A Call to Respond to the Charleston Church Shooting

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I cannot sit in silence without writing about the atrocity at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last week, when a shooter killed nine of our other brothers and sisters.  My feelings about this are so strong, that I am compelled by the love of Christ to respond.

I believe the killings were demonically motivated in the mind of the shooter.  (I don’t care to give the shooter more fame by using his name.)   Satan’s mission statement, according to Jesus in John 10:10, is to “kill, steal and destroy.” He succeeded in killing these precious nine members.  That is how this story begins, but hopefully, not how it ends.  And, a lot of that depends on whether we choose to live like who we are in Christ.

Here are some piercing questions that challenged me that I had to ask myself in how God can use this tragedy for good. Each of these questions is really about a bigger question?  “Is Christ living through me in regard to racism?”

•       Do I feel our Father’s grief over this or have I resigned myself to the inevitability of these kinds of killings?
•       Have I recognized my own sin of racism as evidenced by telling racial jokes or passing on my racist views to my children and others?
•       Have I prayed for the family members of the nine slain brothers and sisters in Christ?
•       Have I prayed for the remaining members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church?
•       Have I asked God if there is a lonely person in my life He wants me to befriend and share Christ with, who just might be the next shooter unless someone reaches out to him?
•       Have I prayed that the church as a whole would stop being the most segregated institution in America?
•       If I preach each Sunday, have I considered preaching on this?
•       If I blog, have I considered writing on this?

My prayer more than ever is that we let Jesus live through us to be a part of the answer, instead of perpetuating the problem.  Something to look forward to is that God’s kingdom in heaven is full of every race, tribe, tongue and nation according to Revelation 5:9 and 7:9.  Heaven will not have different sections based on skin color.  Every neighborhood will be multi-ethnic.

Jesus taught us to pray for the kingdom of God to come to the earth.  That includes racial diversity in the body of Christ, as well as economic and ability/disability diversity.  As His children, we can all be united in prayer that His Kingdom will come to the part of the earth we journey on.

The Jesus who lives in us grieves over what happened last week.  But He also knows it is an opportunity for the church to rise up and act as His agent, through whom He brings His kingdom to this earth.  No one person can do it all but, the One Person living in us can do more when we rely on Him to do it through each of us.

This is the Gospel in action because just as the Gospel of grace frees us from our own junk, He also desires to express Himself through us into a dark world that desperately needs His light to shine brightly.

Would you stop for a moment and ask your Heavenly Father what He might be saying to you in this devo/blog?

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

Do You Know Your Unique Flesh?

Defining the meaning of words is of the utmost importance when you are attempting to understand their true meaning.  Think about the meaning of these words when they were used just a few years ago.

Far Out - in the 70s it meant something was awesome.

Gnarly – in the 80’s it was a surfer term that came to mean something was cool.

Da Bomb – in the 90’s it means something was really amazing.

GitRDone – in the 2000’s it meant to get something accomplished.

It’s the same in Scripture.  Words often have very specific meaning and it does matter. Though I read lots of different versions of the Bible, my favorites for understanding specific words is the New American Standard Bible (NASB) or The English Standard Version (ESV).

That brings us to the word “flesh”.  As I wrote about in last week’s blog, this is not the old nature, the sinful nature or our identity in Adam.  It’s something very different.  The rawest meaning is simply meat.  In the Scriptures it is used to mean a few other things. One definition is simply our physical body.  For example, In John 3:6, Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (NASB)

The main meaning for the word “flesh” used in the New Covenant is what we are interested in today.  Let’s first see what the Bible says.  Then we will make it very practical.

1. The flesh has desires that are the opposite of those of the Holy Spirit.  Galatians 5:17  For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. (NASB)

2. The flesh expresses itself in specific ways.  Galatians 5:19-21a Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. (NASB)

Here is the practical part.  This is what we help people discover in their personal lives when they come to us for counseling.

1. Fleshly living is acting the opposite of living like who you are in Christ.

2. Fleshly living is strategies of living dependent on you instead of Jesus in you.

3. Flesh is unique for everyone since it is often programmed from relationships and events which you experienced growing up.

Here is a visual for you.  If you drive a car through the mud, even after the car is long gone, the tracks can be imprinted in the mud long afterwards.  The old nature like that car is long gone.  It was crucified with Christ according to Romans 6:6 and Galatians 2:20.  However, there are left over “tracks”, meaning fleshly sins (independent living) you may still struggle with after you are saved, that you were controlled by before you were saved.  You can also develop new fleshly sins after you are saved.

When we provide discipleship counseling, we ask the Holy Spirit through us to show a person that they have beliefs, feelings and behaviors that they are using to try to make life work apart from Christ.  They come to see this as their unique flesh patterns.  We diagram it for them so that they see why life is not working for them.  Then, we show them as a result of the Cross, that’s no longer representative of who they are in Christ, in fact, it’s the opposite.  Next, we take ample time helping them with the day by day journey of learning relying on Jesus in them to “cope with life.” Then, the Holy Spirit begins to replace the former fleshly patterns of coping with the fruit of the Spirit, providing new ways of living.

Do you know the specific patterns of your unique flesh which are defeating you over and over?  If not, I invite you to attend one of our Grace Life Conferences or get counseling from us.  You can take advantage of these opportunities to experience a better way of life, either in person or by Skype.   Contact us at info@gracelifeinternational.com or call us at 704-522-9026.  Also, a listing of the monthly Conferences are available on our website at www.gracelifeinternational.com   We have three locations as well.

If you missed last week’s blog and are interested in reading it and others, go to www. markmaulding.com.

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

Do Christ Followers Have a Sinful Nature?

The short answer is “No” but it’s greatly misunderstood.  How about you personally, how would you answer that question before reading the remainder of this blog?

If you consider some of the sins you commit, you may conclude that you do.  In that case, you would be using your behavior to determine your conclusion. God uses birth, not behavior, to define who you are.

When you hear, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace”, you have often heard it so often that you probably nod your head in agreement without giving it much thought.  However, you cannot find any New Covenant scriptures which proclaim that you are a sinner as a Christ follower.  You may say, what about where Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:15?  This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.  If you start reading in verse 9 and then to 17, you will see the larger story he is using to make this statement.  He is saying that because he persecuted the church before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road, he is the worst sinner ever and if God can save a sinner like him, He can save anyone.

When I played basketball in high school, I set a record for the most rebounds ever in the history of the school.  A rebound is when you grab the basketball after it hits the backboard or rim and doesn’t go in the basket.  To my knowledge, I still hold that record a few decades later.  Though I have graduated from high school and no longer attend there, would it be a fair statement to say that I am the “chief rebounder” at my high school?  Yes it would be though I am no longer a part of that school. It is simply a part of my past, just as Paul being the chief of sinners was a part of his past, though he says it in present tense.

Another issue is that you may have been told most of your life that you have two natures as a Christian.  The old nature and the new nature.  However, Romans 6:6 is very clear that your old nature died once and for all on the cross with Jesus.  It’s no longer in you.  You only have a new nature – your identity in Christ.

One more challenge you may find is that you grew up reading the New International Version Bible.  I like it too, except where they translated the word flesh as sinful nature.  That is very confusing because the old nature is dead and removed.  However, God did not remove the flesh from the Christ follower.   In addition, the old nature and the flesh are not the same.   So when you see in places like Romans 8 that we are dealing with a sinful nature, it’s easy to make the assumption that you have one.  To the NIV’s credit, the newest version changed 95% of those back to flesh, which is more accurate.

Rejoice today!  Though you and I certainly act in a sinful way, you do not have a sinful nature!  You have the new nature where Jesus has made His home in you!  And you have the flesh which is not the old nature or the sinful nature.  Galatian 2:20 says it died and no longer lives, my paraphrase.

“Why is this so important?”  you may be asking?  Because it goes to the very heart of the Gospel about what really happened when Jesus died on the cross for us and when we died with him.  It goes to the core of who you really are deep within.  Are you both a sinner and a saint?  Or, are you a saint who sometimes sins?  According to Romans 6, you are a saint who sometimes sins.  When we teach this truth to people here at GLI and they have embraced it, we’ve watched God change them.  Why?  The truth always sets you free!  Will you believe the truth today so you can live freer in your own life?

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

You Can’t Meet Your Own Needs for Love, Acceptance, Worth and Security

God created you with certain needs of the heart which only He can fully meet.  I, and my staff have seen that these needs are universal, whether here in the USA, or in places like Zimbabwe, Chile, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Croatia, Ukraine or England. 

Every person needs love because God is love.  Every person needs acceptance because that is what unconditional love from God truly is.  Every person needs worth because we are valuable enough for God to create us and for Jesus to die for us.  Everyone needs security because we need to know we can’t mess up the love we have and only God’s grace in Christ can provide that.  We use the acronym LAWS to help people remember their needs.

I want you to imagine four plastic buckets sitting in front of you.  Each one has a different name on it.  The first says LOVE.  The second says ACCEPTANCE.  The third says WORTH.  The fourth says SECURITY.  God made you to live with those buckets full.  In fact, you can’t live very well unless they are full.  Yet, because we don’t know they are already full, we work hard at trying to fill them ourselves. 

What are some of the ways we do this?  We may perform so people will like us.  We may manipulate people.  We may expect people to meet these needs such as in marriage and when they don’t, we get angry and start an argument.  We may look on Facebook to see what people are saying about us.  We may try to get our kids to meet these needs by making us proud for the wrong reasons.  We may try sex outside of marriage.  We may fantasize through porn.  In other words, we try to control our personal universe by living independently of God, by looking to others or things in trying  to meet these needs.

God says it this way in Jeremiah 2:13.  For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water. (NASB)

God was speaking of Israel at the time, but it’s still an applicable illustration of what our flesh wants to try to do for us.  First, we turn away from our real Source who will abundantly satisfy our heart like living waters.  Second, we work hard to get our buckets filled but our buckets have holes in them just like Israel’s cisterns did.  (A cistern was a hole you dug into the ground and hoped rain water would fill so you could have water to satisfy your thirst.  But Israel’s had cracks in them so that the water didn’t stay very long.)

You can’t satisfy your own needs for God given LAWS, no matter how hard you work or who you try to get to meet them.  The little that you do strive for will not last and you will have to go out and work hard the next day to get it again.

If you are a Christ follower, you are united to the God who is love and He created you so He could love you.  Do you believe that?  We all get tested in this area when someone disappoints us or we disappoint ourselves.

Why don’t you thank God this week that He is the only one who can adequately meet those needs and ask Him to make them real in you?

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

Do I Have a Civil War Inside of Me?

Do you ever feel like there are two equal powers inside you with completely opposite desires?  This is a very common feeling, which seems to explain how we struggle to live a life which pleases God.

For example, when a sexually lustful thought enters your mind, it’s not that you know you shouldn’t do that, it’s also in your new heart that you don’t desire to do it. (Ezekiel 36:27)  Yet, there seems to be a sinister opposite desire to do it, though you know you will regret it.

Another example would be when a thought of not measuring up enters your mind.  Though you know God loves you and you want to stand on that reality, there is this other thought which urges you to agree that you don’t measure up and to either give up, or try harder.

What or who is this other player inside of us?  Is it the old nature, a.k.a. your old identity in Adam, or is it something else?

Romans 6:6 tells us, Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

The Greek language here, is much clearer than what we read in English.  The verb, was crucified, means that our old self (nature) was crucified once and will never rise from the grave to haunt us ever again.  It was left in that tomb where Jesus was buried.

Here’s our problem.  When we read Scripture, we see that something called the flesh is what we battle with.  And, if you are like me, I was never taught that the flesh and the old nature were different, but they are.  The old nature is gone but the flesh is not.  To muddy the waters ever more, the New International Version Bible translated the flesh as sinful nature, which sounds a lot like old nature, doesn’t it.  (They did correct most of that in their most recent edition.)

The old nature (old self or old man that remained in the grave) was the deepest core of who and what we were in Adam.  This is what made us sinfully rotten to the core. (Jeremiah 17:9)  It died and was replaced with the new nature a.k.a. our identity in Christ. (Ephesians 2:6,   2 Cor. 5:17)

The flesh is strategies we have developed from living, as if we are separated from God, though we are united with Him.  We had some of these before we were saved but we may have developed new strategies since then.

I remember a good pastor friend of my saying, “So what?  This is just semantics.  It doesn’t really matter.”  Actually it matters a lot.  Here is why.

Because we only have one nature, our identity in Christ, our new normal is a heart that desires to live a loving, holy and righteous life.  It’s not to sin, contrary to popular opinion. This means it’s normal for you to live a pure life, rather than a sexually lustful life.  It’s normal for you to live with a Biblical self-esteem, rather than a fleshly one of trying to measure up. None of us will ever do this perfectly, but it is still the deepest desire of our new heart, that is our true identity – our identity in Christ.

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

The “I’ve Always Felt This Way” Deception

 Most of my life of I felt inadequate.   These feelings went all the way back to my childhood.  Though I achieved quite a bit in life, deep down, I was convinced this was who I was… Mark, the inadequate.

My dad could fix and build anything and so could my younger brother, but not me.  I could hardly hammer a nail or saw a straight board.  Each time my dad enlisted us to help him with one of his new projects, like adding a room on to our house, I kept hearing in my head, “Something is wrong with me.  I’m not like my dad and brother.”  Little did I know at the time, this was the enemy was putting thoughts in my vulnerable child’s mind.  Each time we all worked together, they seemed to do everything just right and I did most of them wrong.  My feelings of inadequacy only grew.  It also happened in other areas of life.  Through it all, I kept getting stamped with an identity of being inadequate and every year it seemed to be confirmed more.  Do you see how feelings follow whatever thoughts we believe?

Many years later, when my Heavenly Father began to reveal to me who I am in Christ from the Scriptures, I was able to finally confront those feelings and the beliefs behind them with Biblical truth.  As I did, they were eventually replaced with peace and a confidence that I could do anything that God wanted me to do, as long as Jesus lived through me.  Philippians 4:19 says it this way.  For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. NLT  I still get those thoughts and feelings some days, but now I have Biblical truth to hold up against them.

Many people today are looking to their feelings to tell them who they are.  And if they have felt them most of their lives, they may conclude, “That is just who I am because I’ve always felt that way.”  Yet, what they don’t realize is that those feelings are being driven by lies Satan planted in their minds over and over, often going back to when they were children. 

The Accuser often plants these lies through how our family treated us growing up.   He may also plant those lies from terrible rejections we have experienced, including abuse.  Or, he can just use a normal situation, putting his twisted spin on it for us to agree with.  He will take any opportunity he can find with you, hoping you agree with him! John 10:10 records Jesus saying, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

It has become mainstream culture to define yourself based on how you’ve felt much of your life.  We see it on television, in the movies, in school, at work and in some churches.  We also see it every week in our counseling, conferences, training and groups.  By the time they get to us, many are being overwhelmed and terrified by these thoughts and feelings that they believe define them.

Feelings are a gift from God.  They are one part of our soul.  The other two parts are our mind and will.  Feelings were given by God so we could experience love, joy, peace and more.  The scary thing about feelings, which are attached to thoughts, is that they seem like they are telling us the truth, even if they are not.

When two of my cousins were teens, they thought they would prank their mom one day while at the community pool.   The oldest one got on the phone and frantically told her mom that her younger sister had drowned in the pool.  My aunt went into hysterics.  She truly believed her child was dead.  But it was a lie. My cousins thought it would be funny.   Her feelings didn’t know it was a lie, they simply responded to the thoughts in her mind that she was believing.  By the way, my cousin quickly told my aunt the truth, realizing her mom might die from a heart attack if she didn’t!  

Be aware of your thoughts and feelings and don’t let your feelings define who you are.  Let the Biblical truth of who you are in Christ define whether your thoughts and feelings are accurate.  

Sometimes, we need someone to help us let God show us the lies that our feelings are using to define us, that disagree with what God says about us.  Go to our website and see if we can help you, no matter where you live.  www.GraceLifeInternational.com

What are you going to believe this week as the Biblical truth about who you are?  What you feel?  Or, who your Heavenly Father says you are, when He transferred you from the sinner identity in Adam and into your saint identity IN Christ, giving you a NEW PAST!  Romans 5:19 is as clear as it gets on this topic when it says, For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One, the many will be made righteous. NASB

Your Identity In Christ

Because I am a child of God…

I Am Acceptable

Accepted by God   Rom. 15:7

Righteous  II Cor.5:21

A Saint   I Cor. 1:2 Eph. 1:1

Complete in Christ Col. 2:10

Not Condemned Rom 8:1

Completely Forgiven Col 2:13

I Am Significant

His Masterpiece   Eph. 2:10

Chosen   Eph. 1:4

God’s Treasure   Matt. 13:44-46

Seated in Heaven    Eph. 2:6

A New Creation   II Cor. 5:17

Designed by God   Ps. 139:13-16

I Am Loved

Dearly Loved    I Thess. 1:4

Beloved   Rom. 9:25 (Used more in the NT to describe us than any other term)

Loved Like Jesus Is   Jn. 17:23, 26

Jesus’ Friend   Jn. 15:15

Hidden with Christ   Col. 3:3

Can’t Stop God’s Love   Rom. 8:37-39

As you talk to your Father each day, remind yourself of who you are in Christ and ask Jesus to fill you with His love and to live through you in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

God is Real when Life is Hell

There are chapters in your life story when all you can say is "life is hell."  I'm talking about not just one bad circumstance but one on top of another and another and another before you can catch your breath from the first one! Or, it may be a time when what you are dealing with goes on and on and on - for months or maybe even for years, with little change or resolution. My family has been experiencing both of those to some degree. So, if you are there or you have been, as they say, "I feel ya."

 

For any of you who do not have any kind of real relationship with Jesus, my heart really goes out to you. In fact, I don't know how you make it through those tough times! No wonder people medicate themselves for the stress and pain they experience by abusing alcohol, drugs, food, etc. 

 

Please don't misunderstand me.   I don't want to come off as saying there is anything wrong with legitimately needing medication for depression,  anxiety, etc.. It may offend our religious thinking when Proverbs 31:6 says, Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. (AKJV) These were the medications of the day when it was written.

 

It may very well be that some people need appropriate medication for them to understand if they know Jesus or not. But this particular issue I'm writing to you about, goes deeper than that. It's about the ability to tap into our own flimsy strength and into an inner strength far beyond our own.  

 

For those of us who have Jesus living in us, He is the only One we can rely on when life is hell. And He is real.  Another way of saying it is, Jesus can be our inner heaven when life on earth is hell. Does that mean we should always feel peaceful and wear a smile on our face? No...we can rely on God in us and still cry sometimes or feel overwhelmed. Yet, deep in our spirit, there can be peace even when our emotions are swirling like a tornado, when there seems to be no end in sight for our problems.

 

One of the great things about the New Covenant is, it teaches us that we are united to the entire Trinity through our faith in Jesus. We were created for this. It's what God had in His heart and mind from the beginning. He created us so we could enter into the same fellowship (intimacy) with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit...the same as they have had between themselves, for all eternity. And we can also be supported by the fellowship of other believers as well.

 

One of the temptations during great times of hell on earth is to think we have to be religious.  What I mean by this is, thinking we just need to pray and say all of the right things. It's so easy to put ourselves under this kind of erroneous religious expectation, believing it's the spiritual thing to do.

 

The truth is this. Because we are united to God, Who sits on a throne of grace and not judgment, we can come to Him with all of our raw emotions, doubts, fears, anger, etc., or when we just don't have the words to pray at all. Do you know where that usually leads us?...into a place of honest trust....this allows God to draw us into a deeper fellowship with Him, in whom we are united.  Could this be part of what it means to, cast all of our cares on Him because He cares for us? (1 Peter 5:7)

 

Somehow, God remains both sovereignly in control of our circumstances, while at the same time, being relational and loving. He can use His these difficulties to draw us deeper into a fellowship with Him that we could not know otherwise. I'm reminded of this wonderful Scripture. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1: 9b-10 NLT)

 

As we are comforted by God in our own personal hell, we are able to let go of our smug judgementalism of those who suffer their own hell on earth and, instead, freely give the same comfort that God has comforted us with. (2 Corinthians 1:3)

 

If you are reading this and you don't have a genuine relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, invite Him into your life, to live in you, to forgive you. That doesn't mean if you do, everything will improve in your difficulties, but it does mean you will be able to face them relying on Him and not yourself and He will never leave you or forsake you.

 

If you do have Jesus in you, be honest with Him about how you feel and don't turn away from Him. Turn to Him. He is more than important to you. He is enough for you.   He is in you. Ask Him to send some other Christians to support you too, if you don't already have them in your life.

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!