God’s Remarkable Grace

Remarkable is uncommon, different from the norm, outstanding, extraordinary and unique.  God’s grace is remarkable.  How would you explain the concept of grace to someone who didn’t know the gospel of Jesus Christ?  Grace is uncommon.  Common means that which is ordinary, average and unrefined.  Ordinary is unexceptional and deficient in excellence.  Casual is common.  Casual is laid back and apathetic.  Casual Christians are casualties in the spiritual battle.

Salvation is by God’s remarkable grace.  Grace is God’s divine favor:  Grace is a gift given to the one who didn’t deserve to receive it by the one who didn’t need to give it.  Grace is all of thee and none of me.  Salvation is God’s gift given by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

The Pharisees thought that they could earn righteousness.  They thought salvation was based on their own performance.  However, salvation is not of works.  It is a gift of God’s grace.  For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.

According to 2 Corinthians 6, “We beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.”   Why were we given God’s grace?  For what were we given his gift of salvation?  The Pharisees thought they would get to heaven by their own works of baptism or circumcision.  Some Pharisees think that you have to speak in tongues to be saved.  Some think that you have to keep the Old Testament law.  Grace is not about performance.  It’s about God’s gift, fit for the master’s use.  The purpose is that we should be to the praise of the glory of His grace.

Humility is required in order to receive grace.  It’s easy to judge others and to think we’re superior to others.  Like the Pharisee prayed, “Lord, thank you I’m not like that tax collector over there.”  The tax collector prayed, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.”  Which prayer did God hear?  A broken and a contrite heart God will not forsake.

Evil speaking, gossip, grumbling and complaining will reject grace.  From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.  According to Psalm 19, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable unto thee, O Lord my strength and my redeemer.  

When you ask a man, “What do you think God thinks about you?” most men will answer, “I think he’s disappointed in me.  I think I’ve fallen short of his expectations.”  If you call a man “Man of God,” most men will look down.  When you ask him why, he’ll say, “because I feel unworthy.”  However, because of God’s grace, he made me worthy and now by his grace his mercy has made me his own.  “Man of God” means God’s man.  This is the genitive of possession.  It means that we are his and he is ours.  Because of grace, it’s not who we are but whose we are.

When Pete was serving as a young Christian minister, he was called by his board of elders and they said, “We think you’ve been sloppy in your work.”  Pete felt discouraged and felt his anger rising when he heard this comment.  Then their next statement was, “but we think you’re redeemable.”  Even though Pete felt discouraged, he was encouraged about redemption.  They said, “we think you need a sabbatical.”  Pete spent the next three months in prayer, meditation and bible study.  As a young minister, these three months were the closest and sweetest months of fellowship with God Pete had ever experienced.  Isaiah 40 says, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.  They shall mount up with wings as eagles.  They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

God will give us grace when we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.  Therefore, receive not the grace of God in vain.  To receive God’s grace means that we must forsake our pride.  It’s not about me, it’s about him.  He’s given us this gift of salvation, the spirit of Christ in us the hope of glory.  Why?  So that we would present our bodies a living sacrifice of praise, holy and wholly acceptable unto him which is our reasonable act of worship… and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

In Psalm 51, David’s prayer of repentance was, “Against thee and thee only have I sinned.  Create in me a new heart O God.  Deliver me from my iniquities and wash me with hyssop.  Restore unto me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.”

According to Romans, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  Jesus said that In our flesh nature that we inherited from Adam, there dwells no good thing.  We cannot help but sin and the wages of sin is death.  

When Peter said, Lord don’t wash my feet I’m not worthy.  Jesus said, unless I wash your feet then you can have no part in me.   We’re contaminated by our worldly nature and by our worldly environment.  We’re washed from sin by Jesus Christ.  He is the fountain of living water.  In the Old Testament the blood of animal sacrifice was insufficient to cover for the sins of Israel.  However we’re cleansed by the blood of the lamb.  Jesus Christ is the lamb of God.  For he who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

The world expects Christians to be remarkable, uncommon, and outside of the world’s norms.  Jesus Christ was remarkable.  He humbled himself and drank the cup of death,  sin and judgement on our behalf.  He shed his innocent blood in exchange for our guilty blood.  Therefore, thank God for his gracious gift.  Ye were bought with a price:  the precious blood of the son of God.  Because of Christ’s precious payment on our behalf, our value is that we are God’s dwelling place.  As the apostle Paul said, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of the Holy Spirit?”  

This is amazing grace, this is unfailing love.  This is God’s remarkable grace.  For by grace are ye saved by faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.  For we are his workmanship, his poem, his magnum opus, his great work, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he has foreordained that we should walk in them.

Because of His remarkable grace,

May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ,

Michael

Remarkable Love of God

Our theme for Influencers this year is remarkable.  Remarkable means uncommon, unique, attention-getting, novel and unexpected.  Remarkable people attract others and make them want to know what makes them extraordinary.  Jesus Christ himself was the remarkable son of God.  He was God’s remarkable and unique personification of God’s love.  

Jesus was remarkable in that he attracted those whose hearts God had prepared to receive him.  Jesus said, be ye kindly affectioned one to another, tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.  According to Romans, it’s the goodness, love and mercy of God that calls a man to repentance.

The world understands human love but it cannot understand God’s love.  Unless we receive God’s gift of Holy Spirit we cannot understand the remarkable unconditional love of God.  A man of God’s heart’s desire is to spend the rest of his life wanting to become just like Jesus.  Through the trials of life he will teach us what it means to understand the love of God.  For tribulation worketh patience and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.  Thank God for breaking our hearts for what breaks his.  He’ll reconcile us to himself through his son’s love, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus.

There are three types of worldly love in the Greek language.  These three types of love are reciprocal…they require love in return.  Worldly love is conditional on the response of the other party.  All relationships in this world will end in sorrow and pain except for one.  Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  The love of God is characterized by Jesus Christ.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son….

Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-44, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you…”  Even sinners love those who love them back.  However, love those who persecute you and despitefully use you.  The love of God loves the unloveable.  We ourselves were once enemies with God.  Herein is love made perfect…  for in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly.  Jesus said, “A new commandment have I given you…that ye love one another even as I have loved you.”

The prayer from the Puritan Prayer book about Christian love says, “It is your will, O Lord, that I should love you.   For you God sent your only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  Herein is love made perfect.  Not that we loved him but that he loved us.  Thou didst love me before I loved thee.  When I was an enemy, a sinner, a loathsome worm, thou didst claim me when I disclaimed myself.  By thy love thou didst claim me as a son.”

Accordint to the Sh’ma, “Hear O Israel, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.”  Unless we love God above all we cannot love our neighbor as ourself.  The first of the Ten Commandments says “thou shalt have no other Gods before me.”  One translation says, “you shall have no other Gods between your face and my face.”

As David prayed in repentance, “Against you and you only God have I sinned.  Judge me not according to my sin but according to your loving kindness and tender mercy.  Blot out my transgressions and create in me a new heart O Lord.”  

Our prayer is that we will love our wives with Christ’s heart behind our heart.   As the apostle Paul said, Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.  

The unconditional agape love of God continues on in the face of rejection.  The love of God loves the unloveable and gives regardless of the response of the other party.  As Suzan said, “never let how others treat you determine how you treat them.”  According to Romans 12, “Recompense to no man evil for evil.  Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good.”

There is no malice in God’s remarkable love.  The love of God suffers long and is kind.  It is never rude, never resentful, never prideful or boastful.  The love of God always expects the best.  It is not easily provoked.  The unconditional love of God keeps no record of wrongs done.  Agape love beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  Love never fails.

There’s nothing wrong with our wives that God can’t fix in us.  The love of God will change us from the inside out.  To reconcile our hearts we must meet our wives at the foot of the cross.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

According to 1 John 4:10-11, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation (the full payment and never ending sacrifice) for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”

In loving God above all and our neighbor as ourselves,

May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ,

Remarkable Grace

Our theme for Influencers this year is Remarkable.  When you’re a Christian, non-Christians expect you to live a remarkable life… a life outside of the norms of popular culture.  Jesus himself was remarkable.  He loved the unloveable.  He blessed those who persecuted him.  When they crucified him, He said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”  

James 1:2-4 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

God will refine us through the trials of life.  Thank God for his fire of refinement.  We will be transformed from the common when he refines us according to his purpose.  For tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

God will take the common raw material of our sinful lives to refine us according to his purpose.  For he who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

He calls us to be remarkable.  His spirit of life in Christ is what makes us remarkable.  With Christ in us the hope of glory, we press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  We’re saved by grace not because of who we are but because of who he is.  For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.   

If you are sharing your faith, how would you define grace?  Grace is God’s divine favor given to the one who didn’t deserve to receive it by the one who didn’t need to give it.  Grace is because of God’s love: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved…”. (Ephesians 2:4-5)

According to 2 Corinthians 6:1, “WE then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”  We’re never worthy to receive the grace of God.  We’re not wise enough, strong enough, rich enough or competent enough.  We’re just not good enough to receive God’s gracious gift.  Because we could never earn it, Jesus Christ paid for God’s gift on our behalf.  We’re saved from the consequences of sin because Jesus paid for our sin with his righteous innocent life in exchange for our guilty life that was worthy of of sin and death.

We did not receive God’s gift of grace in vain.  We’ve been given his gracious gift to use for the purpose for which he’s called us.  God doesn’t call the qualified….he qualifies the called according to his grace.  

Men find it difficult to accept a gift of grace.  They would rather earn it.  However, the gift of God is not of works lest any man should boast.  The gift of grace is for His glory, not ours.  Our boast is not in ourselves but in him.

Grace reconciles our hearts to God.  In our earthly flesh, we cannot approach a holy God.  However, Jesus Christ is the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf.  We are justified freely by his gracious gift.  We’re at peace with God because Jesus Christ became sin for us who knew no sin that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.  For there is one God and one mediator between men and God, the man Christ Jesus.

Grace is all of thee and none of me.  Justification is through the just payment that Jesus made to justify our debt of sin.  We’re righteous because Jesus shed his innocent blood on our behalf…  What shall wash away, redeem, cleanse, justify, and expunge my sin?  …nothing but the blood of Jesus.  In him (Jesus Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

The life of Joseph is a picture of God’s grace.  Joseph endured suffering, pain and tribulation.  However, God delivered him because Joseph honored God regardless of the storms of life.  

Grace forgives unconditionally.  The love of God is a result of God’s grace.  God’s gracious gift of salvation gives us the capacity to love with Christ’s heart behind our heart.  The love of God keeps no record of wrongs done.  Because he loves us, he will put us on the bench so that we will learn humility.  On the bench, we’ll learn that our glory is not in ourselves but in him alone.  On the bench we’ll learn that serving God is by serving those whom he’s called us to minister.  As Jesus said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Forgiving in grace means not to speak evil of others.  It means to let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good for the use of edifying that it may minister grace to them that hear it.  Living in grace means that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks edification and glory to God.  

Because of God’s gracious gift of Holy Spirit we can love with His heart behind our heart.  Only by his Grace can we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  

Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.  However because of God’s remarkable grace, his gift of Holy Spirit, of Christ in us the hope of glory, we’re his poem, his workmanship,  his great work created unto good works which he’s foreordained that we should walk in them.

We’re set free according to God’s remarkable grace and forgiveness.  I forgave and set the prisoner free, only to find that the prisoner was me.  Therefore, thank God for his gracious gift.  Thankfulness is the result of grace.  Because of Christ in us, we have the capacity to keep a grateful heart…

…  That we may we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ,

Michael

Remarkable Love

Jesus was remarkable. He was extraordinary, uncommon, and unique. Jesus Christ is God’s remarkable love made manifest to a fallen world. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…..

There are several different kinds of love in the Greek language. The first type of love is Eros. This is romantic love characterized by the height of emotional response. Romantic poets write love poems about this passionate type of love.

The second type of love is the Greek word “storge.” This is familial love. This is the tie that binds immediate and extended families together. Family values are common to a tight knit community. As civilizations disintegrate, the bonds of familial love dissolve and the family atomizes and flies apart. Families have been undermined and traditional family values are ridiculed and are considered unfashionable by today’s popular culture.

Phileo is the Greek word for brotherly love. This type of love is characterized by friendship. However, most men today can’t think of six good friends, godly men who would carry their casket at their funeral.

There is a critical spirit that will kill these three types of human love. Those who fall out of love become defensive and break off communication. They stonewall and refuse to talk to each other. According to 2 Timothy 3, in the last days, men will become lovers of pleasrure instead of lovers of God. These last days are characterized by irreconcilable differences between competing factions and between God and men.

The highest kind of love is the Greek word “agape.” This is the remarkable love of God. Jesus said, “a new commandment I give you, that you love one another even also as I have loved you.” Agape is the totally unselfish spiritual love of God. Agape has the capacity to keep on giving without expecting anything in return. Every other type of love is reciprocal. Other types of love require love in return. However, agape is the supernatural unconditional love of God. Agape love persists in the face of rejection and continues regardless of the response of the other party. Agape cannot be deflected by unloveable behavior. God’s love never lets how others treat you determine how you treat them. Agape is rooted in the eternal life that God gave us through his son when we were born again of his Holy Spirit. The love of God is the divine solution for strife and contention. It is the solution for marriages populated by imperfect human beings.

The love of God is the love of hope. It is the assurance of our future in our eternal relationship with Him. John said, these things have I written to you so that ye may know that you have eternal life. God’s spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are sons of God.

We can’t love others with the love of God until we love Him above all. When we love the Lord, we can love those around us. Jesus loved the unloveable because he loved with the unconditional love of God. If we are to love our wives we must meet each other at the foot of the cross. We were dead in sin until we came to Christ. For in him is the love of God made perfect. For we who were dead in trespasses and sins has he reconciled through the sacrifice of his son on our behalf.

God loved us so much that even while we were yet sinners, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him would not perish but have everlasting life. God’s nature is to love the undeserving.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one God. And thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” To love God, we must die to self. To be set free we must die to the sinful nature we inherited from Adam. For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

There is no pure love in my human soul that I inherited from Adam. I cannot love until I’ve been set free by the unconditional spiritual love of God. God never gave up on us because of his great love wherewith he loved us.

As David prayed, have mercy on me O Lord. Not according to my transgressions but according to your loving kindness and tender mercy. I am undeserving, for against thee and thee alone have I sinned. Restore me to an upright condition so that I may return to fellowship. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me and draw me nearer to thee. Order my ways according to thy holy word. Make thy commandment the joy of my heart that by them I might have happy conversation with you O Lord.

When I fail, when I fall from the narrow way, O Lord, may I fall into your net of mercy and grace. Forgive me, restore me, return me to an upright position according to your unconditional love and mercy.

Thank you Lord for your remarkable love. That I may love you with the spirit of Christ in me to the praise of the glory of your grace.

May our lives be an example of the remarkable unconditional Love of our Lord that we may continually offer unto him the sacrifice of praise!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Remarkable

Old men know better than to make New Year’s resolutions. They have learned not to make promises they can’t keep. A resolution means to determine to find an explanation or a solution to a problem. Resolution can also mean the act of determining to do or not do something. They say hindsight is 2020. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. However God’s foresight is 2020. He knows the end from the beginning but we don’t. As we look back on 2019 there are many things that we should or should not have done. As we look forward with the comfort of God’s 2020 foresight, we’re encouraged by Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision the people perish (they wander aimlessly), but he that keepeth the Law (the word of God) happy is he.”

What does God hold for us in the coming year? When Pete asked God that question many years ago, the word that came to mind was “casual.” The word that defines Christian men in church today is casual. Casual is followed in the dictionary by the word casualty. Casual Christians are casualties in the spiritual battle.

When Pete asked God for a theme to focus on for 2020, the word that came to mind was “remarkable.” This past year there was a message about the meaning of the word “remarkable.” What’s remarkable about our calling? Matthew 9 is about the gospel of the harvest. Seeing the people, Jesus felt compassion for them because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. He looked to his disciples, and prayed, “God, send out workers into the harvest for the harvest is plentiful but he laborers are few.”

Pete was ministering to a young man in Texas who was contemplating what he should do next in service to God. The young man had been married for one year and was longing for the “good old days” when he was involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in full time Christian service. Pete encouraged him, “Your ministry is to your wife. She is your mission field. God calls us to seasons of life with different priorities. There’s a season to plant, to fertilize, to weed, to water and then to bring in the harvest.” Ecclesiastes 3 says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

Christians are remarkable in that God has separated them from a world of darkness. According to 2 Corinthians 6, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

Holiness is to be separated according to the designer’s design. We’re separated from the world when we’re called to holiness, separated unto Him. We’re separated with a new spirit and a new nature. Therefore be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit. The holy spirit in us is Christ in us the hope of glory. In the spirit of Christ we’re remarkable. We have the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We’re born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible. We’re remarkable because we’re uncommon or extraordinary. Remarkable is easily noticed as outside of the world’s norm. Remarkable makes others want to investigate the reason for what makes us unique. The diseased sheep in the bad shepherd’s pasture look at the good shepherd’s pasture and say to themselves, “I want to be in that shepherd’s flock.” The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures, He restoreth my soul….

There is a strong family resemblance between fathers and sons. Those outside of the family notice something special, something remarkable about those who belong to their Heavenly Father.

Remarkable is what the multitude at the temple in Acts 2 noticed about the Apostle Peter at the day of Pentecost. They noticed that Jesus’ disciples spoke with power and authority even though they were lowly Galileans. For God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Remarkable goes beyond what is required or necessary. Remarkable men show integrity in their workmanship for God’s glory. They exceed in excellence and hold themselves to a higher standard. Remarkable men separate themselves from the world’s norms. They are unusual in a welcoming way. God said, don’t touch what’s unclean and I will welcome you in the way of the Lord.

When you look unto Jesus, people who love darkness instead of light will say you’re illogical, foolish, crazy and bizarre. In Acts 2 Peter said to the leaders of the temple on the day of Pentecost, “Him (Jesus Christ,) being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”

What was remarkable on the Day of Pentecost remains remarkable in 2020: The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection was the power of God unto salvation made manifest. This is the gospel message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (made whole.) God has called us to plant and water the seed of his word, the gospel message, in the mission field to which he’s called us. In due season we shall reap if we faint not. Therefore, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

As we approach 2020 with God’s remarkable holy calling, may we ever live to the praise fo the glory of His grace,
Your brother in Christ,
MIchael