Why You Should Always Ask "So What?"

So what? That question should be asked every time we are taught the New Covenant. But first, we need to know the basics of the New Covenant. Jeremiah 31:33‐34 tells us that it holds us up by three pillars. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,”  declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” 

1. Pillar One – God gave us a new identity. Years ago, a lady told me she was praying God would write His law on her heart. He had already answered her prayer the day she was saved. But what does that mean? The Law is based on the character of God, meaning He has placed His character in our new heart in Christ. So what? We are not defined by our past, parents,  possessions or peer. God alone defines us as holy, righteous, blameless, loving and more. It’s  who we are in the deepest core of our being.

2. Pillar Two – God united Himself to us. The word “know” in verse 34 is the same Hebrew word  used in Genesis 4:1 where Adam and Eve’s amazing intimacy of their physical union is written about. Similarly, God united Himself to us spiritually. So what? He wants to enjoy us and for us to enjoy Him as He loves us from the inside and lives through us the very life of Christ.

3. Pillar Three – God forgave us completely. God forgave us so thoroughly that it not only includes our past but our future, too. Not remembering our sins any more means He doesn’t hold them against us even when we do sin. So what? We never need to feel compelled to “run away” from our Father when we sin. We can run to Him and be honest about what we have done and confident we are forgiven. And then ask Jesus to live through us in us to overcome the next time (That’s repentance.) 

There is so much more I’d like to tell you about the “So what?” for every one of these, but space prohibits it. A lot of this will be in the book I am writing; but, you don’t have to wait for it to come out. You can hear it taught NOW in one of our offices in person or online. The next opportunity for this in Charlotte and Asheville is our Grace Life Conference. The next opportunity for women only is our Women of Grace one morning a week. See the sidebar for more info. 

May you enjoy Jesus and the blessings you already have in the New Covenant in Him this week.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

You Can Stop Trying to Be Like Jesus

The cause of great guilt, gnawing shame and grandiose failure in the Christian life is often from trying to be like Jesus.  It sounds spiritual and noble to pursue this.  Yet, it is actually the curse of many Christ-followers.  Some keep trying harder. Some give up. Others settle into the mentality that guilt and failure are the normal Christian life.

My good friend, Diane Bumgardner, tells her own story of how God reversed this curse in her well written testimony below.

By Diane Bumgardner

Good morning! Another beautiful, cold morning! I so love the sunshine!! Just makes me smile to look out and see the sun smiling back at me!

I was a Christian for many years before I "crashed n burned" and learned the meaning of the verse below! I tried for years to "imitate" Jesus. I prayed for and received the power of the Holy Spirit yet I continued to live out of my flesh trying really hard to be a GREAT Christian woman!! But I couldn't do it!! Despite all my great efforts -- I failed! Over and over! I failed! On my bedroom floor one morning, desperate for relief from guilt and shame for all my failures, I cried out to God: "I can't take it anymore!!! I cannot live the Christian life and bring you honor! I just want to die!" God spoke so softly to my heart: "Finally! You are right where you need to be"! Then He spoke this verse into my heart: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh (in this body), I now live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." From that moment, nearly 30 years ago to this day, God has been teaching me how that works; this "Jesus living in me, thru me, as me" truth! I am and will ever be a work-in-progress! So are we all! BUT GOD!! Yes, but God is faithful!! He will "restore my soul...guide me in paths of righteousness"! It is His WORD of promise to us! Makes me wanna shout: "SHINE ON!!" On this new day filled with promise! Blessings to all of you!!

I hope Diane's story encourages you today that you are not alone in this journey wherever you may find yourself in life.  And that God's answer is Christ in you!

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder    

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

Healing for Your Hurts

Do you ever find yourself experiencing a hurt that seems stuck inside you?  Maybe you’ve tried to pray it away.  Maybe you’ve hoped a friend could help you get over it.  Maybe you’ve searched the Scriptures in hopes they would cure it.  Maybe you’ve even tried counseling.  Yet, it’s still there.

The cause of the pain may be a mystery to you or it may be right in front of your nose.  Regardless, I am writing today to assure you that there is healing for you in Christ!  And we can help you discover how the life of Christ within you can be your personal or marital healing.

I’m sure you’ve heard the quip, “Hurt people, hurt people.”  But have you also heard, “Healed people, heal people?”  It’s very true and the longer you live in a place of hurt, the more you will hurt yourself and people you care about.  However, you can be one of those whom God heals who becomes an agent of healing to others.  It’s like 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tells us.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

If you are a Christian and just can’t get rid of the pain inside from the reoccurring thoughts, and/or the conflict on the outside, I encourage you to give us a call at GLI and set up a consultation.  In the consultation, we will listen with the love of Jesus and will show you that there is hope in God’s grace just like we have for 20 years. Then you can decide if we are the right counseling place for you.

Our counseling is probably going to be very different than any other counseling you may have experienced – in a very good and freeing way.  One person told us that they went to 10 different counselors, Christian and otherwise.   Many were able to show this person their problems more clearly but could not give a lasting solution which could bring the healing so desperately needed.  Then God moved powerfully to bring that healing when this person came for counseling at Grace Life International. 

If you live close enough, you can come to one of our three locations – Charlotte, Asheville, or Albemarle.  If you can’t make it to one of our offices, we offer Skype counseling which more and more people are enjoying. We also have affiliate offices in some other parts of the USA and Europe.  You may also want to ask about our 2-5 day intensive counseling.

James 5:16 tells us, Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  I often tell people, when you are ready to tell the deepest secrets of your struggles or failures, you better be careful who you confess them to.  You want someone who has these characteristics:  listens well, understands, shows compassion, isn’t judgmental, can keep a confidence, has experienced personal healing from God, and is willing to walk along with you to share His solution.   This is what you will experience with one of our 40 wonderful counselors.

Give us a call today and let us share with you how we can help. 

Charlotte (704)522-9026/Asheville (828) 545-1425/Albemarle (704) 807-1294/Online (704) 522-9026

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2016 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

All Things Work Together for Good Even If We Never See It

One of the most quoted Scriptures among Christ followers who are experiencing difficulty is Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  It gives us great comfort to realize that God is orchestrating all of the circumstances in our lives for our good. 

Let me give you a little advice, though.  When one of your friends is going through challenging times, don’t quote Romans 8:28 to them, especially when they first share with you.  They may give you a knuckle sandwich because what they need in that moment is to be listened to with compassion and understanding.  For example, that’s not what the families of the San Bernardino shooting need to hear right now.  We need to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.  There may be a later time to share this verse as you are led by the Holy Spirit.

What is this “good” this verse speaks of?  Sometimes, it’s the blessing of good circumstances.  For example, once when Ellen and I were on a date at a movie, my phone was blowing up with calls from one of my sons.  I finally stepped out asking what was going on.  He calmly informed me that he had put a pan of oil on the stove and forgotten about it when he got engrossed in a sports show upstairs.  His younger brother soon asked him, “Why is smoke coming up the stairs?”  The oil had caught on fire and the cabinets above were burning.  Thankfully, they got it out quickly with a fire extinguisher.  (Buy a fire extinguisher if you are currently raising teens!)  My wife had been wanting to repaint the bottom portion of our house.  God granted her desire when the insurance paid someone to paint it for her after all of the smoke damage.  Romans 8:28!  Right?

A few years later, the school system shocked us when they disagreed that our daughter with Downs should continue in regular classes as she had the first seven years of school.  We ended up in a very stressful, expensive legal battle.  We believed strongly that we would win in court because of federal disability laws.  We had what seemed to be strong confirmations from the Lord from reliable sources.  Yet in the end, we lost all three times.  It wiped out our meager college savings for our children.  And our daughter had to be home schooled.

In addition, our home church refused to allow her to attend the teen girls’ small group in our neighborhood, regardless of how much we appealed to them.  In the end, Bekah used to cry about not being able to attend school with her friends.  And, she cried because the church leadership refused to allow her to attend the girls’ small group.  She would have done fine in both.

Though we are not bitter and have forgiven all, 10 years later, I don’t see Romans 8:28 for her.  In fact, I see what appears to be the opposite.  She lost a lot of her ability to verbally communicate, write, have friends, mature socially and grow in her love for Jesus.  Yet, I want to proclaim loudly that Romans 8:28 is still true!  It’s not dependent on whether we see it.  In fact, in verse 29, He tells us that the most important “good’ God does is to conform us to His image.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.  Jesus has used that story to help many trust that Romans 8:28 is true for them when they see it and when they don’t.  That’s a form of being conformed to His image

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

Answering an Objection to My Blog: A Christian Can't Break Fellowship with God

I received an email strongly objecting to a blog I wrote recently.  It was the one stating a Christian Can’t Break Fellowship with God.  The concern was two-fold.  First, that the teaching of complete forgiveness will lead a person to stop confessing their sins to God and into a belief that it’s Ok to sin.  I addressed that part last week.  If you missed it, go to www.MarkMaulding.com and check it out.

The second strong concern stated that we definitely lose our fellowship with God when we sin.  Please join me below in my response. (BTW, I’d much prefer someone to email me with their concerns about something I write rather than just opting out.  At least I can address it.  Of course, I always enjoy emails people send stating how much they were encouraged by the blog, as well.)

I am unaware of any Scripture which says a Christian breaks fellowship with God when he/she sins.  If that were the case, every Christians would constantly be breaking fellowship with God.  Here is why I say that.  Romans 14:23 defines sin as not living by faith, that is, not living dependent on God.  If we are not depending on God, we are depending on our flesh.  The context of that verse is certainly in the context of eating meat sacrificed to idols but it is a truth which transcends that issue.  Any time a person lives even one second depending on their flesh, rather than God, that is sin.  This means we all sin a lot more often than we are aware of. 

The word fellowship means partnership or partaker.  With this in mind, fellowship with God is two-fold.  The first has to do with our wonderful position of our union with God the moment of our salvation.  1 Corinthians 6:17 says, But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.  That union cannot be broken by a Christian’s sin.  There is a common belief that when a Christian sins, some kind of barrier comes between that person and God until that sin is confessed to God.  In the New Covenant, God removed forever any barrier between the believer and Himself when Jesus Christ died and was resurrected according to Hebrews 10:17.  Then He says, "I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds." To lose fellowship with God would mean to lose your salvation.

The second meaning of fellowship is our experience of intimacy with God.  This is the enjoyment we have when we commune with God.  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14.  Can we stop enjoying our intimacy with God?  Yes, absolutely but it’s not because He recoils from us when we sin.  When a Christian sins, they are not experiencing fellowship/intimacy with God in that moment at all.  They are living as if they are separated from God though they are not.  If we could lose fellowship with God, it would mean we lose our union with God.  We can’t be separated from our God with Whom we are united.  Otherwise, we would be jumping in and out of Christ all day long.  And He would be jumping in and out of us.

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

Teaching Complete Forgiveness Leads Christians to Sin?

God knew that the teaching of His complete forgiveness of our past, present and future sins would appear to be a license to give Christians the OK from God to sin.  That is why He clearly addresses it showing the complete opposite.  Let’s look at why the Gospel of Grace leads us to live a righteous life instead of a sinful one.

God’s grace is greater than the sins of any unbeliever.  Romans 5:20-21  says, The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God is clearly saying that His grace is greater than the sin of the most despicable sinner so that he/she can be saved.  In 1Timothy 1:12-16 Paul shows this saying God saved him as the foremost of sinners.  His point was that if God could save a persecutor of Christians to the point of giving hearty approval of the murder of Stephen in Acts 8:1, He could save anyone.

God’s grace is also greater than the sins of any Christian.  No Christian can commit any sin Jesus did not already forgive through the death of Jesus according to these Scriptures:  Colossians 2:13, When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.  Ephesians 1:7, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians 4:32, Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.  Hebrew 8:12, “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 10:12, But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.  Hebrews 10:14, For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.  Hebrew 10:17-18, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

God knows that His complete forgiveness is going to appear to mean that a Christian can just go out and sin because of grace.  He answers why this is absolutely not true in Romans 6:1-2, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  God’s answer is that anyone who believes God’s forgiveness gives a Christian permission to sin is dead wrong and doesn’t understand the Gospel completely.  The reason grace is not a license to sin is that we died to sin and were made alive to Him.  Romans 6 spends the remainder explaining what this means.  God tells how our old nature, our sinful identity in Adam, which loved to sin, was once and for all put to death with Jesus on the cross.  He shows clearly that we are no longer a slave of sin but of righteousness.  In other words, a complete understanding of grace will never lead the believer into sin but will give him/her the desire and power to overcome it.  Another way of saying this is that our new nature, our identity in Christ, hates to sin and desires to live a righteous life which glorifies God. 

Neither I nor Grace Life International teach or believe that God’s complete forgiveness is a license to sin.  To the contrary, we believe and teach that when the Gospel is understood in its entirety, a person will see their sins more clearly and confess them to God (meaning they are in agreement with God that they did not act like who they are) being assured of their forgiveness by God through the blood of Jesus.   We also believe that God’s grace will lead a person to turn from sin and live a righteous, holy life consistent with who they already are in Christ and Who Christ is in them.  That’s repentance leading to real freedom. We see freedom from all kinds of sins happen every week at GLI from believing the truth.

Truth sets people free.  Error keeps them in bondage.

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

Why Halloween May Not Have Been Demonic

Recently on Halloween, millions of kids dressed up to go from house to house in hopes of getting enough candy to give them a stomach ache for three days.  It seems like innocent fun but many Christians wrestle with whether to let their kids participate.

Here are a few questions at play on this issue.  Am I teaching my kids to worship Satan by letting them do this?  Am I personally worshipping Satan by letting my kids do this?  Will I open my kids up to demonic attacks?  Every parent must answer these questions if they are to live a life pleasing to the Lord in this area.  Ellen and I had to do this ourselves when our kids were very young as we were coming out of legalistic Christianity into our freedom in Christ.

What does the New Covenant teach us about Halloween in the Bible?  The closest passage to this is found in 1 Corinthians 8.  In this case, the issue was whether or not a Christian could eat a grilled steak whose meat had been sacrificed to idols.  It’s an eye opening read because the Holy Spirit does not say through Paul that they shouldn’t do it because it would displease the Lord or open them up to demonic attacks. He comes at it from a perspective of freedom in Christ and loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Paul made clear the knowledge of the Gospel and how God provides freedom for some Christians to do this, but not all.  He hedges a little by saying in verse 4.  For even if there are so called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him: and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.  The first part might be a reference to the demonic world.

The Christians who knew this and believed it were simply living out their freedom in Christ.  Yet, Paul warns that they may need to put the brakes on their freedom for the sake of loving a Christian who doesn’t understand that freedom yet.  Because, if they saw them eating in the temple and went and did the same without understanding our freedom in Christ, it would be sin for them.  Love sometimes limits our public freedom in Christ.

Similarly, many of you may have a completely clear conscience before God that your kids can go trick or treating.  Others of you are not there yet and for you, no matter how many of your Christian friends let their kids do this, you shouldn’t. Why?  Because for you, it would be sinful.  Take your kids to a local church instead as a wonderful alternative. 

Christians who live free in this area, don’t invite your friends who don’t.  Show them the love of Christ and don’t make them stumble in their conscience before God.  And Christians who don’t believe you are free to participate in Halloween, don’t condemn those who do.  No matter which of these camps you fall into, your decision will be pleasing to the Lord according to 1 Corinthians 8 as well as Romans 14:1-22 through 15:1-12 as long as you live in love towards those in the opposite camp.

Whether you think it is safe for your kids to get candy from your neighbors is a different matter which each parent must weigh as well.  I’ve simply written from a New Covenant perspective.

Concluding words:  I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. Romans 14:14

Believe it.  It’s the Gospel.

Live Free in Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!