Mark Maulding's Blog: May 2014

Saturday, May 31, 2014

How to Know if Christ is Living through You

Years ago, I was privileged to counsel a 15 year old teen. Several sessions into our counseling, I challenged him to begin living by faith by depending on Jesus Christ to live through him. I asked if he was willing. He ruefully said, “What is that going to look like?” I smiled telling him I did not know except that it would probably look different than what he was experiencing.

A week later, he sauntered into my office and we began to discuss how his week had been. I asked him if he had been asking Christ to live through him and if so, if he had noticed any difference. He put his hand on his chin to think, then he shared the main difference was that he felt more peace. I’ve heard that a lot through the years. A lot of people would eagerly pony up thousands of dollars to experience more peace.

One of the Gospel truths we joyfully convey at Grace Life International is that not relying on Christ to live through us is the number one reason we struggle. Why? Because Jesus said, “Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from me you can’t do a thing.” TLB When He is living through us there is fruit, which includes, but is not limited to, the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 ESV

Does that mean we will always experience love, joy, peace, etc., in our emotions? I wish it were so, but that’s not realistic. We don’t always live this way and even when we do, God intends for us to live by faith and not by feelings.

So, how do we know Christ is living through us if we can’t feel the flow of His life pulsing through us? We ask Him to live through us and then live our daily lives believing He is doing so, until He informs us otherwise. That’s called living by faith.

One person became upset when they began living by faith in asking Jesus to live through them when they experienced all hell breaking loose around them. Instead of realizing our common enemy in his attempts to bring resistance to our living by faith, they wrongly concluded that asking Christ to live through them didn’t work and they ceased… for a while. Later they resumed and were encouraged.

Are you depending on Jesus Christ to live through you today? If not, start right now and live by faith. Life may get harder or easier. You may experience more or less peace. Regardless, persevere and keep living by faith for “…without faith it is impossible to please God...” Hebrews 11:6 NIV

Believe it. This is the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

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

Godly Affirmations: Value Yourself

A few years ago, a family decided to go to a yard sale just for fun. They weren’t looking for anything in particular but were drawn to a certain bowl. They pulled $3 out of their wallet and took the bowl home happy to have gotten such a good deal. They displayed it in their living room for several years not giving it much thought, probably storing items in it such as candy. For some reason, they decided to have someone assess it. As it turned out, the bowl was a 1000 year old treasure from the Song Dynasty in China. Sotheby’s estimated it would sale for $200,000 - $300,000 at auction. The actual selling price was $2.2 million!

Sometimes you don’t know the value of something until an expert sizes it up and realizes its true worth.
In the same way, we don’t realize our true value when we are using the wrong measure of our worth. We compare our abilities, performance, successes, failures, possessions, money, and people’s opinions, to name a few, to determine our worth. However, each of those is ever changing. There will always be someone better than you and someone worse than you.

In order to discover our true worth, we need to put ourselves up for auction and find out how much someone is willing to give for us. Sadly, many men and women auction themselves off to people for the very low price of sex or companionship. Jesus showed how much we were truly worth paying the price of His own life so He could redeem us. To redeem means to buy back. Romans 8:32 says, “Since He did not spare even His own Son for us but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also surely give us everything else?” LB

Though none of us is worthy of salvation, God says that you have such great worth that He gave the most valuable possession He had to purchase you, His Son, Jesus Christ. I encourage you this week to pray to God often and affirm this by saying,: ”God, because you say I have worth , I say I have worth.”

Believe it. It’s the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

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

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Godly Affirmations:Forgive Yourself

Years ago, a young couple, who were in a lot of trouble, came in for counseling. From a sheer human perspective, it seemed very unlikely that they could hold their marriage together. She had committed serious adultery producing a chasm of pain between them that neither of them could traverse. The one glimmer of hope was that their pastor had led her to faith in Christ before he referred them to me and the husband was already a believer.

After listening to their heartbreaking story, I asked them the questions we often ask couples with marital problems, "Do you want your marriage to work?" and "Are you willing to let God work in your lives to do whatever it takes to heal your marriage?" They both answered "Yes".

There was much to help them with over the next few months. One was the need to forgive Biblically based on the Gospel. We spent a lot of time understanding that the good news of the Gospel meant that Jesus had died for every sin they had committed, including her adultery and his lack of loving leadership. For example, Colossians 2:13 says, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins." Please notice that we have been forgiven (past tense) for all of our sins. The challenge is twofold. First, do we believe God has forgiven each sin, especially that one we are so ashamed of, such as adultery? Second, have we forgiven ourselves for that sin?

Some balk at the idea of forgiving ourselves saying it isn't Biblical. However, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves includes forgiving ourselves just as we would our neighbor. And more importantly, forgiving ourselves is rooted in God's forgiveness of us. Since he has forgiven us, we can forgive ourselves. In fact, it is prideful not to forgive ourselves since God has already forgiven us! Colossians 2:14 says, He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross.

When I challenged the husband to make a list of everyone and to Biblically forgive, I have to admit that I was surprised to hear from him that the person he struggled to forgive the most was not his wife, but himself. It took him several weeks before he was ready to forgive himself. Wow! But once he did, even his face looked different because the burden of unforgiveness towards himself had lifted.

Why don't you affirm this week that Jesus died for every one of your sins by sitting down with God and forgiving yourself. Tell God what you have done and how you feel about yourself, then forgive yourself. You'll be glad you did!

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Gospel Affirmations: Loving Yourself Correctly

There is an optical illusion which you may have seen. Depending on how you look at it, you see an old haggard woman or a young attractive woman. I have included the picture above. Take a look at it for a moment. Which one do you see?

The same is true of how you see yourself. You may see yourself as a messed up Christian or as a “made wonderful” Christian. Just like the picture of the woman, it all depends on your perspective. You either see yourself the way Satan wants you to see yourself or you see yourself the way God sees you.

Satan says, “You are who you are because of what you do, what you have, and how you look.” God says, “You are who you are because of what Jesus Christ has done, what Jesus Christ has given you and how you look to Jesus Christ.”

He has crucified the old you, buried the old you, and raised up a new you. He has given Himself to you so you can be united together forever. To Him you, look like His beautiful, perfect, bride clothed in righteousness. He loves you unconditionally and He wants you to love yourself unconditionally.

To love yourself in a God-centered way is to love yourself because He loves you. This week, I encourage you to pray something like this every day, even if you don’t feel it is true. “God, because You love me, I love me.” I think you will see yourself differently as you pray this.

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