An Abundance of Grace

So what was revealed in this passage is clearly the grand and glorious plan of God, and the timepiece so to speak for it is also made obvious – the Jews and Jerusalem – like two hands on a clock.

Yes, our dead flesh has sin in it all the time. It’s not free from sin and then sinful and then free from sin and then sinful – back and forth endlessly. It’s full of sin all the time; but it is DEAD. YOU however, are alive IN Christ. YOU have been freed from that body of sin by faith and one day soon you will have a completely NEW body that is also sinless – a gift from God.

Like ‘bookends’ to His earthly ministry, Jesus’ declarations to His disciples in Mat 5 and Mark 16 initiated and punctuated His message to (and mission for) the Church. In this day in which western Christianity is often being confused with economic, political and entertainment/popular values, we would do well to study and understand again what He said in them.

Doesn’t sound very uplifting, does it? It’s a list of spiritual failures and there is a stern warning at the end. This is what I think is important for us to understand. You see, many commentators have treated this prophecy/prediction as speaking of the degenerating of the entire human race but I don’t think that is the point.

You see, we are all broken. We are born broken – we are born in sin and born to die.

He’s telling us to be like Him. Unfortunately, even as believers we often still don’t ‘get’ Him – we get hung up on the power, the miracles, the radiant glory and we forget the most excellent things – the love, the mercy, the graciousness, that is the ‘Who attributes’ of His character as opposed to the ‘What’ attributes.

In fact, all the saints before us have had this attitude. The scripture says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a heavenly home.” (Heb 11:13,14) And there’s the key; did you catch it? The...

Comfort? What does comfort look like in times like these? For it’s at the bottom of these deep canyons of anguish that we’re vulnerable to feel abandoned by God as well.

And with this insemination came conception and gestation – something spiritual and eternal. You see, the picture of God’s plan continues for just as the human gestation period is 40 weeks, broken up into three periods, three trimesters, so the line of descendants from Abraham to Christ as recorded by Matthew (that is, the Messianic line) is 40 generations broken up into three equal parts. (See Mat...

Friends, growing in God is not a matter of how much you can add to yourself. Contrary to popular theology, it’s not even a matter of how big your ministry is. It all comes down to self-diminishing. That is, who is going to live in you and through you – you or Jesus? Is Christ increasing in you or are you just learning about God? Now, the Lord offers no condemnation – only hearty encouragement for...

The vast majority of what the people understood relative to pleasing Jehovah was ‘do-oriented’. The greatest misunderstanding of the people, having been schooled by the law of Moses, was that heaven was reserved for those who lived righteously meaning they did the ‘right things’, made the ‘right moves’. Enter Jesus. And… “…they said to Him, "What shall we do , that we may work the works of God?" J...

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.” “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Mat 7:13,14)

    In Daniel two, the prophet lays out a vision that is not only amazing in its historical prophetic accuracy as seen from our present day but enlightening with regards to contemporary events. Many Bible scholars who study prophecy (which, by the way is about 1/3 of the Bible) point to it as the foundation lesson.

You see, you don’t have peace with God, fellowship with the Creator, based upon your ability to be without ‘leaven’ – sinless.  Rather, the sacrifice was acceptable to God, inclusive of the leaven because of the perfect or spotless animal sacrifice.  None of us establishes peace with God on any other basis.  You can’t qualify yourself, purge yourself, make yourself holy enough to ob...

We need to understand that although our Lord does indeed tell us to be conformed to the image of His dear Son (Rom 8:29, 12:2, Phi 3:10-12) and though godly character is indeed one fruit of His testing (Rom 5:3,4), there’s only one kind of real failure. 

   These passages are wonderfully prophetic in a pictorial way and their message is very pertinent to us.  You know, the scriptures say,  “…the testimony of Jesus   is the spirit of prophecy.”  (Rev 19:10)  That is, His life and words fulfilled prophecy and declared it.   Let’s look at the circumstances of each of these two miracles and then I’ll give s...

Keeping our focus on coming to faith in Christ, let’s consider this woman’s heart. To begin with, she’s bluntly honest and this is always the starting point on the road to salvation. Those who try to play an insincere or dishonest game of verbal dodge-ball with God find Him silent. But Jesus gave this woman a response that engaged her beautifully.

But the time is nearly upon us when all of that will change. You see, much to the disappointment of patriotic Christianity, America is NOT mentioned even indirectly in scripture as playing a role during the Tribulation, that is, during the last seven years of this age of history also known as the 70th prophetic week of Daniel 9:24-27.

“Do you know what I did in Tripoli?” he smiled broadly almost like a child. “No, Abdul. What did you do?” We anticipated something unusual just by his body-language.

Back in the US for about a month, we got a call from a couple we knew in Rome. They asked us to consider joining them on a short-term mission to Acapulco, Mexico. Darlene was several months pregnant, so our inclination was to say no. Nevertheless, we prayed about it and felt that the Lord was saying yes. So, we got a small trailer to tow behind our little Chevy Vega – yeah, a Vega, and headed off...

Simply by becoming a man, God made is Son vulnerable. Think of that. The wording also indicates that Jesus was always ‘facing’ the Father as He grew. His entire life was dedicated to God Almighty. And when we read, “no form or comeliness” and “ no beauty”, the Holy Spirit wants us to understand that although His character was amazingly beautiful, His outward appearance was ordinary; that is, the c...

Daniel stood in a deep pit among starving lions and kept his cool. David charged at an armored giant twice his size with nothing more than a stone and sling. Samson pulled a massive pagan temple down on himself. Noah watched the Lord close the door of his huge ark. Paul arose after being stoned and went back into the same town to preach. The list is long and impressive – the people who have placed...

The serpent was planting the thought in her that God was holding back, that He did not want her to be like Him. In this way, he was intentionally denigrating the Lord’s character and motives. Of course, in the process, he was lying. Jesus said about Satan, “… he is a liar and the father of lies.” (Jn 8:44) But the truth is just the opposite, God does indeed want us to know Him, to intimately know...

The ‘soup’ of our societies is wretchedly fouled by unbridled pride, hatred, and self-obsession. Even those who promise to be ‘unifiers’ are simply incapable of delivering. Mankind, infected with iniquity, is lost and self-destructing. But God provided the solution;

Then it occurred to me that He was still speaking to me all the time – through His Word and His still small voice. This has been so important to me because following God, hearing from Him, getting His guidance, knowing His will, is like a spiritual ‘heartbeat’. Not hearing, ambling without out His direction, not sensing His presence, is like bumping around in the dark.