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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Free to Enjoy Intimacy with God

   Having been married now for 29 years, I am enjoying some of the best intimacy ever with my wife. In the movie, "Avatar", the people from that planet had a phrase which wonderfully describes what intimacy means. That phrase translated into English is "I see you". It means "When I look at you I see the love, the feelings, all that you are and all that you are to me by just being you. We are connected on the deepest level". For us to have an "I see you" relationship in marriage or with God, barriers must obviously come down.

   One of those barriers for me was criticism. This arose in me from my childhood interactions with my dad and my misconceptions of my Heavenly Dad. I thought God related to me in an accepting or critical way depending on my obedience to Him. Erroneously perceiving that God was critical towards me, I also treated others with criticism.

   This barrier began to crumble in me as God orchestrated circumstances allowing me to fail as a husband, a pastor and a Christ follower. He was jealous for intimacy with me but I could not experience it unless I learned to depend on His Son in me rather than myself. My inability to find intimacy my way was actually my pathway to this deeper intimacy. When I could not find it anywhere else, regardless of how hard I tried, God let me know that He unconditionally accepted me. It was God saying, "I see you". Only then did I begin to experience the kind of intimacy I had always longed for.

   In the same way, the barriers between us and our Heavenly Father had to be removed so we could enjoy Him and for Him to be able to enjoy us. A better understanding of the Gospel can show us how He did just that. This can lead to a more heartfelt intimacy with God. For example, every ounce of anger God had towards ALL our past, present and future sins were removed through the death of Christ on the cross. (1 John 2:1) He will never be angry with any of us who are in Christ. Another barrier God removed was our old nature, otherwise known as our identity in Adam. God crucified and buried that nature forever. (Romans 6:6) Then He resurrected us with Christ giving us a new nature, that is our new identity which is 100% acceptable to Him. (Romans 5:1)

   When God looks at us, He sees us as totally forgiven, 100% righteous sons and daughters whom He is completely enthralled with. He has united Himself to us offering the maximum intimacy possible. We can't get any closer to God than being united to Him. The good news of the Gospel is that our sins cannot sever this intimate union of Him in us and us in Him.

   Do you see the doorway for genuine intimacy whether between a husband and wife or between us and God? It is being united to someone who unconditionally accepts us. This is the good news of the Gospel which God wishes all Christ followers knew.

   That is why we are so passionate at Grace Life International to keep sharing the Gospel with other Christians. And I'm sure you are too! Let's all pray for God-given opportunities to share so other Christ followers can know that they are free to enjoy intimacy with God.

Live Free In Christ, 


Mark Maulding, President and Founder 

www.GraceLifeInternational.com 
All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Free to Be Yourself

   Our desire for acceptance is so ingrained that we will often try to become what others want us to be in our quest to define our identity. It reminds me of a scene in the movie, "The Bourne Identity". Jason Bourne, having amnesia, is desperate to discover who he really is. He ends up opening a safety deposit box in hopes that his true identity will be revealed. As he unpacks the box, he is surprised by a stack of passports. To his dismay, each one has his photo on it under a different name. He is obviously shaken and puzzled as he realizes he has been a different person in different parts of the world under a different name each time. He leaves no closer to knowing who he is than before. We often allow ourselves to take on the identity of the people we associate with. It might be one with our family, one at work, one with our friends on Facebook and another at church.

   One blessing in understanding the Gospel of grace is that we discover we have an unchanging, unshakeable identity in Christ. We are the beloved children of God. "What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it-we're called children of God!" 1 John 3:1a As God's sons and daughters, we are holy, chosen, blameless, forgiven, accepted and so much more.

   Let me put it another way, our new nature is our identity in Christ. Our new nature is the new norm for defining us. Let that sink in. It's not our past, our successes or failures, our sins, our Biblical knowledge, the opinions of others or our performance in any area of life.

   I've been teaching a more complete understanding of the Gospel for 25 years. The more I share it, the more I realize that understanding our identity in Christ frees us to be our true selves. We are each unique in our personality, spiritual gifts, God-given talents, personal passions and even body type. Ephesians 2:10 says it this way. "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in."

   When we rest in our identity in Christ, we begin to discover and rest in our divine design. We can accept our personality type as the way God "hard-wired" us rather than wishing we were someone else. For example, if you are a high C on the DISC Profile, then God designed you to be very conscientious. Yet, many with this temperament wish they were high I's who are extroverts and tend to be the life of the party.

   It's like a lighting store our Director of Counseling, Tom Short, told us about recently. It displays every shape and color of light bulb you could ever imagine: each one showing the light within uniquely. In the same way, God designed you to be a special shape and color to express Himself through. Isn't that freeing?

   Why don't you tell your Father that you are standing firm in your identity in Christ today and that you accept yourself as the unique person God designed you to be. Christ in you is a gift to the world. Being confident in your identity in Christ will unleash the unique you to influence this world for God's glory, other's transformation and your joy.

Live Free In Christ,



Mark Maulding, President and Founder


www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Free to Live a Life that Pleases God

   If you previously burned out because of religious legalism, you may think that phrases like "pleasing God" are no longer necessary. In fact, you may consider the very idea of pleasing God simply another form of legalism. I understand what you mean. I, too, was a casualty of legalism, burning out emotionally, mentally and physically. It got so bad that when I read my Bible, my stomach hurt because I was focused on all the things I wasn't doing to please God that I thought I should be doing. After I began experiencing the freedom we have in Christ, I struggled with the idea of pleasing God because of my previous motivation. My incomplete understanding of the Gospel had tricked me into trying to please God so He would accept me more.

   Paul fiercely defends our freedom in Christ in Galatians. In fact, 5:1 says, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." Our freedom from obligatory law-based obedience is clear. We must never go back there. On the other hand, we may be tempted to use our freedom for selfish motives which can actually be destructive. Galatians 5:13-14 warns against this saying, "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other."

   It is incredibly easy to confuse pleasing God with earning God's acceptance as I once did. That is why we are so passionate at Grace Life International about helping people gain a greater understanding of the Gospel. The Gospel of grace is clear that God unconditionally accepts all who are in Christ because He has made us righteous. That is settled. When the Holy Spirit turns the light on so we see we are in the room of grace, it frees us to live a life that pleases God from acceptance not for acceptance.

   Here is the New Covenant or Gospel expression regarding this. "So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it." 2 Corinthians 5:9.

   If one of my three sons said "Dad, you are a great father and I really love you", I would enjoy that. But if I later said, "Son, I want you to take out the trash" and he said, "I'm not going to do it because I know you love me", I would wonder if his declaration of love for me was genuine. When we love someone, we want to please them, especially our Heavenly Father.

   As you read this, you have some choices to make regarding living a life which pleases God. You can dismiss it as legalism. You can do it to try to get God to love and accept you more. Or being confident of God's acceptance, you can let Christ live through as you, to live a life which please God, demonstrating your love for your Abba Father.

   We are free through God's grace to live a life which pleases God. How else can we, who have a new nature from God, express the very life of Christ in us?

Live Free In Christ, 


Mark Maulding, President and Founder 

www.GraceLifeInternational.com 
All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Free to Love

   I do not remember my dad telling me he loved me until I was 19 years old. Even then, it was a response to me telling him first. Looking back, I believe he loved me and would have laid down his life for me. As we have both gotten older, he tells me often of his love for me. He was a loving father but it was not expressed clearly for many years.

   Our resurrection with Jesus has made us loving people by replacing our old nature with a new nature. Romans 6:3-4 tells us the old selfish nature has been crucified and buried with Christ being left in the grave. 1 Peter 1:3 describes it this way, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Do you see it? Jesus resurrection = our new birth (nature).

   This new nature is not an improved old nature. It is a nature which is like God because it is from God. 2 Peter 1:4 proves this where it says "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."

   God is love. It is His nature. Because our new nature is like God, it is a loving nature. Every person who is in Christ is a loving person. Loving others does not make us a loving person. We became a loving person the moment we placed our faith in Christ. Just to be clear, our new nature does NOT make us God. "As He is in the world, so are we."

   A lady politely argued with me about this at a recent F4T Conference. Though she knew many Scriptures about our identity in Christ, she still believed the lie, "What I do defines who I am" rather than the truth, "Our identity in Christ will determine what we do." Driving home from the conference one night, the Holy Spirit filled her with such an incredible awareness of the truth that she was overwhelmed to the point of sweet tears running down her face.

   We all need to ask the Holy Spirit to renew our minds with this reality. Because our new nature is like God's nature, we are loving people. That is why when God tells us in His Word to love one another and to love our enemies, He is not telling us to do something that is contrary to who we are. He is telling us to live like Him, the One who loves us and who loves His enemies enough to sacrifice His Son for their salvation. To love like Him is to live like who we already are in Christ. In fact, to love this way is our new normal so we need to ask the Holy Spirit in us to love through us.

   Our resurrection with Christ has freed us from sin as our master (Romans 6:6), freed us from the Law (Romans 7:4) so we are free to live with passion. We have the freedom to love because that is the deepest desire of who and what we are! We have been freed to love God, ourselves and others.

   A young married man recently shared with me that God had been speaking to him about this. He told him that as a son of God, he was already a loving husband and father. He is being so transformed that he says he and his wife have the closest relationship ever in their five year marriage! What is so remarkable about this is eight months ago, he was contemplating leaving his wife. That is the freedom to love!

   Whether you feel it or see it demonstrated in your life, would you stop right now and thank God that you are already a loving person in Christ? Then ask Him to remind you of this. Like the man above, you might be surprised at how this transforms not only you but your relationships.

Live Free In Christ, 


Mark Maulding, President and Founder 

www.GraceLifeInternational.com 
All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Free from Sin's Tyranny

    A man at one of my F4T Conferences told me an all too common story of how hearing a partial Gospel left him powerless to defeat sin. You see, a partial Gospel always produces a partial Christian. Not surprisingly, he became so discouraged with his failures; he gave up on ever being a good Christian and left the church. Interestingly though, he worked in an "end of life" area of a hospital where he took every opportunity to tell these dying people about the salvation offered in Christ. Yet, he remained miserable as sin controlled his body and his soul over and over without mercy. Over time, God gave him understanding that there was more to the Gospel than Jesus died to forgive our sins to get us into heaven. I could tell by the peace I saw on his face that day that he was living free from sin's tyranny.

   This freedom from the sin's tyranny is a great freedom God has provided for us in Christ. I use the word, "tyranny", because before we were in Christ, sin held power over us much like a cruel dictator. We were compelled to obey Him when we liked it and when we didn't.

   Jesus gives us hope by saying, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:36 NIV Much like my friend above, many of us are surprised at how sin continues to control us, with some of the same old sins, even after we become Christ-followers.

   Has Jesus really freed us from sin's power over us or is that an illusion? Yes! He really has set us free. Here's how. The good news of the complete Gospel is that the part of us which was under sin's tyranny was put to death on the cross with Christ. Romans 6:6 says, "Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him..." The old self was our old nature or old identity in Adam we showed up with on planet earth.

   Romans 6:7 declares, "He who has died is freed from sin". Notice it does not say he "is free from sinning" but is free from sin, meaning free from sin as a power to tyrannize us. Sin referenced here means an unholy power in us but it is not our old nature because that is dead and gone. Sin here is like a generator whose power lines were cut in half when we died with Christ. Being resurrected with Christ as new creations, we have a new power source - union with Christ!

   This is the key to victory when we are tempted to default to that sin we often go to, especially when we are under stress. Do you know what I mean about the particular sin we end up in bed with when we are under a lot of stress? I can almost see you shaking your head "Yes". When we are tempted like this, our old dictator, sin, is offering to benevolent to us so we won't feel so stressed out.

   I have one of those sins which I tend to default to if I'm not vigilant. It's fear. Fear tyrannized my life for many years. And it still can if I allow it. Here's how I am learning to overcome it as my understanding of the complete Gospel grows.

   When tempted to be controlled by fear, I talk to the Lord saying something like this, "Father I know that I am not a fearful person in my identity in Christ. I choose to believe what you say about me rather than what my circumstances are saying. Jesus please handle this by living through me right now!"

   I pray this way based on Romans 8:15 which says, "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out 'Abba Father". NASB We all came into this world destined to live a life of fear because our old nature was as a slave of sin. The good news is that our new nature - our new identity in Christ yearns to experience the love of Abba Father which replaces more and more of our fears. Though I know this, I admit to you that it is still a mental wrestling match with circumstances screaming that I should be afraid and the Holy Spirit saying gently, "Mark, you are not a fearful person but a peaceful person whose very nature is to trust Me". This greatly helps reminding me that we are not in a power struggle with sin but a truth struggle.

   How about you? What is that sin which keeps beating you like LeBron James would if you played him in a one-one-one basketball game? Jesus HAS already freed us from sin's tyranny by changing who we are deep within but we have to believe it, and then talk to Him about it when we are tempted. You CAN overcome that sin - not by will power, rules or more dedication to God, but by the power of the cross. Be careful! You don't want to make this a formula. Sin is not defeated through a formula, rather by a relationship with God through our union with Christ. Let freedom ring!


Live Free In Christ, 


Mark Maulding, President and Founder 

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding