Is Your Life "Rooted" in God's Love?

You may be surprised to learn that I have a degree in horticulture.  Though I do not use that degree, I do know some things about plants and trees. Take Azaleas for example.  There is nothing more beautiful in the spring than a yard full of these colorful flowering plants. One of the greatest displays of them is often seen on television at the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.

One of the fascinating tricks to growing beautiful healthy Azaleas is to make certain the soil they are rooted in is acidic. The acid must be the correct kind or it will destroy the roots which will then wither the plant possibly killing it.

In Ephesians 3:14-20 there is a terrific prayer I often pray for myself, my family, my staff and all those we minister to.  The prayer is basically one where we are asking God to give Christians a deeper revelation of Christ in us.  One of the results of this will be that we will be rooted and grounded in God's love for us.

Ponder the picture God gives us of roots from our soul being in the best soil they could ever be in, the perfect soil of God's love.  To have the roots of our soul drinking deeply from God's love is indescribable.  I not only say that from personal experience but mainly from the conclusion of that prayer.

So where are the roots of your soul today?  Here is a reality check. If those roots are not first and foremost in God's love, then they are somewhere else vainly attempting to get our God-given need for love met in a person, a possession or a position.  When we live like this, over time our soul withers and we may even feel like we are dying.  No spouse, child, parent, date, friend, house, car, clothes, job or anything else can provide our soul with the love we need.  Only God Himself, Who is love, can constantly nourish our soul with the perfect kind of love we need.

All of us at times seek to meet our deepest need for love in the wrong place.  This will eventually lead us into disappointment, emptiness or frustration.  Don't get me wrong, it is great to be loved by someone else, to enjoy our possessions, and to look forward to our job.  The reality is that we can actually enjoy those more when we are rooted in God's love; then we can be OK when those sources dry up.

Why don't you pray that prayer in Ephesians this week for yourself and those you care about?

Until next time, remember He loves us.

Live free in Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com 

Do You Accept Yourself and Is It Biblical?

When your life becomes difficult and you believe you just have to talk to someone, what kind of person do you look for? Most of us not only want someone who may have wisdom for our situation but we also search for a person who will accept us no matter what we tell them.

Maybe we believe God loves us and are able to rest in His love for us. Maybe you have even gone so far as to really believe your Heavenly Father accepts you regardless of what you do. But have you taken the next step? Do YOU accept yourself?

Just as it is often more difficult to forgive ourselves than it is to forgive others, it is also more difficult to accept ourselves even though we accept others. This is not only true for the typical Christian; it is also true for Christian leaders. How do I know? Well, first, I was one of them many years ago. I have not been a pastor of a local church in 20 years but I now spend some of my time mentoring, counseling and coaching pastors. Inevitably, this topic rolls around during our conversation. Christian leaders have just as much difficulty accepting themselves as the rest of us. So, why do we struggle so much with this?

It is because we are focused on the wrong criteria for accepting ourselves. Here is what we tend to do. We examine our lives and think about the positive and negative things we do. If we are honest, we hope that we can "score ourselves" in the positive. Some of us inflate that score in our minds so we can accept ourselves. That is prideful. Most of us realize that regardless of the score, there are things about us that we just don't like. So we just cannot accept ourselves.

Let's change our focus. If you have read my previous devotions, hopefully you are convinced God accepts you because He made you acceptable when He gave you His righteousness. It is His acceptance of us that gives us the ability to accept ourselves! Because He accepts us, that is the basis of us accepting ourselves.

Here is what I want you to do this week. I want you to pray something like this often. "Father because you accept me, I accept me." It may feel uncomfortable at first but as the week rolls on, I think you will experience a deeper peace. Do not mistake this for positive thinking as some books teach. This is positive believing in what God declares is true....He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on my behalf, so that I might become the righteousess of God in Him. (2nd Cor. 5:21)

Until next time, remember, He loves us! 

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

Are We Really Righteous of Does God Just See Us that Way?

In our ministry, week in and week out, we teach people from Scripture that through their faith in Christ, they are righteous. Over time, most cannot deny that the Gospel, as explained in the Scriptures, is clear that God has declared us to be righteous. (See Romans 3:21-22:5:15. 17, 19, 1 Cor. 1:30, 2 cor. 5:21, Heb. 5:13.) However, we sometimes discover that though they believe this, their understanding of it may not be complete.

In our Grace Life Conference, which we teach in our office monthly, and in churches or groups hosting the Conference, we spend quite a bit of time clarifying this Biblical reality. I am going to share today what we teach about this. It is called, "Deceptions Regarding Our Righteousness".

Deception 1: God says I am righteous because, I am covered with the robe of righteousness. This is Biblical, but misunderstood. Many wrongly believe that under this robe God sees a sinner.

Deception 2: God says I am righteous because I am covered by the blood of Christ. Thank God for the precious blood of Christ shed for our sins! Yet, similar to #1, many wrongly believe that underneath the blood of Christ, God still sees a sinner.

Deception 3: God says I am righteous, because Christ is my filter. The erroneous idea here, is that God hides me behind Jesus Christ, because He can't bear to look at me.

Deception 4: God says I am righteous because of my position in Christ. This one is tricky because we are certainly in Christ. Yet, the way it is usually taught is that, this really means God sees me as righteous, but, I won't really be righteous until I go to heaven. So, He is kind of "pretending". That completely negates the new birth that has already happened!

Deception 5: God says I am righteous because when He looks at me He only sees Christ in me. Without a doubt, Jesus Christ is in us! But, for our holy God to live in us, He had to prepare a place to live. He had to cure once and for all two problems...remove our sin, and the sinner. He also had to replace our sinner spirit with a new creation spirit, which is righteous. Only by doing this, can God live in us.

Deception 6: God says I am righteous because, He has completely forgiven me. The forgiveness we possess in Christ is incredibly powerful. However, forgiveness only removes my unrighteousness. It does not give me righteousness.

One pastor exclaimed after understanding that he had believed all of the deceptions, "I knew I was saved, but I didn't know I was that saved"! Oh, how many of us could probably say the same thing!

Are you willing to pray and thank your heavenly Father for revealing these deceptions, and agree with Him, that you are righteous through your faith in Christ?

Be Free In Christ, Mark Maulding, President Founder GraceLifeInternational.com

Do You Accept Yourself?

Do you have any Christmas gifts you have not opened from last Christmas yet?   I doubt you do. Most people can't wait to open their gifts. In fact, if you have a Christmas gift you have not opened by now, something must be wrong and maybe you need counseling! Just kidding. I ask this because of the obvious ludicrousy of this scenario - having a gift but never opening it.

Yet, in our ministry we have discovered that many, if not most, Christians have a gift from God they have never opened.   They were given this gift the moment they were saved. This gift has not been taken back by God. We have had it every single day, every single minute since the day of our salvation. It is the gift of righteousness.

Romans 5:17 is one of my very favorite verses in the Bible. In it, the Holy Spirit writes, "Those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ."   Let's unpack that verse carefully.   The main overarching idea is God has provided a way for us to live our lives in the way He always intended. We have the potential to live life to the max! But how?   First, live every day by grace. The opposite of grace is to live life by rules or by self-help. To live by grace means to live daily enjoying Jesus Christ in us and then depending on Him to live through us. Second, we need to "receive" the gift of righteousness. This does not mean you and I don't have the gift of righteousness. It means, because of our lack of understanding the gospel, we really haven't "unwrapped" this precious incredibly valuable gift.  

So how do we unwrap or receive the gift of righteousness?   The truth is simple, but believing the truth here may be difficult for you. To receive the gift of righteousness it means that you must believe God made you totally righteous in your identity in Christ the moment He saved you. This does not mean you have or will live a perfectly righteous life, but it does mean that who you are deep within, is a righteous son or daughter of God.

One time, I asked a young married man, who was a believer in Christ, "How righteous are you"?   He paused and said, "Well it depends upon the day". He had not received the free gift of righteousness. His gift was unwrapped.

So, here is the million dollar question. Do you believe that you are righteous through your faith in Christ (not your good deeds or obedience to God)? 

            Until next time, remember He love us!          

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

Are You as Righteous as Your Pastor?

Are you as righteous as your pastor? Are you as righteous as Billy Graham? Are you as righteous as Jesus Christ? Unless you answered "yes" to all three of those questions, your understanding of the Gospel is incorrect.

You may be protesting in your mind reasoning that your could not possibly be as righteous as Jesus Christ because you are keenly aware of your sins and failures. And in one sense, you are right to think that way. God's Word tells us that our righteousness is like "filthy rags". (Isaiah 64:6) The apostle Paul said that he was perfect when it came to the righteousness which comes from obeying the 10 Commandments (Philippians 4:6). Yet, he later denounced this type of righteousness because it is "self-righteousness". It is produced by you trying to live a good or even a godly life in hopes that it will make you more righteous before God. This is the righteousness God detests and finds unacceptable.

For many years, deep within, I falsely believed that if I could obey God more, He would be more pleased with such obedience that He would love and accept me more.   While it is important to live a life which pleases Him, what I believed was not only error, the stress of living that way eventually burned me out. So much so, that when I read the Bible my stomach hurt!   Don't get me wrong, I believed theologically that God accepted me but beneath that factual knowledge, I really believed I had to earn His acceptance. I was in Christ, but I was living in the trap and sin of self-righteousness. It almost killed me!

Romans 5:19 says, "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous." Adam's disobedience in the garden made us sinners. Jesus obedience on the Cross makes us 100% righteous through our faith in Him.

Today, I urge you to confess your sin of self-righteousness to God and receive His forgiveness. But don't stop there.  Tell Him you believe you are now righteous because of Jesus' obedience and not yours!

Until next time, remember He loves us.   

Be Free In Christ, Mark Maulding, President Founder GraceLifeInternational.com

Does God Really Accept Us Unconditionally?

In our ministry we have asked many Christians through the years if they grew up feeling loved.  The majority have answered in the affirmative.  The next question though is often answered differently.  Let me ask you that question.  "Did you feel accepted growing up?"  Think about that for a minute.  I am not asking if people said they accepted you.  The question is "Did you 'feel' accepted?" 

One of the deep God-given needs of the human heart is to feel accepted.  Acceptance is the unconditional part of love.  It means that when someone accepts us, there are no conditions upon that acceptance.  We can't mess it up by making a mistake, committing a sin or failing.  There is no human being in our lives who can meet this need for us completely. 

However, God is able to accept all those who are in Christ through faith.  The question is "why does He accept us?"  Is it simply because He is kind, merciful and full of grace so that He overlooks our faults and sins?  While He is all of these and more, there is another very important reason He accepts who we are in Christ.  It is because through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, He has made all of us who have faith in His son 100% righteous! 

What is righteousness?  It means to be right, to be perfect, to be perfect in character.  God's righteousness is the perfection of all of His character.  Amazingly, through our faith in His Son, God removes the unrighteousness of our past, present and future sins.  He also, replaces our sinner identity with a righteous identity. 

2nd Corinthians 5:21 says it this way.  "God made Him who knew no sin to become sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."  Wow!  Do you see the divine exchange which occurred?  Jesus Christ became our sin on the cross and we became as righteous as God!  That is, God gave us His perfect character in exchange for our sin.  This does not mean He gave us His deity though.  We are and will always be humans.

God's gift of righteousness is the reason He can accept you.  This has made you 100% acceptable to Him!  You can't diminish that righteousness by sinning nor increase it through obedience.  I urge you to believe it, because you will be in agreement with God's Word. 

Be Free In Christ, Mark Maulding, President Founder 
Grace Life International  www.GraceLifeInternational.com

Is It Biblical to Love Yourself?

The moment we hear or read anyone suggest that we need to love ourselves, most of us as Christians feel uncomfortable. Many have heard that loving yourself is the opposite of loving God. One time a college student told me that if he loved God more he would not keep committing the same habitual sin over and over. Inside his thinking was the idea that he actually loved himself too much and did not love God enough.

When Jesus was asked by the religious leaders of His day what the greatest commandment was, He responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all you mind and with all your strength." He followed with the second greatest commandment by quoting Leviticus 18:19, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Please read those scriptures again and answer this question. How many people are we instructed to love? For years, I would have answered "Two. God and others". But that is incorrect. What we see is that we are to love: 1) God above all and with all; 2) Love our neighbor; and 3) Love ourselves. There is a proper love of yourself that our God not only sanctions but expects of us. So how do we love ourselves in a way that is not self-centered, self-indulgent, and self-serving?

God tells us in 1 John 4:19 that we love Him because He first loved us. Paul prays for the Ephesians a great prayer that I pray for my family, my staff and all whom we minister to. The latter part of the prayer tells us that as God answers this prayer, we will "be rooted and grounded" in God's love for us. (Ephesians 3:17)

We can only truly love God when we are at rest in His love for us rather than believing that we must earn His love through obedience. We can only truly love others when we Biblically love ourselves. We can only truly love ourselves when that love is rooted in God's love for us. When our love for ourself is rooted in someone else or something else, it is sinful. When our love for ourself is rooted in God's love He is delighted!

We who are in Christ can love ourselves because God loves us with no strings attached. If you instead loath yourself, you do not really believe in His love for you!

I have personally found great joy and peace in praying the following prayer to my Father often. "Father because you love me, I love me." How about you? Would you be willing to pray that prayer each day as part of your communion with God?

Until next time remenber, He loves us.

Mark Maulding

President and Founder

GraceLifeInternational.com