All Things Work Together for Good Even If We Never See It

One of the most quoted Scriptures among Christ followers who are experiencing difficulty is Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  It gives us great comfort to realize that God is orchestrating all of the circumstances in our lives for our good. 

Let me give you a little advice, though.  When one of your friends is going through challenging times, don’t quote Romans 8:28 to them, especially when they first share with you.  They may give you a knuckle sandwich because what they need in that moment is to be listened to with compassion and understanding.  For example, that’s not what the families of the San Bernardino shooting need to hear right now.  We need to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.  There may be a later time to share this verse as you are led by the Holy Spirit.

What is this “good” this verse speaks of?  Sometimes, it’s the blessing of good circumstances.  For example, once when Ellen and I were on a date at a movie, my phone was blowing up with calls from one of my sons.  I finally stepped out asking what was going on.  He calmly informed me that he had put a pan of oil on the stove and forgotten about it when he got engrossed in a sports show upstairs.  His younger brother soon asked him, “Why is smoke coming up the stairs?”  The oil had caught on fire and the cabinets above were burning.  Thankfully, they got it out quickly with a fire extinguisher.  (Buy a fire extinguisher if you are currently raising teens!)  My wife had been wanting to repaint the bottom portion of our house.  God granted her desire when the insurance paid someone to paint it for her after all of the smoke damage.  Romans 8:28!  Right?

A few years later, the school system shocked us when they disagreed that our daughter with Downs should continue in regular classes as she had the first seven years of school.  We ended up in a very stressful, expensive legal battle.  We believed strongly that we would win in court because of federal disability laws.  We had what seemed to be strong confirmations from the Lord from reliable sources.  Yet in the end, we lost all three times.  It wiped out our meager college savings for our children.  And our daughter had to be home schooled.

In addition, our home church refused to allow her to attend the teen girls’ small group in our neighborhood, regardless of how much we appealed to them.  In the end, Bekah used to cry about not being able to attend school with her friends.  And, she cried because the church leadership refused to allow her to attend the girls’ small group.  She would have done fine in both.

Though we are not bitter and have forgiven all, 10 years later, I don’t see Romans 8:28 for her.  In fact, I see what appears to be the opposite.  She lost a lot of her ability to verbally communicate, write, have friends, mature socially and grow in her love for Jesus.  Yet, I want to proclaim loudly that Romans 8:28 is still true!  It’s not dependent on whether we see it.  In fact, in verse 29, He tells us that the most important “good’ God does is to conform us to His image.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.  Jesus has used that story to help many trust that Romans 8:28 is true for them when they see it and when they don’t.  That’s a form of being conformed to His image

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!

Answering an Objection to My Blog: A Christian Can't Break Fellowship with God

I received an email strongly objecting to a blog I wrote recently.  It was the one stating a Christian Can’t Break Fellowship with God.  The concern was two-fold.  First, that the teaching of complete forgiveness will lead a person to stop confessing their sins to God and into a belief that it’s Ok to sin.  I addressed that part last week.  If you missed it, go to www.MarkMaulding.com and check it out.

The second strong concern stated that we definitely lose our fellowship with God when we sin.  Please join me below in my response. (BTW, I’d much prefer someone to email me with their concerns about something I write rather than just opting out.  At least I can address it.  Of course, I always enjoy emails people send stating how much they were encouraged by the blog, as well.)

I am unaware of any Scripture which says a Christian breaks fellowship with God when he/she sins.  If that were the case, every Christians would constantly be breaking fellowship with God.  Here is why I say that.  Romans 14:23 defines sin as not living by faith, that is, not living dependent on God.  If we are not depending on God, we are depending on our flesh.  The context of that verse is certainly in the context of eating meat sacrificed to idols but it is a truth which transcends that issue.  Any time a person lives even one second depending on their flesh, rather than God, that is sin.  This means we all sin a lot more often than we are aware of. 

The word fellowship means partnership or partaker.  With this in mind, fellowship with God is two-fold.  The first has to do with our wonderful position of our union with God the moment of our salvation.  1 Corinthians 6:17 says, But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.  That union cannot be broken by a Christian’s sin.  There is a common belief that when a Christian sins, some kind of barrier comes between that person and God until that sin is confessed to God.  In the New Covenant, God removed forever any barrier between the believer and Himself when Jesus Christ died and was resurrected according to Hebrews 10:17.  Then He says, "I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds." To lose fellowship with God would mean to lose your salvation.

The second meaning of fellowship is our experience of intimacy with God.  This is the enjoyment we have when we commune with God.  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14.  Can we stop enjoying our intimacy with God?  Yes, absolutely but it’s not because He recoils from us when we sin.  When a Christian sins, they are not experiencing fellowship/intimacy with God in that moment at all.  They are living as if they are separated from God though they are not.  If we could lose fellowship with God, it would mean we lose our union with God.  We can’t be separated from our God with Whom we are united.  Otherwise, we would be jumping in and out of Christ all day long.  And He would be jumping in and out of us.

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!

Teaching Complete Forgiveness Leads Christians to Sin?

God knew that the teaching of His complete forgiveness of our past, present and future sins would appear to be a license to give Christians the OK from God to sin.  That is why He clearly addresses it showing the complete opposite.  Let’s look at why the Gospel of Grace leads us to live a righteous life instead of a sinful one.

God’s grace is greater than the sins of any unbeliever.  Romans 5:20-21  says, The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God is clearly saying that His grace is greater than the sin of the most despicable sinner so that he/she can be saved.  In 1Timothy 1:12-16 Paul shows this saying God saved him as the foremost of sinners.  His point was that if God could save a persecutor of Christians to the point of giving hearty approval of the murder of Stephen in Acts 8:1, He could save anyone.

God’s grace is also greater than the sins of any Christian.  No Christian can commit any sin Jesus did not already forgive through the death of Jesus according to these Scriptures:  Colossians 2:13, When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.  Ephesians 1:7, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians 4:32, Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.  Hebrew 8:12, “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 10:12, But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.  Hebrews 10:14, For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.  Hebrew 10:17-18, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

God knows that His complete forgiveness is going to appear to mean that a Christian can just go out and sin because of grace.  He answers why this is absolutely not true in Romans 6:1-2, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  God’s answer is that anyone who believes God’s forgiveness gives a Christian permission to sin is dead wrong and doesn’t understand the Gospel completely.  The reason grace is not a license to sin is that we died to sin and were made alive to Him.  Romans 6 spends the remainder explaining what this means.  God tells how our old nature, our sinful identity in Adam, which loved to sin, was once and for all put to death with Jesus on the cross.  He shows clearly that we are no longer a slave of sin but of righteousness.  In other words, a complete understanding of grace will never lead the believer into sin but will give him/her the desire and power to overcome it.  Another way of saying this is that our new nature, our identity in Christ, hates to sin and desires to live a righteous life which glorifies God. 

Neither I nor Grace Life International teach or believe that God’s complete forgiveness is a license to sin.  To the contrary, we believe and teach that when the Gospel is understood in its entirety, a person will see their sins more clearly and confess them to God (meaning they are in agreement with God that they did not act like who they are) being assured of their forgiveness by God through the blood of Jesus.   We also believe that God’s grace will lead a person to turn from sin and live a righteous, holy life consistent with who they already are in Christ and Who Christ is in them.  That’s repentance leading to real freedom. We see freedom from all kinds of sins happen every week at GLI from believing the truth.

Truth sets people free.  Error keeps them in bondage.

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!

Why Halloween May Not Have Been Demonic

Recently on Halloween, millions of kids dressed up to go from house to house in hopes of getting enough candy to give them a stomach ache for three days.  It seems like innocent fun but many Christians wrestle with whether to let their kids participate.

Here are a few questions at play on this issue.  Am I teaching my kids to worship Satan by letting them do this?  Am I personally worshipping Satan by letting my kids do this?  Will I open my kids up to demonic attacks?  Every parent must answer these questions if they are to live a life pleasing to the Lord in this area.  Ellen and I had to do this ourselves when our kids were very young as we were coming out of legalistic Christianity into our freedom in Christ.

What does the New Covenant teach us about Halloween in the Bible?  The closest passage to this is found in 1 Corinthians 8.  In this case, the issue was whether or not a Christian could eat a grilled steak whose meat had been sacrificed to idols.  It’s an eye opening read because the Holy Spirit does not say through Paul that they shouldn’t do it because it would displease the Lord or open them up to demonic attacks. He comes at it from a perspective of freedom in Christ and loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Paul made clear the knowledge of the Gospel and how God provides freedom for some Christians to do this, but not all.  He hedges a little by saying in verse 4.  For even if there are so called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him: and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.  The first part might be a reference to the demonic world.

The Christians who knew this and believed it were simply living out their freedom in Christ.  Yet, Paul warns that they may need to put the brakes on their freedom for the sake of loving a Christian who doesn’t understand that freedom yet.  Because, if they saw them eating in the temple and went and did the same without understanding our freedom in Christ, it would be sin for them.  Love sometimes limits our public freedom in Christ.

Similarly, many of you may have a completely clear conscience before God that your kids can go trick or treating.  Others of you are not there yet and for you, no matter how many of your Christian friends let their kids do this, you shouldn’t. Why?  Because for you, it would be sinful.  Take your kids to a local church instead as a wonderful alternative. 

Christians who live free in this area, don’t invite your friends who don’t.  Show them the love of Christ and don’t make them stumble in their conscience before God.  And Christians who don’t believe you are free to participate in Halloween, don’t condemn those who do.  No matter which of these camps you fall into, your decision will be pleasing to the Lord according to 1 Corinthians 8 as well as Romans 14:1-22 through 15:1-12 as long as you live in love towards those in the opposite camp.

Whether you think it is safe for your kids to get candy from your neighbors is a different matter which each parent must weigh as well.  I’ve simply written from a New Covenant perspective.

Concluding words:  I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. Romans 14:14

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!

A Thousand Stories I Wish I Could Tell

"A Thousand Stories I Wish I Could Tell"

By Mark Maulding

Written September 24 and 25, 2015

Read October 10, 2015 at GLI's 20 Anniversary Celebration

A thousand stories, I wish I could tell

Of those who have come to us with their own personal hell.

Each story has a familiar ring

Of sadness, rejection, disappointment and sting.

As they trust us with their inner most shame filled thoughts,

We often hear, "You're the only one who knows this though for years for someone like you I've sought."

There are often long-time overdue tears,

That have come from pent up anger, hurt and fears.

As they open their hearts to us, they are wondering inside,

"Do you think I'm crazy or is there really hope for me in Christ?"

When their story we've compassionately heard,

We show them that there is hope to be found in God's Word.

Living life in their own strength has caused many scars,

Because the real culprit called the flesh has put them behind prison bars.

They sit and listen wanting Jesus to be their answer,

But they are skeptical since their turmoil feels like an incurable cancer.

At some point, the light begins to dawn in their heart,

Maybe Jesus is better than I knew from the start.

Complete forgiveness is hard for most to swallow,

When all they've ever been told is "You'll have to confess your sins again tomorrow."

Yet, God's work on the cross in Christ was so complete,

Every sin is forgiven before they commit it which brings them great relief.

And better yet, when we show them the cross has another side,

Their death, burial, and resurrection with Christ causes many to cry.

When they understand that their broken, sinful identity has been crucified,

Great joy arises as they embrace their true, righteous identity in Christ.

"Why haven't I heard this before?" is often shared with a shout.

"Its right here in God's Word, which leaves no doubt."

But the story of the Gospel gets even better again,

When they see they have died to the authority of the law and the power of sin.

Living united with God they finally begin to comprehend,

Was God's desire for all, including them from the beginning to the end.

When we help them become more familiar with hearing God's voice, it brings great comfort causing them to rejoice.

Daily reliance on Christ in them for inner strength,

Soon turns into Spirit produced fruit, blessing others they meet.

Though life for many remains hard year after year,

They now know they are not on their own though Satan might sneer.

Be assured, no one ever gets all of living by grace just right,

But over time, the life of Jesus in them comes more and more to light.

Then when that final enemy named death inevitably comes,

On the other side, they will hear my child and my servant, well done, well done.

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

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

10-22-15 Jesus is the Answer in Counseling

Christians are no different than non-Christians in that they have emotional problems, addiction problems, marital problems, parenting problems and more.  Christians are very different than non-Christians in that they believe, or at least want to believe that Jesus is their answer.

However, when a Christian goes to a trusted spiritual advisor, many times they are told that they may need something besides Jesus to help them.  I will concede that if a person has a brain chemistry problem causing their depression, etc., God can certainly use a good doctor to prescribe helpful medication.  But after 25 years of counseling Christians, I, along with my staff, can honestly say that Jesus does heal, free and restore the wounded soul.

Would it be surprising to learn that the Gospel itself promises this?  When Jesus stood in the synagogue to inaugurate His ministry, He made this unmistakably clear. Listen in your heart and mind to what He read about Himself and the Gospel in Luke 9:17-19.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”  

Jesus says He came to heal the brokenhearted.  When Jesus saves a person, He not only forgives them, indwells them and gives them a new identity, He also desires to heal those with a broken heart.  A broken heart is a fractured heart.  It can be brought on by a severed relationship, the sins of others against us or our own sins.  A broken heart is not punishment from God but it can be the consequences of sin.  It can also include the sickness, pain and difficulty of living in this fallen world.  It may present itself as anger, depression, anxiety, rage, panic attacks, relationship problems, disappointment, discouragement, irrational fears, hopelessness, constant frustration and more.

But, be encouraged!  Jesus is the answer you’ve been looking for and at GLI, our specific mission from God is to listen to your heart, then share with you God’s amazing heart for you.

When we first started GLI, a couple of pastors from one of the large local churches made an appointment to check us out.  They asked me all kinds of very good questions.  Finally, I looked them both in the eye with a smile and said, “Jesus really is the answer in counseling”.  One of them jumped up and almost shouted, “I always knew that was true but I could never find anyone who believed it.”  We believe it at GLI and have 1000’s of transformed lives to prove it.

Maybe you’ve tried everything you know to get help, but you are still hurting.  You may be like the lady who went to 10 other counselors before she came to us so Jesus could heal her broken heart.  If you live too far away, we can counsel you over Skype like we do so many others. Or, we can refer you to someone in your area.  Just email us at info@GraceLifeInternational.com or call us at 704-522-9026.  

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!

Legalistic Discipleship VS Grace Discipleship

A lot of discipleship may be rooted in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Let me explain what I mean.  The knowledge of good and evil passed down to every human being from Adam and Eve has programmed us to think a certain way.  The world thinks, “I’m a good person if I do good things.  I’m a bad person if I do bad things.”  The Christian world thinks, “I’m a good Christian if I do the good things the Bible says to do.  I’m a bad Christian if I sin.” All of that thinking is law-based instead of grace-based.

Discipleship often has the goal of Christian behavior modification using Scripture to exhort a Christian to act good instead of bad.  The focus is on changing behavior, not replacing the knowledge of good and evil thinking with Tree of Life thinking.  In one sense, you might say discipleship is trying to get Christians to jump from the bad side of the tree to the good side.  But the good side is still the same tree and the fruit is legalism.  I don’t think those who disciple this way have evil motives or are aware of what they are doing.  They just do it because that is how they were taught. I was once one of them!

God wants our discipleship to be rooted in the Tree of Life so He can produce the fruit of the Spirit.  This means, He wants to replace our stinking thinking with grace based thinking.  No wonder Paul didn’t tell the Roman Christians to do anything for the first eleven chapters! He strategically explained the Gospel of grace line by line.  He only told them to believe and yield to God in Romans 6:11 and 14  Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Then, in chapter 12, he tells them to let Christ live through their bodies and to live with a renewed mind.  What he meant was, he wanted them to let the clear Gospel message he had written to them push out their knowledge based thinking with grace based thinking.  After making it clear to them that they have a new identity in Christ which loves to please God, he tells them how believing this will change their behavior to what pleases God.

Do you ever find yourself tired of trying to change your behavior to line up with Scripture?  Are you worn out?  That’s what burned me out 25 years ago until God broke through my garrison of legalistic discipleship and began to replace it with grace discipleship.  The first one almost killed me.  The latter has given me a life of freedom, I could have never imagined, which I am still growing in.

I desperately want you and/or someone you care about to hear about grace discipleship. Please accept my invitation to join me in person or by Skype, Wednesday night, October 21, from 6:00-9:00pm.  I will be teaching Romans 5, one of the greatest passages of Scripture on grace discipleship in the entire Bible.   It will blow your mind and blow some of the legalistic thinking out of your mind too!

To join me, you must register so we can make sure you get the notes.  And, it’s FREE!  To register, simply email our Director of Training at Sandy@GraceLifeInternational.com.com or call us at 704-522-9026. 

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!

Can Christians Break Fellowship with God?

Have you ever heard that when you sin, you are no longer in fellowship with God?  It was one of the most common teachings I heard growing up in church, as well as with the Christian organization I was involved with in college.  

The picture painted was that your sin put up a barrier between you and God so that He couldn’t be close to you or bless you.  In fact, He might even punish you by making bad things happen in your life until you got right with Him again.

The solution always given was for you to confess your sins to God and to be very sincere about it so that God would know you really meant it!  Then, you could be assured that you were forgiven again. That resulted in you being back in fellowship with God.  However for years, I often wondered if I had convinced God that I was sincere enough to be forgiven.

The idea that a Christian can break fellowship with God comes from an Old Covenant mindset that if you will obey God, He will get close to you; but, if you don’t, He will turn away from you.  See Deuteronomy 28.

The good news is that none of that is true since we are people under the New Covenant.  Here is why:

1. We are united to God.  You can’t get any closer to God than that and sin doesn’t break that union.  1 Corinthians 6:17

2.  All your sins are already forgiven whether you confess them or not.  See Colossians 2:13 and Ephesians 4:31-32.  (Though it’s fine and probably healthy to tell God when you sin, that doesn’t get you more of His forgiveness.)

3. We are not under the law of blessing and cursing laid out in the Old Covenant.  We are already blessed to the max with every spiritual blessing in Christ, according to Ephesians 1:3.

The word for fellowship in the New Testament is the word we use today for intimacy.  John wanted the people he wrote to enjoy this intimacy just as he did.  1 John 1:3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

When we sin, we do not lose our fellowship with God, that is, our intimacy with God.  It’s impossible because Jesus has finished everything required by the Father to get us into fellowship with Him and to keep us there.  It’s totally based on Jesus’ performance on the cross, not ours.

Enjoy your fellowship/intimacy with God without fear that you will break fellowship with Him.    You can’t!   You can relax and live in confidence each day as a fully forgiven, permanently united, free from the law and sin, child of God, because The Cross worked! 

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's Answer to Survival of the Fittest

At age 13, I distinctly remember one conscious thought which gripped me through high school and beyond.  It was this.  "I want to be the best."  I wanted to be the best dressed, the best basketball player, the best looking, the best student, the best classmate, and the best son.  I failed at most of those, but not all. For the most part, I wasn't the best at all.

At age 19, when Jesus became more real to me than He'd ever been, I wanted to be the best Christian, too.  In fact, I so much wanted to be the best that I wanted God to look down on me and say, "You're the best Christian I've ever seen, except for maybe Paul."  And I wanted others to at least think it.  It seemed to work for several years but eventually, it all came crashing down around me. 

At age 31, this drive to be the best drove me into the ground.  I kept failing and the more I failed, the less I thought of myself.  I ended up deeply depressed, discouraged and miserable. Underneath my pursuit to be the best was really the drive to be important, that is valuable.  The desire to feel valuable is actually a God-given need. 

My problem?  I had been born with the survival of the fittest mentality.  Survival of the fittest is the thinking that only the best are truly valuable in this life.  It's not just about biology but it's about theology.  This thinking is a lie.  Jesus said, The last will be first, and the first will be last.  (Matthew 20:16) 

This dysfunctional thinking is in all of us.  That is why people relegate themselves to one of three categories.  They believe they are in the successful crowd, the failure crowd or the ordinary crowd.  

This survival of the fittest didn't start with Darwin.  It started in the Garden when our great, great, great, grandparents ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  "But you must never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because when you eat from it you will certainly die." (Genesis 2:17)  When they did, their mind was immediately filled with "anti-grace" thinking.  "If I perform well, I am a successful person.  If I don't, I am a miserable failure."  It was a real tree which dispensed real knowledge which has poisoned the human mind of every person ever born. 

God's answer to the survival of the fittest is the survival of the weakest.  We have no strength at all to fill our need to feel valuable.  Only Jesus has been able to do this for us.  In His weakness, dying on the cross, He succeeded in making us what we have always wanted to be - important regardless of our performance.  See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are!  But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know Him. (1 John 3:1 NLT)

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!

Obssessive Christianity Disorder

In his book, The Naked Gospel, my friend, Andrew Farley, writes about a debilitating disorder that is spreading among many Christians.  It's called by the same title as the first chapter of his book, Obsessive Christianity Disorder.  Let me share a few excerpts from that chapter.

MEDS, THERAPY, AND A MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY - THESE WERE the solutions I was offered. One counselor suggested that my condition wouldn't change for the rest of my life and that I'd always need medication.  As desperate as I was, I just didn't buy it. There had to be some other answer to my problem.  After trying several Christian therapists, each of whom employed a different approach, no one could alter the patterned behaviors I was stuck in.

After all, obsessive Bible study and street evangelism are not your run-of-the-mill symptoms. (p 19)

Soon all of the exertion with no payoff took its toll. I began spiraling into a deep depression.  A few months later, I found myself lying on the floor of my apartment, sobbing for hours on end: "God, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do, and I still don't feel any closer to you. In fact, I feel worse than ever!  How could this have gone so wrong? I can't see any way out.  Help me!"  (p 22) 

It's been seventeen years since I lay sobbing on the floor of that apartment. Today, I wouldn't trade my relationship with God for anything. In fact, I would wish my relationship with him on everyone! Through my desperation, my surrender to God for real answers, and my willingness to leave behind everything I had presumed before, I was introduced to the "naked" gospel. (p 23)

Maybe you can relate though your story may have different details.  It's a story we hear every week at Grace Life International. Christians living in a state of "have to Christianity" instead of "want to Christianity."  And the solution is that same "naked gospel" with no man-made additives.   We share this to help other Christians experience the internal rest God always wanted us to have from the start.  After all, we are human beings, not human doings!

Andrew Farley has written four other books, is a pastor, a nationally known respected teacher, and has his own radio program on Sirius XM radio.  He will be the keynote speaker at Grace Life International's 20th Anniversary Celebration on October 3rd.   I invite you to be our guest that evening.  You will not only hear him speak but will have great fun as well.

To sign up and for more information, Click Here

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!

Eat, Sing and Celebrate God’s Work at GLI’s 20th Anniversary

A little over 20 years ago, I found myself wrestling with terrible doubt and fear about starting Grace Life International in Charlotte, NC.  One of the ways the Enemy had controlled my life in years prior was to insert doubt into my mind whenever I made a big decision.  During that period, I was always worried that this doubt might be God telling me not to go forward with a decision.  It hadn’t happened in a long time but here it was again and I was paralyzed by it.

As I slept that night, I had a very vivid dream.  In it, I was standing in the kitchen of my mother-in-law, Joanne Taylor telling her about my debilitating doubts as to whether I should go to Charlotte to start this ministry.  She looked at me with a serious look in her steel blue eyes and said with conviction, “You know that’s just Satan, don’t you?”  When I awoke the next morning, I knew God was telling me that my doubts were from Satan and that He definitely wanted me to go to Charlotte.  I never looked back!   For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

My wife and I then began to make our plans to leave the Atlanta area with our young children in tow (ages 6, 5, 3 and 1) to start Grace Life International.  As those plans unfolded and I drove back and forth every month preparing for the start, I had this incredible sense of destiny deep in my heart which excited me.  Yet, this destiny was a mystery waiting to be revealed.

Now as I look back over these first 20 years, I realize more than ever that the destiny was all of the people He was going to heal, free and restore through sharing the freedom of the complete Gospel with Christians.  Let me be more specific about this.  This sense of destiny He placed in my heart included you!  He had you in mind when He led me to start Grace Life International.  Little did I know, He was going to grow us from four amazing people on staff to 40 fantabulous staff with local, national and international influence?

On this 20^th year, I want to invite you to celebrate with us on Saturday, October 3.  It is a free indoor/outdoor event which will include a pig-pickin, worship, personal stories and nationally known speaker, Andrew Farley  (www.AndrewFarley.org).   All of us really hope you will attend.   And if you can’t, you can still celebrate.  Just click the “I cannot attend but...”

To learn more about the event and how to register for free, click here http://glionline.givezooks.com/events/new-event-test-2

Warmly 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 See Life in Monochrome or in Color?

Have you seen the video of the guy with colorblindness who receives a life changing birthday gift from his parents?  It is a pair of EnChroma Colorblindness Glasses invented by glass scientist Don McPherson.  He created them to help surgeons distinguish tissues and for eye protection against lasers.  Later, he accidentally discovered they gave people with colorblindness the ability to see life in color.

In the video, the moment the man places the glasses over his colorblind eyes, he immediately struggles to find the words to describe what he is seeing for the first time in his life (except for a few choice expletives which you can overlook).  Then this big tough guy starts shaking and crying at the joy and wonder of it all.  His life has just been changed forever.

We see this same response at GLI when we share in our counseling and teaching that God has provided new spiritual glasses called the New Covenant.  Many of them also see life in color for the first time.  When they do, they may cry, shake, laugh, shake their heads, and more.

Sadly, the majority of Christians have never experienced the joy of living from the New Covenant Gospel.  So, unfortunately they only see their Christianity in monochrome which they think is normal. That’s because most of their Christian friends do too.  This leaves their view of God, themselves, others, and how life works dim at best and very dark at worst.

Want to put on your New Covenant Glasses?  Here they are:

 1.  You have Jesus in you, not just on His throne in heaven.

However, you need a revelation from God so you can go beyond this fact of Him in you, to living by faith in Christ in you.  See Ephesians 3:14-21.  You are wearing these glasses if you enjoy fellowship with Christ in you and are asking Him to live His life through you?

2.  You are under grace, not the 10 Commandments.

When you wear these glasses, you realize you have two things which are much better.  You have Jesus in you to live through you in the power of the Spirit. (Romans 7:4)  And, you have the law written on your heart, i.e. you have a perfect identity in Christ according to Hebrews 10:16-17. 

3.  You are a saint, not a sinner.

       When you wear these glasses, though you sin, you still see yourself as a saint, not a sinner.  Romans 5:19 makes this incredibly easy to see in full color. 

4.  You are already forgiven for all sins, not forgiven one by one. 

       When you wear these glasses, you understand you are already forgiven before you ever sin according to Colossians 2:13 and Ephesians 1:7. 

5.  God accepts you unconditionally, not just because He is kind. 
        

       Wearing these glasses helps you see that God has placed His righteousness in your identity in Christ.  This has made you unconditionally acceptable to God. You can’t mess it up! See 2 Corinthians 5:17&21.

God wants you to see in full color!  And, so do we at GLI. 

We can help you put on these glasses just by attending a Grace Life Conference.  The next one is September 11-12 and you can attend in person or virtually.  Sign up on our website at www.GraceLifeInternational.com.  Pastors and spouses come free.

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's Cure for a Shame-based Identity

Have you ever heard that little voice in your head saying "There must be something wrong with me."  It usually speaks to us after a mistake, a sin, or a rejection from someone.  It's the lying voice of the enemy of course, but it sounds a whole lot like our own.  John 8:44c says about Satan, Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

That thought, that voice, that accusation is the spirit of shame.  It's not the same as being ashamed of something I did.  This is different because this is about who I am.  This kind of shame is a gnawing feeling, deep down that says "I am defective."

It's very closely related to condemnation. Condemnation whispers to us that because of what we did, we are messed up in the core of who we are.  When we sin, the Holy Spirit points out to us that we didn't live like who we are in Christ.  On the other hand, condemnation is relentless in trying to convince us that our identity is fatally flawed. It leads us away from the truth of our identity in Christ to an identity defined by failure.  If we listen to it long enough, it will eventually tell us that we are probably not a Christian at all!

That is why we all love Romans 8:1: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  It's fascinating that this verse follows a chapter in which the Apostle Paul shared with us how much sin defeated him, even though he hated doing it every single time!  Now that's encouraging.

We are not under condemnation because God crucified our shame-based identity in Adam which genuinely was defective and messed up.  Then He buried it in the grave forever with Jesus according to Romans 6:6. Knowing this that our old self was crucified that we should no longer be slaves to sin.  Then He resurrected us as new creations, with a grace-based identity in Christ. God says we are now perfect according to Hebrews 10:14. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

No way does this mean we will live sinless lives.  It does mean that our sin, mistakes, upbringing, abuse, or anything else cannot define us.

Do you operate from a shame-based identity because of your past? 

Do you operate from a shame-based identity because of your family? 

Do you operate from a shame-based identity because of that sin you can't stop doing?

Do you operate from a shame-based identity because you are divorced?

Do you operate from a shame-based identity because (you fill in the blank)?

God has crucified your shame-based identity and exchanged it for a grace-based identity in Christ.  Galatians 2:20 speaks to this, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Why don't you pray right now and tell God that you are choosing to believe that your shame-based identity died on the cross with Jesus and you are now embracing your grace-based identity. Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  (2nd Corinthians 5:17)

And as always, we are here to help in person or virtually.  Why don't you at least have a consultation with us?  Life is way too short to live under the oppression of a shame-based identity.

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!