love – Freedom Fighters

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. 2 Timothy 1:9

Grace. It has become one of the words we sing about. We use the phrase as a part of our “Christianese.” But has it become just a word that we casually and haphazardly use without grasping its immensity or the depths of its richness in our lives? Welcome to this new week of Freedom Fighters. I am thankful today that you are part of our family. God’s family. A family blessed by and with the grace of God.

I recently read this powerful devotional that hones in on some of the richness of this word grace:

Salvation: You are saved by grace. The forgiveness of your sins, your justification before God, your redemption from the slavery of sin, your deliverance from evil, and your future home in heaven are yours today because of grace.

Sufficiency: Grace enables you to do all God calls you to do today. Success is not based today upon what you can accomplish, but upon what He will do through you. Grace is not about your strength, but about His mighty power working in you, even in the time of your greatest weakness.

Edification: Grace builds you up, lifts you up, and keeps you standing. Grace is heard in the sound of God’s voice speaking over and over into your ear, “I am for you today. I am with you today. I am the source of everything good, everything lovely, everything holy, and everything mighty.”

Hope: Grace assures you of a glorious future and an overwhelming inheritance that is yours in Jesus Christ. Grace leads you on, cheers you on, and moves you on into all that is in God’s heart for you.

Victory: Grace brings to you all that is yours in Christ. You are victorious today because Jesus is the triumphant One. You are more than a conqueror because He has conquered all. You are above all things because all things are under His feet. You reign in life because He reigns—King of kings and Lord of lords.

Abundance: Where sin once abounded, grace abounds even more. Where darkness ruled, grace overruled. Where death held you in cruel bondage, grace brought you into a glorious new freedom. Grace is never poured out to you like raindrops, but like a cascading waterfall.

Purity: Grace is the doorway into the beauty of God’s holiness. Grace is never a license to sin, a freedom to sin, or a cloak for sin. Grace brings us into a life that is greater than what sin could ever offer us. Grace extends the hand that lifts us out of the miry clay, throws the rope that pulls us from the deepest pit, and lights the flame that brings us out of the darkest cave.

Gifting: Gifts that come to you from God are grace gifts. His grace gifts to you will be different than the grace gifts He gives to others. Grace does not play favorites. The gifts that have been given to you from God are the perfect gifts that are needed for you to fulfill His will and His calling in your life. From Today is Your Best Day – Roy Lessin

This ought to leave us speechless! It should cause your heart to soar. It should bring tears to your eyes, and maybe make you fall to your knees in praise and adoration. God’s amazing grace! I trust that this reminder encouraged you today. Don’t take for granted the amazing grace of God.

Rejoice! Pray! Give thanks!

Written by Dr. Bill Welte, President/CEO of America’s Keswick: He has been married to his child sweetheart for 40+ years, and has three married kids, one that is engaged, and 10 amazing grand kids. He loves music and is an avid reader.

The Daily Bible Reading: Gen 24-27 | You can download our 2017 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here

Daily Quote: God enables you to do all that God calls you to do today. – Roy Lessin

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:

My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, And my soul, which You have redeemed. Psalm 71:23

The Word we study has to be the Word we pray. My personal experience of the relentless tenderness of God came not from exegetes, theologians, and spiritual writers, but from sitting still in the presence of the living Word and beseeching Him to help me understand with my head and heart His written Word. Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace. We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of knowing Jesus Christ personally and directly. When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never visited. ~Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” ~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in Deuteronomy, Matthew, and Luke

Oh beloved, it is true. The depth of the gospel is unfathomable. Time and galaxies and universes are but an expression of Creative Ability. He, The Triune Weaver of all Good, has put together a stage of multiple dimensions upon which we should go through our lives.

He then wove our true substance into a vessel of clay, that is so exquisitely built that it runs on nearly any fuel. When it bleeds it knows how to stop. When the environment changes, the vessel makes multitudinous adjustments to keep everything going.

Quite frankly beloved, creation and its crown jewel (us) are so incredible as to be forever beyond the reach of the clay that we are, to fully understand how it works. Even simply pronouncing the name of one of the main connecting proteins in the body (Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…isoleucine) takes over THREE HOURS to pronounce. Just one connecting tool in the clay vessel is so complex as to destroy the idea of us coming together by chance…. Just one protein.

Why the complexity?

This is what we do with the primitive technologies we clatter together in our “high-tech” industries. We think and think and build and experiment and build and sell – and try again. All of this complexity is built into a system to SIMPLIFY and improve the experience for the user.

We cobble together, but G_d created us. And He wove in the most incredible complexities to our environment and our bodies that we might be free to live as we were actually Designed. We have been freed from anything other than thankful stewardship of our world and our bodies that we might use all this complexity as a platform for one simple (and impossible) task.

To Love Him and others as He has Loved us.

That’s it. There is absolutely nothing else to life.

Nothing.

And the way that we do this is so so so so very simple too. We look back at the Creator and simply get to know Him. He will be known (and He already knows us completely). And once we catch a glimpse, we realize that we will never know the depths and the enormity and grandeur and power and majesty and strength and Love of Who He Is.

But…

Can we see it? We do begin to see something else. The little bit that we do know is all of Him. The simplicity of G_d is the whole point of the Gospel. Everything of Who He Is, is right here with us – and in us – that we would succeed at the simplest (and most impossible) of tasks; to Love others and build goodness into their lives.

Our lives are actually so simple that we allow the vessel He has created to become the very dwelling place of the Ferocious and Intimate Love Who started it all. Each little bit we know of His Word and Life in us – and allow to work through us – is absolutely enough for the moment. And from each simple moment, we launch forth into our purpose: to Love Him and others with everything we have right then and right there.

So yes, the “tech” behind the universe is astounding. The weaving of matter and energy and force and time and gravity and information are beyond comprehension. But the tech has a reason. It has set us free to live as we were built to live. Just Loving the Creator back, and allowing that same Love to pour out on others.

The strength of a man is not in comprehending more information or philosophy or politics. The strength in life is in allowing the Weaver to do His work, that we might be free to do ours. Tonight is your night beloved. Time to unravel a bit.

Written by Makala Doulos: Makala is a child of G_d, a husband to his wife, a father to his children, and a teacher to his students. But mostly, he is a prisoner set free by Jesus. Love has invaded his life, crushed it, and made it new. Now, G_d’s Love is what constrains him to live in full surrender to the freedom The Father and Son and Holy Spirit have bought for us all. Grace and Peace to you all.

The Daily Bible Reading: Psalm 8; Proverbs 10

Daily Quote: “No truths are simple, especially those of Scripture. But as we pursue them and participate in them more fully, they begin to reveal to us a life deeper and more integrated than we ever could have known otherwise.” ~Tim Hansel

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:

¹¹He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young. ~Isaiah 40:11

Freedom Fighters

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God’s Grace

Resting, Loving And Living: The Simplicity of The Gospel