I now live, I live by faith - Gal. 2:20
If He leaves me with memories only, and not the promise of more, I will be undone.
Paul begins and ends all 13 NT letters with "Grace to you" and "grace be with you"... To you through this letter, with you as you go forward to obey it. So, Paul seeks to bless them with grace that is to come to them, and remain with them.
Every glance backward sparks gratitude for bygone grace; every look forward casts the soul onto faith in future grace.
No one became a Christian without past grace, and no one can be a Christian moment by moment without future grace.
Faith in future grace gives us: Strength of Heart, Endurance in Suffering [grace supplied in the circle of another grace denied], Love.
We live moment by moment from the strength of future grace; if it were not there, we would perish.
If He leaves me with memories only, and not the promise of more, I will be undone.
Paul begins and ends all 13 NT letters with "Grace to you" and "grace be with you"... To you through this letter, with you as you go forward to obey it. So, Paul seeks to bless them with grace that is to come to them, and remain with them.
Every glance backward sparks gratitude for bygone grace; every look forward casts the soul onto faith in future grace.
No one became a Christian without past grace, and no one can be a Christian moment by moment without future grace.
Faith in future grace gives us: Strength of Heart, Endurance in Suffering [grace supplied in the circle of another grace denied], Love.
We live moment by moment from the strength of future grace; if it were not there, we would perish.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Faith in Future Grace vs. Anxiety - ch. 3
When I am afraid, I put my trust in Thee. Psalm 56:3. Note: "When". The Bible does not assume that true believers will have no anxieties. Mark 9:24, "I do believe! Help my unbelief!"
Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7
My choice: Be desperately dependent [on Word and Spirit], or be independently desperate.
Anxiety is a condition of the heart - inadequate faith, and can provoke many sinful actions and attitudes.
We fight anxieties by fighting against unbelief and fighting for faith in future grace.... by, meditating on God's assurances [Word] of future grace and by asking for the help of his Spirit.
Matthew 6:25-34 - Seven Promises for Meditation in the face of anxiety.
Isaiah 41:10 "Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you, with My victorious right hand"
2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness"
Psalm 32:8 "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you"
Romans 8:31 "If God is for us, who is against us!"
Phil 1:6 "He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ"
Let us make war, not with other people, but with our own unbelief.... using the Word and asking for the Spirit.
Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7
My choice: Be desperately dependent [on Word and Spirit], or be independently desperate.
Anxiety is a condition of the heart - inadequate faith, and can provoke many sinful actions and attitudes.
We fight anxieties by fighting against unbelief and fighting for faith in future grace.... by, meditating on God's assurances [Word] of future grace and by asking for the help of his Spirit.
Matthew 6:25-34 - Seven Promises for Meditation in the face of anxiety.
Isaiah 41:10 "Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you, with My victorious right hand"
2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness"
Psalm 32:8 "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you"
Romans 8:31 "If God is for us, who is against us!"
Phil 1:6 "He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ"
Let us make war, not with other people, but with our own unbelief.... using the Word and asking for the Spirit.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
When Gratitude Malfunctions - Ch. 2
Let us not say that grace creates debts; let us say that grace pays debts.
Past grace is glorified by intense and joyful gratitude. Future grace is glorified by intense and joyful confidence.
Faith empowers us for venturesome obedience, it is the source of radical, risk-taking, kingdom-seeking obedience.
It is natural to embrace a mindset of repayment - but the only debt that grace creates is the 'debt' of relying on more grace for all that God calls us to be and do.
Christian obedience is the work of faith, and not the work of gratitude.
If the impulses of gratitude slip over into the debtor's ethic, grace soon ceases to be grace. If we see acts of obedience as installment payments, we make grace into a mortgage.
We glory in past grace through gratitude, and we bank our future, by faith, on the inexhaustible flow of future grace.
Past grace is glorified by intense and joyful gratitude. Future grace is glorified by intense and joyful confidence.
Faith empowers us for venturesome obedience, it is the source of radical, risk-taking, kingdom-seeking obedience.
It is natural to embrace a mindset of repayment - but the only debt that grace creates is the 'debt' of relying on more grace for all that God calls us to be and do.
Christian obedience is the work of faith, and not the work of gratitude.
If the impulses of gratitude slip over into the debtor's ethic, grace soon ceases to be grace. If we see acts of obedience as installment payments, we make grace into a mortgage.
We glory in past grace through gratitude, and we bank our future, by faith, on the inexhaustible flow of future grace.
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