What you tolerate dominates............

That sentence alone is powerful enough to make a point. What YOU tolerate will in fact overcome and overtake. That is the enemies hope. It's his insidious lie. How many of us as 'good' christians believe that we have to tolerate bad bahavior, mistreatment, unkindness, status quo, just to say we are turning the other cheek, or choosing to be content in our circumstances.  Bologna!! I am learning this lesson the hard way (which seems to be the way I learn most of my life lessons), that when I 'allow' something unacceptable in my life, such as how someone may choose to treat me, I have given the enemy a foothold. Honestly, just think about it for a minute with me. Say you have a relationship in which the other person does not treat you with respect, and belittles you and speaks down to you. Day in, and day out. It never lets up. Do you tolerate it? I am finding out that as a precious child of God, that I have value. I have worth. I am precious in God's eyes. I am loved. And if I am treasured by Him, it surely matters how I am treated by my earthly relationships. Don't ya think. I should have enough confidence and self worth to know when I am being mistreated and should not stand for it. How I approach this can be very firm but kind, and still be considered love and grace. You see when you speak the truth in love, you kick the devil in his teeth. When you stand up and fight for truth, honor and all that is good and lovely, you stop a potential cycle of defeat. 

No weapon formed against me will prosper, I am a child of the living God. I am MORE than a conqueror. I am not fighting against flesh and blood. So when I put down my foot on bad behavior from another, I am defeating an already defeated foe, from gaining a foothold in my life. Amen!!! 

On contentment........

Just when I thought I was learning to be content, God kindly showed me otherwise. Perhaps, I was happy with a level of contentment that I had never contained before now. But, why should I 'tolerate' or embrace so little? My deepest needs in life are met, and yet I still find myself focused on my circumstances, focused on how it's so difficult for me to lean back and trust every moment. I find that over the past 2 years I have learned so much, and I think to myself, wow, look at me soar!! When really I have so much more wonderful in store for me. I think this contentment thing must come in layers. Just as a child growing and learning, slowly becomes more competent in all of life. Many times one of my boys will learn something new and think, that now they 'know' how to do that, like a pro. Honestly though, do they know any better? From their perspective, they have just overcome the world!! 

Currently, one of my sons is taking swimming lessons. He is VERY fearful of the water. Anyway, after the first lesson or two, he (with a flotation device on) was happily swimming dog paddle around the pool, with no addtional (human) assitance necessary. As we drove home, he declared, "Mom I know how to swim now, I don't need lessons anymore."  Gee really?!! 

Fast forward to the next lesson when the teacher wanted to move on to the next skill, putting your head under water. This idea did not go over well with my son. NOPE!! Too uncomfortable, too unfamiliar, too scary. 

Well, here I am learning from this scenario in my son's life, and realizing that is me too. I have learned 'how' to live in freedom. Yup!! Just when I got good and comfortable and happy as a clam to preach to the whole world that I have got some serious freedom going on here folks, guess what? God says, "let's go deeper, let's plunge you in further."  I say, "but I am happily swimming in this freedom I have, it's fun, it's wonderful, it's nice. I do want more, but I think I got it for now, nope- God, I'm good." Can I just say, God really is the most amazingly kind and patient Father!! He doesn't give up on me, and faithfully shows me that together we can do this. He will lead me into 'swimming under water' so to speak. But I have to let go, I have to plunge my head under. But he won't let me sink, and won't let anything happen to me. When I finally relinquish the fear of the unknown, something amazing happens. I begin to realize, this isn't so horrible. God gently encourages me, "Okay, now Lydia, try it again, you can do it!!"  "Here goes!", and under I go. And each time I take that plunge, that step of faith, I realize I have overcome fear and have embraced trust. I have stopped making 'learning how to swim' a burden. I have chosen to let not my heart be troubled. 

And so as I walk on this journey, day by day, I learn His heart for me. He knows the plans He has for me, and they are good, to prosper me and not to harm me. If that is true, I CAN trust Him. I CAN be grateful and content in each moment, knowing he is holding me and he is molding me. It's all for His good pleasure!! 

I am finding lately, that he is being a very faithful gardener of my heart. Pruning away some old dead branches that won't allow me to flourish and be fruitful. And while it is painful, I can honestly say, He knows what He is doing, and I am learning to be grateful for His care of my heart!! 

Being Sanctified............

This is such an awesome privilege, this life we live in Christ! I am amazed at the truly finished work that Jesus accomplished on the cross! It's awesome to me, that not only did Jesus take every sin upon him at the cross, and removed it as far as the east is from the west, but every sinner, every old man, old nature upon him at the cross. And in His resurrection, not only did HE raise from the dead, but he raised us up with him, as new creations, free from sin and the sin nature. WOW!! All we have to do, to live in our new nature is believe on Jesus and what he accomplished! This believing is also a constant mind renewing in the truth of Jesus, as we are pilgrims on a journey in a new land we are not familiar with. And that is what I think our being sanctified looks like on this earth. Us learning how to live in newness of life! I think understanding the truth of how we have been given an exchanged life, an internal transformation, is really key to living and beginning to grasp the process we are in now. 

I am enjoying, very much, a book by Ryan Rufus, called "Sanctification by Grace." It simply is a must read for anyone wanting to get a basic understanding of what sanctification really looks like. Many of us who have come into freedom in Christ, have had past teaching on sanctification that were based on our own 'holy living' and efforts to grow and mature, through our own efforts and conquering of sin. This is NOT a helpful way to view sanctification, obviously, as apart from Him we can do nothing. It's all by Him and through Him that we live and move and have our being! So, I really want to quote a chunk of a chapter in Ryan's book, on "Being Sanctified." 

"We need to be so careful when we come to sanctification that we don't start thinking works all of a sudden. It's not about self effort and discipline. The way we start thinking works is by falsely making the deduction that if the event of sanctification has to do with your spirit, and if the process of sanctification has to do with your body and mind, then surely, for the process, we must focus on our body and mind and trying to change them? Actually the process of sanctification keeps its focus on our spirit. Sanctification is about what flows out of our spirit not about the disciplines we apply to our mind and body to try and change them. "But isn't the process about us focusing on offering our body and renewing our mind?" Actually it's about focusing on how to empower your spirit to rule through your body and mind. Keep the focus on your spirit. A renewed mind and a conquered body will not fight your spirit but will flow with and serve your spirit and will be a delight to you!

Religion will have you focus on the external. Grace is all about the internal. Religion applies controls to the external to try and force change to the internal. Sanctification is about discovering the internal spiritual transformation and helping that to flow out to the externals. There are things you can do with your mind and body (externals) to help the flow, but if you make the focus you mind and body you will reverse the flow and it doesn't work that way! 

Sanctification is about your spirit rising in dominion and reigning and expressing itself through your mind and body. It's not about applying discipline and rules to your mind and body in the hope that it will produce holiness and spirituality in your spirit."

In this next section, you will see that Ryan divides grace up into two parts, acceptance grace and empowering grace. Grace is grace and vast and wide is the sum of it. But for clarity sake I think he does this, to show how the church has dissected grace in an unhelpful way. In other words, some say, we have been saved by grace and accepted by grace and forgiven, but now we need to  do a whole lot of things in order to live a 'godly' life and this is empowering grace. The Holy Spirit helps us do a whole lot of external behaviour stuff, and they teach that there is a whole lot stuff you need to do!! They are really promoting flesh and works. Anyway, here's the next portion. 

"Titus 2:11 says, 'For the grace of God that bring salvation, has appeared to all man, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live godly lives.....'

The bible says it there, that it's the grace of God that teaches us to say no to sin! And that the grace that teaches us to say 'no' is the exact same grace that 'brings salvation'!

Now some preach empowering grace as 'things we have to do'.  And it's to try and move Christians to action. People who haven't seen their salvation (internal transformation) are continually looking for ways to apply external pressure to move Christians to action. They can call it empowering grace all they want, but it is law dressed up as grace! 

If they could just see how acceptance grace and empowering grace flow from the same source and to the same destination, their message would change and they would truly help people. Let me explain that. 

Acceptance grace is not only for justification, it's also for sanctification. Because of it, through it, and out of it will come empowering grace! Something that every believer needs to realize is that empowering grace is not a concept. Empowering grace is a person! God! Acceptance grace is what brings us to Him and continually empowers us to live close to Him no matter what. The more you understand  acceptance grace the more you are empowered to come to God and the more you encounter God the more you encounter empowering grace. People who encounter God encounter the very person who is empowering grace. (In other words, it's out of a love relationship!!!) He empowers us to overcome sin, and He empowers us to love and to do the works of Jesus and greater works. When you encounter God you are empowered. Acceptance grace is what clears the way for you to come to God and encounter Him. Not encountering the concept of God, but actually really encountering God the Father, the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit in their tangible presence."

So, in other words, coming to a revelation understanding of the finished work of the cross. Seeing, truly seeing that God loves us and nothing will change that fact, nothing we do or don't do, and He is not every going to be angry with us again. It's finally getting the love and acceptance we all have been searching for all our lives and letting the truth of that sink in so deep that is causes radical transformation in our lives!! Once we come to understand God's love and acceptance, we will want to draw near to God. We will not fear relating with Him. We will live constantly before the throne of grace because we have no fear of rejection ever again from God! It's this understanding of truth that begins to set us free to live as free, redeemed people!! 

In other words, grace is not a doctrine, nor is sanctification. Grace is a person, Jesus! And sanctification is the living out of our relationship with Jesus! His love compels us!!! Ryan explains why sometimes Christians may have bad behaviour;

"Now a lot of Christian 'bad behavior' is not a lack of discipline, it's a lack of encounter. To correct the bad behavior many want to give a list of things Christians need to change, start doing or become. And too often, they motivate with fear by saying, 'If you don't change then God will do this or that to you.'  'If you keep sinning God will punish you',  'You will lose your salvation',  'you'll come under curse' or 'God can't bless you' etc.  That's just manipulation and behavior modification pressure. The problem isn't their behavior, it's their relationship with God. It's not in a good place. Most likely because they're under law and feel far from God, guilty and condemned. The further away from God, the easier it is to just give into sin. The closer you are to God the harder it is to give into sin. When you live close to God, He sorts out your bad attitudes, anger, pride, lust, doubt, selfishness etc! It's hard to live in His presence and hold onto sin. The only way you can hold onto sin is to stay out of His presence. Your wasting your time to try and change people's behavior through imposing external restraints. Rather help them get into the presence of God. (my clarifier, help them understand that they can not be seperated from God, ever, and that you have His very presence with you always, as you now carry the very spirit of Christ in you!) The only way you can do that is by teaching them grace! Grace ignites the passion in the spirit of a born again believer to encounter God more. (or live out of an understanding of 'Christ in you')"

"The more we hear about grace, (Jesus), the more we realize there are no obstacles in the way for us to encounter God." 

"Sanctification is basically all about getting established in grace!"

"The process of sanctification is really all about being established in grace and living in grace (Christ!). You know we could just drop the whole idea of sanctification or even ignore it all together and just preach true grace and you'd find sanctification happening in the lives of Christians! If more preachers could stop focusing on holiness and service and obedience to God and simply preached pure grace (Christ and Him crucified!) they would see the results are holiness and service and obedience to God in people's lives! 

You don't have to pull on the branches of a plant to help it grow!! Just give it light, feed the roots, and it will grow!"

Yup, we are branches of the True Vine! We are baby, child, teenage and adult oaks of righteousness. We cannot become any oakier! We are just getting rooted and established in grace and going from glory to glory!!! We really can trust this Divine Life we have! We do not need to fear on the basis of what our flesh may look like at any given moment in life! We are not our flesh! We are who God says we are! We are in Him! He is in us! We are safe and secure!! Grace and peace to all who read here!!

(This book will soon be available online for purchase, I will make sure to let you all know when it is!)

Performance Based Acceptance..........

Okay, so it's day late, but I am going to post a brief testimony of my life pre-grace, while still in the mire of performance based acceptance, to join in on the syncroblog. I have since learned since breaking free from the performance treadmill, ie religion/legalism/much of the modern day church, is that my greatest need all along was love and acceptance. I had spent all my life up until the summer of '07 trying to get love and acceptance whatever way I knew how. I am here to tell you about the years of my life that I sought to gain love and acceptance through my performance. Only thing is, I didn't know then what I know now, and didn't know that that is what I was after and that was how I was trying to gain acceptance. By my behavior and performance. The problem was not ultimately me all along, the problem was what I believed. 

After years of living in the world seeking for acceptance and love, of which I never truly found, I became pregnant. Unmarried and scared, the next several months were the most challenging months I ever faced. When the time came near for my son to be born, I had come to the realization that I needed God. Though I didn't fully know why at the time. I told him I knew I needed him, but I just couldn't live up to the christian life. I just couldn't do it! He told me not to worry about it, and to let Him do it for me! I realized I could live with that, and slowly opened my heart back up to him. 

Shortly after this time, I returned to church. I found my husband, got married and became committed to the church. I served and pursued growing as a christian. I took marriage classes, parenting classes, read all the recommended books, struggled to have quiet times, had accountability, and more. I thought that juggling all these plates was my duty and it was the ticket to a disciplined mature christian life. Only trouble was, I was dying on the inside. I did not have true joy, and had many struggles in my marriage. The struggles were due to the high bar we tried to hold over each other, and we both fell way short. They were exasperated by ongoing council from our pastor, which only caused more pain and turmoil. 

What happened was awful and ugly and I won't go into detail here, as I have shared parts of my testimony throughout my blog. BUT, what broke us free, was finally hearing the truth of the Gospel in it's entirety for the first time, with NO conditions. You see, I knew about grace, but I only knew about the half of it, and then mix that with still trying to apply the law and standards to my life and you have a recipe for disaster. 

It was the summer of '07 and I listened to a message by Rob Rufus. In it he explained the distinction between grace and law. And I remember at one point in the message, he shared this....he said, "I want to say, categorically............you have NO christian duties!"  WHAT!!!  The next thing I remember hearing from him, was the promise in Isaiah 54 of how God is no longer angry with us. These truths began to really set me free to receive the truth of the Gospel and God's love and acceptance for me so fully. I had finally found what I had been looking for all my life!! It was available all along, but I had not seen or been taught the truth. I had believed lies, and that had caused me to live in such a way that caused a void in me. I experienced true joy for the first time in my life!! 

I choose not to ponder the past, because He is doing a new thing in me. Each day I press on, living in the present, experiencing His presence, love and joy over me. It's an exciting and wild journey this life, based on HIS performance for me! Thanks to Jesus, I am accepted by God, and seen as He sees Christ, perfect forever, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, holy, blameless, spotless, seated in heavenly places, as a Son and heir of God!!!

Freedom in Christ Quotes.................

"What then does Paul mean by the old man? It seems to me quite plain....  the old man is the man I used to be in Adam....   it is the man I once was, but which I am no longer." 

 ~ Martin Lloyd Jones

"Understand that the old man is not there. The only way to stop living as if he were still there is to realize that he is not there. That is the New Testament method of teaching sanctification. The whole trouble with us, says the N.T. is that we do not realize what we are that we still go on thinking we are the old man and go on trying to do things to the old man. That has has been done; the old man was crucified with Christ. He is non-existent, he is no longer there.....If we but saw this as we should, we would really begin to live as Christians (or Sons) in this world."  

~ Martin Lloyd Jones

"We don't do anything, we don't give anything to God, but we receive and allow someone else to do all the work for us and in us and it's God that does it." The only experience necessary is Christ's death on the cross. 

~ Martin Luther

"Oh, it is a great thing to see that we are in Christ! Think of the bewilderment of trying to get into a room in which you are already are! Think of the absurdity of asking to be put in! If we recognize the fact that we are in, we make no effort to enter." 

~ Watchmen Nee

"The more we work and sweat to extricate ourselves from sin the worse off we are. For there is no way to remove sin except by grace. And with Paul, let us confess that all our works and righteousness, with all of which we could not make the devil stoop down one hairbreadth, are nothing but loss and refuse. 

It seems to be a trivial matter to teach the Law and affirm works, but this does more damage than human reason can imagine. Not only does it mar and obscure the knowledge of grace, but it also removes Christ and all His blessings, and it completely overthrows the Gospel." 

~ Martin Luther

Accountability........(continued)

This video was brought to my attention by someone on Grace Revolution. I loved this series that Steve McVey did, 101 Lies taught in the church every Sunday. I hadn't recalled this one in particular, but it goes perfectly with my recent post on accountability. Check it out!

Re-defining Holiness............

I was very excited to see the title of Ryan's latest message and was quick to enjoy a listen to it! His message was very much like what some of us have been talking about lately and correlates so well with this post I recently wrote. Thankfully, Dan already typed it up!! So here's the transcribed message, and here is the message to download, if you are interested. I know it will bless you!! 

"Holiness has got nothing to do with sinning or not sinning! If that is what we think, then we think WE are the cause of our holiness and I am telling you there is only ONE person who is the cause of our holiness and His name is Jesus Christ!!"

Organic growth.........

Lately, I have been feeling very unsettled. In spite of the wonder and revelation of who I am in Christ, I feel very complacent about where my life is headed. It's almost as if I am in the beginning stages of pregnancy, the joy is there, knowing a life is being formed, but the discomfort of first trimester is hovering over me. It's so consuming, I can't see my way through the fog of it. It's almost as if the joy is on hold, and I am waiting to get through this season. Second trimester is always more pleasant for me personally, (now remember this is an analogy here folks, I am NOT pregnant, just pregnant with life that God will soon bear out of me), it's more enjoyable and more REAL. The first flutters and kicks happen and that basketball belly begins to protrude more fully. Aah, it is usually more refreshing than the first trimester. Currently, I feel like, as if I am waiting to get through the stages of pregnancy to giving birth to new life!! I am not speaking of the life I already have, I am speaking of the life I am to live on this earth, bringing heaven to earth. 

In the thick of it all, I know something is happening inside of me, but I can't really see it. I can't feel the difference, though I can feel the pains of growth, yet there is no real outward evidence that anything is really going on. That has been hard for me. Just waiting. Trusting that His life is really being formed in me. 

Today, I felt fresh hope for the first time in awhile. The rain has not ceased around here, and the weather has been adding to my constant state of unease in general. Yet, I am learning to be quiet and still and content to a degree, but there is just this wrestling within me. It gnaws at me, and I long for it to be silenced and stilled. Although, I do believe that it is a good thing, this longing I have. I often ask the Lord to show me His plans for me, to lead me forward in life. I do not want to be complacent, but I feel as though I don't know what His assignment is for me. And isn't it true that men perish for lack of vision. AGH! Well, today, something triggered in me. Something that has been planted in my spirit and I believe is starting to sprout forth, and I think I am ready and excited to embrace this new idea God is leading me into. 

What a unique life this is, this life in Christ. Apart from Him I can do nothing. I really feel that. I really feel like what is the point of my life, if I am not only in Him, but He is  producing life out of me for the benefit of others. I never knew why I felt this way before, and it seems to grow stronger as the years pass on. This constant pang, that causes me to be uneasy when I can't see the plan unfolding, only because I so desperately want my life to matter. I want His life to be so fully expressed in mine that people are greatly blessed, transformed, saved, healed and Jesus is glorified all the more. At the same time, I want to be content with each new day as it is. Just revel in the new mercies of the day, just enjoying my fellowship with my Father. So I find this balance in my life, it's learning not to be satisfied with a small unpurposeful life, but yet to be content at where I am at, and enjoy each moment, each new day. Oy! That is quite an enigma, no? 

I am sure there are others who are experiencing this wrestling, this life of mystery. This walk of the spirit is so confounding to my mind at times. I simply cannot let my mind get in the way though and I often just throw my hands up in the air and say, I give up trying to figure this all out Lord. I trust you and your life in me. And let me tell you how many times I find myself saying this. It's daily, sometimes hourly. It's a journey of me learning to lean not on my own understanding, and learning to lean fully on His life in me. Honestly, I hope that someday this walk begins to flow more for me. I mean do you think, it's possible for my mind to get out of the way, and for me to just live so in union with the Spirit as my constant guide. I sure would like that. I sure believe that it is meant to be a continual growing process, within the context of relationship with Him. Much like in a marriage, the longer you have been together, the more likely you are to complete each other's sentences and know each others mood in an instant and understand what makes each other really tick. (or even just a close friendship, for those who aren't married, you just begin to know what makes your friend really tick!)

In light of all my ramblings here, I do believe that the Lord is weaving together the tapestry of my life and a beautiful pattern is emerging. He is revealing to me the next color that is going to be added in, and it may take awhile before  it will be visually appealing to the naked eye, but it is indeed a new fresh color to take delight in. I think perhaps what I may be trying to say, is that I am starting to see the benefit of the process and learning to be patient as I wait for Him to create and birth in me, what He has planned for me. A new level of contentment is coming forth in me. 

So today, I am reveling in the journey, the turn it is taking and the process as it unfolds, as slow as it may seem at times. I count it all joy! I learn from each new day, how to wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord! That has such depth of meaning I never before comprehended. For I know the plans He has for me, plans to prosper me, and not to bring me harm. O God, you are indeed so good! I am learning to trust you and know that you have good things in store for me!! I love you!!!