Grace Awakening Week Four, Chapter Four: Undeserving, Yet Unconditionally Loved

Welcome back to week four. I almost had to skip again this week--it has been rough here lately! We got hit by blizzard Juno, dumping a gorgeous three feet of fresh white snow on us--took two days to get dug out, then another before school and work schedules resumed. So I had an unexpected houseful and a schedule tossed to the wind. Then I got the news that a dear friend's husband had passed away, the wake and funeral would be Thursday and Friday. I'd gotten absolutely nothing accomplished that I'd hoped to achieve all week, and another slice of time was cut away. But, I'm so glad I attended the service--such beautiful words remembering and honoring a most loved father, husband, grandfather...and it was just good to be in the company of my rowing/church family for the occasion as well.

So I determined to set aside all mail, lettering, and planner pursuits for the afternoon until I got my post written--all those things can wait just a little bit longer...I should have some time to play over the weekend (I hope, at least!) And we carry on with Chapter Four: Undeserving, Yet Unconditionally Loved.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I struggle a LOT with the whole feeling of being undeserving of God's lavish love and grace. I have made mess upon mess of my life and yet He's done nothing but shower me with His unlimited love, forgiveness, and bounty of blessings. I live it--every day in awe of all that God has given me. I don't even remember to thank Him most of the time. Yet every day, new grace, more gifts, unbounded love.

Chapter Four explores the stories of David and Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 4), and that of Paul. How King David bestowed grace on Jonathon's crippled son for the sheer love of his childhood friend. Paul, consumed zealot, condemner, murderer of Christians given grace by God, turned apostle who couldn't stop himself from preaching God's love-from the depths of prisons, bound in chains. He lived to preach God's grace to the rest of us until his last dying breath.

This gift is given freely. God does what He does by His grace. Because of this, I am what I am by the grace of God. He gets every ounce of credit for whatever good I am able to achieve. And just as God shapes us in His grace, we need to allow Him to be the One to mold those around us in HIS way (not ours). And since He gives us grace, we need to extend it to others, rather than trying to turn them into what we think they should be.

Grace is not something simply to be claimed, it is meant to be demonstrated. It is to be shared, used as a basis for friendships and drawn upon for sustained relationships.

"Grace focuses on who God is and what He has done and takes the focus (and credit) off ourselves. Yet it's so easy to think we need to do something to earn or deserve God's favor, as though grace is too good to be true." -Jackie Hudson

In what ways have you experienced God's grace in your life and relationships?

Do you find it difficult to let people be who they are? Why do you think this is so?

Do you find yourself being harder on family members or coworkers than you mean to be? In which of your relationships is this an issue?

Click here to listen to the chapter podcast.

Thanks so much for your patience with last week's delay, and thank you for joining me again this week. I hope you're getting as much from this study as I am. Please leave a comment below--I'd love to hear what you think so far! Have a great week--see you next Saturday for Chapter Five!

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!

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

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