An Abundance of Grace

And as His children, we abide in Him and He in us. That’s how we see/know light – we live in His light and thus separated from the darkness, we comprehend the light: For with You is the fountain of life ; In Your light we see light . (Psa 36:9)

As the soldiers sent by the Chief Priest along with Judas Iscariot approached Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, He asked them a most poignant question reaching far beyond that pivotal night. It transcends time. Thus, He asks us the same question today.

When you want to learn more about grace and forgiveness one of the characters in the Bible you can reference is David the king of Israel. For all his courage in battle and sincerity in worship, his life was filled with messes, and he often was their maker. Can you relate to that? I sure can.

But Jesus overthrew their tables on this by asserting that they were like ‘deer in His headlight’ so to speak. Exposed as fakers with God. What He was saying is what He always said – “You must be born again.” You must be completely, changed inwardly to be clean (i.e. acceptable) before God. You simply cannot get away with the outward show.

You see, the context of the lesson was/is our duty to forgive but the lesson goes beyond that and puts a spotlight on the condition of the heart of the forgiver or servant of the Lord.

This is why most all of us need to persist in prayer because we need a holy heart attitude, uncluttered by the world and our own ‘flesh’. It’s in that time ‘on the mountain’ like Christ (see Mat 14:23 and Luke 6:12) or in your own Gethsemane, whether fellowshipping and/or agonizing with the Almighty, that you arrive at the ‘one-two’.

And how about those who are “oppressed”? Well, the translators perhaps should have used the literal meaning of “crushed”, or “broken in pieces” or “shattered”. You may have read the novel, “The Count of Monte Cristo” wherein, the protagonist, a young French sailor, Edmund Dantes was falsely imprisoned in the horrible Chateau D’if. Each year, the ‘warden’ chained Edmund up and beat him nearly to de...

But not everyone who encounters Christ does so with sincerity. Some see themselves are morally superior to everyone else. The power of God’s Son does not impress them because they actually are not just bound by sin by devoted to evil:

Early in His ministry, Jesus roamed the shore of the Sea of Galilee and encountered two fishermen, Peter and his brother Andrew. He simply said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The result was: They immediately left their nets and followed Him. (Matt 4:19,20) Nearby, He also found two more brothers, James and John, fishermen as well: He called them, and immediately they left the bo...

The Gospel Jesus taught is based upon faith and trust in an Almighty God Who offers eternal life freely. Contrary to this, the Law never saved anyone. That’s because mankind has always been powerless to keep it – only the Son of God Himself could do that and the Life of faith and trust He brought is empowered by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

Jesus, the Living Word, gave us many pictures, many examples to learn from. Taking on the menial task of washing the disciples’ feet, including Judas’, was one such picture.

God will speak if we will listen. 138 times, the Bible records that the Lord spoke to someone. 136 of those times are in the Old Testament while only two are in the New Testament. Why do you suppose that is? Probably because the Word was made flesh in Jesus Christ and He said everything God wanted to say.

Being alone, or feeling that way, can be terrifying to some. To others, it seems normal. But being truly alone because of being forsaken or abandoned, ‘ghosted’ as they say, is progressively disheartening. It is part of the pain of hell. But there is good news for those who have been born anew in Christ – forever and ever, you will never be alone again, never utterly forsaken or abandoned because...

Jesus said to him, “If I will that he (John) remains till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me .” (John 21:22) That is, conform your ways to mine. You see, you don’t ‘follow Jesus’ by walking after Him but by Him living IN YOU (by faith) and you fully submitting to Him/His Spirit. So, again by definition, where He goes, you go. Do you follow?

Jesus’ peace, the peace He freely shares with us, is not some state of ‘higher consciousness’ but a direct connection and intimate relationship with the Source. The Abba Father, the One and only Creator. This peace is IN Him and THROUGH Him. And joyously, it’s PERMANENT.

For You meet him with the blessings of goodness ; You set a crown of pure gold upon his head. He asked life from You, and You gave it to him --Length of days forever and ever.

These people, sadly including John the B, were focused on the miracles – the visible works. But they were missing the real work of God, the eternal work .

You see, God does not lack, He does not need, but He does love. We are the ones who rebelled against Him and separated ourselves from Him. His love compelled Him to send His Son to seek and save us.

The Bible calls this idol “mammon” which simply means wealth. Security, pleasure, temporary happiness, and other things come with mammon but there are also plenty of traps such as pride, obsession, fear, distrust and more which capture and torture and ultimately strangle the human soul/heart.

If you are truly born again, your inner being deeply desires to revel in the unity of the new creature with your Maker.

Alas Nicodemas, the confusion was driving him nuts. His whole life had been spent pursuing the wisdom of the elders and the knowledge of the scriptures. He knew the traditions better than most Pharisees. In fact, he was known as the teacher of Israel. And for most of his life, he’d been quite confident about his knowledge. But then came this itinerant rabbi doing these truly amazing signs. He gave...

And when I think of patient endurance for a lifetime, I think of the wilderness and 40 years of wandering in it. Moses and the Jewish nation endured this – why? Well, we know that at first, they failed to obey God and take the new land. They chickened out. But the wandering wasn’t punishment, it was purposeful: “And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in...

I suspect that’s because after 2000 years or so it is much easier to preach on loving, much more reasonable to believe and obey the ‘love command’. After all, watching implies an expectation and requires trust that the expectation will be fulfilled.

There is no ‘getting better’ from SIN; there’s no amount of discipline or ‘growth’ that can drive it from you. The ONLY way to be rid of its stench and blackness is to surrender all of it to Christ and absolutely trust Him. You see, He took the penalty for ALL of it that we surrender by faith on the cross of Calvary. He literally took all of it on Himself: who Himself bore our sins in His own body...

Simply put, hope is the expectation of coming good . It’s eternal because He’s eternal and it’s wonderful because He’s wonderful.