Psalm 146:2 "I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."

Friday, January 18, 2013

Ask And You Shall Receive......Your Migratory Form!

Hi Everyone,

Things are getting quite busy at this time, so I haven't been able to blog very much. I have a lot more to share about the walk of grace, so I will try to write more again when things calm down some (May be a month or so before I can blog more regularly)

So yesterday I realized it had been just over one month sine I gave my fingerprints at the immigration office and that my migratory form had been in process for two months. I wasn't horribly concerned about it, but I really wanted it especially because next week I go to Mexico City to pick up a short term worker that is arriving---and having official identification from immigration is just so much nicer than taking my passport. So I started praying about it--you know God would help it get to me soon.

Ten minutes later immigration called---and told me my migratory form was ready to be picked up!

Very cool! All I can say is what a neat and quick answer to prayer--ask and you shall receive your migratory form! Mine is valid for three years!


Saturday, January 12, 2013

The Christian Life Is Ours To Enjoy

Hi Everyone,

The christian life is ours to enjoy---but many of us are secretly living it with dread and drudgery. Or maybe we look at it as surviving but not thriving.

Part of the reason we might be living it with dread is because we've turned the Christian walk of faith into something it was never meant to be,,,,,

1)  We've possibly turned it into a list of sorts by our own effort trying to please God and "do the right thing" rather than simply enjoying the relationship

2)  We're possibly viewing God  inaccurately--for example we may view Him as totally disappointed in us when we sin rather than realizing the depths of what it meant when we were justified at salvation and already made right with Him

3)   We possibly think that getting victory is something we have to work at, rather than something that we have already received.

4)  We possibly take on the responsibility of managing our sin and trying to stop, when in reality  the only real sin management isn't and can't ever be managed by us, because we are transformed only by Him alone working in and through us.  

5)  We possibly view ourselves inaccurately believing lies about who we  truly really are in Christ rather than seeing and believing the truth of all that we are in Him.

Are we just surviving, or thriving? We can thrive----because He is ours and the walk is ours to enjoy.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

We Can Be Real

Hi Everyone,

Somehow in those of is that believe, there seems to be a tendency to hide who we really are--I mean that we try desperately hard to give this image that everything is fine when it isn't--or we become afraid that if people were to k now who we really are, they wouldn't love us, or maybe somehow we think the command to "rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4) doesn't leave room for us admitting how things really are.

Before I came to Christ, the whole "I am fine image" that I saw around me drove me crazy---of course the truth is that I, myself, was trying to fit in the mold and do the same thing. Trying to present an image that isn't who we really are takes way too much work. The funny thing is we can fool other people--maybe they believe we are who we pretend to be, but we can't fool God.

We all long for a place where we can be real---and as we learn to walk in His grace we find that we can be ourselves, just as we are, with nothing to be afraid of and nothing to hide. We are;able to trust God to work in and through us what we can not do for ourselves. As we learn to walk in grace, we are able to extend that same grace to others around us, realizing that it is not our responsibility to change them, but rather to trust God for His work in them, just as we are trusting God for the same thing in ourselves.

As we walk in grace as we really are, we are able to receive the perfect love that God has for us-- both the love that comes from Him and the love of other people around us.

God saw our reality as it really was---and is---and loved us in that reality. That is why He sent Jesus to die for us.

Walk in grace--and live in reality as you truly are, trusting God for all the rest.

Friday, January 4, 2013

We Still Can't Fix It

Hi Everyone,

There was nothing we could do to fix our sin problem before salvation, so what makes us think that it is up to us or that we can fix it afterwards?

Our view of God becomes distorted somehow--like we trust him completely for our salvation, but we in error think that when it comes to our growth and sanctification, it is up to us and our effort.

Philippians 1:6 "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.?

Grace helps is to see that the work is all completely His! He began the work in us and will bring it to completion. He is at work in and through us.

Our sin----we still can't fix it, but we have a mighty God who is more than able!His grace is more than enough.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Stop Searching For The Next Thing

Hi Everyone,

So you know how it goes in Christianity, right? At least for many of us, things in our walk with God at times get kind of dry or we get stuck, or maybe if we are really honest the words would come to our mind, "I'm just not satisfied with how this is all working out."  For some of us we deal with that dry or stuck dissatisfied feeling by starting to searching for  "the next big thing" to satisfy us, hoping from one Christian conference to the next etc.

Now there isn't anything wrong with going to conferences, and we can really learn a lot from them. However, if our heart motive for doing something is to find satisfaction in anything (even if it is something Christian) that isn't God himself, we are going to come up being unsatisfied.

As we learn to walk in grace, we realize that we can stop searching for "the next thing" because our satisfaction and fulfillment comes from the very source of Christ Himself. While we are always learning more about God and growing in our relationship with Him, we are not going to "get more of Him" than we already have. At salvation, we were given the complete gift of Him. There is nothing that we lack from what we have already received.

Beloved,  you can stop searching for the next thing--walk in grace and run to the Source--the well-spring will never run dry.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Celebrating The Wonders of His Grace in 2013

 Psalm 63:3 "Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you".

Hi Everyone,

Here I am with the start of a new year celebrating the wonders of His grace. Something huge and amazingly simple, and yet deeply profound has happened in my life.

You know that chorus "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace" Well, it's true---the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. When we grow in our understanding of His grace, things that seemed important to us before,  just don't compare to Him. Like last night-I went to celebrate the new year with my pastor and his family.  Some of the youth turned the TV on. It was a series that  I had never seen before----there didn't appear to be anything wrong with it --but although I didn't say it, I was thinking, :"That just doesn't compare to the depths of the joy ans satisfaction in my heart right now." We can get so easily distracted  by so much stuff  that will never compare to Him. Don't settle for less.

His love really IS better than life or anything else that we could ever want or imagine. Do we believe that? His love IS ours. We are loved perfectly by Him and that doesn't change when we we've just had our worst day imaginable.

Come--enjoy, and be amazed by grace!