AMAZING GRACE

Judas Iscariot was one of Jesus twelve original disciples. From the accounts in the Bible, he was also something of the treasurer who kept the purse of the group. We are told in accounts of the story of the woman who broke the contents of her alabaster box on Jesus feet even as she wept on them and wiped them with her tears how Judas was offended by the act. According to him it was a waste of money. People have deduced from the account that he was probably skimming from the money but the Bible says nothing about that. He probably just a skinflint and couldn’t bear to see such waste. However Judas was one of the twelve and he followed Jesus for three and a half years and saw all the miracles and wonders that Jesus did. However in Luke 23:2 we are told “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.”

A few months ago, I got into conversation with Bart Millard, the lead singer of the Christian group, MercyMe on Twitter. They were about to release their latest album Welcome To The New and he was twitting about his new understanding of grace. I follow him and the band on Twitter so I get his words first hand. I must confess that I was disturbed by his words which is what made me start a conversation with him. I wasn’t the only one who felt disturbed by his comments and I was disturbed by the way he dismissed words from the Bible that didn’t fit the narrative he was pushing. According to him, once you become a Christian you can’t draw back or backslide because of grace. In the end, I cut to the chase and asked him if what he was saying is that once saved, always saved. He said yes.

I believe that grace is powerful. I believe that grace is powerful enough to keep us from falling. The Bible says God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. Simply it means God works in us so that we desire and want to do his will. Therefore God works in us so that we desire to do his will. Does it mean that God overrides our will? No. He just works in us so that we know and desire to do what is right. Even when we know what is right to do because of God’s spirit in us, he still will not force us to do it. Knowing the right thing to do and doing it are two different things.

Grace cannot force. The Bible tells us that it is God’s desire that all men be saved. But do we see all men being saved? Paul said he would glory in his infirmities so that the power of God would be more at work in his life. That meant that more grace would be available to him. The book of Proverbs tells us that God gives more grace to the humble while he resists the proud. Therefore I believe while grace is powerful, we have a part to play for grace to work in our lives. While even when we walk in rebellion grace is made available to us. However we cannot make use of the grace available until we leave our rebellion behind. We need to receive the grace and accept it to work. I have never heard of a situation where you can use something you have not received. While in rebellion grace will keep calling us back to God but it will not force. That is not in God’s nature. Jesus never forced men rather he persuaded men. The Holy Spirit does the same.

Just like most things in life, I believe that salvation can be lost. Jesus said his soul would have no pleasure in any man who puts his hand on the plough and looking back. We are asked to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. If it was something that could not be lost, why would the Bible ask us work out our salvation? Why would the Bible ask us to watch and pray? Why would the Bible ask us to watch lest we fall? God loves us and he wants us to love him back. He wants us to be involved in our own salvation. The idea that we have no part to play while the grace us God just takes us to our salvation I believe is wrong. I do not believe in once saved, always saved. Grace does not exclude responsibility.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal 

Life and the Pride of Life

We live in a world that constantly tells us how we should view ourselves in relation to others. Most and generally, the world tells us that if we are talented, gifted, hardworking or have some gift or have some advantage that others do not seem to have, we should have a high opinion of ourselves. In fact, it tells that us that we should think of ourselves better than the next person. However we are then hurt when others do not seem to have as great an opinion of us that correlates and corresponds with the opinion we have of ourselves.

Let me say that I believe that there is good pride and bad pride although barely separated by a very thin line. Good pride is as a result of knowing and recognising the gifts, talents and blessings that God has given to you and doing your best even while resting in God's grace to make full use of them to bring glory to God. In the first place, it's not about you alone. It's all about God and you. You realise you are not in competition with anyone and you are running your own race based on the hand you have been dealt. It's also not really about the achievements or the accolades but it's about understanding the purpose for which you were born and working with God so that you reach as many people as possible with your gift, talent or blessing and if possible, help change their lives for the better. And in the process we are changed as well. If all we strive for are achievements and records rather than seeking to help change lives for the better and point God out to people, then we have entered the second category of pride.  

Now the other other pride which the Apostle Paul refers to as pride of life is not really something we are aware of. It's actually quite subtle and insidious. While the good pride corresponds with the relationship between us and God, the other pride normally shows up when we think of our talents and abilities in relation with others. In other words, pride shows itself with regards to our opinion of superiority in relation to others. Pride normally shows itself in situations which are perceived as negative by the person with pride. Pride is usually revealed by the question "Why?". I said usually because "Why?" could also be as a result of introspection with a view to correcting what is wrong. When a man is laid off from work and he asks "Why?" he could be asking with a view to finding out what went wrong and correcting it so that it doesn't happen again. However, when a man asks "Why?" and he is thinking "Why was I laid off since I was the best worker, the most hardworking person, the first in to work and the last person to leave?" he doesn't really need to ask the question since he already has an answer. He has shown that he is someone who takes pride is his abilities in relation to others and just maybe he lets others know what he thinks of them. The Bible asks us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

The question "Why me?" usually denotes that we think that there is something special about us so that life is barred from happening to us. As long as we live in a fallen world, life will happen to us. The secret is not being to attached to this life and the things in it. Life will bring disappointments, pain, hurt and sadness. Things will happen that we will not be able to understand this side of eternity. Therefore our focus should not be on what we can do but on what God can do. When we focus on us, we get lost in a myriad of feelings and emotions but in him we find clarity of purpose. The Bible says when we behold him, we are changed to be like him. That should be our desire, to be more like Christ and less like the world.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

Our Attachments Tell The State Of Our Heart

Like a lot of Jews at that time, James and John thought that Jesus was going to establish a kingdom in Jerusalem. There was the expectation shared by most that he would declare himself as a king and the people would have the Jewish kingdom they had long sought and hoped for. James and John therefore decided to meet Jesus and get first dibs on the political appointments in the soon to be established kingdom.They wanted to be the people that would seat on his left and right hand side signifying that they were his most trusted advisers.

Jesus was at pains to explain to them that his kingdom was not of this world. At his resurrection, he set up the kingdom he had been talking about and invited us to take up positions in the kingdom. Our positions in the kingdom are not determined by an appointment or by how much we do. Our positions are determined by the depth of the relationship we have with the king of the kingdom. Being a member of the kingdom is voluntary. However, once we declare allegiance to the king and bow the knees to him we have to live according to the rules of the kingdom. But the great thing about the kingdom is that there's something called grace that offers us forgiveness for our mistakes.

I believe that when we say we are Christians, our first allegiance is to the kingdom that we say we belong to. However there is a tendency we have to try to force other people who do not belong to the kingdom into living by our terms. However, people do not get converted into a new way of thinking or living by force. If you had asked me last year whether legislating was the best way to get people to change I would have said yes but I changed my mind after a conversation with my brother. While it is right to speak out when unrighteous and man made laws are being drawn up, we really have no right to try and force a form of fake godliness down other people's throats. That's why I worry when like James and John Christians seem to think that one political party or the other embodies our vision of Christ's kingdom.

Following Christ is a choice we decided to make and no law we make in this world can legislate righteousness. Christianity is a choice and there can't be a worldly version. Also righteousness is a state of the heart. It cannot be forced. While we should seek to make the world a better place we shouldn't be too attached to the things in this world. When we get more attached to Christ, we grow more like him as we grow in love, grace, truth, peace and joy. When we grow more attached to the things of this world we grow more like the world. We grow angrier, we are less graceful and grow more entrenched in the things we do. We get more entrenched in our position and we are less filled with the love of Christ. And we are more likely to try and force people to our own way of thinking. And we are less like Christ. The things we are attached to tell us who we are. And what we are. Our focus should be on Christ and him alone.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

The Myth of Equality (And The Tyranny of Progress)

The mantra on everyone's lips nowadays is that of equality. In everything there must be equality. Even where it is clear that equality has nothing to do with it, equality is used as a yardstick. The crazy notion of equality has also crept into the church. Last year, the Anglican Church in England held it's General Synod and voted against the ordination of women bishops. Comments that I read before and after the vote baffled me. In the end I had to come to the conclusion that the Anglican Church is seen as something of a club both by the media and even its members. I asked myself, whatever happened to having a calling? What happened to being led by God through the Holy Spirit? I am extremely baffled by the people who think that any change in culture automatically equals to some sort of progress.

Equality is a myth and when you chase a myth you end up creating confusion. What people should be looking at is what is just and fair. However in a world where everyone has the wrong idea of what should be and equality is the new fad, trouble is inevitable. I love sport, especially tennis. Thanks to people like Serena Williams and the world media, all the major tennis organisations now give equal prize money. The myth is that the men and the women do the same work. I disagree. If I were to randomly pick a hundred men and women, and ask them which match-up they would prefer to watch, a Roger Federer/Rafael Nadal contest or a Serena Williams/Caroline Wozniacki contest, I'm sure over 90 per cent of the people would want to watch the Federer/Nadal contest. The only people who might want to watch the female match-up would be Americans because of some strange sense of patriotism. That tells me that they are not equal. Especially when the men play five sets and the women three.

If you really want to push the idea of equality, you would find out that the women would be the losers. If all the tennis grand slams deecided that the women should also play five sets, or the army decided that women had to do the same number of push ups and run the same number of miles as the men, the women would find it extremely hard to cope. We only push for "equality" when it suits us. We all heard about how Navy SEAL Team 6 found Osama Bin Laden and assassinated him. How many women were part of the team?

The world has been gripped by the equality fever but the Church must stand firm. We are followers of Christ and we must not be ashamed to admit that we play by a different set of rules. It may offend people, even some who say they are Christians, but Christians but Christianity is not about equality. I have looked through my Bible and the God I love and who loves me is not a God of equality. He is a God of justice. Justice is different from equality. Equality is about what you want. Justice is about what you deserve. And not just because of you or what you've done. God's justice is based on who he is and his love for us.

 

While we wait ...

"But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." - James 1: 4

"Patience is not the ability to wait, but how you act while you're waiting." - Joyce Meyer.

There are things in our lives that we are hoping on God for. When the Bible talks of waiting patiently for God, the idea most of us have is that of waiting at the bus stop of life twiddling our thumbs hoping that God does his "magic". That gives us an out and lets us off the hook with regard to taking responsibility for our lives. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Patience in the context of the Bible has nothing to do whatsoever with being idle. Even as we wait for God for certain things that our out of our hands which only he can provide, there are things we need to do. Reading and meditating on the word as revealed in the Bible is one of the things we need to do while waiting patiently. Through the word, we build up our faith and our trust in God. Through the word we gain insight and receive revelation on what to do. Through the word, we find inspiration for living one day at a time.

Prayer is one of the things we need to continue to do in the time of of waiting. Going to sleep will not bring what we are trusting God for any faster. Neither will worrying about it. Prayer will help to build our faith and hope that what we are hoping for will come. In prayer, we receive direction. Through prayer we might even find out the solution to that problem we are waiting on God to "supernaturally" solve.

Another thing we need to do while waiting is to act in faith. The Bible at James 2:20 reminds us "that faith without works is dead." When we are believing on God for something, there are corresponding actions we need to take to show God that we are ready for what we believe he is about to do. Using myself as an example, I believe that God has called me not only to be a lawyer and do justice, but he has also called me to write books. From following people like Michael Hyatt the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers on Twitter, I have come to understand that getting published is not all cut and dried as I would like it to be. While I have written a novel, I don't know whether someone will think it's good enough to represent as a literary agent let alone publish. I have sent proposals out and I have already received two rejections. (It seems there is an opinion that unless you have been rejected many times, you're not really a writer yet). I have told myself that because of what I believe, I am not going to let a rejection stop me. I am going to keep sending proposals out because I believe that someone will have faith enough in my work to represent me. I have also told myself that I am going to keep writing novels, in the hope that I'll get better at it and I might just write something someone wants to represent. That is my act of faith by my works.

What else do you think one needs to do while waiting patiently?

"What Do You See?"

We all remember the story of the man in the Bible who was taken to see Jesus in Mark 8 vs. 22-26. When he met with Jesus, he was led out of the town by the Master. At the outskirts of the town, Jesus spat on his eyes and laid his eyes on the man. He then asked him if he could see anything. The man then gave the famous answer of "I see men as tress, walking." Jesus laid hands on the man again and his sight was fully restored.

There are quite a few things in that passage. The first was that for most people when Jesus met them they got healed immediately or delivered instantaneously. Yet here was a man who was walking with Jesus in the full glare of people and yet wasn't healed. Walking with Jesus doesn't guarantee that all will be fine and dandy. Anyone who says that is a liar. We will have our own share of troubles.


The second thing was that when Jesus asked the man if he could see, the man had a choice of trying to gloss things over or be pessimistic. He could have complained that he wasn't seeing well. We don't know how long he was blind or what caused it. However we do know he had an expectation of Jesus which was why he came to him. He could have expressed disappointment at the fact that he couldn't see well. "Is that all you can do?" might have been a valid question. But there are two things here. The man acknowledged that he could see but he also made it known all was not well yet. 


While we wait on God for something, the situation might not change at once. The change might be incremental. But we need to stop and thank God for the incremental changes even as we keep trusting and asking him for the total deliverance we are looking for.

 

God's Riches At Christ's Expense (GRACE)

It's quite interesting that the Bible says that: "O taste and see that the Lord is good." Ps. 34:8. It also says that "the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" Rom 2:4. But it's quite interesting that even though the Bible says that God is good, quite a lot of people, including me, came to Christ after being "threatened" by God's wrath. We were asked to repent or face damnation if we did not turn our lives over to Christ.

Even Jesus testified about about the goodness of God. Someone walked up to Jesus and called Him good. Jesus asked why the man was calling him good and that there was none good except God! That's quite interesting. Even Jesus the sinless sacrifice acknowledged that only God was good. Then where did we get the idea that God was some angry being out for us?

I think there is a lot of truth in the statement that quite a lot of us had father's that we felt were not good or loving enough and we projected those angry and ambivalent feelings that we had toward our earthly fathers at God. For some of us who grew up in Orthodox churches, this is especially true. And the people who revealed God and Christ to us also had this same problem. Which is why we have never fully understood the topic of God's grace. We have been vaccilating between grace and the law because we just couldn't believe in a God who loved us so much and yet there was nothing we could do to earn his love. Many of us knew our father's and some of us know the things we did or tried to do in other to please our fathers. And in the end, we were always dissappointed when we came up short because we just couldn't match up to their expectation of us.

God is not like us. There is nothing we can do to win his love. He loved us even before we came to him and he will continue to love us, no matter what we do. That is a hard concept for us to grasp. In future posts, I hope to share what I have discovered about the grace of God and his love for us.


(JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO out now from WestBow Press. (http://www.westbowpress.com/). You can follow him on Twitter at @Cruz_JCReal)