Grace Awakening: Week Three, Chapter Three-Isn’t Grace Risky?

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

~Romans 6:1-2

 

The great risk of grace is the knowledge that we have been freed from our sins through the death and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Some might say people can then go on in their sinful living as before receiving this gift of God, after all-all is forgiven! The debt is paid! We are free to do fully as we please. And indeed we are. Whoa—like a kid let loose in the great candy store of life!

 

Once we believe--and that is just simple faith, not a vow to change one’s life, or a promise to give up all we have and off we go to follow Christ. There’s no carved in stone commitment to never, ever sin again. That’s not even possible. We’re still human after all. But, because of Christ’s commitment to us through His death on the cross, God declares those who believe to be righteous and justified. Then He gets to work, changing us day by day, bit by bit towards maturity and sanctification.

 

So, with this great privilege of living in grace, there will be some who take advantage and abuse the gift God offers. Aren’t there always people like that with any free offering? Why would grace be any different? There will be people who simply don’t value or understand what this grace cost our God. (I would encourage you to read Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest for a deeper appreciation.)

 

Read Romans 6:2-7

Why are people who have accepted God’s grace dead to sin? What happened that has freed us from being slaves to sin?

 

If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, how can knowing that you have been freed from the power of sin affect your daily life?

 

Side story—humor me a moment: All I can hear is Sarah’s voice in the movie Labyrinth, telling Jareth, the Goblin King, “You have no power over me!” Got that right!! And that realization shattered Jareth’s spell, Sarah was freed. As instantly as we are freed from the grip of sin the moment we believe in Christ. Sin no longer has any power over us!

 

Read Romans 6:8-11

When we were set free from sin through belief in Christ, our old selves-our former nature-died, never to return (can I get a “Good riddance!”?) We now live with the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, guiding and enabling us to live more like Christ. And how did He live?

 

As a believer, how does the fact that you are free and fully able to say no to sin and yes to God make you want to live?

 

Read Romans 6:12-15

 

If you are a believer in Jesus, you have the ability to say no to sin, but you still have the choice of whether you’ll let sin reign in your life. Even with this freedom to choose to live for God, why is it so tempting to let sin continue to reign?

 

When you choose to let sin reign in your life, what is the effect upon you?

 

When you choose to follow God and say no to sin, what is the effect of that decision in your life?

 

Suggestions For Living Freely and Responsibly

 

The freedom we have in Christ is not the freedom to do anything we want, but to be everything that God has created us to be. To be everything God created us to be, we must pursue a life of grace, not chasing our lusts but rather honoring Him with our righteousness. Such as:

 

Ø  Enjoy the freedom grace provides. This is a gift from God, give yourself permission to be free.

Ø  Treat grace as an undeserved privilege rather than an exclusive right. Be grateful for what God has done for you, not arrogant or demanding about it.

Ø  Remember that while grace came freely, it cost our Savior His life in a most brutal manner. We handle with care what comes at great cost. Handle your liberty that way.

 

God sent His only Son not just to forgive us, but also to set us free. He knew what He was doing. He knew we could learn to live responsibly in the context of liberty. He knew rules could not change us but relationship would. As we come to know “the God of all grace” we love Him all the more. We love our freedom, and in that freedom, love others. Just as God does.

 

If you’re just joining us, we are working our way through Charles Swindoll’s Grace Awakening and the accompanying Workbook. I’m posting a weekly chapter every Saturday. You can also listen to Mr. Swindoll’s weekly podcasts for each chapter online at his Insights.org website. Click here for this week’s podcast.

 

Thanks again to all for stopping by. I hope you’re enjoying this message of grace as much as I am every week! Please share any thoughts or comments below—I’m always happy to hear from you! Have a great week—hope to see you back here again soon!

Workin' On It Wednesday #15

Well, that seems like a good omen--WOIW #15 as the first such post of 2015...? Yeah? I'm runnin' with it! So! It's been a super slow, super quiet week...Too cold to row. Doing speed work on the treadmill in the mornings. Long days to fill with hardly any mail to speak of. What is a girl to do? Drink coffee. Made a HUGE pot of tomato basil soup (yum!) Playing with lettering and my daily journal. I'm writing but not quite as much as I'd like--I journal every morning but I've yet to take it further. And I keep telling myself I want to draw more. Like daily. But I haven't. I did try to put together one of Michael's Minecraft Lego sets--those things are TEDIOUS! And TINY! So, I'll have to come back to that later. When I'm super patient. And super bored.

I have been having a slight panic attack over the itinerary for our youth group's trip to NYC next weekend that I (stupidly) (courageously) (idon'tknowwhatiwasthinking) volunteered to tag along with as a chaperone. Okay. I thought-"Oh cool! A chance to go to NYC! With the youth group! Very cool!" Then the letter showed up yesterday with our torture schedule....Oh man. Pray for me. One might think the prospect of sleeping on a gymnasium floor and no shower of vital importance in maybe reconsidering the coolness of a trip to NYC with the youth group. But the truly scary, or at least not so cool part is the scheduling of activities up until 2am! Oh man. Really?? As much as I like the idea of candlelight meditation and an agape feast Eucharist, I'm really not enthusiastic about the thought of doing so from 12:30-1:30am...Oh my...And then we're back up and on the road again at 7 later that morning. Maybe I can nap on the bus both ways? Not likely. I'm too much of a scenery hog. I hope someone's making coffee part of that agape feast! Sigh....

So, anyway. I did finish The Shining (which is way different from what I sort of remember from the movie version. I barely remember reading it the first time around...) But it was good--even though I had a total meltdown of the 'hotel' releasing Jack from the locked pantry so he could go kill Wendy and Danny--yeah, that's so not fair. But, they lived. He didn't. All's fair in love and Stephen King novels. Or at least, there's not a whole lot you can do about it other than rant in a blog post he'll never read. Now I am well into the sequel Dr. Sleep and loving it. More crazy Kingness!

And art wise--a quick couple pics:

The continuation of my daily journal. The Reality quote in the bottom right corner is for
 a Daisy Yellow Prompt60 to letter a creativity quote.

My Winter Love List for Pen + Peplum's #52handlettered Week Two prompt.
It was supposed to be a Summer Love List but I don't love summer so much--I'm a winter kinda girl!

I still have my Documented Faith and Life prompts to work on for the week...Will try to do something with those maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, thank you, thank you for popping on by! I hope to see you over the weekend for Chapter Three of Grace Awakening! Have a great week!

Mailbox Monday Plus...

I know it's been quite a while since I've posted regularly with any kind of schedule but since starting journaling daily again, following along with my friend, Dawn's journal prompts, I'm finally gotten the writing bug once more. Hopefully this will overflow into more regular blog posting--hopefully...I think I've relied on posting to Instagram to show what I've been up to lately, but it would be nice to blog about it all again.

So first, since I've been doing so much mail arting lately, I'm planning to post weekly Mailbox Monday updates with pictures of incoming and outgoing mail, and mail challenges like my proposed Month of Letters for February (still time to sign up and join in on the fun!) Incoming mail has been ridiculously slow. I've allowed for the holidays to be an excuse the past few weeks, but now that we are well into January I thought things would be picking up again, but they're not. I'm reconsidering the one snail mail group I've been a part of this past year and whether or not I'll continue with it for 2015. To not receive a fair response for mail sent out seems like maybe postage should be spent elsewhere for more productive responses. So, that's currently under consideration...But, first a quick peek at some postcards I'm prepping for February's Month of Letters:

One of these could be coming to your mailbox if you join the fun!

Hopefully I'll have more mail to share next week but I do have some Scripture doodles to post:

And these next two are just because I wanted to share:

Gorgeous Cooper's Hawk sitting in my dogwood tree looking for a tasty sparrow dinner...

I love a good moon shot.

Okay--that's all I have for today. Stay tuned for more later in the week. Thanks for popping by--have a great Monday!

Week Two Chapter Two-The Free Gift

Someone close to me, during a very stressful time of my life, had the audacity to say to me, “Having God is great, but sometimes it’s not enough.” As if there is anything we can humanly do that is greater than God. That was the last time I spoke to that person. If we cannot trust God to see us through our darkest hours, then when? Only when things are going well? What sort of faith is that?

 

This week’s chapter expresses where our gift of grace originates-strictly from God. How do we get it? Purely by believing. There is not a single, solitary thing we do on our own that warrants receiving God’s grace. He gives it freely from His love for us. And the glory of this gift of grace is that it’s not just for the super good folks, the radically religious sect—it is for ALL of us! And there’s more: there is nothing we can do to lose that gift. Once we are adopted as a child of God, we are His forever, no matter how bad we might mess up. Good to know, isn’t it? I mess up a lot…

 

The world would teach us that we can only rely on ourselves. We are in charge and solely responsible for the direction and success of our lives. God would have us learn differently. He would have us trust solely in Him, on Him. That’s hard at times, isn’t it? We want to be able to rely on ourselves, on the right here, right now. We want to be in control of our circumstances. I have sat in a miserable holding pattern too many times to ever think that I am the one in control. I’ve not always liked God’s timing, but I do know for certain that I love His intervention and intention in my life—where I’ve been placed by His loving hands.

 

Have you ever trusted Christ to be the Master of your fate? The Captain of your soul? If not, you can do it now. Tell Him that you want to turn from yourself and turn to Him as Captain as you accept His gift of grace. If you have already trusted Christ to be Captain of your soul, are you letting Him steer your soul completely? If not, in what areas do you need to put the wheel back into His hands?

 Don't forget to listen to Charles Swindoll's podcast for this week's chapter here.

You are welcome to share your thoughts in the comments below—I would love to hear from you! And I hope you’ll join us next week for Chapter Three-Isn’t Grace Risky?

 

In Christ,

Dawn

A Month of Letters

The Challenge

Most of you know I love snail mail. I would like to include you in that love this coming month and I have a simple challenge for you.

1. In the month of February, mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
2. Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

All you are committing to is to mail 23 items. Why 23? There are four Sundays and one US holiday. In fact, you might send more than 23 items. You might develop a correspondence that extends beyond the month.

Write love letters, thank yous, or simply notes to say that you miss an old friend. Send a fabric swatch from your new dress. A feather you picked up while on a walk. Whatever it is, let yourself step away from the urgency of modern life and think about an audience of one. Think of it as sending 23 little gifts. And, who knows, you might enjoy going to the mail box again.

And if you message me your address, I will include you in my February mailing list! Send me your address here. Happy Mailing!!

Grace Awakening-Week One Chapter One

Grace Awakening-Week One Chapter One

 

Free in Christ. Free indeed. Free at last.

 

Happy New Year and welcome to our study of Charles Swindoll’s Grace Awakening! I am so glad to have you joining us! The plan is to post a chapter each week for the next fourteen weeks, God willing, and you are invited to join along with both the book and workbook. Feel free to share your insights and input below in the comments each week-I’d love to hear from you!

 

I came upon Grace Awakening because I have been longing for something more. I have a regular morning time routine well established over the past eight or nine years now-reading the Bible every morning, prayer journaling, and also participating in online studies with a group of friends who have graciously shared their morning time with me as well over the past few years. But lately, I just felt like I needed something more, something deeper. And then I came across this book and it completely resonated with my heart. I am so excited to start this new journey!

 

And so we begin-Grace: It’s Really Amazing!

 

Grace received but unexpressed is dead grace. Rather than spend our time debating on how we receive it or what it means to live by grace, we need to just claim it and allow it to set us free-then grace will become what it was meant to be-really amazing!

 

Grace Embraced

 

The One we could call “Grace Embodied” never tires of extending it to us. When we fully embrace His gift of grace, we will:

 

      have a greater appreciation of God’s gifts

      spend less time and energy concerned about other people’s choices

      become more tolerant and joyful (yes, please!), less prejudiced and judgmental

      take a giant step toward maturity.

 

Oh yes—sign me up!

 

Grace will bring the freedom to want the highest good for and expect the highest good from one another. It will make us want to obey and prompt us to love each other. However, when we don’t embrace grace for ourselves, we have no grace to offer others.

 

If we refuse to live by grace, our attitudes sour. We’re certain that people can’t be trusted. We waver over whether or not God fully accepts us, so we run from intimacy with Him. On our own, we drive ourselves to obsessive intensity. Our spirits harden. Our rigidity repels. Our faces shout, “No!”

 

When we choose to live by grace, our attitudes shift from negative to positive. Our relationships with people are characterized by confident acceptance rather than suspicious intolerance. With His grace, our focus expands. Our intensity is relieved. Our spirits soften. We become more winsome, affirming, contagious, and understanding. Our faces say, “Yes.”

 

As an added bonus, I found that there is also a podcast by Mr. Swindoll for each chapter you can listen to. For this week’s podcast click here. You can also download the Insights for Living app free which includes the archive of the entire series’ podcasts!

 

Thank you for joining me this week-I hope you’ll share your thoughts in the comments below and come back again next week for Chapter Two-The Free Gift.

 

 

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore,

and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

~Galatians 5:1

Random Journal Day #46

Hi and welcome back to another Random Journal Day where the first Friday of every month journal friends share over at Enthusiastically, Dawn! I am still working in the same prayer journal, a simple Daler Rowney I had picked up at Walmart:

 

Maybe two-thirds of the way through? With my Nantucket Moby Dick coffee mug

I'm already contemplating the next prayer journal and have decided I need one that will withstand water media so I can play with some color. I've signed up for the 2015 Documented Faith Project and have a mixed media journal already set aside for that-really excited to begin that for the New Year!

 

I also received this in the mail yesterday:

 

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE! I've been wanting a Lutheran Study Bible for quite a while but some are fairly expensive--and HUGE! This is a personal size, was reasonably priced, and I am head over heels in LOVE already!!

I'm about to finish up my fourth Bible, Max Lucado's Inspirational Study Bible, a gift from a friend--oh how I love Max's Bibles! But I'm definitely looking forward to this new journey through the Lutheran Study Bible--so many notes and study applications--I am a Bible nerd!!

 

So, all right--some Scripture doodles from the prayer journal this past month:

 

  

 

 

And beginning Advent inspiration:

 

 

Just a couple more quickies--I've made some bookmarks to share with participants of my New Year's journey through Charles Swindoll's Grace Awakening. So far the plan is to start January 3, working weekly through the book and accompanying workbook (oh my gosh, how I love a workbook! LOL!) If you wish to join me for the study, just shoot me an email and let me know. I will add you to my mailing list for the study and send out reminders as we get closer to starting in January! Oh! The bookmarks:

Front and back
 

And finally, a quick tile coaster I'd made for my friend, Jenny of Jenny's Sketchbook (so super talented, give the link a click to enjoy her artwork!):

Scripture coaster tiles available for purchase-email me!

And that's all I have to share this time! Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and I would be so excited to have you join me for the Grace Awakening study, so give a holler and we will share!! Do pop on over to Dawn's journal party for more journal love!

Until next time,

xoxo