Ezekiel 36:24-28 Jan. 11th, 2016

Ezekiel 36:24-28

24 For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.[a] 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

28 “And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

This is a story of REDEMPTION!

Everything in life is a story about redemption. God is seeking to restore our HEARTS. In Heaven he will restore creation to where it was suppose to be.

But when God restores the heart.... LOOK OUT WORLD!!!

This verse explains why the NT Christian is not under the law as Paul said. It is because the LAW GIVER has written the LAW ON THEIR HEARTS!

Do you have that? Think about it... when you are driving down the road in Delaware the speed limit (THE LAW) changes. If a wonderful police officer pulls you over and tells you that you were speeding (BREAKING THAT LAW) and you said "Oh but I didn't know it changed" does he say "Oh, ok... since you didn't know it was wrong then it doesn't count!"

NO!!! He says... "TOUGH. Ignorance ain't bliss!"

You are held to the law even if you didn't know it was the law!

BUT because God loves us so much and wants to help us he WRITES THE LAW ON OUR HEART!!!!

We will ALWAYS KNOW IT!

That is the 'Jimminy Cricket' on your heart. That conscious that is saying "You shouldn't do that..."

OH but that comes with a warning... James tells us that when you do what you know you shouldn't do it is a sin.... OUCH!

I am so grateful for a God who writes his law on my heart. Who guides me, directs me, picks be up each and EVERY time when I fail him.

My GOD IS AMAZING!

UnFinished by Richard Sterns

Richard Stearns, president of Christian relief organization World Vision, has spoken to countless people worldwide from all walks of life, and found that many express a common concern. In Unfinished: Believing is Only the Beginning(9780849948510, $24.99, Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins Christian Publishing), Stearns observes that believers want to be sure they are living out God’s calling for their lives.

The April 30 release is a book about “what it means to be a follower of Christ in the 21st century,” Stearns told Christian Retailing. 

The book’s title has a dual meaning, he said. It refers to the unfinished mission Jesus gave His disciples: to preach the gospel to the whole world. But it also refers to how many Christians “feel incomplete in our faith, that’s something’s missing.” 

More than evangelism, Stearns said the Great Commission is “really what Jesus always called the kingdom of God … going into the world and showing the world a different way to live, a different way to relate to one another, a different way to relate to God, caring for the poor and the vulnerable and the widow and the orphan, being people of integrity, people of compassion, people of justice.”

However, Stearns writes, with the endless details of everyday life, many believers have lost sight of God’s larger narrative. To help them recover what that is, Unfinished begins by investigating a big question, “What is Truth?” and then summarizes God’s grand story. 

Stearns describes what he calls the clash between “the magic kingdom”—the affluent Christian life—and “the tragic kingdom”—the Christian life shaped by poverty. He says neither reflects the true kingdom of God, which requires individuals submitting to God’s rule, communities governed by His values and people going into the world as His ambassadors. 

Among the examples he cites are Steve Reynolds, who introduced U2 frontman Bono to Ethiopia’s famine, and the Stu and Robin Phillips family, who sold their Wyoming ranch to build God’s kingdom. 

Stearns’ previous book, The Hole in Our Gospel, also from Thomas Nelson, won the 2010 Christian Book Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. 

Cross Roads by Wm. Paul Young: a 5 star Book!

Rarely do I read a work of Fiction that changes my life, one that impacts me and helps me to deepen my faith.  I have read some great fiction, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Jon Henderson, James Byron Huggins, Ted Deckker and many others; yet none of those impacted my way of life, or my thinking in the way that one author has.

            Classic literature is filled with controversy and topics that made people think.  “Oliver Twist”; “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”; “War and Peace” these are just some titles that not only were good reads but led to a revolution of thought.

            Back in 2008 a book came out by Wm. Paul Young called the Shack.  This single book went on to be on every Best Seller list and sell millions of copies.  The book wasn’t without it’s controversies yet when one set down and read it in its entirety and in the concept of a fiction titles they could understand it so much better.

            Wm. Paul Young is back.  This November 2012 his second work is coming out entitled “Cross Roads”.  I received a free preview copy from Hachette Book Group to review.  

            In this story Young takes on the concept of the Soul.  What is it?  What does it look like?  We follow a man who had it all, wealth, fame, etc… but used his family as a stepping stone as well as anyone else who got in his way.  When his life is suddenly traumatized and he finds him self in coma we begin to see what takes place.

            Follow Tony as he journeys through the hear and now visiting in minds of those surrounding him.  And what happens when Jesus himself tells Tony that he could heal one person?  Will the selfish man win, or will Tony experience a change in heart?

            As always, since this book deals with the Trinity, and deals with the Soul and the topic of what happens when a body is not dead but not full of life, there will be controversy.  Expect it, and embrace it.  Learn from it!

            There is a line at the end of the book that I feels sums it up the best:

“Imagery,” added Grandmother, “has never been able to define God, but it is our intention to be known, and each whisper and breath of imagery is a little window into a facet of our nature.  Pretty cool, eh?”

If you look for Truth you may find comfort in the end.

If you look for comfort you will not get neither comfort nor truth,

Only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin and in the end, despair.   

~C.S. Lewis

This is a must read.  Put all other fiction aside and read this book as soon as it comes out!

You will not be disappointed and you will be led to THINK!

Grace by Max Lucado

I recently received a free copy of the new Max Lucado book Grace.

This was one I picked up not sure of how it would turn out. 

Max is one of the.most gifted story tellers of our age; yet sometimes the story tellers stories can begin to sound a lot alike.

So I picked this up really not sure of where this would go.
here is what the author had to say:

Grace.

We talk as though we understand the term. The bank gives us a grace period. The seedy politician falls from grace. Musicians speak of a grace note. We describe an actress as gracious, a dancer as graceful. We use the word for hospitals, baby girls, kings, and premeal prayers. We talk as though we know what grace means.

But bestselling author Max Lucado says we've settled for a wimpy grace, a goldfish grace that sits in a bowl on the shelf and never causes trouble or demands a response.

There's more to grace than we've ever imagined, and in his brand new trade book Lucado shares the truths of this cornerstone message of his ministry. He challenges readers to not only receive grace but also to be changed by grace. Shaped by grace. Strengthened by grace. Emboldened by grace. Softened by grace. Snatched by the nape of their neck and shaken to their senses by grace.

This book worked on a progressionary scale. Each chapter seemed to not be a separate entity but a continuation or even a perfecting of the one before. It is as if we are seeing God's system of grace unfolding a little more on each chapter.

This is a book not on Prevenient grace, saving grace or sustaining grace but a book on all three (primarily the later two as I'll explain in a moment) 

Max does a great job taking the reader through these stages of grace without the doctrinal jargon.or rhetoric upon which denominations split. In fact my only cringe was.at.the end when two words slipped in Eternal Salvation. It made clear Max's beliefs on eternal.security while potentially alienating.those from the Wesley side of the discussion. 

Yet in it all I found a book well worth the read; captivating.  Profound.  Simple in its revealing of the.complex; yet detailed enough to not leave room for the readers personal opinions on The topic.

I.truly would recommend this to anyone as a great read and a great gift. Share the GRACE!

A thought from a Temple

So in every province we went to, our sight seeing consisted if visiting the oldest Buddhist temple in the province.

Now I have been in temples that made my flesh crawl. These weren't one of those. In fact it made me want to weep.

These temples were beautiful. The multiple Buddha statues were beautiful. Yet all i could see or think was Biblical warnings. Graven images made of gold. Praying to these dead Buddha's who can't do anything to help.

When walking in one temple they rang a bell every time someone made a wish or prayer. I asked why and was told "to try and get the buddha's attention so that he will hear the wish and maybe grant it."

In the most recent temple i watches as a lady fervently, white knuckled, grasped her prayer beads and prayed. Yet i didn't hear heartfelt words just one phrase over and over making me recall "and when you pray don't pray as the pagan who babels...".

I listened an asked many questions and in each answer I see:
They worship these Buddha's or so called perfect men. They work and strive, and pray an beg hoping to be considered worthy.

The devotion matches that of the most devote catholic and even many misguided protestants. Yet they are missing a single element: GRACE.

We worship a perfect God who used imperfect people to make His name known.

In that Grace we find hope. In prevenient grace we see possibility. In saving grace we find redemption and in sanctifying grace we see our potential in Christ.

I wish I could preach it from the mountain tops. Jesus saves. Jesus saves.