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THE BOUNTY OF GRACE

Christian Life, ,

THE BOUNTY OF GRACE


David’s much-loved song, Psalm 23, is a beautiful picture of our journey with Jesus, our Shepherd, through life from spiritual infancy to our eternal destination in glory.

Like the care a mother gives to her newborn baby, God cares for and nurtures us through the early days of our walk Him. “Green pastures” and “quiet waters” are what we need as young children when we are surrounded by a hostile world. We need both protection and nourishment to guide us through the season of our initiation into this new way.

Our old nature is ever present to lure us back into our old ways, but so is the new nature, powerfully working in us by the Holy Spirit to establish our hearts in union with Jesus. Our Shepherd is beside us, guiding and goading us into the ways of doing what pleases God.

“Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
Philippians 2:12-13 NLT

Then comes the season of discipline and testing. Halcyon days, when nothing seems to go wrong, turn into harassing days when nothing seems to go right. What has happened? Is God mad at me? Has He left me? What have I done to lose His presence and His peace? How can I get back to that smooth and unruffled life I had at the beginning?

No, God has not left me. He has not abandoned me to my own devices because I failed/sinned myself out of grace. A new season has begun. Like the maturing process of a teenager, when discipline and training are intensified, so a loving Father begins to hone His child into a true son.

“The valley of the shadow of death” is never a pleasant experience. It’s dark… like a tunnel that seems to have no end. It’s dangerous. The path is narrow and slippery, and I have only the Shepherd’s rod of correction and His crook of protection to keep me on the path lest I fall down the precipice of fear and unbelief.

Finally, after weeks… months… perhaps years of struggle and pain, falling and getting up, standing, only to fall again. the lessons of teenage inexperience… trial and error, stubborn resistance, and rebellion… and the Father’s inexhaustible patience, begin to pay off.

I emerge from the dark valley, accompanied by my Shepherd, into the bright sunlight of a tableland of unimaginable blessing. Ahead, a table groaning with the evidence of God’s favour and goodness beckons me. He invites me to sit down and enjoy the benefits of the salvation He paid so dearly to give, freely, to me.

“What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.”
Psalms 116:12-14 NIV

Fortified by this bounty, and daily drinking from the fountain of His goodness, my cup of blessing overflows without ceasing, into the lives of others.

I live in the assurance that my destination is God Himself. His house will be my eternal home if I remain on the path, Jesus… the Way, the Truth, and the Life… who takes me to the Father.

THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM Continued

Christian Life, ,

THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM Continued

3. LIVING THE LIFE – THE KEY TO GROWTH

Working out what God is working in us.

“Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”

Philippians 2:12-13 NLT

“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 14:17 NLT

Access into God’s kingdom is the first step into living our lives here and now under God’s rule. This means that we are to pursue righteousness and holiness in this life in response to the Holy Spirit’s work in us.

Paul made it clear that people who continue living their old sinful lives despite their confession of salvation, have not entered the kingdom of God. They will have no part in His kingdom in the life to come.

“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Galatians 5:19-21 NLT

4. THE GOLDEN KEY – ROOTED IN GOD’S LOVE

Paul recorded many of his prayers in his letters to the churches. These prayers reveal his heart for God’s people and his partnership with the Holy Spirit in opening the doors of understanding and participation into God’s kingdom.

However, I see his prayer in Ephesians 3:15ff as the Golden Key to everything that has ever been revealed about our lives in God’s Kingdom.

Jesus had something important to say to the Ephesian church, the same church to which Paul penned his letter, which makes it even more important for us to understand this key.

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

Revelation 2:4-5 NIV

What is this “first love” which the Ephesian Church had forsaken?

It was not the warm, fuzzy excitement we felt when we first believed in Jesus, as many have preached. In fact, it isn’t our love for Jesus at all. Our love, at best, is feeble, frail, and fickle, and often crumbles under pressure.

Our response of love for Jesus depends entirely on His love for us. It is the fruit of the root which feeds and produces the fruit.

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God…. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”

1 John 4:7, 9-10 NLT

If we remove God’s love from our experience of His rule and control of our lives, especially when stuff happens that makes no sense, we end up with being nothing but pawns in God’s hands.

God’s love gives colour, meaning, sense, and hope to all our life experiences, good and bad. Since God is love and, since God is utterly reliable and trustworthy, we can commit ourselves unconditionally to His love in everything because we know that He works in all things for our good. We also know that He has a plan… to restore the image of His Son in us.

I have come to realise that God has used even those times when I, as a believer, have trespassed into sin, for my good. I’ve learned the meaning of true repentance and learned to hate the sin I was involved in.

Even more than that, the precious Holy Spirit has revealed to me that my pursuit of love led me to drink at the wrong fountain. Like the woman at the well, I tried to quench my thirst at the fountain of human love only to be betrayed by human failure. Only when I realised that Jesus alone is the pure fountain of perfect love was my thirst quenched and fully satisfied.

So, to grow roots deeply into God’s love for us is to anchor our lives in the most secure place to be held fast and kept steady as we navigate all the ups and downs of our lives.

Without the awareness of the greatness of God’s love for us, living in His kingdom would be just another set of rules to obey. This love of God binds our hearts to Him in a powerful union of trust, submission and obedience which are the hallmarks of a true son.

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.”

John 15:9 NLT

“But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.”

Jude 1:20-21 NLT

Can you see how important it is that we understand that all we experience as believers in Jesus must be filtered through this love of God? His love underpins everything that has happened and will happen to us because He is “passing by”, to reveal Himself to us, in each situation, according to our need.

To put our trust in and root our lives in God’s love means that NOTHING can get between His love and us. Paul assures us, based on everything God did for us through Jesus…

“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:38-39 NLT

God’s love for us didn’t begin when we came to faith in Jesus. God loved us before He made the world.

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”

Ephesians 1:4 NLT

God was watching and intimately supervising the formation of the unborn child and setting out the days of its life before it came into the world.

“You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”

Psalms 139:15-16 NLT

He loved us even when we were living in sin in our unregenerate days.

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Romans 5:8 NLT

The Old Covenant was an interim covenant given to Israel to teach them that God is holy and that sin separates sinners from a holy God and is punishable by consequences. To apply the consequences of sin, which Jesus atoned for by His death, to believers in Jesus in the New Covenant is to cancel what Jesus did on the cross.

This is the reason that any teaching and practice regarding “generational curses” in the New Covenant context, are utterly false. Believers cannot be rooted in God’s love and be subject to generational curses at the same time.

Isaiah prophesied that Messiah would set His people free…

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the broken-hearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.”

Isaiah 61:1 NLT

Jesus confirmed that He was the Anointed One…

“The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Luke 4:17-21 NLT

… and that it was His role to set captives free.

Free from what?

Free from the lies Satan sows in our minds about God, us, and sin and all its effects.

Jesus is passionate about setting His people free from everything that opposes, contradicts, or attempts to replace God’s grace and that has any control over them other than the Holy Spirit. God gives His grace freely to those who realise they are nothing and depend on Him for everything that enables them to live free… from sin, and from self – effort.

Jesus sets us free when we realise that real freedom us living in the absolute confidence of God’s love for us revealed and confirmed in the death of Jesus.

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”

Romans 8:31-32 NLT

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

Colossians 2:6-7 NLT

Can you now see how important it is that any ministry in the name of Jesus must teach people how to live rooted in the love of God. This IS the golden key to the whole of life here and now, in this fallen world.

Jesus mirrors for us the pinnacle of our lives rooted in God’s love in His example as He suffered and died at the hands of ruthless murderers.

“For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God…. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, HE ENTRUSTED HIMSELF TO HIM WHO JUDGES JUSTLY. “

1 Peter 2:19, 21-23 NIV

When we are rooted in God’s love, we, will interpret everything that happens to us through the lens of that love. We can then entrust ourselves to Him who judges justly.

“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So, we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.”

1 John 4:16-18 NLT

There are other keys that are of great value and influence in our lives as we live in God’s kingdom in the darkness of this world.

We are always going to be affected by the sin that attracts the old nature in us. Ungodly people affect us by their attitudes and behaviour. We often act and retaliate out of our own old, ungodly nature, adding our sin to theirs and compounding the rifts between us.

Living in union with our fellow believers also sometimes brings out the worst in us. In our eagerness to defend, protect, or vindicate ourselves, we forget God’s instruction to trust in Him to be our defence.