How Jesus Can Live through You Today!

Wherever you go today, you can depend on Jesus to live His life through you.  Ask Him to live through you at work today, while picking up the kids from school. while interacting with your spouse, while playing video games, if single, when you go out on a date, while exercising, etc.  Why?  "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain."  Philippians 1:21

Live Free In Christ, Mark Maulding, President and Founder
GraceLifeInternational.com
 All Content Copyrighted © 2012 Mark Maulding

You Can't Mature unless You Believe You are Righteous

        When my oldest son was 15, he was the smallest guy in his high school.  Being concerned, I took him to a Naturopathic doctor who prescribed two amino acids.  Whether it was the supplements or just coincidental, within 5 months he had grown 5 ½ inches!

      This reminds me of a rarely understood Biblical truth stated in the title.  This may sound outlandish but the Bible is emphatic.  We absolutely will be stunted in our spiritual growth unless we believe we are righteous.  We will crash into a wall preventing us from growing spiritually unless we believe we are righteous.  We will hit a ceiling preventing us from growing spiritually unless we believe we are righteous.  

      Hebrew 5:13 says, "Anyone who lives on milk, still being an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness".  Read it again.  Now read it again slowly.   The Holy Spirit gives us an illustration from our human world that we all understand.  Any child who is drawing nourishment from milk only, instead of solid food, is a baby.  The spiritual parallel is that any Christian drinking only spiritual milk will be stunted in their spiritual growth.   We need to go beyond the milk of God's Word to solid spiritual food.  That food is the teaching that we are righteous in Christ.  Only by understanding that we are righteous can we fully mature.  Only by believing that we are righteous can we fully mature.  Only by resting in the reality that we are righteous can we fully mature.  Only by reminding ourselves that we are righteous can we fully mature.  Only by living out our identity in Christ as righteous people can we fully mature.

      On a personal note, when I began to really understand this, sins which I had never been able to conquer were defeated and are no more.   My relationships with people began to improve, especially with my family.  My sense of inner peace was greatly deepened.  And foremost, I experienced God's love in a way that human words are unable to adequately describe.  I also want you to know that I did not stop sinning but I was very different.

       If Hebrew 5:13 has spoken to you, I would like for you to pray this prayer daily, as often as you like.   "Father, because you say I am righteous, I say I am righteous." Are you willing? Then go for it even if your feelings are contrary to it.

Until next time, remember He loves us!

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

 All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding

I Know God Loves Me but Does He Like Me?

What an intriguing question.  Have you ever thought about it?  Maybe your mind drifts to how you think God thinks about you.  "God tolerates me".  "God loves me but He has to because He is God."  "God is mostly disappointed with me." "God is going to get me one day."  "God is disinterested in me." "God is impossible to please."  "How could God like me?  I mess up so much!" Etc.

Let's start with something more basic first.  Does God like me?  Several years ago, a young lady went through our Advanced Discipleship Training.  The very last day of the training, she joined us for our "graduation" lunch where we celebrate all that God has done in each of the students.  When she came into the room, all of us were immediately stunned by the glow on her face and her big smile.  We asked her why she was so happy.  She said, "I've known for a long time that God loved me but today I realized for the first time He likes me"!

You see, God does like all of us who are in Christ.  Why? It is because He accepts us.  I was speaking to a group of pastors and Christian counselors several years ago.  I was sharing this same truth about how God accepts us.   When I finished, I fielded questions from the audience.  One astute man in the audience asked me, "If God accepts us as Christians, how does He feel about those who are not Christians?"  I quickly replied, "It is obvious from the Bible that God loves those who are not Christians but He does not accept them."  You see, God only accepts those who are righteous.  And the only righteous people in the world are those in Christ!  (Romans 5:19)

        Think about it for a moment, God not only loves you.  He likes you.  Let me make sure you understand.  You cannot make God like you less through disobedience.  You cannot make God like you more through obedience.  I have had some people say, "If that is true then I can just go out and sin all I want.  Right?" Their question is intended to prove that this can't be correct that God loves us and likes us regardless of our behavior.  That's why it is called "grace".  The answer to their question is answered in that He will love and like us even if we sin. BUT, who would want to displease our God who feels that way about us!  Spend some time pondering over Romans 5:19 this week that speaks the truth that God not only loves you, He likes you.

Live Free In Christ, 

Maulding, President and Founder 

GraceLifeInternational.com

All Content Copyrighted © 2012 Mark Maulding

Do You Live by Principles or a Person?

Many years ago, when the earth was cooling, I was sucked in to the black hole of legalism. I was in love with Jesus Christ as a teen at age 19. A friend's mom invited me to attend a seminar with her that she just thought was great. What should have been a question for me to consider was the fact that she seemed always to be depressed.   But, with no one to mentor me, I paid my fee and went to this large arena for an entire week.

Day after day, I heard that God has hundreds of principles in the Bible that He expects us to live by.   If we are having struggles in any area of our life, it is because we are not practicing God's principles.   It was very convincing as story after story seemed to validate that we really are bound by God to live by principles. Little did I know that I was being ambushed by legalism. I had a great zeal for Jesus but no understanding of the gospel of grace. It reminds me of the scripture, "My people perish from a lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6)

If we fast forward, by the time I was 30 years old I was a mess. For over 10 years I was so passionately focused on obeying God's principles, that I lost sight of my first love, Jesus Himself.   The results for me were large doses of depression, discouragement and eventually disillusionment.   I finally burned out totally.

Our story with God is supposed to be written with the ink of love.   When it is not, we can drift into living by Biblical principles and completely miss the relationship God has always intended for us to have.

The good news for me is  that God's love for me was and is much greater than the deception I had embraced. When I could no longer do the principles, our awesome loving God met me, bringing me back into a deeper way to the love relationship I experienced when I was 19. This time, I knew enough about the gospel of grace to leave legalism forever.

I am not saying there are not principles in God's Word. He has the best way to live in our marriages, to manage our finances, etc. But those are only doable when we are living from the relationship with the one who loves us and lives in us, the person of Jesus Christ who is our life!

How about you? Are you drawn more towards principles or the Person who lives in you?

               Until next time, remember, He loves us!

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

 All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding

Do You Enjoy God?

Enjoying God is a foreign concept to many Christians. Asked to describe their relationship with God, few would use the word "enjoy".  A famous statement tells us that our purpose in life is to "glorify God and enjoy Him forever". We have probably been taught many times about glorifying God which is absolutely true but what about enjoying God. Be honest, do you enjoy God?  Is the word "enjoy" one that you would use regarding you and God?

It is fascinating the way that Jesus taught us how to pray in what we usually term the Lord's Prayer. By the way, I don't think His intent was for us to simply recite this prayer. It is a guide, almost an outline that we pray through the lens of grace. He begins the prayer with this opening, "Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be your name". It was only a few years ago that I realized the significance of beginning our prayers to God in this way.  Here is what I mean.

"Our Father" speaks of the close relationship we can experience with God when we understand the transformative gospel of grace. Many Christians perceive that God is like some other significant person in their lives such as a dad or mom. Those who experienced a close relationship with that person do not have a lot of difficulty relating to God in a positive way as their Father.  Those who experienced a distant or painful relationship with that person often relate to God as their Father in negative ways. The transformative gospel of grace can change that incorrect concept of God so we can actually enjoy God. We see it all of the time in our ministry.

"Hallowed be your name" speaks of the transcendence of God.  Don't be scared away by that word. It communicates to us that God is our Creator.  He is holy. He is awesome. He is eternal.  He needs no one.  He is God and we are not! This leads us into a place of a proper fear of God, worshipping Him for who He is. Don't get sidetracked here with the word "fear". It does not mean that we are afraid of Him and His discipline for our sins. This fear is a deep reverence and awe for God. As we recognize the truth of Who God is, it sometimes puts us on our knees or on our faces and we say, "Wow!" There is great enjoyment in worshiping Him as God.

We can enjoy God the most, when we relate to Him as our loving close Father and our awesome Creator God. We can get out of balance if we emphasize one over the other.

So do you enjoy God? If not, ask Him to correct your erroneous view of Him as your Father and as your great God.

Until next time, remember, He loves us!

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder GraceLifeInternational.com

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