Yesterday, during the twice monthly phone discipleship meeting that Kristy and I have with our mentor, we discussed the meaning of faith.  When we boiled it down, we discovered that faith essentially is a mechanism that receives—a conduit, or feeding tube, of sorts through which the riches of God's grace in the gospel flow to us who believe. Faith is a posture of helplessness and need. It is a confidence that what God promises in the Gospel is true for me. I am forgiven and have no need to make up for my sins. I am declared righteous and have no need to impress anyone. I am a beloved son and have a sovereign, wise, and good Father who loves me dearly and is devoted to my good. I possess the indwelling Holy Spirit, who enables me to do what I could never do in the flesh- things like confess my sins freely and quickly, forgive others gladly and fully, tell the truth when it costs me, listen to someone's pain and really care. The experience of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control... Stuff like that.

So to live by faith is to live by receiving grace upon grace, day by day, moment by moment. Grace that secures us forever and empowers us today. And I think it helps to be reminded that there is an endless supply to the riches of grace... therefore we should never receive sparingly!  

Isaiah 55:1 is the LORD's invitation to feast on the promises of grace in the gospel as if we've been though a famine. He says, "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." AND, PLEASE, WHEN YOU EAT and DRINK, DON'T JUST SIP and NIBBLE. God is the host of the banquet, and bids us to glorify His name as the Great Giver as we feast and believe. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) night's Creekstone message is going to be one of those "when the rubber hits the road" messages.  Looking at Matthew 14:22-33, we are going to talk about what it means to live by faith rather than by fear. The reality is that we are faced with many reasons to fear. However, when we embrace the truth of the gospel and live in the context of God's sovereign, grace-filled agenda, we are able to let go of our fears, control, and despair, and live with the trust of a child who has a really strong Daddy. It is a faith that sets us free to walk through the valley of the shadow of death (or job loss, or failure, or embarrassment, or whatever)... without fear... because He is with us. This just might be a life-changing message.  Hope to see you then— 6:00 p.m. at the Park and Rec Center in Dahlonega. Here is a map. 

Here is last nights message handout from Campus Outreach/Beach Project in Panama City with the blanks filled in.

These quotes comparing justification and sanctification are from one of my favorite books, True Spirituality, by Francis Schaeffer.  

This is the message from last night at Creekstone, "What is the Hardest Thing a Christian Will Ever Do?" (Philippians 2:12-18).

Click here to download:

What is the Hardest Thing a Christian Will Ever Do_.mp3 (11027 KB)

Today at Fight Club we discussed Galatians 5:1-6.  Below I've pasted a copy of the handout, including Johnny Long's notes on "The Downward Pull of Christian Legalism."

   

Click here to download:

Todays_Fight_Club_Handout.zip (200 KB)

I'm reading through Acts this week and just made it to chapter 15, where there is a meeting among church leaders such as Paul, Peter and James (and many more) over what is required in order to be saved (read: fully forgiven, completely accepted, and eternally loved by and reconciled to God). Verse 1 describes the controversy, "But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, 'Unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.'" At least they would say you can't be really saved. Maybe in some provisional sense. Partly saved, but not completely saved without circumcision. 

The word that sticks out to me is unless. For them, the additive to the blood of Jesus was the old covenant rite of circumcision (more blood). What is the additive today? Unless I ____________. What is it that I think I must add in order to move from a provisionally accepted state into a condition where I can KNOW that I a fully forgiven, completely accepted and eternally loved? Whatever it is, I should flush it, because in the debate, Peter stands up and declares that regardless of the individual, the human heart is "cleansed through faith." And faith alone. No more blood on my behalf is required. This is why he wraps up his speech saying, "We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus..."

So, I'm thinking of two broad implicaitons:

1. This means that, through mere faith in the reconciling work of Jesus for me, I can experience what it is to be saved—fully forgiven, completely accepted, and eternally loved. This is God's grace to me.

2. Now I need to consider God's grace through me. What will it mean for me to trash the unless that I require of others (wife, children) in order to experience the same thing from me? Does my wife feel accepted and loved by me (read my grace to her and vice versa), or is there an unless attached to that blessing? I fear that I have attached many unlesses.

The answer to my legalism toward her and others is to go back to Jesus and get re-oriented to the gospel so that I can experience the kind of grace to me that flows through me.  If no grace is flowing through me... Well, I know that the real problem is with me. I have clogged arteries.

Lord Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief. Let your grace flow to me so that it (your life by your Spirit) can flow through me. Let me rest in the gospel, knowing that through faith and by sheer grace, I AM fully forgiven, completely accepted, and eternally loved.