Grace Alone (Part 2)

There seem to be a new awakening to the meaning of GRACE in the body of Christ....

As you have seen, I started my blog with the meditation on "grace" as God seems to reveal to me. Recently, a sister shared with me how the Lord led her to pick up a book she owned many many years ago - "The Grace Awakening" by Charles Swindoll. She read and wept and wept... Then last week, I received a newsletter from World Impact Ministry run by Peter Youngren, a very anointed and powerful evangelist and servant of God. In it, there are 2 wonderful article on "Grace". I shall talk about the first one "Grace upon Grace" by a Norwegian pastor whose name is very difficult to pronounce and type :). Here is a summary of what I've learned:

Salvation is by Grace
New Life is by Grace
Sanctification is by Grace
Fullness is by Grace;
The gifts of the Spirit is by Grace
Ministry is also by Grace

Basically, EVERYTHING is by GRACE! The gospel we need to share with people around us is about Grace upon Grace!

Sounds superfluous? Stating the obvious? Think through again, and allow our head knowledge filter down to our heart... oh how children of God badly need a "heart knowledge" of His Grace...

I want to confess that earlier, I was (and perhaps still am rather) critical and cynical about the "grace gospel" that certain churches (or church) preach. But now I seem to have a new revelation and understanding of this word "Grace"....

1) SALVATION by GRACE

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift from God; not as a result of works, that noone should boast" - Ephesians 2:8-9

Noone will dispute this for sure. Just a point for sharing - often we think salvation is an instanteous event, a momentous decision. But have we ever thought the thoughts HE puts in to allure us and lead us to Him through different means of grace (friends, events in our lives, ...)
The greatest Means of Grace has to be Christ. If He didn't come, what would the world be like today? Would there be a B.C. and A.D. in our historical calendar? Would the world be preserved till today? If we didn't know Him, what would our lives be like today?

Another point for our mutual meditation - is one of the reasons why many Christians fail to win souls for Christ because we confront people with their sin, not God's grace. Paul in 2 Cor 5:19 spells out the best gospel message we can carry to others: "God has reconciled the world to Himself, not counting men or holding against men their trespasses, but CANCELLING them; and committing to us the message of reconciliation". Paul taught that we are "ambassadors of Christ" - and ambassadors are supposed to foster goodwill, mind you. But many times we "piss" people off with a "I am holier than thou" or "I know better than you to worship a false god" attitude. And Paul used the word that we are to "plead" with people to be "reconciled to God". Plead, appeal, coax, persuade, beg....why?? Why must we do that? Why 'cast the pearl before the swines'? Because the gospel is a gospel of GRACE. He is reaching to humanity in Grace and Love. If we can't do it, ask for His grace to make you willing and a useful vessel..."Lord, I can't. But if You would, do it through me". That's the grace of yielding....I don't know about you, but I personally find witnessing very difficult to do...perhaps herein lies the secret...remember, everything is by grace...


2) NEW LIFE, SANCTIFICATION, FULLNESS is by GRACE
One of the reasons why I was against the "grace gospel" is that I find it preaches "cheap grace".
But from this article, I learn that "the new creation is the answer to all who fear that the grace message is a license to sin."

I like Breakthrough Missions' emphasis on 2 Cor 5:17: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new must begin." But do we think this only apply to people who were ex-drug addicts?

One of the things we "old-time" Christians, our older folks and even youths that are brought up in Christian families often miss out is this realisation that as believers, we must lead a new life. Our old habits, old ways of thinking, old ways of reacting and retaliating to people who offend us...the older generation, especially our parents' generation, probably find this most difficult to do, like my mum and other friends' mums that I can think of. They harbour a lot of hurt in them and these turn them into hard and bitter people. We must break this inter-generational curse if we find ourselves inheriting such traits, easily harbouring unforgiveness easily towards others.It is crucial to remind ourselves our new identity in Christ and refuse to be defeated by such negative thoughts and cyclical behaviour, by His grace.

But we have our flesh over us. We have our 'ungodly' moments when we freak out (some ladies like me attribute the cause to PMS, haha - but someone once told me PMS cannot be so long and so frequent. Otherwise I may need deliverance..hmm..). But the grace of God is such a wonderful thing...each time I 'siao' enough already, God will be give me a resolve to come back to Him and ask for forgiveness and cleansing. That's His sanctification process for me. And its all by His grace. Nothing I did deserved it. Little wonder grace is defined as 'unmerited favour'.

The best thing that God's Grace can do for us is to transform us and leads us into fullness of life. Our Lord Jesus said in John 10:10, " I have come that you may have life, life to the full." What is a 'full life'? What is 'fullness' of life? Having lots of money, a handsome and good spouse, lovely children, friends, good career, good status, a fat bank account...? Bot bad right? I'm sure the Lord delights to bless His children with these (Matt 6:32-33), if He knows in all His wisdom they would stumble or draw us from Him. But besides material, relational and social fullness, I believe the Lord is most interested in our 'fullness' of character - our very own personhood, patching up the holes in our personality, character etc. By grace, and with through a sincere, humble and seeking heart, we will discover the importance of and benefit through the ministry of His Holy Spirit who works in us to produce the fruit of His Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23).
I emphasise by grace we discover the importance of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, because many are still suspicious of this Holy Spirit thingy. And some are still struggling to learn, like me, how to be filled with the Spirit and how to walk in the Spirit. I realised they are 2 quite different things...

There's so much to learn about Grace. May the Holy Spirit, our great and best Teacher and Counsellor, continue to reveal to us greater truths about His Grace...

"For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." - John 1:16

Forgive and be Set Free

Am going through the Matthew gospel after finishing John's. Like to share some meditations on Matt 18:21-35, from one of the articles in my Women of Desitny bible....

Our Lord Jesus taught the parable about the ungrateful servant whose master forgave him the debt he owed of 10 thousand talents. Yet, right after he had been pardoned and forgiven the hefty debt that he owed the master, he went direct to harass, threaten and abuse a fellow servant who owed him 10 denarii. He even threw the fellow servant into jail and when his master knew about it, he rebuked the ungrateful and unforgiving servant, called him "wicked" and "delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him".

Does that ungrateful and unforgiving servant represent you or me today? We are the debtors with the huge debt of sin we cannot pay. And Jesus has forgiven us, washed us clean, blot out our transgressions an give us fres starts each time we confess and repent. How then do we not forgive the lesser debts others owe to us?

When Jesus came, He instituted a whole NEW ORDER of relationships among God's people. The "eye for an eye" of the Old Testament law became "love your enemies" in the Sermon on the Mount.

Forgiveness is the mannner of the kingdom! Forgiveness is the kingdom lifestyle! Unforgiveness chokes the body of Christ. Let us pray that our fingerprints are not found on the throats of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus liken our unforgiving attitudes to casting our victims into prison. In harbouring unforgiveness, we put people into impossible situations in which they are helpless to resolve the problems they may have caused. They are helpless because we refuse to engage, to talk things over, to apologise, to agree to disagree, to forgive and agree to move on...Pride often is the spirit that is fuelling the unforgiving spirit...

Jesus described the unforgiving servant who threw his debtor into prison "wicked". "Wicked" means "perverse" or "twisted". If we refuse to forgive after we have been forgiven so much and so freely and so often by our Saviour and Redeemer Lord, we are "TWISTED" - wicked. Unforgiveness perverts the true gospel...

But it doesn't stop there, unforgiveness not only has the effect of casting our "offender" into prison but it also throws us into the "dungeon of torments" If we refuse to forgive, the Father will turn us over to the tormentors of hatred, bitterness, depression, self-pity, guilt, fear etc. We may also suffer physical ailments which often find their source in our emotional problems. When there is unforgiveness, noone gets off scot free...God calls us to unconditional forgiveness - the very means by which we can be freed from torment ourselves. We cannot afford the cost of harbouring unforgiveness!

The writer of this article, Sue Curran, concludes: "If Christians keep one another in the cruel prison of unforgiveness and sufffer torment themselves, then who will reap the harvest of souls waiting for salvation? Who will preach the gospel, bind up the broken hearted, and set the captives free?"

So why don't we just let everyone out of prison and allowour fellow brother, sister and even ourselves be set free? Just like Jesus who cancelled and BLOT OUT all our debts, "should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?" - Matt 18:33

I choose to forgive at least 3 people in my life today, by His Grace and Grace alone. What about you?