THAT'S JUST WHAT IT DOES

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

When all hope fades away ~ And prayers are only words

Just reach out in faith and know ~ He’s already heard

He’ll mend your wounded heart ~ Peace He will restore

His arms are opened wide ~ Walk through mercy’s door

That’s what grace is for. – Legacy 5

Ahhh… grace.

Breathe it in this morning.

Grace, grace GOD’s grace!  Grace that will WILL pardon and cleanse within!

Grace, grace GOD’s grace!  Grace that is greater than all our sin.

...by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God… Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)

But you say…you don’t understand what I have done, where I have been, things I have said, thoughts I have thought, choices that I have made.

You say you don’t understand how “dry” I feel, how separated and lonely, how low and worthless I am.

And the Lord says, that’s what grace is for.

It is for mending.  It brings peace.  It showers mercy.  That's just what grace does.

And no is not a license to continue in those thoughts and behaviors (see Romans 6) it IS the assurance that if you fall into those patterns or if you make some of those same mistakes, grace is greater.

Period.

I was on the phone with a troubled addict yesterday. 

She had asked me to write a letter to the judge she is set to appear in front of in just a couple of hours.  She is seeking his “grace”.

I deeply love this lady.  She has great potential!

Yet she has made some “big” mistakes, no question; the kind of mistakes that usually lead to some “time away”.  But my encouragement to her was regardless of what “happened” today that GOD’S grace was greater.  Even though she may face some unpleasant consequences that will never change how GOD feels about her, how He sees her.

That’s just what grace does.

That's Just What Grace Does Brian Free & Assurance LLWR

That's Just What Grace Does Brian Free & Assurance LLWR Live Like We're Redeemed 2016

It takes roads that I have chosen, promises I have broken and covers them in an all consuming love. It breaks the lies that once that once held me back reminding me again that I’m not who I was…

That’s just what grace does. – Brian Free

Are you feeling “less than” today?

Have you chosen a wrong path or two?

Listened to some lies?  My ears are not immune I will admit that.

Let’s remember.  

There are open arms waiting this morning ready to embrace us again and remind us that mercy and help are most certainly ours.

That’s just what grace does.

I love you all!

Be blessed!

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)

RESTORE, REPLACE, RENEW

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

“God will RESTORE, He will REPLACE and He will RENEW”, Joyce Ladd author of GOD STILL.

 

Yesterday was ENCOUNTER at the REFUGE.  It is a wonderful gathering of all of the men, leaders and some guests at our Lancaster Campus.  There is fellowship, worship, updates and sharing.  It is a great opportunity to cast vision and inspire renewal and change.

 

And I asked my friend Joyce to share with the REFUGE men yesterday.  

Why? 

Joyce has led a very challenging and difficult life.  She was on the streets ofColumbus for 20+ years prostituting, stealing, scamming and surviving.  She has seen friends murdered and she herself has been violated, hurt and damaged.  And yet coming from her lips as she shared with our men were those three promises from GOD!

 

Joyce will tell you she has been incarcerated over 250 times, multiple felonies, and multiple charges and yet GOD has cleared the way for her to now have a wonderful job helping others.

RESTORED!

 

She will tell you that on the streets as a prostitute she was desperately seeking LOVE.  Her definition of that was so skewed and sick that all of the encounters and all of the compromises were a broken plan to find acceptance and real affection.  Now unequivocally she has REPLACED her chase for love with her LOVE for the FATHER!

And lastly without question GOD has RENEWED her.  Who could have imagined that this woman who for so many years was a taker, a thief, a manipulator; the most unlikely of candidates, could courageously stand in front of 70+ men and be the voice of the GODLY Proverbs 31 woman?

That makes no sense BUT for GOD!  

RENEWAL!

 

The “take away” today is a basic/simple one.

 

GOD is always ready to RESTORE, REPLACE and RENEW.  That is what He does.  All He asks is that you BELIEVE He will!

 

He (JESUS) included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be INCLUDED in his life, a resurrection…

(a RESTORED, REPLACED and RENEWED life – emphasis mine)

…life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

 

Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God…

2 Corinthians 5:15-18 (MSG)

 

Are you feeling broken, damaged, run-down, or rejected?  Maybe you feel that you have gone too far, made too many mistakes, created too many barriers between you and GOD.

 

Remember!

GOD doesn’t EVALUATE you based on you.  When you accept His Son Jesus Christ, He sees the FRESH START and the NEW you in Him!  That old life as damaged or as broken as it may have been is GONE the Bible says; a NEW life is burgeoning!

 

So embrace that promise today, the promise of in Christ and through Christ I can be RESTORED that I can REPLACE my old life with a NEW one in HIM and that will ignite the RENEWAL I desperately seek!

“The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become ...― C.S. Lewis

 

 

I love you all…

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)

CULTURAL CHANGE

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you…Romans 12:2 (MSG)

I spent most of the day yesterday in Hillsboro Ohio with a collection of Pastors, worship leaders, recovery leaders and concerned lay-folks. Of course we were talking the opiate crisis and how a simple small group in their church/ministry could be the "catalyst for change" not only in the folks who would attend such a group but their church, their community and “their culture”.

If you have never been to Hillsboro or the southern half of Ohio while beautiful in its terrain, it is a hurting region and town.  Drugs, apathy, pain, and hopelessness infuse and to use a word from Attorney General DeWine “permeate” the culture. 

There is a sense of helplessness. 

The citizenry is “overwhelmed” in the challenges of impoverishment and addiction.  

But this group of passionate leaders weren’t about to allow the “culture” to drag them down to its level.  Rather they were embracing Paul’s challenge. They had come to meet and fix their attention on GOD, see what HE wanted from them and quickly respond to it!

That is why I was so encouraged when the one most vocal about embracing the call to change, the simple opportunity to disciple, was a shaky but determined 73 year old man who currently ministers to the hurting at a place called OHIO’S MISSION BIBLE TRAINING CENTER.  He had served in other capacities for years, but now in his late season of life GOD had pressed Him to FIX his attention on Him and He was still responding!

And GOD WAS bringing out the BEST in him and the BEST in others. This was evidenced by the testimony of a man named Adam who shared this 73 year old's impact on his journey from heroin to Jesus and the amazing power of the WORD of GOD.

I believe far too often we make things a little too complicated.  My bosses will tell you I do.  I am trying to simplify for GOD has made the process for change rather simple. 

Paul shares some of it.

Don’t allow the culture and all of its discouragement, challenges, and “dragging” to cause alarm or frustrate.Make a concerted effort each day to rise above it!

"You may have been born on the rubbish damp. But be careful not to believe that the rubbish damp was born in you! Your environment may try to set conditions that may attempt their fingers on crippling you. But you got to stand and say "With you Lord I am rising against and above my limitations" – Ayivor

Then fix your attention on the FATHER!

Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God— soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God. Psalm 42:5 (MSG)

And then GOD will bring out the BEST in you, your circumstances and the culture!

(GOD) will never leave you; He will lead you in the way that you should go. When you feel dried up and worthless, God will nourish you and give you strength. And you will grow like a garden lovingly tended; you will be like a spring whose water never runs out. Isaiah 58:11 (MSG)

Have a blessed day!

I love you all…

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)