One characteristic of a grace awakening ministry deserves special attention: release from past failures. A ministry of grace doesn’t keep bringing up the past for the purpose of holding it over people. There is an absence of shame.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Grace
Guiding Grace
And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. (Colossians 3:17) In his letter to the Romans, Paul goes into great detail regarding the issue of personal freedom—greater detail than almost anywhere else in his writings. In the fourteenth chapter, for […]
Read MoreTwo-Dimensional Grace
Grace comes to us in two dimensions, vertical and horizontal. Vertical grace centers on our relationship with God. It is amazing. It frees us from the demands and condemnation of the Mosaic Law. It announces hope to the sinner.
Read MoreFree to Choose Freedom
I wish I could guarantee all of us full freedom from sin 365 days a year, but that is not possible—not so long as we are earthbound. Perpetual sinlessness . . . will not be ours to enjoy until we are given glorified bodies and we are at home in heaven.
Read MoreWhen God Says Do or Don’t
Now you say, ”Well, what if we find a list of dos and don’ts in Scripture?” That is a very different issue! Any specified list in Scripture is to be obeyed without hesitation or question. That’s an inspired list for all of us to follow.
Read MoreFree to Eat, or Not
A funny thing happened to me recently. One of the sound-and-light people at the church where I pastor (a real character!) heard me teach on the subject of freedom. A couple of weeks later he pulled a gag on me.
Read MoreFour Antilegalistic Strategies
Grace killers cannot be mildly ignored . . . You can no more allow legalism to continue than you could permit a rattlesnake to slip into your house and hide.
Read MoreDefining Legalism
In contrast to yesterday’s thoughts on liberty, what does it mean to say that legalism puts people under bondage? Legalism is an attitude, a mentality based on pride. It is an obsessive conformity to an artificial standard.
Read MoreDefining Liberty, Part Two
Without becoming needlessly academic, I want to define a term that I’ve been tossing around. What do I mean when I declare that the Christian has liberty? Essentially, liberty is freedom . . . freedom from something and freedom to do something.
Read MoreUndeserving, Yet Unconditionally Loved
Whatever he became, according to his own statement, Paul owed it all to ”the grace of God.” When I ponder the words from that grand apostle, I come up with what we might call his credo.
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