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The Reality of Grace

September 7, 2012

Grace is a reality, a fact of life. It is by grace that one becomes a Christian, and it is by grace that one lives the Christian life.

Because prior to his conversion Paul persecuted and murdered Christians, he did not consider himself fit to be called an apostle. Yet, grace conquered his feelings. If anyone understood that grace covers our past and equips us for God’s future, it was Paul! Listen to his words: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 5:10).

In Paul’s writing of those God-breathed words, we see that the whole of life is to be lived in the understanding and [ … ]

September 6, 2012

 

Altared, a new book by two anonymous authors,  examines the “marriage-happy” phenomenon among young Christians and consider the greater vision of Christ’s call to love. 

Publishers Weekly gives  the book a starred review and says, “This book is a must for evangelicals who come anywhere near to offering premarital counseling or young adult ministry.”

On Sale September 18

Grace

September 5, 2012

Now, if it is true that we’re saved by grace, then it’s important to ask ourselves: Can we define it? And if it is true, as I suppose, that no unconverted person can tell me what it is, I think it would be important to you to make sure you can define it.

Think for a moment. Grace is _______. What? Your answer to that question may reveal where you really stand with God.

Did you answer it? Do you know what this marvelous term means?

We may be able to define it some way, but one thing is certain: We can never comprehend it, because it plumbs the profoundest depths of human thought. It scales the dizziest heights of divine revelation. And though we may get a hold of a little corner of it, we can never fully comprehend [ … ]

Greater with Jesus

September 4, 2012

By leaving and then sending His Spirit to dwell inside His followers—ordinary people like you and me—Jesus released a greater power for us to do extraordinary things on an extraordinary scale. The kinds of things the early church saw and did. The kinds of things He still wants to do today through us.

Jesus isn’t calling us to be greater than He is.

He’s calling us to be greater with Him through His Spirit within us.

Excerpted from Greater by Steven Furtick

Daily Reflection:
What is Jesus calling you to do with Him?

The Meaning of Guilt

September 3, 2012

Guilt says, “I owe you.” Guilt is the result of having done something we perceived as wrong. Every wrong we do can be restated as an act of theft, as we’ll see in a moment. If I steal from you, I owe you. So the message from a heart laden with guilt is, “I owe!”

For example, consider the man who runs off with another woman and abandons his family. Without realizing it at the time, he has stolen something from every member of his family. He has stolen his wife’s first marriage; he has robbed her of her future, her financial security, her reputation as a wife. From his children’s perspective this man has stolen their father and all that a father means to the home. He has robbed them of Christmas, traditions, emotional and financial security, [ … ]

Jesus’ Choice

August 31, 2012

He could have come back when crosses were out of style.

But his heart wouldn’t let him. If there was hesitation on the part of his humanity, it was overcome by the compassion of his divinity. His divinity heard the voices. His divinity heard the hopeless cries of the poor, the bitter accusations of the abandoned, the dangling despair of those who are trying to save themselves.

And his divinity saw the faces. Some wrinkled. Some weeping. Some hidden behind veils. Some obscured by fear. Some earnest with searching. Some blank with boredom. From the face of Adam to the face of the infant born somewhere in the world as you read these words, he saw them all.

And you can be sure of one thing. Among the voices that found their way into that carpentry shop in Nazareth [ … ]

Understanding God’s Love

August 30, 2012

God created us to give and receive love, not just with each other but with Him as well. He’s our loving Father, and in many ways He constantly tells us, “You are My child. I was delighted when you were born, and I love you still.” God loves hearing that we love Him, but how His heart must jump when He knows that we really get it, that we understand, receive, and delight in His love.

When we understand the Father-love of God, we naturally desire to spend time talking with Him. Prayer is no longer a duty; it becomes a delight! We recognize God not as an unapproachable entity, but as the loving Father who invites us to come straight to Him and tell Him what our day was like, what we’ll face tomorrow, and how we feel about [ … ]