Farewell Mr. Spock: Live Long and Prosper

This past week, one of the most recognized actors in our day, Leonard Nimoy, died at age 83.  Most everyone in the United States will remember him primarily for his role as the beloved Mr. Spock in the 1960’s TV series, Star Trek, a series which continues to be shown on TV to this day.  Mr. Spock was known primarily for three characteristics.  1. He lived by logic and reason with little or no emotion.  2. He could render an enemy unconscious with his Vulcan Nerve Pinch.  3. He used the Vulcan Salute accompanied by the words, “Live long and prosper”.

What most do not know is that the Vulcan Salute and the words, “Live long and prosper” originated from Leonard Nimoy’s upbringing in an orthodox Jewish home.  The salute he used in the Star Trek series was created by Nimoy himself from the Jewish Priest’s hand pose as a blessing that he saw over and over as a child.  Numbers 6:24-26 was the blessing which accompanied that sign which Nimoy translated to “Live long and prosper.”  Who knew all of that was Biblical in origin?

Another hand symbolizes the blessings God has given to us as well as Christ followers.  That hand is the nail pierced hands of Jesus Christ because of His death on the cross for our sins.  The ancient text from Psalms 22, especially verse 16, accurately prophesied that Jesus’ hands would be pierced for us, along with His feet.

Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.

This piercing of His hands which held His body to the cross provided removal of our sins.  This made it possible for God to give us the greatest blessing we will ever receive, a blessing which truly will cause us to live long and prosper, not only in this life but in the one to come.  That blessing is Jesus Christ uniting Himself to us, bringing us from death to life.  He is our life right now, according to Colossians 3:4.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Jesus Christ in us is our only functional source of life, meaning He is the well from which we are to draw life from so our earthly existence can have true meaning, making it work and then blessing others.

Included in this blessing is eternal life which is something we already possess because we are united to Jesus Christ according to 1 John 5:11-12.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

And more importantly, because we are united with Jesus Christ, we have a never ending treasure for now and for later.  Jesus Christ in us is our greatest treasure.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

How can we better enjoy Jesus as our treasure and as our functional source of life for everyday living?  We choose as an act of our will (regardless of our feeler at times)  to proclaim Him  often,  reminding ourselves that Jesus is our one and only true  source for 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!

Grace-Onomics: God’s Exchange Rate for Shame

In 2002, staff members, Sandy Witherspoon, Dan Ascher and I traveled 24 hours to get half way around the world to Kyrgyzstan so we could teach the New Covenant message to the staff of a large Christian ministry.  While there, we were all shocked at the monetary exchange rate.  For example, $10 US dollars exchanged for about 600 SOMS which would buy an enormous amount of beautiful Kyrgyz goods.

In our world, there is also an exchange rate for an issue called shame.  Shame in this case is not being ashamed of something you did or some sin you committed or the ones committed against you. This kind of shame is more about an inner sense of being defective.  It is the overwhelming thought, “Something’s wrong with me!”  It’s a cousin of guilt, feeling very similar but not quite the same.

For those outside of Christ, there truly is something wrong with them.  Their core self, called the “old self” according to Romans 6:6 is all wrong.  It is an enemy of God and evil through and through.  We can praise God, though, that once a person is placed into Christ through faith in Him, that old self is crucified with Christ and removed permanently.  Then it is replaced with the “new self”, your New Creation identity.

Yet, if we don’t constantly remind ourselves of our identity in Christ, this world we live in can mold even in us shame based messages.  It often comes from thoughts the Accuser places in our minds or from people who criticize by throwing identity statements at us like:  “You’re stupid.”  “You’re crazy.”  “You can’t do anything right…and more.”

Let’s make this practical.  Do you know the central lie you believe about yourself which your shame based identity is wrapped around?   If not, would you stop and ask the Lord to show it to you right now?  Here are a few I’ve heard through the years.

I’m not a very good Christian.

I’m very inadequate and inferior compared to other people.

I must be the best to be important.

I’m too stupid to get my life together.

Once you know what that central lie is about you, then you can let God’s truth replace it with the genuine reality about who you are.    That is you can be renewed – change how you think – about yourself.  Here are some good examples.

Who Am I? (Taken from our Grace Life Conference) 

Matt. 5:13 I am the salt of the earth.

Matt. 5:14 I am the light of the world.

John 15:1, 5 I am part of the true vine, a channel (branch) of His (Christ’s) life.

John 15:15 I am Christ’s friend.

John 15:16 I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit.

Rom. 6:18 I am a slave of righteousness.

Rom. 6:22 I am a slave to God.

I Cor. 3:16; 6:19 I am a temple of God. His Spirit dwells in me.

I Cor. 6:17 I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him.

I Cor. 12:27 I am a member of Christ’s body.

II Cor. 5:17 I am a new creation.

II Cor. 5:18.19 I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation.

II Cor. 5:21 I am the righteousness of God in Christ

Gal. 3:26, 28 I am a son of God and one in Christ

Eph. 1:1 I am a saint. (See I Cor. 1:2; Phil. 1:1, Col. 1:2)

Eph. 1:4 I am holy and blameless.

God has exchanged your shame-based identity for a grace based identity (Gal. 2:20) (Col. 3-1-4) which is dependent on what Jesus has done instead of what you have done!  Are you tired of your attempts to remove your shame through “try harder religion teachings?”   Spend time this week proclaiming the truth of who you are in Christ, and enjoy resting in the exchange of your shame for God’s grace. 

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!

Grace-Onoimics: You Can't "Out-sin" God's Grace!

I was a sophomore in high school who loved competing in basketball for our team.  I had a key to our gym and played almost every day, even during the summer.  However, everyone on the team was also required by the coach to play a second sport; so, I chose to run track.

I was 6'4" and as skinny as a bean pole but for some reason I was fast, that is fast enough to be on the one mile relay team. That meant that all four of us had to run around the track one time and then pass the baton to the next person.  I ran the third perlegon a team of very fast seniors.

One day, we were competing against a rival team and I became nervous when I discovered I was running against the fastest guy in our region.  He was a muscular football player and I wondered how this was going to turn out.  In the race, I received the baton about 30 feet ahead of him.  My plan was to run at 5/6's speed until I reached the final turn, then go as fast as I could. About half way, I heard his steps and he was gaining on me.  Now I had to change my tactics.  I needed to match his speed to keep our distance.  When he ran faster, I ran faster.  When he turned on his final sprint, I turned on my final sprint... and, it worked.  He never did catch me no, matter how fast he ran.  I passed the baton to our last runner and we won the race. It was a great day.

Romans 5:20 gives us the picture of a similar race in our own lives.  It is the race of sin versus God's grace. 

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. (The Message)

The sins of someone who has not received Christ is never greater than the ability of God's grace to save that person.   In the same way, the sins of someone who is in Christ are never greater than God's grace to keep that person 100% acceptable to God.

Some worry that if we tell Christians this amazing truth of the New Covenant, they will see grace as a license to sin.   However, our identity in Christ tells us that God's law has been written on our hearts according to Hebrews 10:16-17.  This means that God's character is the very core of who we are now.  Though we can sin, our deepest desire is to live a life consistent with who we are in Christ and who He is in us.  When people have a growing understanding from the Holy Spirit of who they are in Christ, they don't live for sin but rather they live for Jesus  - relying on Him to live through them.

I remember one man telling me a few years ago that the more he understood grace, the more he was able to live more faithful to his wife as he overcame pornography.  Another man was delighted to understand that he could now live in the freedom of holiness instead of his bondage to cocaine because of God's strong grace.  God's grace is always stronger and faster than sin!

How about you, do you believe you can't "out-sin" God's grace or do you live in fear that you might?  Let's believe the New Covenant this week according to Romans 5:20 and grow spiritually so we can live free and holy in Christ.  

          

For the Freedom of Others,

Mark Maulding 

President and Founder

                               

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

Grace-Onomics: God is Good, Even When Life is Bad

Dear Mark,  This week, my friend Dale Dunnewold, President of Grace Ministries Tennessee, is my guest writer.  He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few days ago and what he write here is amazing.  It will inspire you to live by faith more and to know Jesus in you better. I have always hated the testimonies at church, "My parents were in a accident, but they walked away from it without injury.  God is good." Especially after my mom was killed in a traffic accident 14 years ago, I wanted to scream, "Does that mean God is not good?" Going all the way back to the garden, it was never God's plan for us to judge good and evil.  That was His job.  We were just called to walk with Him.  But ever since Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, we've deemed ourselves worthy to judge even God over good and evil.  Since our wisdom is limited to this 80 year span, we make judgments that seem valid.  We can't see outside our understanding.  So if God is doing things to make these 80 years better, then He is good. If we need something to be okay in this life, and God doesn't provide it, then we feel abandoned. The disciples felt abandoned.  When Jesus died, they were left in shock.  When He had talked about being King, bringing His Kingdom, they put that in their understanding.  Obviously He had come to fix their current situation.  He was going to rise up and set them free from Roman rule.  He was going to be King in Jerusalem.  He had come to their rescue.  He was good.  But now that He was dead, their hope was gone.  They went back to their jobs.  They had trusted a fake. But He came back to life and changed all that.  He showed them what His Kingdom was all about.  Then leaving them with His Holy Spirit, they entered into an intimacy with God that had never been possible before.  Here was a Kingdom that offered complete acceptance, love, forgiveness, sonship from their Creator.  The mystery of all that Jesus had been speaking of, now revealed, Christ in you, the Hope of Glory! These men went on to face persecution and death, but they lived life with a passion that came from an intimate connection with Father God.  The Kingdom was way bigger than they had ever dreamed.  No matter how bad their circumstances became, His Kingdom was their anchor.  Jesus, not their circumstances, was life to them. So when life is unfair, when God doesn't answer our prayers, when we don't get healed, when terrorists take out Christian villages in Africa, when children are sold into slavery, where is God?  If our understanding is exhaustive and complete, then we can say, "God doesn't care." "He has abandoned us."  "God is not good."  But if our understanding is only a microcosm of God's full, infinite knowledge, let's remember that His original plan was for us to take our cues from Him. He is the One with wisdom, knowledge and insight.  He is Love. God is Good. I'm not afraid to die. That's not a big deal to me.  But the idea of leaving my family is unbearable. So my prayer is that God would heal me from this cancer in my body, whether through His supernatural touch or by the hands of doctors.  But whatever the outcome my anchor is still that God is good and His nearness is my good. Dale Dunnewold Please pray for Dale and his family.  Also, if you would like to keep up with him, he is on Facebook.            For the Freedom of Others,                                                    Mark Maulding                                                         All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but it can always be shared with others!

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

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

Grace-Onomics: Net-Worth Does Not Equal Self-Worth

Just say the name "Rockefeller" and anyone in the USA immediately equates this name with one of the wealthiest families in the history of this country.  John D. Rockefeller co-founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870 with a few others just when the gasoline industry was in its infancy.  Little did anyone realize at the time just how much the world was going to need gasoline.      As the industry began to boom, Mr. Rockefeller became the first billionaire in the world.  He eventually left the company and lived in retirement for the last 40 years of his life.  To his credit, he became the inventor of what is known as philanthropy, strategically giving a majority of his wealth away to endeavors such as medicine, education and scientific research. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller)   Eileen Rockefeller is one of his current day heirs.  She is the great granddaughter of John D.  In an interview by Mo Rocca with CBS, Mrs. Rockefeller made a statement that is worthy of every person's consideration.  At one point during the interview, Rocca said that most people would like to have the problems Mrs. Rockefeller had.  Take note of her response.   "There is no question that the privileges have way outweighed the responsibilities, the difficulties. But where I think I feel common ground with everybody watching is that we all suffer from something growing up. And it doesn't matter if we have money or don't have money; we suffer in our own ways. And the net worth of our bank account is not nearly so important, ultimately, as the self-worth."  (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/growing-up-rockefeller/2/)   For we who are in Christ, of all of the people in the world, we should jump up and say, "Yea".  Our self-worth is based not on our net-worth but on our heavenly-worth.  Everything in this world is ultimately valued by what another is willing to give for it.   For example, imagine that you had a diamond and wanted to know its real worth. Who would you go to?  You would go to an expert jeweler.  Let's say you do that and she tells you it is worth $1 million.  That would be quite a diamond, wouldn't it?  Now, ponder this question. What about us?  Where do we sometimes go to determine our worth?  Well, the reality is that we go to our spouse, friends, marital status, finances, job, sports, personal performance, religion and more in looking for our answer.  Yet all of these places are very finicky.  The best place and only fulfilling place to go is to our Creator.   When He looks at we who have placed our faith in Christ, He has made our worth clearer than The Hope Diamond.  He says, "To me, you are worth my son Jesus Christ.  I gave Him for you." Talk about authentic self-worth!  That is fantabulous times a zillion! You are the pearl of great value spoken about in Matthew 13:45-46.  "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it! "   I challenge you this week, to believe in your self-worth in Christ by agreeing with God and by confessing what He says is true about you over and over out loud.     Father, because You gave Your son Jesus Christ for me, You have proven that I have great worth in Your eyes.  So, because You say I have great worth, I agree with You that I have great worth.             For the Freedom of Others,                                                   Mark Maulding                                                      (on behalf of the GLI staff)     All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but it can always be shared with others!

Grace-Onomics: Turning Debt into Wealth

In the world of investing, there are basic economic principles you must abide by to gain more money.  For example, the average person must invest at least a little money each month if they have any hope of having any savings for retirement.   Most financial engines predict that a 25 year old who invests $100 per month, will have close to $120,000 at retirement.  I have friends older than me who have never put any money in retirement personally or through their work.  It concerns me because if you start investing $0 at age 25, you will have $0 for retirement. But in God's kingdom, there is something I call Grace-Onomics because it doesn't follow these principles at all.  In fact, in Grace-Onomics, many things are the complete opposite of economics. For example, we have spiritual debt which we all owe God.  This debt is a result of us investing our lives in sin.  Sin is the lifestyle of relying on ourselves rather than Jesus Christ according to Romans 14:23c For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.   As a result, we owe God for every moment we have not lived by faith in Him.  We can't begin to imagine how often this has occurred! When we come to faith in Christ, we give Him our investment in sin which is our debt.  Because He operates from grace, He provides returns that are the opposite of economics.  In economics, if you give your debt to your creditors over and over, you will receive the return of bankruptcy with 7 - 10 years of bad credit.  But in Grace-Onomics, for our debt we give to God, He provides us amazingly positive returns.  In this case, the return we receive is His infinite wealth of forgiveness.  His forgiveness is not only for our past debt but also any debt from our present or future sins.  This gift of infinite forgiveness did not come without a cost, though.  It cost God the death of His Son, Jesus Christ on the cross.  Hebrews 9:22 ...all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  Jesus removed our debt.  Then when He was resurrected, He brought with Him this infinite wealth of total forgiveness for us to receive. That's a pretty good deal, even better than one Warren Buffett, a genius in the investing world, could provide for you.  We give our debt to God and He returns to us forgiveness which has no limits! Some people have wealth but never enjoy it or bless others with it.  Hetty Green inherited $5 million at age 30 and turned it into $100 million by the time of her death, making her the richest women in the United States in 1916.  Yet, she apparently never enjoyed any of her wealth, nor did she allow anyone else to enjoy it.  She refused to use hot water, wash her clothes or provide her son, Ned, with decent medical care when he broke his leg.  He eventually had to have his leg amputated as a result!  (Forbes Special Issue; The 2014 investment Guide II and Wikipedia) You and I have the infinite wealth of God's forgiveness in Christ.  (Eph. 1:7)  Let's first revel in it but not only for ourselves, let's pass it along by forgiving those who owe us love but have given us indifference, owe us acceptance but have given us rejection and who owe us respect but have given us shame.  (Eph. 4:30-31)   This incredible forgiveness is not only for us but for others, too. Why don't you stop for a moment and ask God if there are any sins you haven't believed Jesus died to forgive either for yourself or others.  Then jump into the wealth of your gift of forgiveness in Christ by faith.  But don't stop there!  Ask Him if there is anyone you haven't forgiven. Then before God, tell Him you forgive them, for that "thing" they did. For the Freedom of Others,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

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

The Next Big Thing!

I have been eagerly waiting to write this blog for weeks!  First, Jesus is the next big thing, the last big thing and today's big thing at GLI, always. But in regard to our ministry to share Him, TNBT is here at GLI and it is all for your enjoyment and benefit.  Here it is!

1. We have an awesome NEW WEBSITE that will bless you and blow your mind!  Take two minutes and take a look.  Then recommend it to your family and friends who are hurting or spiritually hungry.  www.GraceLifeInternational.com

 2. You can be ministered to ONLINE by our incredible staff in these areas, regardless of where you live, whether it is California, Croatia, or the Carolinas.  To find out more, visit our new website.  www.GraceLifeInternational.com

              a. Counseling

              b. Conferences

              c. Advanced Discipleship Training

May 2015 be the year you experience grace instead of legalism, Jesus instead of religion, freedom instead of bondage, love instead of disappointment, emotional and mental healing instead of pain, Christ loving people through you to bless people, instead of the self-centeredness of the deadly self-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