Why I Don't Like the Puritans...

I confess that I don't have a favorable impression of the Puritans. Maybe it's not fair or right and I hope some people can give me some reasons to like them at least a little... But when I pick up a book at random and find a quote like this right away, I ask you, can you blame me?

"Repentance is necessary for God's own people, who have a areal work of grace and are Israelites indeed. They must offer up a daily sacrifice of tears. The Antimomians hold that when any come to be believers, they have a writ of ease, and there remains nothing for them now to do but to rejoice. Yes, they have something else to do, and that is to repent. Repentance is a continuous act. The issue of godly sorrow must not be quite stopped till death..." Thomas Watson, from The Doctrine of Repentance

I'm sorry, but is it any wonder that many of the Puritans struggled with depression and suicide? How terrible a way to live! I agree with much of what I read of repentance concerning the unbelievers, except perhaps the general understanding of what repentance really is. And why in books from all eras do the references never have anything to do with the point the author is making? Do they think we won't look it up and read it in context and see that they have just put in their opinion with a reference tacked on to fool us that it's really God's opinion?

How random a post is this haha....

Oh and one more question: Why is Spurgeon considered a Puritan? I have certainly not read all of his writing but everything I have read seems much more grace-filled and cheerful (don't even get me going on John Owen!), it seems like Spurgeon doesn't fit.

God of Second Chance or Chances???

It may be a sign that I'm a little overwhelmed with being a mother that I find Veggie Tales so thought-provoking, or maybe it's just that I'm pretty careful to point out legalism to my kids in order to teach them the truth about grace...anyway, in the past I've thought quite a bit about the idea that comes out in Jonah, the Veggie Tales movie. I'm certainly not bashing Veggie Tales haha, but of course there is some moralizing that they do which is pretty Old Covenant sometimes. To be expected...Anyone who grew up learning Old Testament Bible stories in Sunday school will be familiar with that practice.




At first my line of reasoning was that God doesn't give us a second chance, but infinite 'chances', then I realized that was totally a legalistic mindset. There are only 2 chances in this life, the first is Adam , the second is Jesus. With a law mindset we are constantly begging God for just one more chance to do it right, to make up for our sin, to change. We want forgiveness for our past sins but we want to continue on to try harder next time. This is the kind of mentality that causes Christians to teach that we need to continually confess sin, repent, and rededicate ourselves to be holier or grow in sanctification. The law provided infinite chances to bring your sacrifice, to shred your clothes and put ashes on your head, to commit to doing a better job of obeying God.

But in Adam, we are doomed to fail every time no matter how many chances we get! Our nature is sinful through and through, we cannot meet God's standard no matter how many times we get our slate wiped clean, no matter how hard we try, even if we pray and fast and beg God for strength to obey. We will always fail, we will die trying and failing and falling short.

So God in his wisdom decided not to give us infinite chances, but instead to give us only two chances. The first chance was Adam...and he failed. The second chance is Jesus, and he completely succeeded in accomplishing every single thing the Father desired! So now, every single one of us has access to a second chance! Our second chance is Jesus, and as soon as we receive his righteousness we are placed into an unbreakable covenant, the one chance we needed, the chance to believe in the one who leaves nothing up to chances but is able to fulfill every promise he's made.

Some think that grace means unlimited chances to try to keep the law better,that God will sanctify our efforts somehow. But that is not grace. Grace is Jesus, and the only way to access that grace is by throwing yourself on him completely, not looking for any other 'chances'. Are you satisfied that Jesus passes God's inspection? If he doesn't, there is no hope for any of us.

God gave mankind only two chances, don't you think he took special care that we wouldn't be able to blow the second one??? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!!!!!

Grace, Not Your Safety Net!

Well, I guess I haven't written anything for a long time. Don't worry, I'm just pregnant. I've been wasting a lot of time trying to find worship music that is not depressing/legalistic and have not come up with much. How sad! According to the Christian music industry, I guess grace is that thing that kicks in every time you fail to obey the law. Grace is just a safety net for those times you fall down and mess up, it's your 'get of jail free' card for every time you happen to sin. It picks you up and dusts you off and sets you back up to try harder next time.

What a bunch of lies. What else can I say? The truth is we live only in grace, to go back to the law is to fall from grace. We must choose between law and grace, not choose law thinking that grace is our back-up plan. If you choose law, then don't expect to find grace when you fail, expect to find judgement, condemnation, and shame. Until you finally give up that is...grace is always waiting for you to turn your back on the law and find life in Jesus.

Bertie Brits in Moncton!!!

So I already mentioned this a while back, but here are the details...

Bertie will be preaching on two night, Friday March 6 at 7:30 and Saturday March 7 at 7:30. The meetings will be held at 1212 Mountain Rd. Moncton, at Water and Wine Assembly who have graciously allowed us to use their building for free. Bertie is also coming at absolutely no expense to us so we'll probably have an opportunity to give for anyone who would like to support Bertie and his ministry. If you're not familiar with Bertie, he is a wonderful and powerful grace preacher who preaches the gospel boldly with signs and wonder following! You can visit his website, Dynamic Love Ministries, to read testimonies, bio, or hear his teaching.

You don't want to miss this if you live anywhere near Moncton! If you or anyone you know is sick, injured, or depressed, please come ready to experience the real and dynamic love of God, it will change your life. If you are on Facebook, you can visit our events page, Bertie Brits in Moncton, and let us know you're coming. For all of you who sadly live too far away, pray for us, pray that people get revelation of the glorious gospel of grace and get SET FREE!!!!!

Responding to the New Covenant

The Old Covenant clearly laid out how to respond to God, God was very specific in his directions to the Israelites. Beware of those today who say they are preaching New Covenant but are still informing you of how to 'respond' to God by specific actions on your part. Beware of 'application' that tells you exactly what you should do or how to 'obey'. This is always indicative of a mixture of the old into the new, and don't be surprised if this mixture explodes your poor little wine skin. It's very messy when that happens, and be sure the ones who preached the mixture to you will be nowhere in sight when clean-up time arrives!

I'm very disappointed in certain ministries and preachers who I respect, disappointed that after having heard them preach the glorious gospel they now weakly back down ashamed of the gospel. They go back to preaching balance or application or response, basically they can't trust God's people to Jesus but feel the need to push them to behave in certain ways. This makes me so sad...

There is only ONE response to the New Covenant: BELIEVE IN JESUS.

Just believe. To all you who are weary and heavy laden, come to Jesus, he will give you rest! Don't go to anyone who offers you anything but rest, it may sound holy and admirable but it's a lie and will steal your joy. Get established in grace, in his gift of righteousness and you will begin to find that you will work harder than ever before in the calling your Father has put on your life, but miracle of all miracles! It won't be you, it will be the grace of God within you, the Spirit of Jesus himself!!!! Lay down your dead works and your self-righteousness and receive freely all that Jesus has won for you.

I'm preaching to myself here...I need to hear this over and over and over and over...and it's good, it gets better every time!

If you haven't already checked out Rob's latest series Being Established in the Gift of Righteousness I highly recommend you do! I believe many of them are also available on GraceStream TV (video) which you will notice is available right here or at Dynamic Love Ministries.

Faith: Believing in God's Love

Faith used to be such a vague concept to me. A very spiritual sounding word that people used the most when they hit hard times. Honestly, in my various religious legalistic experiences, 'faith' was an expression of self-righteousness, often displayed with the air of a martyr. You see, men and women of faith could often be found standing by God even when they thought him responsible for disease, poverty, and death. The worse off they were in life, the more people proclaimed them super-holy saints of incredible 'faith'. But really, it doesn't take faith to believe that God would inflict suffering on me, it's easy to believe I deserve suffering or punishment sometimes! It takes faith to believe that God will never ever punish or use suffering to 'discipline' me because Jesus doesn't deserve ANY punishment ever again and I AM IN HIM.

To be sure we all pass through trials and suffering at times (and I believe true persecution is in a different category altogether). We have an enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion seeing who he might devour. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against a spiritual realm of spirits who wish us harm and will constantly accuse us and oppose us. BUT we also have an advocate who intercedes for us!!! One who has defeated evil forever and has given us eternal righteousness that can never be defiles or stolen from us. One who came to sympathize with us in our weakness out of lavish and exorbitant love for us, his own people. He will not leave us to suffer but will always intervene on our behalf, there is already abundant grace available to deliver us out.

I understand faith in a way that I never could before since seeing grace. Faith is simple, it is a response to experiencing God's love in a real way, whether his voice or his touch. Faith sees God, sees Jesus, and says, "yes! he does love me, I am precious to him!" Faith is not ashamed of the sufferings of Jesus, but rejoices in his love just as a baby does not apologize for causing his mother pain but reaches out for her loving arms and feeds on her joy in him. Faith leans so fully on the love of Jesus that all fear is banished in light of his beautiful goodness. He is all Goodness! He is all Kindness! He will never never never hurt one of his own. I know this because I believe he is good and he loves me. He has shown me again and again and again. Which one of us will give our child a stone when he asks for something to eat? Doesn't our father in heaven know how to give us good gifts even more? Infinitely more?

Faith is not a work we use to obligate God to perform for us at our word. Faith just receives God's love simply without question, without trying to earn or deserve, without suspicion. Faith sees Jesus and is satisfied, is overwhelmed with joy, is full to overflowing. Faith approaches God without agenda or cunning, with no need for lobbying, begging, or persuading. Because faith believes, more than that, RESTS, in the wonderful free love of Jesus.

Law: License to Sin

I'm not sure why people never think of law as a license to sin but that's what the Pharisees and other religious leaders used law for. They were constantly trying to justify actions and beliefs that God hated, including accusing Jesus of sinning! They literally used the law to get away with murder (first Jesus, later the Christians).

Jesus took many opportunities to set them straight and time and time again. He was constantly trying to show them that to truly know the Father they should take their eyes off the law and put them on himself. The law was given as a guardian until Jesus came, but when the Father came many legalists chose the guardian over their own father!

Over and over, the religious people missed the point of the law, and still today they are doing the same. They continue to focus on whitewashing their tombs, on cleaning the outside of their cups and dishes, on preaching laws that keep people far from God trembling in fear and shame, on following rules and regulations instead of receiving and sharing God's love and mercy provided in the finished work of Jesus. They puff themselves up with a false sense of spirituality because they think it pious to choose the bad news over the good news, and they are deeply suspicious and condemning toward anyone who lives in the joyful simplicity of faith in God's good heart of love to his children.

"And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"— so that they might accuse him. He said to them, "Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Matthew 12:10-12

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Matthew 23:13-36

Legalism has never produced anything good. It can only produce death, hypocrisy, and self-deceived fools. Believe me, I know what it's like to be a legalist, I remember it well! If you believe that the law is a means to produce any good thing in you, you are setting yourself up for woe. You will not and cannot please God through obeying the law and he is never impressed by your attention to details and technicalities. He is looking for one thing: FAITH.

In the New Covenant, faith IS obedience!

"Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."
John 6:28

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20-30-31

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." Romans 1:15-17

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." Romans 4:5-8

"This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." 1 John 3:19-24

I will say it again! Faith is obedience! When we believe in Jesus our belief is credited as righteousness, we are pleasing God so much, he is so happy with us! When we believe in Jesus, our sins are no longer counted against us! When we believe in Jesus, we are born again by the Spirit so that the life we live in the flesh is by faith in the Son of God, not by adherence to the law.

Oh yes, I know it's not clear enough yet so I will say it, you won't find faith is impotent like the old husband law. The law of Christ, the law of liberty, the law of faith, the law of the Spirit of life!!--yes, it will produce many good things in our lives in God's good time. In fact, it the only way anything we do will not be burned up in the fire as hay and stubble. Only faith can produce anything that lasts.

Now you can safely and confidently take your eyes off yourself and your performance, go ahead. Now you can let go of your striving and enter his rest. Now to him you can give all the glory forever! We are yours Jesus!

"Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen." Romans 16:25-27

Legalism in Sanctification

One of the most frustrating things to deal with is people who understand that justification is by faith through grace and therefore believe there is no possible way that they are legalistic though they believe that they must follow laws in order to be sanctified. It's frustrating because the book of Galatians was clearly written specifically to deal with those who began in the Spirit by faith but were trying to 'be perfected' (hello, sanctification!) in the flesh. 'In the flesh' is clearly connected to 'under law' if you read on in chapter 3. So I was happy to find that Steve McVey addresses this very thing briefly in one of the 101 lies videos, Christian lies #30 "legalism is salvation by works".



If you are one of those who believe that salvation is from faith to works, I hope you are able to re-read Galatians keeping in mind that their problem was not beginning right but not continuing in faith. Don't worry! I'm not saying grace is a licence to sin! True sanctification will only happen if you believe God enough to totally abandon any hope in your obedience to the law and live by his Spirit. Do you think he will lead you into sin???????????

The Serpent in the Church

I know, I know, same old stuff! I just am having a hard time understanding why believers want to cling to the Law. Why is it we have such a difficult time throwing ourselves at the mercy of Jesus? Why do we still think that we are somehow lacking, that we have not really been created in God's image, that we need to become like God by our own effort?

Adam and Eve were perfect, had perfect standing before God and perfect fellowship with God. They were created in God's own image!!! And yet they fell for the lie when the serpent came to them saying "don't you want to be like God?", they decided that God's word pronouncing them to be in his image was not enough and they decided that having the knowledge of good and evil ( MORAL LAW) would be able to make them more godly.

And so sin entered Adam's race through the seemingly good desire to be more godly
and our perfect standing and perfect fellowship with God was broken. God provided temporary forgiveness through the shedding of the blood of animals so that man could still have some semblance of relationship with his Creator. But the reason the blood of animals had any power was because of the blood of Jesus which would be shed at the right moment in history, once for all. God had a plan to completely destroy the power of Satan, and that plan was to forge a new covenant with man that was completely unbreakable!

This covenant was ratified by God the father and God the Son, Jesus, who became human in order to break the curse of sin and the law (which is the power of sin, not the other way around 1 Cor. 15:55-57) BECAUSE JESUS IS THE MEDIATOR OF THIS NEW COVENANT IT CAN NEVER BE BROKEN BY US. We enter into the new covenant simply by agreeing that Jesus may be our representative, by putting our trust in him. This, my friends, is the simple good news that we call the gospel!

So, Scripture is clear! We are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), we are the righteousness of God ( 2 Corinthians 5:20-21. I hope we can all agree that we've been reconciled back to God and our original position in Adam before the fall has not only been restored but it has been restored permanently without any fear of our breaking the covenant this time...once again...because of Jesus...

Now, though Satan can never ever affect our relationship with God the way he did with Adam, he can still tell us lies which, if we choose to believe them, will produce unbelief in God. This unbelief will drastically undermine the level of freedom and power we walk in. In fact, unbelief will lead us to live according to the flesh under law rather than by the Spirit, and it will cause us to sin.

The saddest thing about this is that most of the church seems to be falling for the same lie Adam did! The serpent has slithered his way into the church and he is still expounding the benefits of the Law! After being restored back to our Creator's original design, we are still tempted to believe that we need the knowledge of good and evil, the moral law (the ten commandments!) to perfect us, faith in Jesus is far too simplistic.

I don't believe that the Law was given to reveal the character of God, for one thing, there is no evil in God. And if that were the case, the law would have been given to Adam and Eve in the very beginning. The law was given to reveal the fallen character of man,to uncover sin, to provoke sin, to make sin spring to life(Romans 7:4-6, Romans 7:9). Jesus was given to reveal the character of God!

"And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known." John 1:16-18

Do you really believe this? We could not intimately know God through the law which came through Moses, in fact, any of the Old Testament people who knew God knew God by faith. Though for hundreds of years the Jews worked to obey the law and thereby know God, Scripture tells us that no one saw God until Jesus. The law was not given to reveal God to us, the law actually separates us from God by producing fear in us (Hebrews 12:18-21), it perpetuates death and curse, it can only uncover our sin and it keeps us in bondage as slaves(Gal. 4:1-7).

Jesus came to reveal God to us for the first time (as fallen man) and he came to do battle with sin and the law (which are the weapons that armed the devil against us Col. 2:13-15), to die through the law to the law (Gal. 2:18-20), to cancel the written code that stood against us, to become the end of the law for all who believe (Romans 10:4), because he did not come to condemn the lost but to save them and the law could not save us! That's why Jesus came with truth and grace, not the law!

So next time the serpent comes to you extolling the beauty and wonder of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, why don't you pass...why don't you take the bread and the cup and feast on the love of Jesus? The serpent doesn't belong in the church anymore.

Doubt, Discouragement...Hunger! (a bit of rambling)

I am a passionate person, I don't know of anyone who knows me who would disagree. I am hot or cold, I am extreme, intense. I'm not saying I can't be relaxed because more and more I'm just peaceful and relaxed. But when I believe something, I really believe it! Funnily enough this can lead me to get discouraged and doubt I mean doubt everything. When I don't see healing, or financial provision, or changes in people/relationships, or whatever, I get angry sometimes. I start thinking that maybe this God stuff is all my imagination, that maybe none of it is real. Like I said, I'm either hot or cold!

But generally my extreme doubts, anger, discouragement, even depression all add up to one thing--hunger. I am starving for intimacy, a fresh experience, a fresh conversation, with Jesus. I just miss him. Do you know what I mean? I think my Christian experience has been pretty broad, non-charismatic and charismatic, arminian and calvinist, etc... But every church I've ever been part of has had legalism as a common denominator.

Some mixed in a little law, some alot. Some were honest about it, some called it 'grace'. But even if the methods or doctrines about getting God to show up or do something were different, they all had methods. Some believed that prayer was the key (yeah, I've read Ravenhill and God knows how many others), some believe if you really want something (revival anyone?) than add fasting to that. Some say confessions of sin and repentance is key, actually, many claim this on both arminian and calvinist sides. We must consecrate the temple, purify it, clean it out or the Holy Spirit will not fill the temple (this leans very heavily on OT imagery obviously). I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of people who believe that faith and the word of faith (speaking things out) is the key to getting whatever it is that you need.

I believe that faith and prayer are great, but they are the fruit of the answer, not the answer. There is no method for receiving any of God's blessings, the greatest of which is his constant presence. I'm tired of begging God for what I need or want, especially begging for him to reveal himself, manifest himself to me.

You see, when I first started listening to Rob Rufus, getting my first real glimpse of the glorious gospel of grace, I would be caught up in a crazy swirl of joy and love, it was euphoric and it would last for hours sometimes. I would wake up in the night and God's presence was so real! His voice was so clear! It was beautiful and wonderful. At any moment in the day I could say "God, you there?" and he would be there in this tangible powerful way. I was so caught up in his love!

But then something really weird happened, which I don't think I've shared with anyone but Aaron. One night after listening to some grace preaching I was lying in bed still caught up in God's glorious presence and I must have drifted off to sleep. I was woken up by such an evil presence that was paralyzing me so that I could not speak without a pronounced effort. Finally I said "Jesus" and the evil presence left.

Now, things like this had happened to me lots of times before, but for some reason this experience had a horrible effect on me. Because I fell asleep in God's presence and woke up in fear, in my mind God's presence just kind of turned on me so to speak. It's really strange, but especially at first I could not experience God's presence anymore the way I had been because every time he came I became afraid, I instinctively withdrew. Very very strange, since in general I'm not afraid of demons (apart from the initial reaction when you're first caught off guard or you're having a dream) Over time the effects have been dulled and of course I've experienced God's presence many times, but it has never been the same.

I know this is a very weird story but I guess I don't care what people think of me so much. I don't really know why I'm sharing it in relation to this post but I think I'll just leave it for whatever it's worth.

Anyway, I don't appreciate worship songs that are begging for God to come or whatever. I think they ignore the fact that he has come, Jesus has come and made a way for us to enter into the holy of holies! There is a new a living way, not a dead ritualistic way that sends in the holiest guy you can find with a rope tied around his leg hoping he can please God enough to get everyone safely through another year.

Now we have a great high priest who has entered the holy place with his own blood. Did God strike him down? Or is the blood of Jesus so superior to the blood of bulls and goats that God had to strike down the whole system? The curtain was torn from top to bottom because for any other sacrifice to be offered after the blood of Jesus had been sprinkled would have been blasphemy. Think about that!

We are not beggars, we are sons! We live in our father's kingdom, we carry out his word, his work, with authority. There is no power on earth that can stop us from victory! There is no power on earth that can keep us from our father and his love.

I'm putting up another song that I love. I love it because it doesn't say "will you come" it says "you will come". Now yes, he is already here, but he also promised to come! He said where two or three were gathered he'd be there, he also said "I will never leave you". So both are true, but in either case, there's no place for begging unless you are under the law and still a slave. But I am not!

Breaking Free From Fear, Control, Spiritual Abuse, Shame, and Guilt Manipulation

I just wanted to post some links to a few resources for those who have come out of, are coming out of, or want to come out of legalistic control situations. The first and greatest resource is the true Gospel, the pure good news that Jesus came to bring. He himself declared that he did not come to condemn but to find and save the lost. He also declared that anyone who was heavy laden and weary could come to him for peace and rest, that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. If you are not living in the glorious freedom of this as a believer, than you have been listening to lies. No matter where the lies are coming from, the answer is to hear truth!

Any of the resources I recommend will be based on the fact that they unashamedly preach the good news. Here are some, which I'm sure I've recommended many times before:

Joseph Prince (New Creation Church Singapore)

Bertie Brits (Dynamic Love Ministries)

Steve McVey (Grace Walk)


I'm sure there are many others preaching the glorious good news as well, seek them out and allow God to restore your hearts and minds back to the truth of his loving goodness.

God is not and never will be angry with you ever again, any preacher who even hints otherwise (if you believe in Jesus for your salvation) is a liar perpetuating the agenda of demons. I don't mind stating things so clearly when I have Scripture that states things so clearly! (Isaiah 54) You will not be judged for any sin that Jesus has been judged for in your place, so stop letting arrogant men bully you into jumping through their hoops of godliness. Righteousness is a gift from God, and any true preaching of the Gospel will highlight that fact, not your sin.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

Romans 1:16-17

Do you see it? In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith for faith....not the sin of man is revealed, not from faith to works or obedience to the law. If anyone starts preaching another gospel then he is under a curse, and so are all who believe him. Basic Galatians here...

God wants to set you free from all curses and pour out his blessing on you, but you must believe that Jesus, Jesus alone, is enough for you and your sin, is enough for you and your righteousness. When we refuse to receive the righteousness of Jesus as a gift, we will be left to beating our flesh into submission and obedience. Our flesh will fail us every single time. If righteousness could be gained through obedience to the law, then Jesus died for nothing (Galatians again!).

So if you are not free, you are not sure of God's love for you, are not sure he's not ever angry with you, do not have an abundance of joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control etc... you can be sure the old serpent has unlawfully (1 Tim.) slithered back into your life to persuade you that you have not been born again into God's own image, that God has not given you every good thing in salvation, that you need to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Yeah, if you just have that knowledge what's right, what's wrong (thanks so much pastor for being willing to continually expound this for us) then we will be more like God, more godly. WAKE UP! THIS IS THE DEVIL'S OLDEST TRICK!!!

So people, come out into the glorious light of Jesus who loves you dearly! Hear the truth and believe it, it's not too good to be true, IT IS SO GOOD BECAUSE IT IS SO TRUE!!!! (thanks Rob! I think I really get it most days!)



( P.S. An easy place to start hearing the truth would be the grace stream channel posted right here on my blog...)

Grace vs. Law

This is a very cool video I found on youtube. It's so amazing to me that so many people worldwide are understanding the gospel like possibly no one has since Paul. The Spirit is truly doing an incredible work on the earth in our days! So exciting! This can only mean a huge gathering in of souls is about to take place, revivals of the past will look small compared to the deluge of glorious salvation God is pouring out right now on the whole world. As this message, the undiluted unashamed proclamation of the good news, goes out, we will see the power of God like never before. Many of us have already had a little taste...but there is much much more on the way, more of Jesus!

Grace Stream TV--Bertie Brits New Internet Channel with 24/7 FREE GRACE PREACHING!!!

I think this is pretty exciting news! Bertie has had this channel in the works for some time now, I'm not sure how long, but I know a lot of work went into this. This is going to be an AMAZING resource for people worldwide who need to hear the gospel of grace. I love that it's absolutely free and I love that it will be bringing us grace preachers from all over the world, some we're familiar with and, I assume, some we're not yet familiar with.

The channel is still under construction and I think Bertie plans to have it completely ready by February '09. I've embedded the channel on my sidebar and I encourage all of you to check it out and if you like it, put it up on your blogs too. It can also be embedded on facebook. Anyway, to see it, look on this page to your right or click on Grace Stream TV.

Oh yeah, my brilliant husband fixed our computer! Thankfully it was nothing serious or expensive!

"I See Grace" from New Creation Church Singapore

OK, I just stumbled across this on youtube, but you gotta love it!

Grace: But Shouldn't We Work Out Our Salvation With Fear and Trembling? (part 1)

I don't know about you, but I've had this snippet of Philippians 2:12-13 thrown at me a fair amount. It happens in response to the gospel, you know, the entirely good news of eternal righteousness (right standing with God) that is not conditional on man's performance/obedience but is solely conditional on faith in Jesus' perfect and finished performance/obedience. Often when we bring grace into a conversation, we get an immediate response that begins with 'BUT', and believe me, I've contributed my share of 'buts' and still do on occasion! Some of the passages I want to deal with are ones that were big 'but' passages for me on my journey into grace, a few that I want to deal with I don't at the moment understand well myself; all the more reason to tackle them with my excellent and ambitious Teacher.

So, in this post I want to talk about about a particular 'BUT' passage that people have used to try and bring balance to the gospel. Why oh why do we seem to need a little bad news make the good news more believable??? Anyway, here are the verses:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

(ESV Philippians 2:12-13)

As you may have noticed, I emphasized the words "work" and "fear" in the title of this post. That's because these are the two words that I've generally heard emphasized when hearing these verses taught or preached on. I suppose I must have heard quite a few preachers bring them up over my years growing up in the church (3 mandatory services a week as well as special events like conferences and church camp) and then as an adult in various churches/church events and books or recorded preaching. And like I said, it's come up in conversation as well...

I have a few different issues to talk about, but I guess I'll start with the words themselves. For the word 'work out' (in the Greek this is one word) I'm not going to get into the Greek meaning since I think that this is a fairly reasonable translation. I don't want to get too complicated so I decided to try to understand what 'work out' means exactly in the context of Scripture and the New Covenant. There is definitely a connotation in the Greek of us doing some work, and if you read the verses in it's larger context Paul describes what working out our salvation may look like. Here are the next few verses:

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (ESV Philippians 2:14-16)

I think my first reaction to the idea of working is a sort of panic or fear. I easily can feel that this is in opposition to grace, to the gospel. And there is a kind of work that is in complete opposition to grace, these are called 'dead works' (Hebrews 9:14) But there are questions that can help differentiate between dead works and the good works that characterize a believer's life: What is the source of the work? And, what is the purpose of the work?

Dead works (mentioned in Hebrews) are produced when a person in their flesh (the source of the work) tries to attain righteousness (the purpose of the work)by obedience to any law or rule (as the Jews had done since receiving the Law of Moses). This is seen clearly in Romans 4:1-5 (ESV):

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin."

And also in Romans 9:30-32:

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone."

These passages clearly show that work that originates in the flesh in response to the Law in order to achieve righteousness or justification will not be able to attain justification before God. (And in Galatians 3 we can see that righteousness similarily cannot be maintained through works of the law.)


But it is clear in Philippians and elsewhere that we as believers do work! It is very interesting to see, however, that these good works that our lives demonstrate are always mentioned in a context of grace! That because the source of true good works is Jesus (grace!) and his power that has been given to us as his brothers, beloved sons of God. This is seen right in the passage we've been looking at.

"...work out your salvation with fear and trembling..." is immediately followed by "...for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work his good pleasure."

Can't we see that God is the source, the one who is constantly energizing our work, who is ever the power that is transforming us and causing us to work out, or live out, our salvation? He wants us to experience the fullness of the provision he has made for us in salvation. And (if you read the next verses) he wants the whole world to see our salvation being worked out so that they are drawn to our light...Jesus!

And that is the purpose of our works under the New Covenant, that men would see our good works and be drawn to the source of the power that has enabled us to live in freedom, not the slavery of Law and sin that so darkens and defeats the rest of the world. The purpose is not to attain or maintain holiness or righteousness because these works are fruits of the righteousness that is found in Christ, who has been given as a free gift to any who would receive him through faith by grace.

Here are a few more verses that help us to see the that the source of true good works is grace (as opposed to being dependent on our self, guilt, fear, or righteousness motivated efforts):

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (ESV Ephesian 2:8-10)

We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. (ESV Colossians 1:28-29)

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (ESV 1 Corinthians 15:10)

To me it is very clear that when we preach grace there is no 'but'. The good works that will lead people to see the Jesus of the Gospel in our lives are an effect of grace, not separate or contrary or even in tension with the true Gospel. They are the natural out-working of the resurrection life of Jesus that has made our spirits alive and also bring life to our natural bodies (Galatians 2:20)so that we can continue to bear the fruit of the Spirit in this earth and so attract more people to our glorious loving God.

So to sum up, to work out our salvation does not mean that Jesus' work is not completely finished, that we must add our work to his work since "... he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6) But to work out our salvation simply means to cooperate with God in the freedom of our sonship as he works in us, as he gives us the desire and the power to manifest the fullness his life and salvation as a light for the whole world to see. And this kind of work proceeds from faith (and needs no coercion, guilt/fear manipulation), it now being our desire to do good because we are good, through being restored to our original design (in God's own image!) when we entered into the new covenant.

I hope this is helpful and actually makes some sense to those who have begun receiving revelation of God's glorious new covenant of grace! Please feel free to ask questions or add your thoughts in the comments. There was a lot more I could have written, but I tried to keep it somewhat short and simple (don't know if I managed this though). I've decided to talk about the 'fear' part, which is fairly straight forward, in a separate post coming up soon.

Understanding Difficult and Confusing Passages of the Bible...

A while back, o.k., a long while back I said I wanted to tackle some of those tricky Bible passages that seem to contradict the grace message. Overall, I've seen that these Scriptures do NOT contradict the true gospel (surprise surprise!) but only the way they have been taught by men and women who do not have revelation of the New Covenant and therefore wrongly divide the word according to their own lack of understanding. I will freely confess to you all that I am no Bible scholar, so I'm relying on the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to me , to reveal Jesus, through the black and white words on the pages of my Bible.

Also, I'll be using some basic study tools to help me understand the original Greek which will allow us to examine the verses beyond the inevitable slant of perception that will come through the translators of whatever English Bible we use. And very importantly, I'll be paying close attention to the context of these difficult passages, taking into account who the words were specifically written by and for, as well as the cultural context of the recipients of the words which were either in the form of a letter or historical account. As well, I want to let Scripture interpret Scripture where possible remembering that God will not contradict himself because he cannot lie.

All that being said, I'm hoping that people more (or less hehe) knowledgeable than me will chime in with their perspectives to help along this whole process. I don't feel I'm the most qualified in terms of worldly wisdom, knowledge, or intellect but I'm not sure this matters! I think it's time that more of us 'gracers' tackle some of these verses head on since they will be used more and more against us as weapons to try and cut down the gospel and the power of our faith in Jesus. It's time to get prepared so that these attacks of flaming arrows fall flat and powerless as being continually extinguished by our shields of faith.

So stay tuned! The first passage I plan on tackling is from Philippians 2 "...work out your salvation in fear and trembling..."

If you have any requests, just let me know in the comment section and I'll try to deal with it at some point.

Changing People

I don't know if I put the right title for this post, but it's the best I could come up with. It seems lately that many of my grace friends have been coming under attack lately, having people close to them bring serious accusation and condemnation. Well, I guess I decided to join in! Well, not really...but I'm getting a small taste here and there. Honestly, it's been good for me and I hope it will be even better for my friends, since their attacks have been more brutal I can only imagine God will step up with an even more amazing demonstration of the grace and blessing they already believe in!

It seems that when people come to us with accusation, it is often a thinly cloaked attempt to change or conform us to their idea or standard of who and what we should be. They hold us up to themselves and/or other ideals they have invented as 'godly' and see us as fallen short. They are not happy with our performance or even our whole personality and therefore they come to us demanding us to change. They come assuming they know us, what we truly think and feel; they come presuming they can control us by humbling us (or perhaps more accurately, humiliating us) through judgements they pronounce on us. Often all this is very subtle, and most often it is a reflection of how these people live from day to day, under constant condemnation and fear of failure. They are not happy people, but insecure and beaten down. They are trying to change the people around them so they can feel better about their own lives.

My unbelieving response to this kind of pressure to change through guilt manipulation would be to try to defend myself against accusation, trying to justify myself even by repenting and confessing sin to the human accuser, apologizing for something that may not even be wrong. But the way I respond to accusation is changing, because the more I realize I AM JUSTIFIED ALREADY, the less power condemnation holds over me. I still struggle at times with people trying to put guilt on me, especially when those people are very close to me (such as husband or parent...) but God's grace is changing me.

This change is coming by a deep trust in God's love for me, that when I hear accusation I KNOW it is not from him. Immediately when accusation comes, the first thing I feel is God's love, his manifest presence, his voice speaking to me that he loves me just the way I am. He loves everything about my personality, my weaknesses do not concern him. I can trust that his grace IS changing me and I can live in rest and joy knowing that it's his timeline, his seed will grow and grow because it is supernaturally powerful to overcome all hindrances that may come. This amazing security I have in my Father and his love for me is producing fruit! I am able to handle accusation, even closely examine it without being angry with the person bringing it. Without bitterness, resentment, or fear or doubt!

My ideas about how to change people are changing. The more I understand that it is God's love changing me on his schedule, the more I have patience and love for my brothers and sisters who are also on God's schedule. There is only one thing we do to change people, or ourselves: sow grace. I recently listened to Rob preaching on the parable of the sower (which was excellent by the way!) so I've been thinking about it a lot.

"But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Matthew 13:23

Before we can sow the word of grace, we have to receive it, hear it and understand it. We have to let it stay in the soil of our hearts until it grows, not giving up when it doesn't yield a crop on the first day, or second, or third...being patient and trusting the power of the seed that God has planted in us.

I think the best way to deal with accusation is to boldly and unashamedly stand in the gift of righteousness before our accusers, understanding that ALL accusation ultimately comes from Satan and never our father in heaven. We can allow our shield of faith to quench every fiery dart and our temptation to pick up the same demonic weapons of condemnation and accusation will be overcome as we realize God has already fully equipped us to stand firm against these attacks. God has accused Jesus of ALL our sin (yes, past, present, and future), has completely punished it in his body, and given us perfect righteousness as a gift because we have believed in Jesus. He will never never accuse us of sin or faults. The more we understand this, the more accusation becomes irrelevant. God changes us by his loving presence, by speaking the truths of the gospel to us over and over in fresh ways.

So when accusation comes, I can peacefully recognize that someone is merely regarding me according to the flesh and not according to faith and I don't need to panic or hang my head in shame. I bring the accusation to my Father, and he says 'That's a LIE, I have declared you RIGHTEOUS!!!" I am free to be who I am because I am in Christ! And now that I am free, I can joyfully allow others to also be free without feeling I need to be changing them either. Changing people, either ourselves or anyone else, is not our job. We sow the seeds of grace that come from Jesus, and he makes the seeds grow!


Some more resources for overcoming condemnation:

Victory Over Condemnation (Rob Rufus)

City Church International message archives

Dynamic Love Ministries (Bertie Brits)

Joseph Prince Ministries

Chapter 1 "The Impossible Weight of the Law"

Here is my second very rough installment of the book I'm working on, the first chapter...I've put a tentative title of "The Impossible Weight of the Law" to it...


I met Aaron during my first year of Bible College and we were married a little less than a year later. We entered into marriage not knowing much more than that divorce was not allowed! The first few years were pretty rough, full of fighting and dramatic displays of a wide range of emotions (especially on my part). From the beginning, self-righteousness and condemnation played a big part in our relationship. Whoever was the most 'spiritual' at any given time--that is, whoever was doing the best at keeping the rules of Christianity (Bible reading, prayer, etc..)-- usually won the battle of control for the moment.

During this time God miraculously placed a man in our path who began sending us tapes of himself preaching about grace. We had been driving through Fundy National Park (near our home at the time in Sussex, NB Canada), when I saw a car with a Delaware (U.S.) license plate and told Aaron to pull over . I thought he should stop and say 'hi' since he was from Delaware and it was quite unusual to meet anyone from there this far north! Of course, they turned out to be Christians, Hallelujah- Praise-the-Lord-charismatics to be exact. They had never been to Canada before and were driving up the east coast praying and taking the land for Jesus and had several testimonies of the people they'd met along the way. They laid hands on us and prayed for us, very excited to meet fellow believers and it was obviously a divine appointment. The tapes he sent us were my first exposure to teaching on grace and over the next few years God went to great lengths to start laying a framework for grace in my life. This was my first exposure to teaching on grace, my first taste of freedom!

When Aaron graduated we moved to a 'city' nearby where he was an assistant pastor. It was a church in the legalistic denomination I had grown up in and due to some unbiblical membership requirements I wouldn't join the church formally. All that year God continued to reveal grace, and it was an exciting time in many ways.

We met some people from Church of Christ the King in Brighton UK, a Newfrontiers church and God used them to tear down all our ideas of what church should or could look like, as well as challenge our ideas of who God really was. God used one of these men to speak to Aaron that we should leave the denomination we were with--I was so thankful! We were tasting a little more freedom, and I entered into an amazing time of feeling so alive in the Spirit and had some great life changing experiences in God's manifest presence.

After leaving the denomination and the professional 'ministry' behind, we ended up about 7 months later (through a somewhat complicated series of events) living in Delaware again. We desperately searched for a church but could not find anything that resembled what we felt God was calling us to. Finally we phoned some friends in the UK and asked if they could help us find a church. They gave us some information and we tracked down a church about 1 1/2 hours away from where we were living.

We visited the church we found the next Sunday and loved it. We finally felt at home, even singing some worship songs we knew. And they emphasized grace! We spent the next eight or so years with this group of churches, meeting many wonderful people, and for the first few years I could not find a single fault with our church. I loved the people, the pastors, the leader of the group, and anyone else they introduced to us. Aaron and I were completely in awe of the leaders and felt so thankful to be there. We would have defended any one of them vehemently against the slightest criticism, and many times we did.

We were accepted immediately, and our dreams of church planting in Canada were encouraged. We began ascending the ladder to leadership , passing through training and serving in any way we could. They had a very strict and narrow view on many things, but we wholeheartedly threw ourselves into the teachings and embraced everything. Looking back we easily recognize how legalistic the teaching and structure was, despite teaching some truths of the gospel very well and even often using the word 'grace'.

They (and we) believed themselves to be gospel and cross centered, but they were actually sin, man, and law centered. Guilt was the measure of your humility, and we soon became enchanted with their brand of puritanistic morbid introspection. We were always trying to hunt down sin and stir our flesh up to better works.

Our lives became consumed with trying to be holy, trying to live up to all the standards and principles we were being taught. Teaching and preaching always consisted of detailed instruction of how to identify sin and then detailed instruction on how to change our behaviour and thoughts.

Slowly we began to be sucked into a swirling vortex of conformity as we relentlessly tried to smother everything in ourselves that didn't fit the mold set before us. Aaron worked to conform to 'biblical manhood' and I tried to conform to 'biblical womanhood'.


The man that God supposedly called Aaron to be would be a strong leader who laid down the rules in our home. These rules for being a 'biblical man' were learned through the diligent teaching of our pastors and included things like:

-making sure your wife and children were joyfully submissive to your headship

-reading the Bible everyday (preferably early in the morning)

-prayer (lists are good)

-reading any assigned or recommended books

-serving in the church by committing to a specific ministry team

-tithing and sacrificial giving

-working hard both in a career and at home with little rest

-disciplining (spanking) his children every time they did not obey 'immediately and joyfully'

-being intentionally romantic (however that works!)including regular date nights and sex

-confessing sin often and freely

-correcting sin in your wife (and children) regularly

-helping your wife to organize her duties and make sure she's not wasting any time

-not rescuing your wife when she's overwhelmed (i.e. if you're a biblical man you will have taught your wife to be able to handle all her duties well without ever needing your help)

-teach your wife and children doctrine

-do not lust do not lust do not lust!


I think there were even more rules for the women. These rules came from the pulpit, women's meetings, and recommended books...as well as anything your husband could dream up for you--his word was your command! Here is a sampling of what I believed God required from me as a woman:

-have many children

-homeschool my children

-discipline (spank) my children every time they did not obey 'immediately and joyfully' expecially focusing on the areas my husband wanted me to

-read my Bible everyday, along with any other recommended or assigned reading

-confess my sins regularly to others, especially to my husband

-keep my house clean, according to my husband's preferences

-cook meals

-be organized (detailed schedules, very good) "God is a God of order"

-dress modestly adhering to a detailed list (yes, really)so as not to be responsible for any man's lust

-serve in the church as needed, as well as 'releasing' my husband to serve

-submit to ( or obey) my husband in everything

-never deny my husband sex for any reason (except prayer by mutual consent of course), be very good at it, enjoy it (not sure how you can mandate this!), and be sure to initiate it

-do not rest or eat unless you can get everything else on this list (or anything else your dear husband can dream of) done

If we failed in any of these things, we were in sin, and these lists are not exhaustive by any means. We regularly received teaching on just about any sin you can imagine. Worldliness, pride, gluttony, vanity, immodesty, selfish ambition, insubordination to leaders, slander and gossip (especially against pastors), grumbling and complaining, sloth, discontent, lust, coveting, idolatry, anger, fear of man, and on and on and on. All this we took to heart, and the more we did the more condemnation we lived under.

Day to day life was such a struggle! In the midst of being pregnant (and being very sick while pregnant each time), having babies and trying to do and be everything I was being taught, joy and laughter vanished. Our marriage took on an eery coldness and distance as we became preoccupied with implementing everything we were being taught. We were ever trying to say and do the 'right' thing and eventually lost sight of the real things! We talked about the things we were supposed to talk about, we had sex as often as we felt was enough, we confessed sin to each other and tried to help each other strategize stop sinning, we fought whenever my internal alarms started going off. I knew something was wrong in our marriage, I wasn't satisfied, but I attributed my dissatisfaction to one or both of us not living up to the standards! Or we would look for a new command to follow, something we must have missed somehow, putting all our hope in the one thing we hadn't done yet.

We would fight and accuse and condemn and manipulate to try to motivate each other to do better, but in the end neither of us won these battles. The harder we tried to follow the rules, the more we failed. Over time, we rarely if ever experienced God's loving presence either in church or anywhere else, and every blessing we'd been given--ministry, marriage, children--felt like impossibly heavy loads. We were just trying to survive and we constantly felt weary and overwhelmed. We were living in the wrong part of Galatians!

"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these." (Galatians 5:19-21)

Between the two of us, we had most of these sins covered--the harder we worked the more sin we produced! We could not produce, by working in the flesh, the fruits of the Spirit we were being told was our responsibility to 'grow' in. But we were also being taught that we should expect the results we were getting because we were still utterly sinful in every way, that the deepest core of our being was riddled with indwelling sin. The 'good news' of the gospel was that we could go back to the cross every day and beg for a little more mercy to forgive our latest failure, then start over with a clean slate trying to obey God again, trying to maintain our newly clean conscience. It isn't any wonder we were miserable, confused, depressed, and feeling distant from God.

But deep inside of us, put there by God himself, there was a longing for freedom, a longing to walk with God without fear or shame. And God never puts desires in us that he doesn't intend to fulfill! Though we thought freedom and right standing (righteousness) with Him could be won or maintained through obedience to the new-fangled law of the church world, God began to show us that freedom is only ever and always found in Jesus himself, that all our hope and faith is to be put in Him alone. He is the end of the law for all who believe.

Do Not Yield

"Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me...

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

Galatians 2:4-6, 11-14

I think there must be many secret societies going on behind closed doors of the church world. I can't understand why whole christian organizations get away with murder, while the people in other similar organizations smile and say "I think they're real nice". Preaching law is akin to spiritual murder. (*2 Cor. 3:6-8

Paul did not privately address a few false teachers (Galatians, he even publicly rebuked Peter! ch.2) with his concerns, he wrote very public letters, showing his anger very publicly, in fact, one might say he ranted and raved when it came to wolves trying to put God's children back under bondage and slavery. He actually pronounced a double curse on anyone who preached any other gospel but the one he preached (*Galatians 1:8-9). This should stop many preachers in their tracks, they should be trembling in fear, but instead they are swaggering drunk with conceit.

I'm tired of the so-called leaders of the church (I'm talking church universal) patting each other on the back, telling each other jokes, and writing up impressive intoductions to each others books all the while one or the other is teaching demonic lies that are destroying the people who follow them. These men are worse than dogs and mutilators of the flesh (*Phil. 3:2-4), they are mutilating souls.

I'm not one of those people who likes to be a watch dog, you know, going around barking about this person in error or that one. I don't think I'm nitpicky, but come on, can't we examine the fruits (or more accurately works) of a ministry and be honest? This peace at any cost idea, love means never telling the truth about the 'important' men of the church, this butter-my-bread-and-I'll-butter-yours doctrine is ridiculous. It's a ring of fear, each man fearing for his own name and reputation, not caring what God thinks of it all but choosing to be ashamed of the Gospel for the sake of his standing among the respectable religious of the 'church'. This makes me sick, really. And angry, angry for the souls of all those who pour out their lives, their families' lives, their wallets, and their hearts to these cowards, thinking that they are God's ambassadors on this earth. They are not. (And I can honestly tell you and I'm not thinking of any particualar ministry here, but more of a jumbled mess of things I've seen everywhere over my life growing up in the church world in general.)

But we are! Every one of us who put our faith in Jesus and his good news. We are not ambassadors who never make a mistake, but we are ambassadors who are not ashamed of the gospel once we have received revelation from heaven of who Jesus really is! And some of the men I'm talking about will live to receive the same revelation, just as Paul did. He was a persecuter of those who in the eyes of the law and religion were crazy fools, but in the moment of the thunderous voice of God and a flash of brilliant light everything changed! So it was for all of us who have received grace and mercy and know we are dearly loved of our Father.

I don't know why, but I feel very compelled lately to speak, or should I say write, very strongly against legalism in the church. At the bottom of it is the violent love of God for his people! I feel his love as I write, I read Galatians and my heart is breaking, tears are welling up in my eyes! God's people have turned away from his glorious grace, from the unsurpassed sacrifice of his only beautiful Son, and gone back to law as a dog returns to it's vomit. It's time to cast out the maid servant's son and stop allowing the legalists to bully the children of freedom!

Let's grow up in grace and stand strong and proud of Jesus! We must never yeild or submit in the face of even the most vicious attacks from those who have fallen from grace, but it is imperative that we preserve the truth of the gospel in these last days. It is not love to watch a brother veer from the truth of the gospel without speaking out, it is hate.

Even as I write this, I'm unsure of what it means for me. I have been careful to avoid publicly criticising people or ministries by name (on this blog, but have sometimes been more specific elsewhere) because of their serious and destructive false doctrines . At this point, I will continue to address the false doctrines without 'naming names'(on here), but perhaps the fear of naming names is not coming from the Holy Spirit. There are names that are named in Scripture, recorded for all time as falling prey to error! I think we have lost boldness and power, not because we love so much, though we like to think of this as the reason, but because we care very much what men think of us or how they might try to slander or persecute us in retaliation! I'm just not sure we can stand for grace without also standing against legalism...it's time to let our "yes" be "YES" and our "no" be "NO"!!!



* 2 Cor. 3:6-8 "He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?"

* Galatians 1:8-9 "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

*Philippians 3:2-4 "Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence."

Spiritual Bulimia

There are those who, as they listen to the good news of Jesus, nod their heads and smilingly agree with everything. They say they love grace! They might even get tears in their eyes when telling of God's amazing mercies, of his salvation available to anyone who believes in his Son and his finished work on the cross. Yep, they might even be able to powerfully preach the whole truth of the Gospel, passionately expounding on the wonders of justification through grace alone, by faith alone. They will tell you that salvation is a free gift from God, that no man should boast.

And at the end of this feast of truth, this love feast of the body and blood of Jesus, they will stick their pointy finger of law down your throat and you will lose every benefit of what you just ate.

For health reasons, I recommend you avoid such teaching...


"For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."
Galatians 2:18-21


Please do not receive anything that nullifies the grace of God, no matter how much you may love and respect the person serving up law, and no matter how much 'grace' they may mix in with it. It can only make a mockery of Jesus' sacrifice and make you very sick.

God, God, lift the veils from our faces! We choose Jesus, and forever forsake the folly of self-righteousness! Open our eyes to you! We want nothing to do anymore with the lies of religion, lies that say we can accomplish anything for you, but we receive all that you have accomplished for us. We rise up into our new life, our new marriage, with our new Husband and we rejoice in your love! The old is gone and the new has come! Forgetting what is behind, we press on toward the goal, finding strength keeps coming to us when we know we should be tired. We have the high of all runners' highs, because we run with your everlasting everfilling power gushing into us and out of us. When our minds and bodies get tired, we rest with no fear of falling behind or missing a blessing, and you refresh us with your love. You, you are our greatest blessing and you promised to never leave us, never be angry with us, never fail us or stop loving us. In you I have everything I ever dreamed of, in me I have everything my heart desires; YOU.