Easter Reminds Us We are Not Orphans

   Occasionally I live like I am an orphan.  I sometimes wonder if my Father will show up for me when it matters.  Does anyone relate?  For example, I just piloted a new conference different than our Grace Life Conference called, "Foundation4Transformation".   

   When I recently did the first one, I wondered if very many people would show up, if I'm being honest.  Guess what God did?  He packed out the room!  

  It just goes to show that I need to constantly be reminded that I am a child of God, not an orphan.  Easter can bring this to the forefront because through the resurrection of our Life, Jesus Christ, we remember that we have been raised with Him with a new creation identity.  Ephesians 2:6 says, "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." NIV  Our resurrection with Christ proves that we are no longer orphans.  We are sons and daughters of the Living God!

   This Easter let's rejoice in Jesus' conquering death, sin and satan because of His resurrection; and may it give us a needed jolt to also celebrate our unshakable identity in Christ.  Here are a few reminders of who we are in Christ as sons and daughters of God.  These are taken from our GLI bookmark which we freely given to all who have received faith in Jesus Christ.  They are all taken from the New American Standard Bible for accuracy.

I'm Accepted:  Accepted by God-Romans 15:7, Righteous-2 Corinthians 5:21, A Saint-Ephesians 1:1, Complete in Christ-Colossians 2:10, Not Condemned-Romans 8:1, Forgiven-Colossians 2:13.

I'm Significant:  God's Masterpiece-Ephesians 2:10, Chosen-Ephesians 1:4, God's Treasure-Matthew 13:44-46, Seated in Heaven - Ephesians 2:6, A New Creation-2 Corinthians 5:17, Designed by God-Psalm 139:13-16

I'm Loved:  Dearly Loved-1 Thessalonians 1:4, Beloved-Romans 1:7, Loved by the Father as Much as He Loves Jesus-John 17:23&26, Christ's Friend-John 15:15, Hidden with Christ-Colossians 3:3, Can't Stop God's Love for Me-Romans 8:37-39

    "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!" -1 John 3:1 NIV

   May this Easter be a beautiful reminder of how Jesus' resurrection changed you from an orphan to an incredible child of God!  Would you pray now and ask God if you tend to live more like an orphan or His child?

      

Live Free In Christ, Mark Maulding, President and Founder www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Are You Really Righteous?

   When my oldest son was in the 10th grade, concern arose because it seemed as though his growth was stunted.  He was the smallest guy in his class of a couple hundred.  There is nothing wrong with being short if God has made you that way for His glory.  Yet, my wife's brothers are all as tall as I am.  So we were scratching our heads wondering if there might be something wrong.  I took him to see a Doctor of Naturopathy.  After our consultation, the next week he prescribed two supplements for him to take that Spring.  The results?  When school started the next fall, he was one of the tallest guys in his class!  Apparently his body was missing some vital ingredients to cause it to grow as God had designed.

   In the same way, many Christians today are stunted in their spiritual growth.  The writer of Hebrews in chapter 5 verse 13 informs us of the reason for this.  It says, "Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness." It seems clear that the missing ingredient is the lack of the Biblical teaching that God has made you as righteous as Jesus Christ.

   This is apparently no small issue as the Holy Spirit, writing through Paul, spends all of Romans 4 and 5 making it clear that God has turned every sinner into a righteous person through faith in Christ.  This is a "super food" ingredient for our spiritual growth!   Have you been taught that you are righteous through faith in Christ?

Yet, even if you believe that you are righteous in Christ, you may still need to overcome some common deceptions.  Taken from our Grace Life Conference, here are some ways people may be deceived.

   1.  God's righteousness is a robe covering me.  God has covered me with a robe of righteousness implying He can't look at me as a sinner.  Answer - It is true God has given me a robe of righteousness but under that robe is a righteous new creation.

   2.  The blood of Christ covers me.  Underneath His blood there is still something wrong with me.  Answer - I thank God for the blood of Christ because it has so washed me that I have been regenerated according to Titus 3:5.

  3. God only sees Christ in me.  This implies that God cannot look directly at me because I am a sinner.  Answer -  God certainly sees Christ in me but He also sees me because I am a new creation.  Also, Jesus is not me and I am not Jesus but we are united with each other.

   4.  Christ is My Filter.  God hides me behind Christ so He doesn't see me because I am a sinner.  Answer - The finished work of Christ has resurrected me as a new creation whom God can look directly at.

   5.   I have Positional Righteousness.  God sees me as if I'm righteous, but I won't really be righteous until I get to heaven.  Answer - While we are certainly positioned in Christ, this deception communicates that God is faking Himself out . The new birth is very real.  It is not an illusion.

 6. Forgiveness equals righteousness.  God's forgiveness makes me righteous.  Answer - Forgiveness only removes my unrighteous acts.  Yet, forgiveness does not make me righteous.

   Several years ago, after hearing these deceptions, a pastor who was at one of our Grace Life Conferences exclaimed, "I knew I was saved but I didn't know I was that saved!"  How about you?  Have you believed any of these deceptions which are stunting your growth?  If so, are you willing to go to God now and tell Him you agree with Him that you are righteous whether you feel it or not?

Suggested Prayer:  Father, I agree with Your Word, that Your Righteousness has now become my Righteousness.  I choose to believe this regardless of what satan, the world, my feelings, my performance or others say.  In Jesus' Name,  Amen.

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

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 life who can meet this for us completely. However, God is able to accept all those who are in Christ. 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, and 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 the identity we were born with as being a sinner, with a new creation identity of being righteous. 2 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 righteousness in exchange for our sin. Which one do you focus on more? Your sin or God's gift of righteousness?

   God's gift of righteousness is the reason He can can accept you. How much of God's righteousness did He give you? 80%? 95%? No! He gave us 100%! This has made you 100% acceptable to Him! You can't diminish that gift of righteousness by sinning nor increase it through obedience, because the basis of this gift is not based on our work, but Jesus' work.

   This is why we have peace with God. This is why we can come before Him boldly without fear of rejection. This is the reason we can be intimate with God.

   I urge you to take a moment and tell the Lord you believe it. You may not feel it nor see it being lived out in your life as you would want it to be, but in believing it by faith, you will be in agreement with God's Word, which is our final authority for what is true.

You are loved! Believe it. Receive it. Live in it.

Live Free In Christ, Mark Maulding, President and Founder



www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding

Something Wrong with You or are "Some" "Things" Wrong with You?

   When we first started Grace Life International in 1995, our Vice-President was meeting with a man who had ADD. He spent quite a bit of time describing how bad it was and how it was negatively affecting his life. The Holy Spirit prompted our VP to ask this great question. "Do you have ADD or does ADD have you?" This person still needed our help, but it was keen discernment revealing that he was allowing his ADD to define his identity.

   Similarly, we have "some" "things" wrong with us. Sometimes they are a condition like ADD, fibromyalgia, trauma, depression, addiction, pride, self-effort, a struggling marriage, loneliness, perfectionism, worry, impatience, rejection, self-condemnation, performance based acceptance and more. The question is do they have us or do we have them?

   In Christ, we do not have "something wrong with us" because we are complete and perfect in Christ. Colossians 2:10 says, "in Him all the fullness of deity dwells and you have been made complete in Him." NASB Hebrews 10:14 echoes this in a more powerful way stating, "Through one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those whom He sanctified." NASB God has fixed what was wrong with us when He crucified our identity in Adam and raised us up with Christ with a new creation identity as a child of the living God!

   There are two deceptions we need to be aware of. One is believing we are defined by what we do, who we know, what we have, illnesses, what has happened to us, or what others say about us. One man said at one of our Grace Life Conferences that his parents had raised him to believe he was better than everyone else. A lady once said she has been told her entire life that she would never amount to anything. These were defining moments for each.
   A second deception is believing that because we know who we are in Christ, we don't have any thing wrong with us. We do and it is called the flesh. The flesh has desires which have been or are patterns of coping with life apart from dependence on Christ in us. Do you know what yours are? Here are some of mine: superiority, self-pity, discouragement, legalism, fear of rejection, performing for acceptance, depression, and having to be the best to feel important. I am thankful that I don't follow those patterns very much anymore. They have been replaced with the patterns of Christ living through me instead, which has gotten my focus off of me and on loving God and people. But most of all, though I have "some" "things" like these which are wrong with me at times, I don't have "something wrong with me" because God took care of that already when He exchanged my old identity for my new identity in Christ.

   How about you? Do you live life thinking "there is something wrong with me" because of fleshly patterns? Or, do you stand firmly in your identity in Christ while realizing and admitting you still have "some" "things" wrong with you at times?

   Why don't we all take a moment right now and ask God which of these ways we tend to live our daily lives, then respond to whatever He says to us?

You are loved! Believe it. Receive it. Live in it.


Mark Maulding, President and Founder


www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding

Jesus Came To Judge Us?

   For many years, no matter how much I read my Bible or prayed, I always came away with the nagging thoughts, "I should have read longer". "I should have prayed longer". I genuinely believed that God was judging me for not doing enough so, I felt condemned. Though I was a pastor, I did not completely realize that my condemnation was not coming from God but from my understanding of the gospel.

   Many Christians today also feel condemned much like I did. Our plight usually stems from being misinformed, uninformed or having unbelief regarding the complete gospel. Sadly, I had been personally bewitched by all three. (Galatians 3:1)

   Condemnation is being judged, found guilty and then sentenced. Every person is condemned before God in Adam. Romans 5:16 says, "Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification". God's only solution for our condemnation was to remove us from Adam and place us in Christ. Through our faith in Christ, that is exactly what happens. When it does, our condemnation is removed and replaced by God justifying us. To be justified means to be forgiven and to be made righteous all at once. No wonder Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ".

   God is never going to condemn anyone who is in Christ! Then why do we still feel condemned at times? I suspect it has to do with the other half of the gospel regarding our union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. We may be uninformed meaning we have never heard about our union with Christ. It may be that we are misinformed meaning we have been taught that the Bible's reference to our union with Christ is positional truth - something that God sees as true because it will only really be true of us in heaven, but not now. It could be that we have heard of our union with Christ but simply don't believe it is true or true for us personally.

   In John 3:17, Jesus says, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." Do you see that? God the Father did not send Jesus into this world to condemn people! He sent Him to rescue us from the condemnation we already had! Let me put it another way. Jesus did not come to live in us as Christians to condemn us. He came to live in us to free us from condemnation so He could love us from the inside! No wonder one of the weapons we have against satan is the gospel of peace on our feet so we can stand firmly against his false condemnation of us! (Ephesians 6:15)

   Would you pause for a moment and ask God what He is saying to you right now? Then ask Him how He wants you to respond.

You are loved! Believe it. Receive it. Live in it.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding

A 3 Minute Dose of Grace from the My E-Newsletter

The Mauldings' February E- Newsletter by Mark Maulding

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

The Underlying Reason for Marital Struggles

 
   If you read most articles about the top reasons for marital conflict, the following will often be listed. Problems with communication, money, sex, raising children, Biblical roles and disrespect. We see these same issues in our counseling offices at Grace Life International every week. They are legitimate. However, they fail to get to the underlying problem behind all of these issues. It is like weeds in your lawn. If you only kill what you see on the surface, the weed will eventually come back because you did not kill the root.

   In the same way, if we only help people communicate better, manage their money better, have a better sex life, learn better child raising techniques, live in their Biblical roles and try to show more respect to each other, those may help. But counseling hundreds of couples through the years has shown us that these changes only go so far and often don't last very long. When God makes changes in a person's life, they tend to last because these changes are supernatural rather than produced by self effort.

   The complete Gospel digs underneath the surface to reveal the real root of our marital problems and God's alternative. Let's see what we can learn from this.

   Every one of us has some God-given needs of the heart. At GLI, we use the acronym L.A.W.S. This stands for Love, Acceptance, Worth and Security. God's intent from the beginning of the human race was for Him to be the primary One who meets these needs apart from another human. Then, when our spouse also meets our needs, we can enjoy it even more. Since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, this has been turned upside down. We expect our spouse to meet these deep needs of the heart or we may expect God to meet these needs through our spouse. When this does not happen, frustration and conflict become too familiar.

   But let's back up some. Since these deep needs of the heart were there long before we were married, is it possible that deep patterns were developed as we attempted to meet these needs. For example, prior to marriage, a spouse may have learned to yell at people to control them so they would do what they wanted. Or, a spouse may have learned to withdraw and shut down to try to prevent rejection. Other patterns develop over time as well. We call these ways of coping. God calls them "flesh". Some patterns of the flesh are listed in Galatians 5:19-21.

   It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on."  The Message

   When we bring these "fleshy" patterns into our marriage, we are already headed for trouble from day one. And of course, we can develop new "flesh" patterns after we are married. Do you see why just trying to get people to change their behavior does not get to the underlying source of our marital struggles? Most of us cannot discover these on our own, but need help from someone to disciple and counsel us. Our staff at Grace Life International are highly skilled in God working through them to facilitate a person's understanding of these patterns. Then, they lovingly show each person or couple God's alternative in Christ.

   If you know of someone who needs help in their marriage, please have them call us at 704-522-9026. We offer face to face counseling, intensive 3-5 day counseling for those who travel a long distance and Internet counseling through Skype, regardless of where you live geographically.

You are loved! Believe it. Receive it. Live in it.


Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding