I really love our current series! It has been awesome to learn about the freedom we have in Christ. Jesus loves us so perfectly and completely it is hard for us to understand the liberty and freedom our relationship with Him brings.

Through our study together we have explored the contrasts of Counterfeit vs Real, Deception vs Truth, Pride vs Humility, and Bondage vs Freedom. The world and its system offer the first from each pair, and a real relationship with Jesus Christ offers the second from each pair. I hope you have seen the places in your own life you may be chained up. Please take the opportunity God gives each of us to run to Him, ask for forgiveness for relying on this world for our worth and fulfillment, and leap into His arms. True freedom is found only in surrender to the God who created you, loves you, and wants to walk every step of this life with you.

Here is a final encouragement from the series: Who are you in Christ

IN CHRIST…

I renounce the lie that I am rejected, unloved, or shameful. In Christ I am accepted. God says:

I am God’s child (John 1:12)

I am Christ’s friend (John 15:5)

I have been justified (Romans 5:1)

I am united with the Lord and I am one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17)

I have been bought with a price: I belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)

I am a member of Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:27)

I am a saint, a holy one (Ephesians 1:1)

I have been adopted as God’s child (Ephesians 1:5)

I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18)

I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins (Colossians 1:14)

I am complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10)

I renounce the lie that I am guilty, unprotected, alone, or abandoned. In Christ I am secure. God says:

I am free from condemnation (Romans 8:1–2)

I am assured that all things work together for good (Romans 8:28)

I am free from any condemning charges against me (Romans 8:31–34)

“I cannot be separated from the love of God (Romans 8:35–39)

I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God (2 Corinthians 1:21–22)

I am confident that the good work God has begun in me will be perfected (Philippians 1:6)

I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20)

I am hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)

I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7)

I can find grace and mercy to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16)

I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)

I renounce the lie that I am worthless, inadequate, helpless, or hopeless. In Christ I am significant.God says:

I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13–14)

I am a branch of the true vine, Jesus, a channel of His life (John 15:1, 5)

I have been chosen and appointed by God to bear fruit (John 15:16)

I am a personal, Spirit-empowered witness of Christ’s (Acts 1:8)

I am a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16)

I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Corinthians 5:17–21)

I am a fellow worker with God (2 Corinthians 6:1)

I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6)

I am God’s workmanship, created for good works (Ephesians 2:10)

I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12)

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! (Philippians 4:13)

I am not the great “I Am,” but by the grace of God I am what I am (Exodus 3:14; John 8:24, 28, 58; 1 Corinthians 15:10)

I love you all! PWG

Here is the intro to our series on Freedom in Christ. We started Thursday, June 4th. If you missed the scripture references or questions, here they are:

1 Corinthians 6:12

“Some of you believers may say, ‘I am free to do anything that I want to do.’ That may be true, but not everything will help you. I could say, ‘I am free to do the things that I want to do.’ Yes, but I will not let anything rule over me.”

Isaiah 61:1

“The Spirit of the Lord God is on me. That is because the Lord has anointed me. He has anointed me so that I will tell good news to poor people. He has sent me to make people happy again. They are the people that trouble has caused to be very sad. He has sent me to tell the people in a prison that they are free. And he sent me so that I can tell good news to the people in a prison. The good news is that they can come out of the dark places.”

Romans 8:1-2

“Now we know this: God has forgiven those people who are united with Christ Jesus. God will never say that they are guilty. If you belong to Christ Jesus, God’s Spirit has given you a new life. God’s Spirit now rules in your life and he has made you free. Sin and death no longer have authority over you.”

Psalm 97:10

“If you love the Lord, then hate what bad people do! The Lord makes safe the lives of his people. He will make them free from the hands of bad people.”

Psalm 119:9-11

“How can a young man live a clean life? He must be careful to obey your message. I bring all my thoughts to you. Do not let me forget to obey your commands. I always keep your message in my mind, so that I do not do anything bad against you.”

The Steps cover seven critical issues that affect our relationship with God. We will not experience our freedom in Christ if we seek false guidance, believe lies, fail to forgive others as we have been forgiven, live in rebellion, respond in pride, fail to acknowledge our sin, and continue in the sins of our ancestors.

What does freedom in Christ mean to you?

What is the big deal if I don’t have it?

What parts of your life feel bound or chained up?

I haven’t written a post in a while. Sorry for those of you who’ve been anxiously awaiting the next installment – of which, I’m pretty sure there are none. We could have small talk – “so, how have you been this year so far?”, “What’s been going on with you? Anything exciting or new?”, etc. But, I feel it’s better to just get to the point.

Here’s today’s thought – my devotion this morning spurred it, and it rocked me pretty hard. How often do you think about the sacrifice Jesus made for you by obediently going to the cross and giving His life for you?

Matthew 26:39 says this: 39 Going a little farther He fell down and prayed “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus knew His mission here was to give His life for me, but in the moments before His arrest, He still asked if there was any other way. He didn’t ask this out of weakness or a lack of courage, but out of a heart that more desperately than anything wanted to stay connected to His Father. He knew only He could take MY SIN (not the whole world’s sin because that separates the sin from me personally), and the price of taking my sin was not only death and terrible torture, but complete and total separation from God himself.

I don’t know where you are this morning or what you’re going through right now, but I can tell you that Jesus understands. He loves you more than you can imagine and He proved it with the ultimate sacrifice for us. Maybe you’ve been let down by someone (or lots of someones), maybe you’ve been wronged or hurt by people around you, maybe you’ve lost your way on the journey to the life God himself has planned for you, or maybe you’ve never even given this Jesus and His sacrifice for you a thought – no matter where you are or what you’re going through right now, one thing remains true. Jesus took your sin on himself, carried it to a cross, died to pay the penalty for it, and stands lovingly ready to offer the forgiveness and redemption you so desperately seek.

Talk to Him today, and tell Him where you are. He cares, and loves you no matter what – I know because He proved it and He’s given it to me.

PWG

We had a great rafting trip Saturday, October 26th! It was an awesome day of adventure and hanging out together! Here are some pictures.

I have a million thoughts swirling through my head this morning. I’m excited about Bible Study tonight, I’m excited about my wife and 2 of my kids getting to experience Kairos camp next week, I’m excited about Sunday coming, I’m tired just thinking about VBS last week and prepping for vacation a week from now.  All of those things add up to normal life for most of us. Busyness, stress, adrenaline rush, accomplishing one task after another…

But this morning my devotion stopped me in my tracks. I’m sure it should do that every day, but sadly, it doesn’t – and I’m sure that’s my fault, not God’s.

I’m reading a devotion series by A W Tozer called “The Pursuit of God”. It’s one of the plans on the You Version Bible App or Bible.com.  Here are the two phrases I read this morning that stopped me – “The Presence of God and the manifestation of the Presence of God are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it”.
“He promised much, but promised no more than He intends to fulfill”

Wow – I have lived years of my life never recognizing the presence of God in my life, my circumstances, my relationships, my jobs, my responsibilities, my finances, my successes, my failures, my….  I have had spurts of knowing God was with me. I’ve seen Him work and move in people’s lives. I’ve seen Him change people, and change circumstances, but the thought of Him being literally with me every second of every day has escaped me. I have equated His presence with His blessing. If He was around then I would be blessed, and If I wasn’t being blessed, then He wasn’t around.

The truth is, He IS with me every second whether I choose to acknowledge Him or not. He is right next to me when I’m having the #bestdayever or when I feel like #lifesucks. He is there – ready to act, ready to comfort, ready to extend grace to me and through me, ready to love, ready to change a life.

He promised much, but promised no more than He intends to fulfill – He promised to be WITH me – and He is.

PWG

I have a lot of thoughts swirling around my head today. I got to work early because I had a meeting to attend later. I wanted to get a few things done before the meeting, and I did. I went to the meeting, sat for over an hour, and then returned to the sanctuary of my office. I have done lots of paper shuffling, statistical work, and just did my devotion during my “lunch” time.

I tell you all that to say this, sometimes God invades our space in a way that is unmistakeable. I told everyone in SS yesterday that I have been going through James for my devotion series I’m doing with a friend. We have also been doing James in SS for a few weeks. I had not intended on these two separate things intersecting, but they did today.

At the end of James 1, he says that we should be quick to hear (listen), slow to speak, and slow to get angry. He also says we are to be doers of the word of God and not just hearers. He closes this thought by saying our religion should produce in us a desire to help all people – young and old (or any other category), and we do this by staying unaffected by the world around us.

Here’s my thought: I’m supposed to hear (listen to) God’s word and then do it. I’m not supposed to debate it with anyone, discuss it, or mull it over for long periods of time. I’m simply supposed to hear it, ask the Holy Spirit to help me understand it, and then go do it. If I want to know what that looks like, then I just start helping people who need help.

I think if we all thought of our “religion” this way, we’d be making a whole lot more impact in our world.

Love you all

PWG

I’ve really enjoyed our time together over the last 3 weeks. In fact, I’ve enjoyed it enough that I’m going to get us together more often through the words of our blog.

I’m going to call these little sharable pieces of wisdom (loose interpretation) – TFTD – Thought For The Day.

I might be the only person who reads them, but I’ve felt like God has been telling me write for years so you gotta start somewhere.

Read Matthew 7:24-29

This passage talks about the houses built on two foundations. The houses are the same, but the foundations are as different as they can possibly be. The solid rock and the sand. I don’t claim to know all about construction, but here is one thing I do know. If you build something on a foundation that moves – even just a little bit – you are in for big trouble down the road. Houses and buildings are built with one premise in mind – the foundation isn’t EVER going to move. If it does, everything above the ground with fall apart.

Jesus ends the most impactful sermon in history with this story. I believe He was saying this: if you miss everything I have said, be sure the foundation of your life is your relationship with God. Once that is in place, then we can start building from there. I want – and I think most of us want – to build the beautiful parts first. We want the 3 story, awesome house, the 8 car garage, the in-law suite that is FAR away from the main house, the pool, the tennis courts, the 4-wheeler trails, etc. But we never want to spend any time on the foundation. Then, when everything begins to crumble, we are somehow surprised.

How’s your foundation today? Spend some time working on it.

PWG