Grace, God’s Grace

Redemption through Christ has bought back God’s original design. For His glory, our good, we sense the great call of God upon our lives. Adam and Eve and their children were to extend the blessings of Paradise throughout the entire world, but instead of this purpose, Adam sinned and brought a curse upon the ground for man’s sake. Satan, though defeated, still reigns in his kingdom, but not for long.

Salvation, therefore, restores man to his original calling and purpose, and thus guarantees man’s original mandate. Under the perpetual curse of sin there is no purpose for God to be glorify, though His glory cannot be diminished. But because of God’s amazing grace, when sin and the curse are taken completely away, people will be capable of exercising proper stewardship of the earth and the new earth to come. Heaven will rule and His kingdom will come. Though, at this time, we experience God’s kingdom in our hearts.

Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy our God forever. One day in the realm of glory this will take place uninterrupted, but in the mean time God has called us as resurrected beings to carry out his plan for developing a Christ-centered, resurrected culture in a dying, decaying world.

Christ’s mission is to both redeem what was lost in the Fall and to destroy all that competes against God’s dominion, authority, and power He wields. When all is placed and put under His feet, when God rules and mankind rules the earth as kings under Christ, the King of kings, at last all will be as God intends. This period of rebellion will be forever over, and the universe, and all who serve Christ, will participate in the Master’s joy!

There are four important truths to learn:

1. Take God seriously

He is the Sovereign God of the universe. He is not the man upstairs or the good guy next door. From the day of our conception to the day of our death we are to hold Him in awe.

2. Believe His Word

We have the mind and heart of God in print. Many paid a great price to hand it off to each of us. He is honored as we read and heed His message from His own lips that are breathed out in print in our own language. The Word changes us to His truth.

3. Confess Sin Quickly

Get your minds off of the evening news or any news that would preoccupy you. It’s a fog that can disillusion you from the real world. Yes, be in the know, but do not allow your life to be accumulating sin. Confess and walk with God under a full sun.

4. Refuse All Hypocrisy

Be who you are and not who others will you to be. Find your identity in the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep yourself off of the pedestals of this world or even your own world. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. We are accountable to Him.

It is not amazing all the people gave glory to God for the healing of a blind man?  The Lord of love was passing through Jericho and He stopped. He healed the blind and begging  Bartimeaus (Luke 18:43). But what is so amazing about this for God loves to heal? Is this not the reason for His coming to seek and to save?

Yet when it came to Zacchaeus we find a different story. The Lord Jesus sought and spoke to Zacchaeus while he was up in a tree and then invited, of all things, Himself into this “sinner’s home” and the people grumbled (Luke 19:7). Why?

The Son of man came to “seek and to save that which is lost.” Every person is a sinner–bad sinner, good sinner, we are all sinners in the sight of God who are condemned and lost. It is our ministry to go to where all sinners are. And you know there is not a place where sinners are not!

This ought to be the key verse of our life, “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10). It is our job to take as many sinners with us to heaven as we travel and pass through this world. May we be found in the sinner’s way!

Adoniran Judson and Ann Judson boarded a ship for India that would eventually lead them to Burma (modern-day Myanmar).  They suffered and endured much on the mission field, yet they were used by God in some extraordinary ways.

A letter was written from Adoniram to Ann’s father asking for permission to marry his daughter.   The following is Adoniram’s candid request:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death.  Can you consent to all of this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God?  Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

Ann’s dad said “yes,” the couple was married, and a year later they set sail.  Ann’s dad would never see his daughter or son-in-law again.  In fact, Ann would lose her life sharing the gospel with people who had never heard the good news of Jesus Christ.

John Piper said, “God’s plan is that his gospel-spreading, church-planting purpose triumph through the suffering of his people.”  Is this out-of-the-ordinary type of commitment or are we too far behind in our passion for Christ and His gospel?

“As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country” (Proverbs 25:23).

Do you remember the day when the good news of the gospel message of Christ came to you? I do. I never shall forget. The news was so good that I still feel the impact of it. The Holy Spirit came to live within me as a result of that Good News and I live.

There is no better way to live than to share the cold waters of the gospel to those who are hot and thirsty and sin-burned. A soul can be changed forever with your refreshing words of God’s grace. What joy to share the cold waters of Heaven’s River to those who will bend and drink.

Dear child of God allow your life to be consumed with taking the good news to Be the water boy of God’s Life and carry the cold and clear water of the gospel to others. They are thirsty, and traveling with a heavy heart, needing the life of God in them that says to them,

“You are my child now, I have You.”

Plow and pursue. Pray and pray. Talk and walk. Drink and share. Do it all for the souls of those who live in a foreign and far country without Christ. They live across your street, work in your office, walk beside you at school, and a million other places, and they are looking for a cup of cold water.

Oh, I took a drink from the Fountain of Life and I have never been thirsty again. He satisfies. Oh, oh, how He satisfies!

I love you,

Pastor Don

God has placed the local church in divinely appointed areas. We are located in Burlington near the interstate not far from downtown. While we are a body of believers that gather weekly we are also a church that scatters daily.

There is a scene that we do not see. It is the invisible spiritual world that is playing its game of havoc upon mankind in the physical visible world. When the church is not available in prayer then the invisible world runs amuck upon the visible world.

As the church is on the scene and praying then we know that the invisible spiritual world of God is available to us. When God’s presence is thick and real then sin is defeated and Satan is deposed. Prayer is needed to ask God for His activity.

May we pray and go in the name that is above every name. Prayer gives us wisdom, power, and purity. Prayerlessness is terrible. There is power in congregational prayer and power in the individual prayer. Let’s Pray. We can’t see the wind but we can feel it. So what we see and feel is dependent upon God’s people as we pray.