Tag Archives: Grace

My Security is In Jesus 4

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We’re in part 4 of a word of encouragement from the Lord for those of us bold enough to admit we’re insecure. God has a Secure place for us. We learned in Part 1 that we can each declare that “I Praise God; For Choosing Me to Love ; For Bringing Me Home and For Accepting Me As I Was.”

For Bringing Me Home

Eph 1:5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

Isn’t it so powerful that God chose to bring us home to be in His family. The truth is we can be confident of a few things according to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

1. We’re His Child: having predestined us to adoption as sons. We have been predestined; which means to predetermine, to decide beforehand, to adopt (the action or fact of legally taking another’s child and bringing it up as one’s own); to become sons/daughters of God. God made this decision well before we were born (before anyone was borne for that matter). The term as sons in Greek speaks of the same relationship that God was pleased to establish with the Israelites; and the condition of the true disciples in Christ; and those who by receiving the Spirit of God become sons of God. Each of these demonstrates just what a special position we’ve been blessed with as sons.

2. Were His Decision: by Jesus Christ to Himself. Jesus made the decision to adopt us as sons while the Triune Godhead before the foundation of the world. However, after making the decision, Jesus Christ followed up and executed the decision on the Cross as Messiah. Truly amazing; Jesus, the Son gave His life so that we might switch places and live in the Son.

3. Were His Pleasure: according to the good pleasure of His will,. Finally, we need to comprehend this last piece. We please God!!! But it’s not what you think; we don’t please him by how good we act nor what nice deeds we do. We please God because we believe in our hearts what Jesus did on the cross and have declared with our mouths that Jesus is our Savior. Jesus pleased God so we wouldn’t have too. We bring our Daddy pleasure and they is so Sweet.

We praise God because He chose us; He loves us and He made a home for us in His family and allows us to be ourselves. Paul’s text lays out a tremendous path for us to receive God’s insatiable love for us and I hope you can appreciate it; I’m learning to more and more everyday.

My Security is In Jesus 3

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We’re in part 3 of a word of encouragement from the Lord for those of us bold enough to admit we’re insecure. God has a Secure place for us. We learned in Part 1 that we can each declare that “I Praise God; For Choosing Me to Love ; For Bringing Me Home and For Accepting Me As I Was.”

For Choosing Me to Love

Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

There is something so satisfying about being selected; someone choosing you for a special recognition or honor. The thing that makes your selection even more incredible is the selection source. Obviously, the bigger, more powerful, more recognizable and well known the organization or person is that selected you the more amazing the recognition becomes.

Back in my youthful days, I was selected by an organization called “Big Brothers/Big Sisters” of the National Capital Region as their Big Brother of the year. It was an incredible honor and one I cherish to this day. It was special, because they choose me out of a very large number of volunteers, the organization was Nationally known and it had significant resources and respect around the country.

So much so that a few months later I was chosen by the President of the United States, George W. Bush, to be on his panel of mentors for his international mentoring initiative. The President was known Worldwide, much more than the DMV area. He was much more powerful, with many more resources; an his position as President garnered respect across the Globe and that was who chose me. Wow

So now imagine what this means, we are now:

1. Known: He chose us. The He in this text is simple; the God of the Universe. No one is more well known; more powerful; more respected. There is a trending term “I Am Him,” which means that this person is as dominant figure. Well, God is the originator; he told Moses “I AM WHO I AM.” The original “I Am Him,” chose us. Each one of you reading this post, regardless of who you are, where you’re from, what you’ve done He chose us. He chose us because He knew us (Jer 1:5); and contrary to our own beliefs, God knows us and even knowing everything about us He still chose us (Ps 139).

2. Family: in Him. When I got married, I chose my Wife to become a member of my entire family. Not only did I have to trust her with my heart but also with those who were the very closest to me. My wife inevitably was making the same decision for her and her family. Here we have the Almighty God; maker of Heaven and Earth deciding that we are special enough to trust us with His heart (not knowing that He would ultimately give us His heart) and to trust us with His family (You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself). Our neighbors are God’s family and He trust us to treat them with love and respect.

3. In His Timing: before the foundation of the world. God decided to choose us well before we could ever choose him (Jer 1:5). We were not even a twinkle in our parents eyes (always thought that was a corny saying), when God made up His mind to send Jesus to take on our Sin. Because of His timing we can see that God knew everything about us and what our lives would be; so we can realize the God has always loved us. He decided long long ago that we were worthy of His love; and worth giving the one He loved the most to ensure we could experience His most precious LOVE. That is pretty special!!

4. Holy In His Presence: that we should be holy and without blame before Him. We’ve been made Holy; spotless and without Blame. In His presence, we are full of Joy (Ps 16:11), rest (Matt 11:28), peace (Phil 4:6-7) and protection (Ps 91). There are a ton of benefits from being in the Lord’s presence, here we learn that in His presence we are without blame. This is because of what Jesus did on the cross. He took on our Sin and exchanged it for His Righteousness. His Righteousness; because of Christ sacrifice on the cross; He has presented us to God faultless (Jude 1:24). Therefore, in God’s presence we are holy and without blame.

5. Loved: in love. The entire foundation of our identity and our security is found in love. In the Love of God for this world (Jn 3:16-17); God’s Love for His Son (Jn 15:9) ; Jesus’ Love for Us (1 John 4:9-10) and Our love for Ourselves (Matthew 22:39). This verse tells us that we are Chosen; as Family; in His presence and in His timing all based in love. God Loves Jesus soooo much (Jn 3:35; 5:20); He gives Him all things and all of Himself. God Loves this World, so much that He sent Jesus to die for it (Jn 3:16-17). in love, We are able to learn ourselves and love what God loves about us; Ps 139:17-18 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

God fully knows you; His love for you is special and abundant. So much so, that He chose you as His love interest, He brought you into His family. He has plans for you in His timing and desires that you be in His presence….and it’s all done in LOVE.

The Miracle of God’s Grace

God Loves You, Spiritual Food,

2 Cor 12:8-9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Paul more than any of the Apostles of Christ received a wealth of revelation regarding God’s Grace; he had a unique understanding, that he graciously shared with the body. We misinterpret His Grace often often; we’ve heard it taught in many different ways but what is His Grace and when do we need it. Very short answer; Everything and Everyday (min & hour)!! In Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthian church, he gave an incredible lesson on God’s Grace and if we do a little digging into his words, we will be able to see the Miracle that is God’s Grace.

1. First thing we need to address is that God is speaking to us: And He said to me. This is the first miraculous portion of this text; do you recall who exactly Paul was? Paul was a persecutor of those who followed Jesus. He literally had these people jailed, stoned and even killed. Paul couldn’t be more of an enemy of God. Yet, Jesus still spoke to Paul; He actually went way beyond just speaking to Paul, He corrected Paul; He forgave Paul; He equipped Paul and He used Paul to glorify Himself. This is Grace; Jesus made His enemy His Son. This Grace is also extended to each one of us. We were once an enemy of God; yet Jesus corrected, forgave, equipped, and desires to use us. His plans for us are similar to the miraculous transformation of Paul. The Lord spoke to Paul and today speaks to us. What a miracle; God finds us worthy of His Grace

2. Distinction between His Grace and Our Grace: My grace is sufficient for you. The Grace Jesus speaks of to Paul is an inexhaustible empowerment that regardless of what we’ve done or will do; regardless of what we’ll ever need; is available to us in abundance. His Grace is sufficient because it never runs out; this word sufficient actually means to be content, to be enough, to suffice. His Grace however, is always more than enough; because He does exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or think (Eph 3:20). No matter what you and I need, what is burdening us (like Paul’s thorn in the flesh), or even what we don’t realize is (God’s plan Jer 29:11) planned for us; His Grace is more than enough. Yet another miracle of His Grace, it’s Inexhaustible.

3. Our Weakness is His Strength: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. The Lord declares that His strength is perfected in our weakness. That means that every time we feel weak, it is an opportunity for God to show His strength in our situation. Therefore, we need to first acknowledge our weaknesses. Now our weakness is clear to us (and especially to those around us) yet when we don’t acknowledge that we have weaknesses, we are being Proud. Peter actually helps us with this, “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God (1 Pet 5:5). It is by humility that we acknowledge our weakness, but we then must give those weaknesses to the Lord: casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you (1 Pet 5:7). When we do this; (Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time), God’s strength will lift us high enough to be seen (witnessed) by others. This means God has the opportunity to demonstrate His Strength in each of us, when we give Him consent (by casting our weaknesses). The miracle is that our weakness draws God’s Strength into our lives.

4. Boast on Your Infirmities: Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. The thought of boasting (the word boast means to glory, joy or rejoice in) in your weaknesses just defies all human logic. We want to glory in our strengths; those things we’re good at. It takes extreme humility to show our vulnerability and to do the exact opposite of what seems right to man. To take joy in or tell others about our weakness or shortcomings is exactly what Paul is doing and exhorting us to do. Being vulnerable and acknowledging our weaknesses gives us the ability to sit back and watch God show Himself STRONG in the very areas need the most. The miracle; is that Strength is demonstrated via our Vulnerability. The things we want to hide are the things that God will use. So Rejoice in the Lord and in your weakness; then God has the opportunity to demonstrate His great power in Us.

That Was Not God

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James 1:13-15 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

People like to blame God for many things, horrible tragedies, the actions of some of our loved ones, and even for people in authority.  However, there are certain things that the Bible tells us are definitely not God’s doing, and one of those is temptation.  James, the brother of Jesus is very clear, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  God is not testing you, He does not need to see if you can be trusted.  God knows everything about us, he does not need to figure us out.  

However, while we are tempted by the devil, we’re drawn to the thing we desire (Greek word actually means: lust and longings, especially for the forbidden).  The text says, But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  That word enticed means: to entrap or to allure.  So we are not tempted by God; however, the devil uses our list and longings to allure and entrap us.  Therefore, when we understand that God’s not behind the temptation and that our weaknesses are being used to pull us astray; we can go to God for his help.  After all; And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  (2nd Corinthians 12:9).