Walking by Grace - Part 1 Freedom to Obey

Do you ever fear that God is not pleased with you or that you need to try harder to do right?
Today through Wednesday we will take a look at walking by grace through faith.

Live by Grace? or try your best, and end up failing over and over or even give up trying because you live in defeat after failing to keep all the rules? That is legalism.

Paul said,

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20 and in Ephesians 2:10 he said, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” and in Colossians 1:27, “to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” and in Galatians 5:1,13,16-17, & 22-13,“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

The law tells us to do the best we can to meet God’s requirements - “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?” Deuteronomy 10:12-13 We try AND WE KEEP FAILING. That is one of the purposes of the Law; to show us we can never keep it perfectly and that because of that we need a Savior who did keep it perfectly for us.

GRACE tells us that God has done it all. Jesus finished taking care of sin on the cross, Jesus rose from the grave to show His power over death and the power over sin and He is now in Heaven to every time the devil accuses us say, “paid in full”. “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” Romans 8:34

Because you realize you don’t deserve forgiveness and that you in your own power you are a helpless sinner who deserves hell, and that no change of your behavior will make you loved by God anymore than He did the day He died in your place on the cross. That should lead you to be eternally grateful! So grateful that you want to obey Him (“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” Jesus said in John 14:15).

All those verses above and others that show you don’t have to DO; you can relax and experience peace no matter what is going on trusting that holy, infinite God is in control and nothing comes as  a surprise to Him. In that attitude of thankfulness, you can trust and obey Him and walk in what He has for you as it says in Ephesians 2:10. You can let it be not I, but Christ working in and through you, not bound by rules and not trying harder any longer. Obeying because thanks to God you can!

                        (Part 2 tomorrow)

By grace alone, through faith that God gives...

Saved by grace, through faith for walking in the works God has for you.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
                                Ephesians 2:8-10 (NASB)

The focus of the Christian faith is not our morality; it is Jesus, who died for our immorality. ~ Tullian Tchividjian

Do you get along with your church family?

“My brothers, you were chosen to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; doing anything you want, but use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to "Love your neighbor as yourself". But if you keep attacking each other, be careful that you are not consumed or destroyed by each other. Galatians 5:13-15

The way of our flesh, our natural man, is to use freedom to indulge the flesh, but our love of God He gives us (1John 4:19) will result instead in loving obedience and service to others. If we walk in the flesh we may say we love, but then turn around and attack those who we claim to be “related” to; our brothers and sisters in Christ. Instead of loving Christians and working to restore them to walking by the Spirit, we claim “our rights” or express our “self-righteousness”.

We try to demand their obedience to our conditions rather than give them unconditional love and gently encourage them to repentance. You don’t have to like everyone or what some people do; like you and I, they are sinners and not perfect, but you do have to love them. The only way to really do that is to have God’s love flowing out of you. As John says, “If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” 1 John 4:20
Are you showing the same grace to others that God gave to you? We say we love the lost, but then we ignore or walk to the other side of the room to avoid those “different” than us. Bitterness, unforgiveness are ways we show rebellion against holy God, not service and love. Learn to love God, to appreciate your forgiveness because you realize you do not deserve it any more than anyone else; like Jesus said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

Deny your own wants, keep your flesh daily put to death on that cross and do what He shows you to do. Jesus came to save lost people and He gives you opportunities to disciple them. As a Christ follower you are free to love Jesus and let Him love others through you. Use your freedom, your free will choice, to love and obey the one who saved you by His grace in order to use you as His tool to accomplish His works. (Eph. 2:8-10)

Live in freedom where you get to do what the new you, the new creation, wants to do because your wants have become lined up with God’s wants. Free is the only way to live and experience the joy and the victory that is yours in Christ Jesus! Walk by grace, receiving it and also showing it to others and you can learn to walk in freedom. Your freedom to love, forgive and show grace come from who you are in Christ. It is not your own efforts or the things you do, but the Spirit that lives in you that produces this selfless love for God, your church family and others.

 

Are you different than you were before you were saved?

Are you different than you were before you were saved?
Is the peace of God in the middle of problems real in your life?

I am no longer the same since understanding God’s GRACE!
I do not understand all that did happen, but I know I’m different.
I know I did nothing to deserve God’s grace and the more I see His holiness the more I realize how totally undeserving I am, but thanks to Him I am a child of God (John 1:12)

It was not that compared to someone else my sin or your sin is bad, but compared to the true, pure, perfect holiness of GOD even the best we can do is not even in the same arena with God! It took God becoming man and shedding His own blood in my place for me to have the one and only way to come to be made right with holy and perfect God. Just one selfish or prideful thought is all it took for me to be a sinner in need of the GRACE of God. “God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I have spoken with too many lately who think their “bargain” with God, their being better than most, their walking an aisle, saying a prayer, being baptized or going to church is going to get them into Heaven and even their behavior; that thought that we talked about a couple of days ago of “how good is good enough?”. Look at their life though and they have no love for God and no love for other believers; "By this they will know that you are Mine, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Please take an honest look and see if you have love for other believers and the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, etc. operating in you and that you are not living in and hanging on to something the Bible says is sin. I’m not trying to judge but to get you to be sure you are not relying on your behavior or something you did or are doing. Only Jesus righteousness will satisfy God’s perfect justice.

We, mankind, are sinners by nature.
Look at Revelation 20:2-3,7-10 where Satan is bound and can’t bother people for 1000 years and yet people rebel against God.
You and I need a Savior and Jesus is the only one who as both God and man is able to save!

If God is drawing you, showing you that you are not righteous before Him based on the work of Jesus on the cross, then now is the time. Give God your old sinful life and get a new life from Him. Quit trying to earn your way to God or to be “good enough” because only perfection is good enough for God. Say YES to Jesus and receive the free gift eternal life and the forgiveness of all your sin and a new nature. You will have to learn to live as the new person and not that old one (it will still hang around as long as you are in your physical body) but you have in Christ the power and guidance to in love obey Him and have an inner joy and peace in your new life. Let God have you now!

There is a song that expresses some of this freedom and joy in Christ - He Touched Me
Read the words and I pray as you do, you will know for sure you were touched by God and made holy and made a child of the King!

Shackled by a heavy burden,
'Neath a load of guilt and shame.
Then the hand of Jesus touched me,
And now I am no longer the same.
Since I met this blessed Savior,
Since He cleansed and made me whole,
I will never cease to praise Him,
I'll shout it while eternity rolls.
He touched me, Oh He touched me,
And oh the joy that floods my soul!
Something happened and now I know
He touched me and made me whole. – Gaither Vocal Band

I pray that if you have someone you know who does not know Jesus or you are concerned that they may not that you share this post and pray for them.
There are too many who go to church sometime or even regularly whose lives are full of anger, bitterness, unforgiveness and lack of love for those they go to church with and others even in their families that may be looking for something to save them besides the grace of God. If so they are missing out not only on eternity with God but on the joy of salvation we have now. -
If you make a decision to receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord please let me know in a PM or if you want more info feel free to ask.

If you are sure you have a new life in Christ, but keep failing to live godly and you want to then realize you are forgiven and have victory over sin and learn how to walk in GRACE and not by rules and you can learn to joyfully out of love and gratitude obey God. If you try in your power you will fail, but if you accept the finished work of Jesus on the cross you can learn to enjoy your new life and prepare for your eternity.

Pray this makes the FB post more accessable

Due to the way FB now does post it is so very easy to miss something and many that enjoy reading the 'Cowboy Church fans' page miss it.

I will be posting the links to this so it will always be up and available for reading.

Any suggestions to improve access are appreciated.

Jim