Grace is absolutely essential to Christianity. Without it, there would be no hope for us. It bridges the gap between our sinful state and the righteousness of God. It’s a second chance for us each day to become the children of God that He created us to be.

But grace is not a license to sin. It’s not a loophole to enable our evil nature to remain intact. It is not a reprieve from change. It’s not an excuse to remain passive. It is the power of God to bring us into His kingdom and to empower us to live as Christ did. In other words, grace does not excuse sin, it defeats the power of it.

Most Christians shun the words perfect and sinless. I think that is a good thing because those words immediately activate our self-righteous pride if we have any. Many people including me, have desired to be sinless for the sake of being sinless. This thinking, by the way, is sinful in itself because it comes from a place of pride. But, it’s just as wrong to say that we cannot overcome sin.

Whenever I have a conversation with someone about this, I always say that you’ll never be able to overcome the sin in your life until you believe it’s possible through the grace of Jesus Christ. The very next question to me is always the same. “So, you’re saying you believe in sinless perfection?” My reply is also always the same. “Let’s not use the word perfection because even Jesus would not meet the requirements that we have associated with that word. Even though Christ may have made some human mistakes like forgetting something or cutting a piece of wood too short in the workshop, He was perfect in one thing. He always obeyed His Father in heaven. And even though most Christians today don’t believe that living the way Jesus lived in obedience to the Father is possible, one thing is for sure, the men who wrote the New Testament certainly believed it.”

The Apostle Paul uses the word blameless. It’s a good word and a good way to think about what the grace of God can produce in our lives. The power of God’s amazing grace not only frees us from the sins of the past but can also prevent us from committing the sins of the future. We must believe this! If we don’t, we will be like people the scripture describes, “always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

We are talking about grace this week at The Net! Join us Sunday morning, 10:30 A.M., 2620 Clinton Ave. West, Campus 805. I hope to see you there!

Rob

“All things are possible if you believe.” This is what our Lord said to the man who brought his son to Jesus. The man said, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” That’s the way a lot of us feel when we hear the words faith or belief.
 
When Jesus talked about believing, and He talked about it a lot, He was using a word that means to trust God with your wellbeing. What Jesus was saying to us was not just simply to believe that God is real and that Jesus was God’s Son. Most of America would agree that Jesus was the Son of God. He was actually talking about placing our trust in Him – trusting Him with our well-being. But what if you have trouble with this?
 
How do you strengthen your faith when you still have doubts? I still have trouble with this sometimes even though I’ve been following Jesus for 3 decades. There is an answer. Trust is both a noun and a verb. In the church, we use it mainly as a noun but to overcome our doubts and strengthen our faith, we must use it as a verb. We must actively trust God and specifically do the things that Jesus talked about. We must trust Him with our relationships, our jobs, our money, our future and all the things that mean so much to us. We must submit to Him in all these things. In other words, we must trust Him and all things will be possible to those who trust.
 
One last tip on trusting God. Trusting Him means letting God determine which mountains are moved, which miracles are performed, which blessings are poured out on us. We don’t know what we want, let along what we need. So, it’s in our trusting that God does the impossible but don’t be disappointed to find out that God knows what’s best. If you hang in there long enough with your trust, you will most certainly discover that God’s heart’s desire for you is by design, also your deepest heart’s desire. He knows exactly what will bless your soul to no end! Trust Him!

What is “The Next Right Thing”? A good friend of mine Robert began calling his next step in following Jesus “The Next Right Thing”. Then I heard our Celebrate Recovery leaders using the same phrase. I love this way of referring to our next step with Jesus. The Christian life is not complicated to understand. It’s simple. Jesus talked about it in very simple terms. He said it several times in several different ways. He said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you”. He also said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” His greatest two commandments were to love God and love people. One of the last commands He gave was “Love each other as I have loved you.” 

What is your next right thing? I don’t know, but I’ll bet it involves loving God enough to love other people. That’s Jesus’ M.O. He says that one of the ways to love God is to love one another. John says that if you claim to love God and hate your brother, you are a liar. Jesus says if you do something to love and help the least among you, you are actually doing those things to Him. If you will seriously take the time to honestly ask God what is the next right thing for you, He will most likely communicate to you through your thoughts, situation or someone else that there is someone in your life you need to forgive, show some kindness to, help in some way or just speak to them in love. 

The “Next Right Thing” is like taking a step. It doesn’t take much effort but it does require initiation on your part and it will most certainly move you forward as you follow Jesus. How about it? Are you willing to do the next right thing? I dare you! I dare you to try the one thing that makes extraordinary Christians out of ordinary people. “The Next Right Thing” will change your life forever!

Join us this week for our new series called “FaceTime” as I interview Paul Jaggers. He’s been a close friend of mine for many years and has a story that you really won’t believe. It’s so amazing! It sounds like a story right out of theBible. That’s because Paul followed this simple principle of always doing thenext right thing and letting God take care of the rest.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is like the first, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Why is it like the first? Maybe it’s because God loves and identifies with people so much that Jesus said, what you do to others, (the least among us) you are doing to me. It seems that God is always pointing us back to Him or to others. One of the last commands that Jesus gave was to love each other as He has loved us. How much is that? Well, he died for us, so I would say, He wants us to love each other a lot.

It’s also the thing that is best for us. If we lose our life, Jesus said, we would find it but if we seek to save our life, we will lose it. Have you ever gotten lost in loving someone else? Have you ever been so lost in loving somebody that you’ve forgotten about yourself? Was there ever a time when a person you love was sick and you sat up all night caring or worrying about them without regard for yourself? Have you ever been so engaged in helping another person that you forgot to eat or sleep?

God does something great to our souls when we forget ourselves and focus on the needs of others. There is a maturing that takes place inside. It’s a change that causes us to know and experience the nature of Christ working through us. It seems counterintuitive when the everyone in the world is trying to work on their own selves and taking care of their own needs that God would say, “turn your attention to the care and needs of those around you and I will meet your needs and transform you into the best “You” possible. It’s a simple plan but requires that we trust God. That’s the kind of faith we need. That’s the kind of religion that the world is starved for. And if you demonstrate it, there will be people in your life who will want it.

Have you ever been stumped? You wanted to move forward in whatever you were engaged in but you were at a loss. Then another person walks in, lends a hand, gives you an idea, maybe even partners with you on your project and miraculously, problems are solved and you are moving again. It’s happened to me more times than I can count. I learned early on, that I am most comfortable and confident when I partner with others who have different tastes, gifts, strengths and opinions than I do. We need those who have a different perspective around us.

We need friends who don’t always agree with us. We need to be comfortable, not offended, when those around us disagree and offer a different solution or way to think about things. We are so much better when we pull together in the same direction, especially in the church. God refers to us as His Body! Our body parts all look different and have different functions. God’s Body is the same. So, why don’t we just embrace those who are different? Can’t we love someone who isn’t just like us? Can’t we celebrate their strengths as a gift to us?

Politics in America is the most hateful I’ve seen in my lifetime. I hear people calling each other the most despicable names. No one on either side is as monstrous as the other side says. According to today’s politicians, half the people in the U.S. are Communists and the other half White Supremacists. I know a lot of people and I don’t know anyone who is either of those things. Maybe I should get out more or maybe the whole thing is just a big lie designed to make us hate each other. Maybe it’s possible to actually love someone who has a different opinion. It’s my quest in life and in ministry to bring people together who care more about Jesus than their political or cultural differences. I want to be able to literally embrace those whose perspective is 180 degrees from mine. We in the church, will never agree on everything but if we are serious about Jesus, we could agree on the main thing. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Who does your life revolve around? For most of us, it’s ourselves. Even Christians mostly do what they think is in their own best interest. But, there is a principle that exists in our world that would bring us all the things that we desire in our heart of hearts. The question is, do we have faith enough to follow it? Jesus said, “If you try to save your life, you will lose but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it.” He also said, seek the kingdom of God first and all the things you need will be added. It seems that what’s in our best interest is not to pursue what we think will help us the most but what helps others. Our Lord, again and again tells us to put others first. He said to walk an extra mile, turn the other cheek, pray for those who use you, love your enemies, lend to those who ask you.

This is a different set of rules than what most of us live by. But, the reward is great! What is the reward for making Jesus the center of your life? It’s Jesus himself. It’s all the things that He is that we want and can’t seem to find any other way. It’s Life, Love, Truth, Peace, Joy, Fulfillment and knowing that if we keep on doing the “next right thing”, as a friend of mine put it, all the things we need will be added to our lives. This is what Jesus was referring to when he said to pursue the Kingdom first.

The “Life Course” we are offering at The Net is an interactive series of gatherings that will meet once a month. They are designed around the principle of seeking the Kingdom of God first. These four courses focus on our relationship with God, His relationship with us, our relationships with each other and our mission to influence others with the love of Jesus. It’s going to be instrumental in growing your faith to the point that your daily life will be saturated with the love of God and the fulfillment of knowing you are on track.