What is the Key to the Christian Life? (Part 2)

   We are continuing to answer this question originally posed last week. In Isaiah 40:31 we are told that living from our union with Christ enables us to "renew" or "gain new strength" which literally means to "exchange". If we live from our union with Christ, we will exchange our strength for His strength.  

          Three beautiful word pictures are given to us to help us visualize this truth. The first says, 'They will mount up with eagle's wings".  An eagle lives in high places. He unfolds his wings and flies on the strength of the wind. Daily, we are to unfold our wings of faith and ask Christ to live through us.

          The second says, "They will run and not get tired. My wife is a runner and she tells me there is something called a "runner's high" runners sometimes experience. The runner feels so strong that she believes she could run forever. As we depend on Christ in us, we will be able to run in this life and not get as tired emotionally and mentally.

          Finally, "They will walk and not become weary." There are many places we must walk every day. We need to get out of bed each day and get dressed, get the kids ready, go to our job, walk in obedience to God's Word, and love people. Only as we depend on Christ to live through us in the power of the Holy Spirit can we walk through life and not become so weary.

          I have asked a question to thousand of people through the years.  The question is "Would you be willing for the next seven days to ask Jesus to fill you with His love and live His life through you"?  I cannot guarantee that we will feel any differently, but if we will do this by faith,  I believe we will see God work in and through us in new ways.   Will you take the challenge today?   If so, why don't you tell the Lord and ask Him to remind you for the next seven days?

          Until next time, remember He loves us!

What Is the Key to The Christian Life? (Part 1)

For many years, I was convinced that living the Christian successfully was the result of reading the Bible, praying, fasting, worshipping, serving, etc. Yet, I found myself growing more and more miserable.  My remedy?  Redouble my efforts.  The results?  Mental, emotional and physical burn out. Back then, I lived from the outside in.  I thought that those “disciplines” would make me a complete Christian

Today I do those same activities but from the inside out.   Yet, they are not the key.  Then what is the key?  Isaiah 40: 31 reveals the clear answer.  “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

First, the key is for those who wait.  The word “wait” in verse 31 is interesting in the Hebrew.  It literally means to be bound together with something or someone.  In this case, we who believe in Christ are bound together with Him.  Romans 6:5a says, “For if we have become united with Him…”  You were united with Christ the day you were saved.  The key to living a successful Christian life is Jesus living in and through us every day.  Are you daily asking Him to do that whether you feel like it or not?

Until next time, remember He loves us!  

Lies Seem True the Longer We Live in Darkness

Years ago I led a mission trip to Bermuda. Yea, I know.  You are thinking a mission trip to a beautiful island? Well, people there need a relationship with Jesus, too.     One night I was walking back to the home where I was staying during the trip. There were no lights as I walked and every sound produced fearful thoughts that I was about to be jumped. Soon, I saw a dark figure headed straight for me. My thoughts raced just as fast as my heart. "Here it comes" I thought. I am definitely going to get jumped. As this island native approached, I prepared for fight or flight.   Then...he said, "Hello" and kept walking.  I had believed lies because in the darkness of the night my thoughts seemed like reality. While believing those lies, my feelings were following right along and made what I believed seem even more true.    This story illustrates our spiritual lives. The longer we live  in darkness in any area of our lives, the more the lies in our head seem true. Let me give you some examples of common lies Christians believe. "I have to obey God for Him to bless me and love me."   Not true. We obey God because we are responding to our confidence that He already loves us and has already blessed us in Christ with everything we need to live our lives.  "What I do defines who I am."  Not true. My spiritual birth defines who I am. My faith in Christ gave me a new spiritual birth. Knowing who I am in Christ will directly affect my behavior and obedience to God."  "I am sinning and disobeying God because I am not committed enough to Him."   Not true. While we certainly need to be 'submitted' to God, being more committed to God often means deciding that we will try harder to obey Him. Instead, we need to ask Christ to live His life through us so we can obey God and His Word. Jesus said in John 8:32, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free".  If His truth sets us free then what keeps us imprisoned?  Obviously lies!   Why don't we ask God to show us the lies we are believing about Him, ourselves and others so He can replace those with His truth.    Until next time remember He loves us! 

Be Free in Christ, 

Is God Really Trying to Build Character into Us? (Part 2)

   Last week, I began to challenge the idea that God is trying to build character into us.  Why?  Because we are already perfect in our identity in Christ.

   How do we unpack this in an understandable way when we all know we do not live our lives with perfect character?  In fact, we may think that our character is very poor because of the mistakes we make and the sins we still commit.  That is why our identity in Christ is so important to understand, believe and live from.  While our behavior, thoughts and motives are not perfect, our identity in Christ is perfect, complete and full.  You see, we already have in us all of the character we will ever need.

   If that is accurate, and it is, then all of the remainder of our lives is an opportunity for that character to "come out of us".   You see,  Our Father is not trying to build his character into us.  He is working in our lives to get it out!  Yes, problems, challenges, daily life, these are all opportunities for the character He placed in us to come out.  As we trust Jesus Christ to live through us more consistently, not perfectly, we mature in our expression of that character.

   Isaiah prophesied in 61:3 that those who would believe in the Messiah would be called "oaks of righteousness".  Righteousness is the perfect character of God.  When He gives us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), He gives us His perfect character minus His deity.  We don't become little gods but we do become God's children.

   I have lots of oak trees at my home.  I have noticed that when an acorn from one of those trees sprouts up from the dirt, it is an oak tree, not a palm tree nor a pine tree.   Did you know that little seedling will never be any "oakier" than it is the day it pushes up from the ground?  The rest of its life, it will simply mature into what it already is, an oak tree.

   We are complete in Christ having all of the character we will ever need in our identity in Christ.  The remainder of our lives is one opportunity after another to mature into who we already are – sons and daughters of God!   He loves us!  

Is God Really Trying to Build Character in Us? (Part 1)

      If you are like me,  all of my life I have heard that when we experience trouble in our lives, God is trying to build character into us.   The premise behind this is that though we are Christians, we are incomplete and problems are God's way of getting his character into us.

     Let me say as clearly and as loudly as I can.  "That is NOT true!  It is a gross misunderstanding of the gospel!"  The real gospel is this.  Because we have Jesus Christ in us, our Father is working to bring the character we already have out of us!  We already have everything we will ever need to live the Christian life.   Peter wrote in his second letter in 1:3.  "...His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness..."  Do you see that?  We have everything we will ever need ALREADY.    Here is another compelling truth.  Paul wrote something similar in the second chapter of his letter to the Colossians in verse 10. "...in Him you have been made complete...".   Complete is sometimes translated with the word fullness.  In either case, the idea is the same.   In Christ, we are already complete or full.   If this is not enough for you, then let's look at Hebrews 10:14.  "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified."  

     The offering i.e. the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ has made us perfect in our new creation identity because we were set apart by God (sanctified) when he saved us.

This does not mean we will not sin.  We will.  This is speaking to the bigger issue of us being united with Jesus from the moment we believe.

     Until next time remember He loves us!

Did Jesus Have Live by Faith Like You and Me?

Did Jesus Have Live by Faith Like You and Me?

Dear Mark,    When on this earth, Jesus Christ was fully God and fully human.  Many believe Jesus performed miracles and obeyed His Father by simply doing it as God.  People will often say, "Sure Jesus was able to obey God the Father because Jesus was God!"  That is a serious misunderstanding. Jesus lived on this earth only as a human.  Though he never ceased being God, it was as if He "stuck His deity in His back pocket for 33 years." Jesus had to live like we are asked by God to live - by faith!  That is,  He daily lived completely dependent on His Father to meet all of His needs, especially for love, and to live through Him every moment.   In John 14:10, Jesus confirms this stating, "Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work." Each day we are to ask Jesus to live His life through us.  This does not mean we will live passive lives just as Jesus did not live a passive life.  It means we will be very active as go to work, relate to our family, friends and neighbors, talk with God, read God's Word, watch TV, drive our cars, fulfill our God-given purpose, obey God and more with Jesus living through us in each of these.  Why don't we decide now that we will ask Jesus to live through us every day even if we don't feel the reality of that?  He loves us and wants to live through us!   Be Free in Christ,  Mark Maulding President and Founder  Grace Life International

Does God Cause Karma?

A young couple with a very troubled marriage came to me for counseling. She had hurt her husband very deeply through her unfaithfulness.  She readily confessed her sin and was repentant.  The husband on the other hand made a statement which I have heard frequently.  He said, "I am a good person.  I do right.  Why did God allow this to happen to me?"   I gently replied, "That kind of thinking is not Christianity. It's karma."  Karma is the false belief that doing good will return good to me. 

I have found that many of us believe God operates in the realm of karma. Like this young husband, we believe doing good insures God will reward us with good circumstances.   If we believe that, then our view of who God is will disappoint us.  Obeying God is not a guarantee of good circumstances.  Don't get me wrong, there are blessings in obeying God but that does not guarantee good circumstances from God.  The gospel of grace promises us that God loves us when things are good AND when things are bad.  Roman 8:39 reminds us that nothing can separate us from God's love which is "in Christ Jesus." Where are we who believe in Jesus?  We are "in Christ Jesus". Therefore, we are always in the middle of God's love when life is good and when life is bad whether we feel it or not.  He loves us!  Would you by faith tell Him you believe that right now?
 Be Free in Christ,                                               
Mark Maulding
President and Founder
Grace Life International