Tag: grace

All Things New Part 4

PART 4

With us wrapping up this series of “All Things New” we had 3 different highlights of how:

Part 1 — “God Loves Doing New Things” 

Part 2 — “Grace Makes Room for the New”

Part 3 — “ Growing in Christ”

Part 4 — “No More Idols”

Today in our last part of the series I would like to ask ourselves how do we maintain this “newness” of life and to sustain it. What are some points that we can ask ourselves?

One thing that will keep our hearts soft and receptacle of the Spirit are to have no idols. 

Jesus spoke in Matthew 22” …“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

That’s why we cant serve God and another god.

Matthew 6

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

ANYTHING THAT TAKES PLACE THAT ONLY GOD SHOULD HAVE IN OUR HEARTS IS AN IDOL.

REMEMBER:

WHAT WE BUILD WE CANNOT SUSTAIN

WHAT GOD BUILDS HE WILL SUSTAIN

Israel tried to serve other idols and God but found out that it cannot work that way.

1 SAMUEL 7:2-3

2 So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

“THEY HAD THE ARK BUT NOT HIS PRESENCE” THEY CRIED OUT TO GOD FOR 20 YEARS UNTIL GOD SENT SAMUEL TO LEAD THEM. 

3 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.

REFLECT//

  1. RETURN TO GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART — HE WANTS OUR HEARTS FIRST.
  2. PUT AWAY ALL STRANGE GODS — IT TOOK ISRAEL MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS AFTER LOSING THE ARK TO REALIZE THIS.
  3. PREPARE YOUR HEART FOR THE LORD.
  4. SERVE HIM ONLY.
  5. HE WILL DELIVER. — WE ARE POWERLESS WITHOUT HIM, HE IS FOR US AND NOT AGAINST US.

RESPOND//

WHATS A FOREIGN IDOL WE’VE BEEN CARRYING AROUND THATS CAUSING US TROUBLE OR TO WORRY, IS IT A SUBCONSCIOUS OBSESSION TO PLEASE EVERYONE EXCEPT GOD? 

All Things New: Part Two

all things new — Part Two: GRACE MAKES ROOM FOR THE NEW

Grace, if it weren’t for grace, we couldn’t be a “new creature in Christ…” we would still be stuck in our old ways, but grace not only covers sin, it empowers righteous living. Shame, grief, pain, old habits; it doesn’t have to stick around. Just like a piece of cloth sewn on an old wine skin, it won’t hold. What you used to do isn’t possible when you’re in Christ. “Old things have passed away, behold new things have come.”

MARK 2:21-22. 21 No one sews a piece of un-shrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

1. The Pharisees had become rigid, like old wine skins. They couldn’t accept that Christ was the son of God. They were trying to mix the old covenant with the New covenant.

IF WE CONTINUE IN OUR OLD WAYS OF LIFE WE WILL NEVER EXPERIENCE THE NEW WINE THAT HE HAS TO OFFER.

THERE HAS TO BE A SEPARATION, BEING SET APART FOR HIS GLORY.

WE can’t grow in faith By ADDING IN THE NEW WINE into YOUR OLD WINESKIN… IT DON’T WORK THAT WAY!

WE CAN’T BRING THE OLD INTO THE NEW

WE CAN’T PUT SOMETHING OLD INTO SOMETHING NEW

WE CAN’T BRING THE PAST INTO THE NEW

BUT Thats The Power of Grace, it makes room for the new!

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Jesus came to redeem, He didn’t come to patch up the mistakes in your life,

He didn’t come so that you would live in bondage,

He didn’t come so that we would wear patches of shame and guilt. He came to redeem and fulfill the Old Testament, He would be the “lamb that would take away the sins of the World”

The LAW couldn’t wash away, clean the conscience like the blood of Jesus.

He came to deliver, he came to replace the old with the new!

2. JESUS came to give a new life, a new heart, new wine, which is His Spirit.

NEW WINE BRINGS NEW POWER WHICH BRINGS NEW LIFE!

IT’S HIS GRACE THAT MAKES ROOM FOR THE NEW!

Grace pushes out what doesn’t need to be in our lives and ushers in the new wine!

Grace Makes Room for the New PART 2 of All Things New Series

All Things New Series Part 2

GRACE MAKES ROOM FOR THE NEW

Jesus says in Mark 2:21-22…

21 No one sews a piece of un-shrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

What is was He saying? “Christ was bringing something new to the table and it wasn’t going to fit into their old religious system of self-righteousness. The beauty of grace is that it doesn’t patch us up. Grace doesn’t patch our guilt our shame, it doesn’t patch up our mistakes our failures. Grace renews us, it transforms us, grace replaces!

The old is dingy, the new is fresh and bright. The old is done changing. The new moves and stretches. When you put a new shirt in the dryer, the heat causes it to shift in size. Jesus says “this new covenant of grace I bring…it moves. And you can’t expect to wear your old nasty dirty garments and expect to use the grace of God as a patch over your broken places. “Jesus ‘ grace is fresh for today. It won’t match up with that old garment. And when the heat comes on, you’ll find out grace is active. It’ll only continue to expose the rips and tears. In fact, Grace will make them bigger. Grace is destructive. Grace isn’t in the remodeling or refurbishing. It’s in the replacement business.   

WE CAN’T BRING THE OLD INTO THE NEW

WE CAN’T BRING OUR OLD WAYS INTO THE NEW

WE CAN’T PUT SOMETHING OLD INTO SOMETHING NEW

WE CAN’T BRING THE PAST INTO THE NEW

GOD IS SAYING MAKE ROOM FOR THE NEW!

2 Timothy 2:21

21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Never will you empty out that God won’t pour in!

Moses & The Burning Bush

Join me in the coming weeks as we start the new series of Moses. God has spoken to me in the past months about the character of Moses and the Grace that was shown towards His children and still is. I have so many notes that needs to be shared. You’ll never see Moses like you’ve never seen him before!

 

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Desolate

desolate

 

Distressed, dazed and confused; Job was that man. With questions to God why such suffering is taking place in his life, so too you might be asking God the same questions.

We should thank God for our tribulations, do I sound crazy? The Bible tells us in Romans 5:3 ” We also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulations produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope.

Job 16:12 “I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target;”

His ways are not our ways, we will never understand how God works at least here on earth. In my prayer time I lament over certain areas asking Him why am I going through so much pain with this! But then I remember this verse:

Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God. – Isaiah 66:9

In other words ” In the same way I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born,” says the Lord.

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 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed – 1 Peter 4:12,13

 

In order for God to bring you into a new season, He has to work on you, the old things, the habits, the weights. If we surrender to Him; yes the process will hurt, the temptations will get rough but He never permits the righteous to be moved! Stand your ground and praise Him through the trial.

 

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” – Job 23:10

 

 

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What Faith is: A Relationship of Trust

what faith is

Noah’s Faith: Part 2 of 7

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. – Genesis 6:11-14

“all Noah knew was that God will judge the earth, and he was supposed to build a big barge. Since it had not rained yet on the earth, it is reasonable to suppose Noah didn’t know what God was meant yet”.

“But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.”

The judgment of God was announced and man failed to hear and to respond. Modern man either does not believe God exists or he believes that if He is such a nice guy that He would not be unkind enough to judge anybody or anything. This wishful thinking needs to be corrected by proper enunciation of who God really is and what He has already said and done in human history.

Even through God’s wrath we find his mercy, there was 120 days of the ark building that man could have responded to Noah’s preaching. There was room in the upper deck for those who God had anticipated their repentance but found none. God warns before he judges, He delays the promised wrath; His patience should never be abused; it should be cherished.

 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.”

When Noah took his big step of faith into the ark, “The Lord shut him in” suggesting that God was gently but firmly assuring Noah that he had done the right thing and that he was indeed secure. But Noah’s faith had already been in evidence for a considerable period while the ark was being constructed. And his faith had preserve during the year-long flood because strangely there is no record of God speaking to Noah during that period. He had to go on trusting through thick and thin, whether he could see and understand or not.

Faith: A Relationship of Trust 

TRUST – A five letter word that marriages, relationships, friendships are made by and can be ruined by. It’s the character of that person that either can be trusted or not be trusted. We have all been there in every circumstance of trusting an individual, a friend, a parent or anyone that we know for sure to carry out what you have asked them to do. With being a minister, people trust me in too many area’s of my life to count! From friends and people I barely know telling me about personal situations that I would not even be willing to tell my best friend. It’s a reputation that I have; God has given me that special gift in my life to use it, not abuse it. I take that need, request, of that person and intercede in their situation. Trusting God that He will come through in His timing.

Noah trusted God. From the time that God called Noah to build the ark, Noah had asked no question’s to why He would have him do such a thing, or complain of how long it would take or that he needed more help to carry out this task.  Remember God saying “Make yourself”? This means this was Noah’s project. He was not to simply contract it out to
someone else.

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Have you found that relationship of trust?

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