Spiritual Blowout

By: Dr. Jimmy Young

Everybody loves the story of David, and rightly so. He is perhaps the foremost Christ-type in the Old Testament. And who doesn’t enjoy reading how the shepherd boy, the runt of the litter, rose to the pinnacle of success, whipping up on that nasty Goliath on the way.

But the thing we all love most is that tender heart of his towards God. Oh, the sweetness and intimacy of some of his songs! II Samuel 7 records one of his prayers that will charm the hardest of hearts. And yet, a mere three chapters later, our hero is in bed, literally, with Bathsheba. How is that possible?

Folks, the same duplicity exists in all of us. Paul, in Ephesians 4, talks about an old man and a new man. They’re both there, in all of us. We are all only hours, perhaps minutes, away from a spiritual blowout. Don’t forget that.

What Debt Do You Owe?

By: Scott Elliott

At the end of each month we all participate in what seems to be an unrelenting ritual: paying the bills. Now some of you may pay at the first of the month and some pay partial throughout the month, but we all OWE something to somebody!

It reminds me of the enormous thrill, the excitement and joy I had when I finally paid off my last car note! It was as if I had a large boulder taken off my back; extra money in my pocket to burn (or to save)… a burden was released! I no longer owed this money. My debt was paid... in full.

I think you now know where I am going with this. At least I sure hope you do!

It brings a smile on my face and peace to my heart knowing that my debt (MY sin) has been paid IN FULL by the only means in Christ Jesus! HE paid it all on the cross. Not just a few sins but all of my sins, mine and yours if you are a believer.

So, what debt do you owe? Who are you obligated to? We are only obligated to Christ because he took the punishment we deserve for our sin. Although we cannot repay Christ for all he has done, we can demonstrate our gratitude by showing his love to others. “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).

Isaac Watts understood this debt we could not repay when he wrote the song, “Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed":

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
the debt of love I owe;
here, Lord, I give myself away,
‘tis all that I can do.

I still have a few bills to pay every month. I am ok with that. But the biggest bill of all, my biggest debt has already been paid by my heavenly Father! I have been released from the burden, saved by the Lamb and proclaimed by Christ. I am so thankful for that … ‘tis all that I can do.

Shalom, y’all

By: Jim Umlauf

I’m at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis for a class on missions. Many excellent things have been discussed thus far, but a quote stood out that I wanted to share:

“The idea that creation has a moral quality to it is an astounding and important part of the (creation, thus gospel) story. It points to a gardener who has the soil under his fingernails.”

God created a world that was good. Sin, then, is a distortion of the good. A formerly whole, beautiful, obedient creation depicts evil for what it is—parasitic. Evil is not an equal or opposite opponent of good. It’s a distortion, a twisting, a violation, a hijacking of the good.

A lot of ministry efforts are crippled because they start with the fall. The Bible doesn’t do that. When we consider the gospel, we naturally think about sin, after all, hurt is all around us, and the effects of it are plain to see. Further, Jesus came to deal with the consequences of sin in both lives and creation. But to grasp God’s ultimate plan in the theatre of redemption, we really need to back up all the way to the start.

One day, in the fullness of time, King Jesus will return. When he does, evil will be put away forever, and creation will be restored to its originally intended design. Until then, let’s live in joyful, confident, hopeful, vocal anticipation of that day.

Hell: We can't afford to get it wrong.

By: Johnny Coggin

"Do you ever even consider the possibility that maybe the Creator's sense of justice is more developed than yours? And that maybe his love and his mercy are perfect and that you could be the one that is flawed?"

http://youtu.be/qnrJVTSYLr8

An Oxymoron That's Not an Oxymoron

By: Dr. Jimmy Young

I hope everybody knows what an oxymoron is by now. For those who don’t, it is a strange combination of two words or ideas that one wouldn’t normally place side by side. My favorite illustration is “holy sweat”. One doesn’t normally think of sweat as holy. Nor do we normally associate holiness with sweat.

I have another oxymoron to show you, but it is only oxymoronic to us, not God. It is a phrase that Paul uses often: “the obedience of faith.” You can find it in Romans 1:5 and 16:26. You see, we are so wroth to the idea of “works” that we miss the nature of genuine faith. No, no amount of obedience can ever merit you anything in the economy of God. We hold fast that a man "is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Romans 3:28). Indeed! However, the faith that saves you gives rise to “the obedience of faith,” which in no way is an oxymoron.

Let me illustrate. Most of us know that God’s law prohibits adultery. But so many find it an enticing option. Faith reasons this way: God said I shouldn’t commit adultery, although it sure looks titillating to me. However, because I believe that God said that, and I believe that God loves me and instructs me for my good, I will, in light of what I believe, obey… the obedience of faith. My faith traces its obedience back to the God who I believe to be the Lawgiver, and my Father in Heaven. Thus, my obedience grows out of my belief in and love for my God.

Struggling is a Good Sign

By: Erin Pearce

In the past year and a half, I have learned that marriage holds up a mirror and shows me things I wasn’t aware of about myself. Don’t get me wrong, I believe I have been blessed with the greatest husband ever; his kind love for me when I am unlovely helps me to taste grace more and more. And when I think about how much more grace we receive from our beloved Father in heaven, it brings me to tears.

I remember learning for the first time in college that it is a good thing to struggle with sin and fight it with a passion. I was taught that this struggle means the Holy Spirit is alive and well inside of me. I did a book study through The Enemy Within, and Kris Lundgaard says:

“Believers are the only people who ever find the law of sin at work in them. Unbelievers can’t feel it. The law of sin is a raging river, carrying them along; they cannot measure the force of the current, because they have surrendered themselves to it and are borne along by it. A believer, on the other hand, swims upstream – he meets sin head-on and strains under its strength.”

So if you are overwhelmed and weary today from fighting, praise the Lord that the Spirit is alive and well in your heart. And remember: the Lord is faithful. He promises a sure victory in the finale.

Body & Soul

By: Donna Pearce

"You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."
- C. S. Lewis

Makes us think, huh?

When our child is born, we are enamored with every inch of that precious little body.

• We count fingers and toes.
• We determine which family member each tiny feature resembles.
• We feed that body. We bathe it, powder it, caress it, rock it, comfort it.
• We take great pains to be assured it is well nourished, well exercised, well trained, well groomed, well dressed, free of germs, rashes, infection and disease, broken bones, scars, and crooked teeth.
• We beg God to keep that little body protected from all harm.

But that soul, that precious soul... the most important part:

• that embodies who that child is,
• that lives throughout eternity,
• that communes with the God who gave it life,
• that lives within that shell we call the body,
• that our eyes can't see...

We must not neglect this most vital part of our child.

To love our child fully is to nourish that soul with the same determination as we do that body:

• with lots of prayer,
• by the teaching of God's Word,
• by singing songs of truth and praise to our Heavenly Father,
• by stirring the awareness of the child's own sinful heart and his desperate need of a Savior,
• by allowing our child to fail, to suffer, to experience loss, with us at his side, and then teaching him to trust in our Heavenly Father, who is totally trustworthy, when those times of adversity come,
• by making it a big deal to be a part of a covenant family,
• by glorifying and serving God by serving others,
• by being parents who lead by example, loving the Lord our God with all our hearts and souls and might, keeping His commandments in our hearts, and teaching them diligently to our children, when we are hanging out at home, when we take walks together... or drive carpool, when we go to bed at night, and when we get up in the morning,
• and by begging God to protect that precious soul from all harm.

Face It – You’re Broke

By: Jim Umlauf

When I did singles ministry here at Grace, a frequent item of disclosure would come up at some point in a serious dating relationship: the amount of personal debt each party carried. This was an increasingly important issue as credit cards became easier to get, and as the culture shifted toward a general numbness over owing someone money. In some cases, it put a real strain on the relationship, i.e., “Wow, I get this awesome girl and her $18,000 obligation.” A single woman with excellent credit might have suddenly realized that her financial judiciousness was now going to be mingled with a fiancé’s bad choices.

People don’t brag about debt; in fact, most find too much of it embarrassing. It’s also scary. I look at the amount of money still owed on my home and it’s daunting. I certainly don’t boast about it.

Spurgeon once preached:

“The more you have, the more you are in debt to God. You should not be proud of that which renders you a debtor.”

Do you have a lot? Maybe it’s stuff. Or money. Or money and stuff. Perhaps it’s a keen mind, or personal beauty. It might be a good reputation, gorgeous children, or the car or house everyone else dreams about.

It’s debt, bro. You’re flat broke.

But forget about the temporal. The God who began a good work in you and will be faithful to complete it spilled his own Son’s blood to buy you. You’re (thankfully) not even your own. Your life was given to you. Grace is a gift that forever makes you a debtor to mercy alone.

So the more you have, the more you’re in debt. That’s reality.

Fall down and worship God.

Who Is “I”?

By: Stacey Fiser

Ezekiel 36:22-28:

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

My intention in reading this passage the other day was to use it in our devotional prior to our baseball games. As usual, in my study (and arrogance) to simplify and to share with a group of 6-10 year olds, several new things were revealed to me:

• God acts on behalf of His holy name and in accordance to His purposes.
• God acts in spite of our sinful nature, the antithesis of His holiness.
• God gathers us, seeks us, woos us.
• In 7 verses, “I” the Lord God is used 13 times. How much clearer did it have to be for me to see that He is in control, sovereign above all? I can do nothing to earn my salvation, to rescue and reconcile myself to Him. There is nothing in me apart from Him that would choose to seek Him.
• In those same 7 verses, “my” is used at least 7 times referring to His holy name, holiness, Spirit, statutes and rules. All these references quickly turned my mind to His power, His grace, His mercy.
• When left to my own devices, I profane His name, I am unclean, I possess a heart of stone resistant to His holiness, statues, rules, power and grace.
• He gives me a heart of flesh --- again I have not earned it --- and puts His Spirit in me to enable me to obey.

A Key to Kicking Ungodly Habits

By: Dr. Jimmy Young

In a recent sermon I posed this question: “Why can’t we Christians kick ungodly habits?” Wouldn’t you think that we would, over time, be able to see victory over those demons that haunt us?

I said then and I repeat now that the problem is theological. By that I mean that we have forgotten things about God or ignored things God has said to us.

I, in my sermon, asked this, “Have we forgotten the holiness of God?” Well, have we? If so, sin becomes more “doable.” We toy with things that should frighten us.

This morning, in my time with God, I ran up against a statement that Isaiah made that stopped me in my tracks:

“Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?” (Isaiah 42:24)

Does that sting? I think it ought to, because what it says is that our heavenly Father is willing to turn us over to the plunderers when we refuse to obey. That little fact needs to be remembered. When we forget, we toy with sin, and end up in the hands of the plunderers… we get plundered.

I can’t speak for you, but I would rather avoid that. I am not suggesting that He boots us out of the family. But that verse states rather clearly that God is actively engaged in administering the consequences of our sin.

Guys, the advice I would give is this: we all need daily reminders of who God is and what He said. Without that, our memories fade, and the outcome is often disastrous. This is not fear-mongering. It is trying to explain why we can’t kick bad habits. We cannot, we must not forget the holiness of God.

God Hardened Pharaoh’s Heart, And God Doesn’t Change

By: Will Savell

Moses was able to see firsthand how the Lord distinguished a group of people from everyone else. And He saw that distinction around every turn, but especially in his dealings with Pharaoh.

If one has ever read the book of Exodus, then they probably have seen that little statement, “…and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart…” It’s all over the Exodus account. Where it jumps out the most to me is in Exodus 11:10 where it is written,

“Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.”

Did you know that there was a reason for that? And the reason is worth taking note of. There is a reason why God would actually harden a ruler’s heart, and this is important even for today, lest we think that God is a changing God. Verse 7 of the same chapter states,

“…that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.”

Why would God harden someone’s heart? And why would he distinguish one group over another?

We’ve been hearing a lot on Sunday mornings about having the correct view of God, and how that view affects the way we view the world and our circumstances.

If we have a view of God that supposes that He is here to serve man and be our magic 8-ball or our lucky lottery ticket, then we might have a real problem with this idea of distinction.

However, if our view of God becomes a little bit bigger and the view of ourselves becomes a little bit smaller, then we’ll understand and love verse 9 a little bit more:

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.’”

I think Moses knew that he was a part of something big. And I think he also knew that he wasn’t the main character in the unfolding drama, but because he was part of the distinguished people, he could be a part of something that multiplied the wonders of God throughout all the nations for generations to come.

As part of God’s royal priesthood, holy nation, and chosen people, may we attempt to wrap our minds around a bigger purpose than our own, and a bigger story than one where we are the primary character. That might be a shift in perspective and perhaps might change the way we view this difficult thing called life. It is then when we will perhaps be able experience a little bit of what Moses experienced: the multiplied wonders of the Lord.