October 2, 2024

What Is Grace?

Image Copyright CG817 | CG817 on Flickr

My understanding of grace had previously been mostly academic, but it took on new meaning for me yesterday in a moment of failure and weakness where I desperately needed it.

I now find a particular aspect of grace to be like, in engineering terms, fault tolerance or perhaps better said—fault accounting.

When an engineer designs a thing, say your phone for example, they account for imperfections.

Despite being milled by machines, all the pieces are imperfect; they all deviate from the engineer’s design within a certain margin of error.

But the engineer anticipates and accounts for these imperfections in the design so that the pieces still fit and work together to achieve the desired outcome.

God is the Ultimate Engineer.
He is the Supreme Creator.

His design not only accounts for our imperfection but His assembly of these imperfect pieces and their interaction in operation subject the pieces to a Force that transform them, making them more and more perfect as they function until, both individually and collectively, His perfect product is produced: Christ.

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;”
— Ephesians 4:11-13

“The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”
— Psalm 138:8

God is both committed to perfection and to involving us, imperfect creatures, in the final product. And in God’s unsearchable wisdom, He achieves a straight path with crooked lines.

And part of His genius is grace.

Grace meets me where I am and loves me to where I am supposed to be.

Grace accounts for the fact that I’m messed up, that sin has done a number on me, that I’m haunted by hurt, that I’m deceived by lies and it doesn’t throw me away when I naturally mess up.

Grace allows me to be fully human while holding me accountable to the high calling.

Could this be what is meant when John writes of Jesus that He was full of grace and truth?

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
— John 1:14

His grace accounts for sin but never makes sin ok.

God deals with me in that grace.

I don’t have to worry about being abandoned. He has accounted for my shortcomings.

I stumble but He lifts me up and keeps me in The Way.

God is utterly committed to seeing His glory shine through me through His finished work of Christ in me.

“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
— Philippians 1:6

God’s grace accounts for sin but never makes sin ok.

God’s grace allows me to be fully human while holding me accountable to the high calling.

Consider Hebrews 4:15-16,

“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
— Hebrews 4:15-16

The first aspect of grace I find is that it compassionately accounts for my shortcomings. It doesn’t give up on me when I mess up but it finds ways to keep working with me towards perfection.

This Hebrews passage reveals a second aspect of grace: the generous allocation of resources to achieve that perfection.

And, “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” — 1 John 4:11

Hopefully my own desperate need for grace has afforded me a slightly better understanding of it and perhaps now I can do a better job of extending it to others.

I do not claim to have apprehended, but I press.

September 15, 2024

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #38 – The Leading Of A Child

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.”
Isaiah 11:6

In Week 38 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for the leading of a child.

July marked the completion of my first year working in public education. As I reflected on that year, there were many great and memorable moments, but one was really special.

Upon visiting an elementary school classroom for the very first time, two children sprang toward me and led me by the hand to a tiny seat at their table. I was subsequently surrounded by students eager to tell me who they were, where they were from, and what all they could do (one young man was eager to show me how he could flip off the wall).

As they huddled around for each of them to tell me their stories, I caught a student out of the corner of my eye staring intensely at me. After some time, she snuck up as I was talking to other students, hugged me from behind, and then promptly returned to her seat.

I thought my heart would explode.

At that moment, I felt Matthew 18:3: “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

What I found most remarkable was that none of these children knew me or had ever met me, but they were readily willing to bring me into every part of their world without hesitation or reservation.

It was like, of course, we accept you. What else is there?

Not one of them had any money, they didn’t own a car or a house, no fancy titles, and however they were “educated,” they were willing to share. They were not encumbered by many of the things we commonly use to stratify and separate ourselves.

There was just us.

We are foolishly dismissive of children and regard them as almost people, waiting for them to become something else—like us, not realizing that they, more than we, have a firm grasp of the goal.

“Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.

Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.'”
— Mark 10:13-15

One of the most beautiful gifts I enjoy as a born-again child of God is knowing that wherever I go, when I encounter another child of God, they will love me.

“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.”
— 1 John 5:1

In my experience, however, it takes some effort to get to a place where we can even begin to enjoy that love, we let things get in the way, but children do not.

A wonderful hope I have in Christ is our being “converted” and made like them.

I am so thankful to have their example, and I am learning so much from them as they lead me by the hand into the Kingdom.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG

September 10, 2024

How To Hear God

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
— Hebrews 11:6

We look for God to fall like rain when He is like deep waters that have always been there.

Were it not for the layers of rock deposited by sin, the ground of our hearts would be watered by a gentle mist springing from the deep.

We are given the Word to break our hearts so that the well, which is Christ, may be revealed, connecting us to those deep waters. When we drink from Him, rivers of living water spring forth, giving life to us and everything around us.

“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'”
— John 7:37-38

God is not out there.

“Now when [Jesus] was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, “See here!” or “See there!” For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.'”
— Luke 17:20-21

God is near, within you.

“so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us”
— Acts 17:27

So, we do not look out.

We dig in, guided by the Holy Spirit, identifying hard areas of our heart that are not submitted to God, confessing sin, plowing through rock.

The Word is the implement.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
— Hebrews 4:12

Tearing down obstructions, resisting lies, casting off the pride of life and its busyness, and seeking the Lord in sacred silence, laying our hearts bare, until Christ is revealed—the Well that was dug before the foundation of the world, is how we are watered from the inside.

First, His voice comes to us as dew—sweet, personally satisfying expressions of God that are characteristic of the Word. Then, it comes as a flood, flowing into rivers, producing action and carrying life into others wherever it flows.

This is how we hear God, like the sound of many waters.

My most earnest desire is that we not only know about God, but that we would know God personally, hear His voice, and share Him together.

Father, please let it be so according to the will and authority of Jesus, Your Son and my Savior, all for Your glory. Amen.

September 8, 2024

Beware The Gospel Of The Demonic Church

Any preaching or teaching about God as a way of getting anything is demonic,

a car, a job, success, “leveling up”,

or even things that are considered good or godly such as a better marriage, or peace.

“[Those] who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourselves.”
— 1 Titus 6:5

But, the purpose and offer of an introduction is to know the person.

How utterly selfish and evil is it to look past a person in pursuit of what they can do for you?

And that is exactly what so-called churches all over the world, America especially, are doing this morning. They’re busy with many things but forfeiting the good part.

“Jesus answered them and said, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.'”
— John 6:26-27

The sole offer of Christ, therefore the sole aim of any pure and undefiled ministry is God, it is encountering, knowing, and having Him.

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
— John 10:10

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
— John 17:3

The benefits we enjoy are not the true treasure but are merely its effects.

I see this beautiful day simply by virtue of being in the presence of light. The benefit of seeing the beauty of this day cannot be had apart from the light.

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
— James 1:16-17

The benefits we enjoy come by virtue of being with a person in whom there are so many wonderful things.

So, the principal thing is the person, not the benefit.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
— Matthew 6:33

The common misunderstanding of this verse is “put God first” and then go after “all these things”.

And, we low-key look over God, seeing Him merely as a means to get “all these things”.

But if you read the entire passage, Jesus says don’t seek “all these things” at all:

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
— Matthew 6:31-32

Jesus says, therefore I say,

“Seek God”

Full stop.

Pray for a heart that does not seek anything else because it sees that God is everything and then walk with God through YOUR life rather than wishing, stressing, scratching and clawing for a different one.

September 1, 2024

Who Told You That?

“For Love to be experienced, I have to be exposed.”

That’s the word that came to me.

It’s an answer to an almost two-year-long prayer where I asked, “Father, show me You. Please let me see You the way Jesus sees You so I am likewise driven by a love, an awe, a reverence, an adoration, and an unwavering commitment to You.”

Two years ago, the Holy Spirit gave me, “Seek Me in the face of My people.”

I obeyed, and it was transformative.

A new fire has been kindled in my heart by the Holy Spirit.

I am experiencing God.

Now, I believe that the Lord is calling me to a new level of intimacy with Him through people, to move from “meeting at”: meeting at church, meeting at Bible study, meeting at marriage ministry, meeting at this event, meeting at that function, meeting at lunch, to “living with.”

Honestly, I don’t know what that means yet. All I get is the sense that it involves uncomfortable risk, letting down my guard, and leaving the places of safety that I’ve constructed. He is my shield.

To do that, I have to go, I have to show up, I have to be present, and I have to expose myself—all things that are horrendous to a self-proclaimed introvert.

But, I gladly, albeit reluctantly, step forward to learn obedience (love in a new way – 1 John 5:3) through the things I will certainly suffer that I may know Him.

So, I will show up. I will let in. I will expose myself.

But why haven’t I been showing up before now?

To understand that, I have to understand what the opposite of showing up is:

Hiding.

This revelation comes out of Genesis 3:9-11, which recounts Adam’s interaction with God after the sin of taking someone else’s word over God’s. As a result, he hid.

“Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’

So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’

And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?'”
— Genesis 3:9-11

Observe that Adam and Eve’s fear and shame were NOT the result of anything God did or said. They were ashamed BEFORE God said anything to them. They became ashamed because of the information they accepted from another source, namely about themselves.

“I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is like watching porn rather than being taught about sex by a loving father.

Rather than seeing your bodies and the beauty of sex in the context of sacredness, awe, exploration, acceptance, appreciation, safety, promise, and commitment, through porn you receive a distortion framed in selfishness, objectification, subjugation, trivialization, comparison, performance, perversion, and risk…

What was peddled as freedom results in fear, which is often the case when we get our information from those who don’t love us. And fear results in hiding.

“I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

God’s response absolutely leveled my heart:

“Who told you that you were naked?”

This is what God chooses to say among the infinite options of things He could have said in response. So, it begs the question, why?

In a single statement, I believe God wages a war that He’s already won, starting His attack on the source of all sorrows—sin, which separates us from Him. God exposes the root of sin and takes an axe to it:

“Who made you afraid, telling you that you are anything less than loved and accepted so that you needed to hide?”

-And the crux of the matter-

“Why did you believe them over Me?”

THE problem is believing someone other than God, and believing something other than what God said.

The result is fear, which causes us to hide.

I know a lot about hiding. I’ve been doing it for nearly forty years now. All because I’ve believed a series of someones over God and believed something about myself that God didn’t say.

God said, “Who told you that you were naked?”

“Naked” is representative of all the damning things we’ve come to believe according to the distorted value system of this world.

We can take whatever that is, especially things we’ve come to believe about ourselves: ugly, worthless, poor, stupid, unwanted, unlovable, alone… and plug it into that sentence:

“Who told you that you were ______?”

Mine is: a disappointment.

In my heart of hearts, I believe I am a disappointment.

I go into every interaction with people assuming that I’m going to disappoint them in some way and ultimately be abandoned. So, naturally, I avoid interaction, and it causes me to hide.

It has affected every relationship that I have.

It has caused me to put burdens on others to make me feel like I’m not a disappointment, especially in romantic relationships, including my wife.

But that’s an impossible task when at the heart of the problem is I’ve believed someone other than God. If I didn’t believe God, how can they possibly convince me?!!

I repent.

The lie I believed is deep-seated from a very early age. I’ve believed the scowls. I’ve believed the isolation at a time when I should have received nothing but love. I’ve believed that I am only embraced and accepted on the basis of merit rather than for just being. I’ve believed I have to look a certain way and have certain things.

It became a part of me, too intricately interwoven to remove without killing me or making me utterly unrecognizable, which is precisely why I have to die.

I have to die to the person who lives according to the word of demons, what this world says and Satan, the ruler of it, and be born again according to the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, which is Christ, by His Spirit, with a heart that believes Him.

Therewith, I will make war with every thought or emotion that causes me to want to hide, accounting the old me as dead. I will live in newness and counter it with the question,

“Who told you that?”

And, I will believe God.

God says you are accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6). Full stop.

I am not accepted on the basis of performance, appearance, or merit, but simply because of who He is.

When we see God as He is in truth, we see everything else appropriately, and it casts out all fear.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
— 1 John 4:18

“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
— 1 John 4:16

Now, I endeavor to realize this Love and to know Him more fully.

The Spirit tells me that requires others.

“For Love to be experienced, I have to be exposed.”

So, I press.

I can’t be exposed if I’m hiding. So, I will confront every suggestion that causes me to want to hide with what God said, “Who told you that?” And, I will fight to believe Him.

Knowing and believing the love of God for us, accomplished through Jesus Christ, is glorious, but obedience: experiencing, expressing, and expanding on the love with others will be difficult, and I will suffer because that love will be opposed.

As I present myself naked and exposed, standing on what God says, there will surely be others that will mock me, ridicule me, and assert what the adversary says—that I am not loved.

But, I will fight to believe God.

Please pray for me.

And, if you’re so prompted by the Holy Spirit, join me.

#perfectourlove

August 18, 2024

Stress Test

Under what conditions does love stop being love?

This is what this life is designed to test:

our love for God,

and under what conditions does the love we have fail? What thing, if lost, would cause our love to end?

We are not subjected to fiery trials to test our love for God because God is a sadistic megalomaniac,

but because the first commandment:

‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
— Mark 12:30

is necessary to perform the second commandment:

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
— Mark 12:31

and is the only bond strong enough to accomplish God’s grand design: His ever increasing glory through Oneness, making us inseparably one with God.

“Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.”‘”
— Mark 12:29

“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
— John 17:23

The love that you love God with is the source of the love for everyone else, and however strong your love for God is, it is the limit of how strong your connection is to the person dearest to you.

If the love you have is less than God’s love, everything supported by it, everything built around it and everything connected to it will fail at some point.

There are some weights in life that anything less than love will not survive.

And there’s a coming day, the great and terrible day of the Lord, where whatever is within anything less than love will be destroyed.

So, our love is tested FOR OUR GOOD, so that our love is perfected,

because God’s love never fails
— 1 Corinthians 13:8

so that we, and everything built on and connected to that love lives and not dies, that our communion as One may be perfect

all for the wonderful glory of God.

What an amazing thing it is that we can be a part of that!

So, I encourage you to count every hardship you’re enduring as all joy! Remembering the point of the test.

August 7, 2024

What Is Faith?

What is “faith”?

Many think that faith is just believing something.

Even Merriam Webster defines faith as “firm belief in something for which there is no proof.”

But that’s not faith at all.

Hebrews 11 offers a different definition. It begins, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” — Hebrews 11:1.

It says faith is “substantive”, not just some flimsy belief with no evidence. But perhaps most remarkably it claims that faith itself IS the evidence— “the evidence of things not seen.”

That’s a lot to take in. And to truly grasp a concept, I believe it is important to pray and ask God to show me what He means. When I’ve caught a glimpse of it, either through it being “taught or caught”, I put what it means to me in my own words so I can look back on how God has grown my understanding over time. I call these #heartwords.

Considering the whole of scripture, illuminated by my own walk with the Lord, I would define faith as this:

Faith is the product of a conviction about a hope that comes from experiences that have built trust.

I believe there are five essential elements to spiritual faith:

1. Experience – faith is always initiated by an encounter with God. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” — Romans 10:17. God expresses His Word and we can encounter it in many ways by His Spirit: scripture, preaching, love, etc… We know we’ve had an encounter when it is facilitated by His Spirit and echoes His Word (Message).

2. Hope – A desire that is a result of the encounter and is given by God.

3. Conviction – Convinced to action. This is not just intellectual assent to an idea, but an assertion that is born from the encounter and results in an internal drive that demands action.

4. Trust – Experience with something or someone that gives you reason to have confidence.

5. Product – Fruit, an observable expression of faith. The product is more than just doing, it’s a state of being which expresses in doing.

Crises of faith, I believe, is due to an absence or distortion of one of these five elements.

I believe the most common faith problems are lack of personal experience which is prevalent among Cultural Christians where people simply adopt the beliefs of people around them (therefore they lack the conviction and trust that come with experience), and misplaced hope where people pursue things other than what God is offering.

It is important that we each have our own experience with God, a point that we can refer to that began our trust in God.

The hope of every believer is ultimately to be with God ultimately which is synonymous with His ultimate glory. This alone is what Christ offers. Hope anywhere else is misplaced and will lead to despair.

I have faith because I’ve had an encounter with God that has given me hope of something incomparably better than what I had. The encounter came with a message -a word that matches His Word found in scripture. It’s like meeting a Person and not knowing their name until you come across a picture that identifies them. For me, that encounter was the meeting and the picture was the Word. The encounter was the beginning of my trust that the Person exists. It was so wonderful, it created in me a yearning and a burning that I have to act upon. Each time I act upon His Word, in pursuit of the true hope, it proves to be true, building my trust.

This very way of living, this state of being, is faith. And, these experiences with God—consciousness to even comprehend these encounters ARE THE EVIDENCE. (See John 1:5, 2 Corinthians 4:6)

So, faith, is not just empty philosophy that I believe, it’s substantive. And, faith is not belief in the absence of evidence, it’s a state of being that arises from evidence, producing more evidence, and becoming evidence itself.

#faith #heartwords

July 27, 2024

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #30 – Church

In Week 30 of 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for safe places with authentic believers in Christ where the more sin I share the more I am loved.

They make 1 Peter 4:8 real to me, “love will cover a multitude of sins”

I don’t have to pretend.

I don’t have to be perfect to be loved, I am perfected by being loved.

This is not love that excuses wrongdoing but love that both warms my heart (affirms me) and burns away sin (holds me accountable).

I’m eternally grateful. #52WoG

June 10, 2024

Thank God For Pressure

“You don’t really know what you’ve got until it’s under pressure.”
“So, I thank God for pressure.”

It’s been a difficult season.

God’s getting me right this summer.

I am being prepared for the next assignment. He’s transforming me from glory to glory, more and more into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

I shouldn’t expect promotion without preparation.

Even Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered (Hebrews 5:8)

It’s been rough. I don’t like it.

But, I’m thankful.

April 4, 2024

Success

If I can be honest, I struggle mightily with this.

I struggle with the constant pressure of the world’s repeated assertion that success means being out in front, on display, exalted above others, and if you’re not, you’re a failure.

The constant temptation is to seek that, to make it my ambition and orient my life around what puts me out in front; hustle, grind, concentrate on achieving the thing or making the money to buy the things that makes me better than others, thereby proving that I am a success.

But, in God’s creation, success is the health of the whole that we’re connected to, where we’re one member of many, contributing to the whole as the whole contributes to the members. It’s literally what we’re built for: connection, community, and contributing toward its betterment which is one and the same as self-care. We know this. We can feel it. It’s what we find most fulfilling.

Yet, I find myself desiring the allure of being the dead flower in the vase. It is singled out and put beautifully on display.

And my flesh foolishly yearns, “Ooh, pick me! Pick me!” I want to be exalted. I want to be praised. I want to be sought after. Not realizing that it neither grows others nor is being grown and was dead the moment it was separated.

Do not be deceived. Satan’s specialty is creating beautiful dead things.

Those of The Way know to be cut off is a death sentence. Oneness is our pursuit.

“Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
— Mark 12:29

And, whatever comes our way as an individual, including honor, we use for the benefit and uplift of the whole (One).

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

[…] But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
— 1 Corinthians 12:12, 24-26

So, each day I wake or every time I fell pressure to conform to the world’s measure of success, I will set out with intention to resist the world’s way and to seek contribution as a definition of success instead of conceit, success being evidenced by fruit in others.

#success #ContributionOverConceit #thriveday

Paul Luckett

Proceed with caution. Visibility is limited.

Tag Archives: spiritual development