Crucified: Sin is Not Your Master

Several years ago, I was praying for our Father to provide another car.  My transmission was going out and I needed another car for all of my ministry travels.  After speaking to a Sunday School class, someone called me who had been there and said, “I think God wants me to give you my car.”  I replied, “I think He does too!”

When I picked up the car and was driving home, I noticed an envelope in the arm rest.  When I opened it, to my surprise there was $500 to pay for my tag and taxes!  I had been given so much more than I realized when this man gave me his car.

The Gospel is that way, too.  When we received Christ, we got so much more than we may realize even now.  One of those blessings is that we died with Christ so dramatically that sin is no longer our master.  Romans 6:7 says, “For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.” NLT Sin here does not refer to “sinning” but to a power that once ruled over us before our death with Christ.

Why does this matter?  First, the tempting thoughts you have cannot originate with you.  They will sound like you with personal pronouns such as I, me, my, mine but they aren’t from you.

Second, you now have a choice.  You can either obey the thoughts Sin inserts in your mind, or you can obey your new Master, Jesus Christ in you.

The next time you are tempted, remind yourself that Sin is not your boss! Jesus in you is!  Listen to Him!

Live Free In Christ, 
Mark Maulding, President and Founder 
www.GraceLifeInternational.com 
All Content Copyright © 2014 Mark Maulding but may be shared with others!

Crucified - The Old Nature is Dead

   Have you ever tasted a cake that had some of the ingredients left out?  It is so awful; you will not eat another bite because it may gag you and make you throw up!  In the same way, if you leave some of the ingredients out of the Gospel, it can have devastating effects in your life.

   For example, most Christians understand that they have received forgiveness and are going to heaven but don't know that they have also been crucified with Christ or what this means.

   Romans 6:6 says, "Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin."  Old self is a reference to the old nature, that is, our identity in Adam before we were in Christ.

   The Apostle Paul is saying, "Don't you know this, Christian?  If not, you should."  What are we to know?  We are to know that our old identity of being born a sinner was crucified with Christ on the cross.  The Greek language here is very specific.  It means that this sinner identity died with Christ a final death that is complete.  (Col. 2:10-11)

   You do not have a civil war in you between the old nature and the new nature.  The old nature is dead and gone.  We now deal with the flesh which is different than the old nature.  Our new identity is saint, not sinner!

Live Free In Christ, 

Mark Maulding, President and Founder 

www.GraceLifeInternational.com 

All Content Copyright © 2014 Mark Maulding but may be shared with others!

Grace to Receive Love

    I have a beautiful cat with thick gray hair which reminds me of a lot of people I meet.  It has a difficult time receiving love.  Often when I reach down to scratch its head, it runs away.  Occasionally, it will approach me, meowing to let me know it wants love.  But it can only receive my love for about one minute. 

   God made us to be loved.  It is a basic need of the human heart.  How do we know this?  Because God created us to need Him and God is love according to 1 John 4:8.  Yet, many Christ followers struggle to receive His love as well as people's love.

   I was one of them.  While I believed and preached that God loves us, I had minimal experience of it.  The problem was not on God's side. It was on my side.  This spilled over into my relationship with my wife and others, in that I had difficulty receiving their love.

   Our Father's love is like a water faucet.  The moment we become one of His children through faith in Christ, that faucet turns on cascading on us forever.  We are like a cup under it.  If we are turned right side up, we are filled with His love for us.  If we are turned upside down, we cannot be filled with His love for us.

   What causes us to be turned upside down has to do with our stinking thinking.  We are all programmed by the Knowledge of Good and Evil when we are born which we inherited from Adam.  Though unaware of this, it causes us to believe that we have to make ourselves loveable.  We gauge whether we are loveable by how well we perform, what other's think of us, how we look and what we have.

   Parents pay a critical role in this as well.  If we grow up in a family where grace is in place, we will experience a lot of unconditional love.  If we don't, we will experience a lot of rejection.  Either way, unless we understand the Gospel of grace, we will be hindered from receiving love.

   To be able to receive love, we need a revelation of Christ in us.  There is a great prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19 that I encourage you to pray often for yourself and those you care about, even as I do.  The prayer is basically asking our Father to deepen the revelation of Christ in us to us. 

   "When I think of the wisdom and scope of his plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great family of God-some of them already in heaven and some down here on earth- 16 that out of his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you the mighty inner strengthening of his Holy Spirit. 17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love; 18-19 and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God's children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself."  Living Bible

   For me and many others I have taught and counseled through the years, receiving the revelation of Christ in us as our Life, we experienced His love for us which opened us up to be able to receive the love of others.   I encourage you to make a copy of this prayer and pray it often.

                       

Live free in Christ,

  

Mark Maulding, Founder & President


www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2014 Mark Maulding

Grace for Rock Concerts

One of the things I did with my three sons was to get away with each of them at key times in their lives. I wanted us to have fun, eat a great meal, talk about sex and discuss where they were in their spiritual lives.

Just before their senior year in high school, I gave each one the opportunity to go away for a weekend to a place of their choice within driving distance. The two oldest each went with me to Universal Studios theme park. But, the third had quite a different request.

He asked me if we could go see Def Leppard in concert. If you don't know who that is, they were a hugely popular rock band in the early 80's and 90's. I jokingly said to him, "I wanted to take you away for the weekend to talk about sex, drugs and rock and roll and you want me to take you to a rock concert?"

We went to the concert that summer and had a blast, tailgating beforehand while talking about sex and other spiritual matters. I wasn't concerned about him being negatively influenced by the concert. Why? He loves Jesus and I knew we could discuss the music on the way home. I also believed that Jesus in me had more influence than the rock band and it turned out to be true.

God's grace can give us the freedom to enjoy even a rock concert with a child!

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2014 Mark Maulding

Grace for Life's Delays

The longer I am a Christian, the more I realize that God often wants to accomplish His purposes through us when there are delays in life. You see, our problem is not always about us or the problem.

Shortly after someone gave me a car in answer to prayer, I realized it had transmission problems. To get it repaired at the dealer's wholesale price, I would need to drive five hours and be away from my wife and Grace Life International for three days. Though I was happy I would get to be with my parents, I would be missing lots of ministry.

When I picked up the repaired car, I was planning to leave that day but my wife gently suggested I drive it for a while first. Good thing, because the next morning it had problems. The transmission company would fix it again at no charge but it would be Monday before it was ready. Another four day delay.

I knew that God might have something in mind that was not about the car. Sure enough, the man who drove me to my parents' house Monday morning brought up the subject of God, though he had no idea I was a Christian or in ministry. It was a great opportunity to share the Gospel with one who did not know Jesus. I realized my delay was orchestrated so God could reach out to this man whom He loved.

Divine delays can lead to divine appointments!

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, Founder and President


www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Grace for Patience

 Have you ever heard someone say, "I am not a very patient person?"  If you are in Christ, you might want to reconsider. 

    I know from personal experience that what I am about to share with you is not only true, it can make a real difference in how you live your life.  Yesterday, I was waiting my turn at the pharmacy when the pharmacists said, "Yours is ready".  I was glad because my 30 minute errand had turned into one hour.  It was late at night and I was tired. 

   To my surprise, the technician helped the person at the car window instead of me.  Feeling impatient, I remembered the Gospel.  Colossians 2:10 says, "...in Him you have been made complete".  Because of this, we are patient people in Christ.  So, I took the thought captive and said to myself, "I am a patient person in Christ" and my irritation began to subside.  

            

   In Christ, we have all the patience we will ever need.   We don't need to pray for patience.  We already have it.  When we rely on The Patient One to live His life through us, we will be at rest in our souls.  This is why Galatians 5:17 tells us that the fruit of the Holy Spirit living through us is, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, meekness, self-control."

   The next time you're feeling impatient, remember you are already a patient person in your identity in Christ.  Ask the Patient One to live through you!

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder 

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding

Grace for Pastors

     There is an old saying that is half joke and half sarcasm. "Pastors only work one day a week so they shouldn't be tired." I believe that the job of being a pastor is both the most rewarding and most challenging vocation there is.
  

  Think of their stress - leading, preparation for preaching, caring for the hurting, managing staff/volunteers, overcrowded schedules, conflicts, criticism and more. 70% have a lower self-image than when they started. 80% believe ministry has negatively affected their families. 55% say they are discouraged. Many have stress related health problems.

   

   Pastors struggle just like the rest of us. They are not immune just because they are in ministry. Let me put it this way. As a result, their flesh shows itself. Flesh is our sinful patterns of coping with life apart from dependence on Christ, usually, in response to stress. 

   

   The first 7 of the 10 years I was a pastor, I struggled with depression, discouragement, people pleasing, lust, pornography and a difficult marriage. I knew that Jesus was my Savior and my Lord but I did not understand what it meant for Him to be my LIFE. See Colossians 3:4. "When Christ, who is our life..." Once I did, the healing and freedom on the inside changed everything!

   If you care about your pastor, pray for him often and share this with him! Pastors, please contact us. You are not alone. I or one of our staff will talk with you by phone, Skype or in person. There is hope in Christ!

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, Founder & President


www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2013 Mark Maulding