Free to Obey By Grace

    I remember in my years as a legalistic Christian how important obedience to God was to me.  In my mind, it was THE issue upon which all Christianity stood.   My entire relationship with God was centered on obedience.  When I read the Bible, I was only looking for new ways to obey God where I wasn't obeying him.  This belief that obedience was THE issue in Christianity led me into such burnout that when I read the Bible, it gave me a stomach ache.  I don't think reading the Bible is supposed to do that! 

   I am not diminishing obedience to God in any way.  1 Samuel 15:22b says "To obey is better than sacrifice".  So, obedience is extremely important but it is not THE issue in Christianity.  THE issue in Christianity is Jesus Christ and to take it further, it is Jesus Christ in us, as Paul shares in Colossians1:27. 

   The Apostle Paul said it this way in Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ."  Knowing Jesus Christ in us through intimacy with Him is THE main thing.  Again Paul said in Philippians 3:10, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death."

  Knowing Christ and making Him known is the essence of life.  Obedience to God is the fruit of knowing Christ and making Him known. 

  Anytime we are told in Scripture to obey God, we can be sure of a few things.  First, obedience to God is an expression of our love for Him.  Second, obedience to God is not a checklist but an expression of our identity in Christ.  Third, obedience to God is completely dependent on our dependence on Christ in us.  Forth, obedience to God glorifies our Father when done by grace!

..Here is an example.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 29:18-20 to go into all the world and make disciples.  This is known as known as The Great Commission.  So it's not optional but it's also not to be done from legalism.   I remember that for many years, I shared the Gospel with those who did not know Christ because I was motivated by guilt.   As I came to understand the completeness of the Gospel, that all changed.  Now as I abide in Christ, I watch for opportunities the Holy Spirit opens for me to share.  It's so much more exciting to live this way. 

  This happened the very day I wrote this.  Ellen  and I were away speaking at Montreat College and were relaxing in town for a couple of hours.  When we visited a running store, God showed up big time!  I asked the owner how business was and he shared with us that it had been good until recently when his father died.  Ellen asked him if he had any kind of faith background.  As a result, we thought we might get to share the Gospel with him and we were ready.  It turned out that he was already a believer and God had sent us to pray for him and comfort him.  What a great way to live life!

   The complete Gospel frees us to obey God in such a way that we experience the reality of what Jesus says in Matthew 11:29-30, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

   Let's obey our God as we live out of our freedom in Christ.  We may not always feel like obeying but we can.  It's not a heavy burden but a light one because we are yoked with Christ.  We are in Him and He is in us.  Hallelujah for obedience by grace!

Live Free In Christ, Mark Maulding, 
President and Founder 
www.GraceLifeInternational.com 

 All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Free to Deal with Our Past and Our Future

  Imagine a time line with the Past, Present and Future on it. The Past is where our present pain of anger, resentment, or hurt is usually coming from. The Future is where our fear is coming from. Now that you have this visual in your mind, let me share with you some practical things we can do to deal with each based on our union with Christ.

  The best prescription to deal with your past is to forgive. The pain of our past is most often the result of the sins other people committed against us. It can also be because of our own sins. Jesus Christ has already died for the sins of our offenders and for our own sins. Ephesians 4:31 tells us to "Forgive one another just as God in Christ has forgiven us."

  If we want to make peace with our past, we need to sit down with God and ask him to show us who we need to forgive. Then in prayer, we can tell the Lord the name of the person who hurt us, what they did to us and how it makes us feel. Biblical forgiveness includes giving the hurt feelings to God and telling Him how the person or circumstances hurt you, and what it made you believe about yourself. We see David in the Psalms being honest about his hurts and what he wanted God to do, then surrendering them to God. This is forgiving from the heart. Saying the other person didn't mean to hurt you is not dealing with the hurt you've received. Forgiveness is owning the hurt and giving it to God. Then conclude your prayer with something like this. "Father, I did not deserve your forgiveness but because you forgave me, I choose as an act of my will to forgive (name of person) even though I don't feel as though they deserve my forgiveness.

  I've discovered in my own life, that I must be intentional about forgiving. I can't wait until I feel like it. When I first understood this, my list of people to forgive was very long. Since then, I've learned the value of keeping my forgiveness up to date with family, friends and coworkers.

  Regarding our future, the best thing we can do is surrender our rights. Fear or anger are often indications that we haven't surrendered a right much like when the Check Engine light comes on indicates we have an engine problem. How does something become a right we need to surrender to God? It comes from a desire that we have turned into an expectation which we have made a right.

  To surrender a right to God, we need to go to Him and ask Him what rights we are holding on to that we need to surrender to Him. Then one by one, give up each right to Him. We are exhorted to do this in Philippians 2:5-7 "Have this attitude [e]in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself..."

  A friend of mine was having a problem with over whelming fear one day when he climbed the ladder to work on his roof. After a couple of tries, he began to talk to God about it because he realized it was a spiritual problem. What God showed him was that he needed to give up the right to fall off the house if that is what God allowed to happen. Once he did this, the peace of God welled up within and he got on his roof with no fear.

  Do you need to deal with your past today? Forgive. Do you need to deal with your future today? Surrender your rights. If you need help, contact us at 704-522-9026 or mailto:info@GraceLifeInternational.com for a free consultation. We provide live counseling and Skype counseling no matter where you live geographically. 

Live Free In Christ, 

Mark Maulding, President and Founder 

www.GraceLifeInternational.com 

All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Free to Fear the Lord

   Before I understood the New Covenant, that is the Gospel, I lived with an unbiblical, unhealthy fear of the Lord. When I or my family experienced difficulty, I believed God was somehow punishing me because I had disobeyed Him and His Word in some area of my life.

   At Grace Life International, we meet people in our conferences and in our counseling who also believe that God punishes them when they sin. They are afraid of God as I was. It's very difficult to enjoy a close relationship with someone when you are afraid of them, especially when it is God.

   Over and over, we have the opportunity to help people understand that our Father does not punish His sons and daughters because the death of Jesus on the cross has taken care of that for us. 1 John 2:2 says, "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." Propitiation means that the penalty of every one of our sins was paid for, which took away God's anger for our sins.

   Yet, in the New Testament, we see that we are still to fear the Lord. For example, 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God." Since this does not mean to be afraid of God's punishment, what does it mean?

   It means that we have such a heightened reverence and awe of God, that we are overwhelmed by His beauty and power of His glory. It removes all sense of human pride, humbling us to the point where it takes our breath away, causes us to fall to our knees, or to compel us to lay flat on the floor as we contemplate the greatness of God.

   When the Apostle John saw Jesus on His heavenly throne as recorded in Revelation 1:17, he wrote, "And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead." (NKJ) John was so overwhelmed by the glory of Jesus Christ, he could not stand.

   John goes on to tell us how Jesus responded to his worship of Him. "But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, 'Do not be afraid: I am the First and the Last.'" (NKJ) Though he was overwhelmed by the glory of Jesus Christ in Heaven, Jesus did not want him to be afraid of Him even in John's worship of Him.

   Here is an exercise that will fill you with such awe and wonder that you will not be able to restrain yourself from fearing the Lord. Think for a moment how creation exists because God wanted it to exist. Think for a moment how humans exist because God wanted us to exist. Think for a moment how your very existence is because God wanted you to exist in intimacy with Him.

   Just a moment... As I was writing, I had to stop and hit my knees for a moment singing a worship song to God. All of this also causes me to love Him more and to desire with all of my being to obey my God who loves me and lives in me! Let's all live free to fear the Lord! 

Live Free In Christ, 

Mark Maulding, President and Founder www.GraceLifeInternational.com 

All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Free to Submit to Authority

   At one time, I was planning on being a pharmacist. I had been accepted into the School of Pharmacy at the University of Georgia and was already working as an intern the summer before I started. The store manager and head pharmacist was named "Terry". He was easy to work for but he did mean business when he told me to do something.

   One day, after I had completed a job Terry told me to do, he asked me why I wanted to work for his drug store. I said, "Terry, I am here to make you successful." What I meant without saying it was that I was there to submit to him because I knew that God had placed him in authority over me. He didn't quite know what to say. (BTW it's a good thing I didn't become a pharmacist because I would have accidentally killed someone!)

   What would you think if I told you that you are a "submitter" by nature? That is a made up word but it is a good one. You see, everywhere in God's Word He tells us to obey Him. He is telling us to live like who we already are in Christ. And He tells us to submit in several areas of our lives.

   To submit in the New Testament means to make a choice in our hearts and minds to do what someone over us is asking us to do. This does not mean we will always agree or that we need to submit without sometimes voicing a difference of opinion. But the key here is that we are making a choice to live under this person or institution's authority because it fits who we are in Christ and pleases the Lord.

   We are free in Christ to submit to our government, our boss, our husband, our parents when we are children and mutually to each other. Here are some Scriptures about our freedom to obey God by submitting. Romans 13:1-7; Ephesians 6:1-9; James 4:7; Ephesians 5:21-32.

   Let's be careful, though. We can submit according to the flesh because we want to people please, making it something we "have" to do. The tell-tale sign of fleshly submission is resentment. Submission, according to the Spirit, is something we want to do out of who we are in Christ, even if we don't feel like it. It's a choice we make ahead of time. This kind of submission frees us to give a different opinion at times to those in authority to see if they will change their mind. Then we can leave the results to God being willing to submit to whatever they decide.

   One of the questions about living as a "submitter" is what to do when we are asked to do something unbiblical or if someone wants to abuse us. Of course, God does not want us to submit to those situations but let's just make sure what we are being asked to do is truly unbiblical or that it really is abuse.

   If you find yourself struggling with living as a "submitter" please give us a call at 704-522-9026 and we will provide a free counseling consultation. More and more people around the country are using our Skype counseling option. Once you experience the first appointment online, it's like being there live. Of course, if you live close enough, we invite you to come to one of our five locations including our Asheville office. We also provide 3 and 5 day intensives.

Live Free In Christ, 

Mark Maulding, President and Founder 

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