Growing in Grace

While those who go into the lake of fire will be punished according to their deeds, this verse tells us that believers will be rewarded for the things they have done. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we are saved by grace through faith. It is a gift from God; and not based on our deeds. Our deeds, however, are important. "The deeds we do show what has taken place in our hearts, that Jesus is in our lives. Believing in Jesus changes us, and our actions show that change. The way we live shows what we truly believe and if there has been a change in us." (D4Y) Warren Wiersbe writes that "obedience to God's Word is a mark of true salvation." "When we are saved, we give our lives totally to God and live the way He wants us to live by loving Him and other people, sharing the gospel, meeting people's needs, studying His Word, and growing in our faith." (D4Y) As we expect Jesus to return, Wiersbe writes, "when the church lives in expectancy of Chr

We all desire relationships in which we are accepted, valued, and wanted. We desperately long for this esteem from our peers, but seldom experience the "real thing." Countless stories are written about teenagers who accept life-threatening dares in the hopes of being accepted by their peers, or business people who compromise their integrity and ethics to join an elite, inner circle. We read of men and woman who are driven to succeed because they believe the lie that says their value is determined by the quality and level of their performance. Or how about the teenager or lonely single who sacrifices his virginity for the chance to experience closeness and the feeling of being wanted. For the Christian, none of this futile struggle is necessary because we have been chosen by God before time ever began. We belong, we matter, we have been accepted. No longer outcasts or second-class citizens, we are part of his family. -From A Dad's Blessing by Gary Smalley and John T

The Bible reveals that God has a plan for every life, and that if we live in constant fellowship with Him, He will direct and lead us in the fulfillment of this plan. Many of us have God's second or third best. However, if you have substituted the good for the best, do not despair. Wherever you are at this moment, yield your life unconditionally to God, and He can still make it a thing of beauty and an honor to His name. You cannot know the will of God for your life unless you first come to the cross and confess that you are a sinner and receive Christ as Lord and Savior. If you want the perfect plan that God has for your life, you will have to go by way of Calvary to get it. It is only through Christ that we can be on speaking terms with God and know God's plan for our lives. -From Unto the Hills by Billy Graham; part of The  Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version  by Max Lucado Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in a

There is a great deal of difference between law and grace. . . There is no peace until we see the finished work of Jesus Christ - until we can look back and see the cross of Christ between us and our sins. . . Then there is glory for the time to come. A great many people seem to forget that the best is before us. . .The kingdom we are going to inherit is glorious: our crown is to be a "crown of glory"; the city we are going to inhabit is the city of the glorified; the songs we are to sing are the songs of the glorified; we are to wear the garments of "glory and beauty". . . Many are always looking on the backward path and mourning over the troubles through which they have passed. They keep lugging up the cares and anxieties they have been called on to bear and are forever looking at them. Why should we go reeling and staggering under the burdens and cares of life when we have such prospects before us? If there is nothing but glory beyond, our faces ought to sh

We are finishing up our study in Revelation. In our lesson today we looked at The Great White Throne Judgment. " Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged for the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown in the lake of fire . This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. " -Revelation 20:11-15 There are good people who do good things. "But it isn't being good that gets

God does not spare us trials, but He helps us overcome them. God works in our weakness, because when we are weak his strength accomplishes the task. The aren't exactly what you'd call a list of "Who's Who in Purity and Sainthood." In fact, some of their antics and attitudes would make you think of the Saturday night crowd at the county jail. What few halos there are among this befuddled bunch could probably use a bit of straightening and polish. Yet, strange as it may seem, it is this very humanness that makes these people refreshing. They are so refreshing that should you ever need a reminder of God's tolerance, you'd find it in these people. If you ever wonder how in the world God could use you to change the world, look at these people. . What people? The people God used to change history. A ragbag of ne'er-do-wells and has-beens who found hope, not in their performance, but in God's proverbially open arms. What can you say about a fellow w

We give as a natural response to our love for Jesus. We should give according to our abilities, voluntarily and generously. God gives to us so that we can share with others. Our tithes and offerings are God's by right, for the first fruits belong to Him. Tithing is God's key to your successful personal finances. Christians live under grace and, therefore, their tithing is not a legal requirement but a response of grace to God. Jesus Himself fulfilled the Old Testament Law including tithing, but He never revised the law downward. God owns everything. When billionaire Howard Hughes died, naked and terrified of flies, someone asked how much he left. The answer, of course, was, "All of it!" The ultimate measure of a man's wealth is how much he is worth when he has lost everything. Naked we come into this world, and naked we depart. Our wealth consists not in the abundance of our possessions, but in who we are as children of God. How we must remember, "The e

We all find forgiveness exceedingly difficult. Sometimes forgiveness comes so hard that we can release our grudges only one level at a time. This means forgiveness is often granted only at superficial levels. These are qualified forgiveness. A key words is if . "I'll forgive you, if you show proper remorse. . ." Another key word is when . "I'll forgive you when I am able. You've got to give me some time to work through this. . . " A second level is partial forgiveness. The key word here is but . "I'll forgive you, but . . . please get out of my life. . . " You must do forgiveness. We do our way into better feelings. We do not feel our way into better doing. If we wait until all that bitterness is swept out of the corners of our feelings before we do right by someone who has hurt us, we might just as well give up. The bad feelings may never completely go away. But if we begin now dealing with that person, as if he had been tota

There must be a real giving up of self. You must throw it away 'blindly' so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making.Even in literature, and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, be

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither. -C.S. Lewis

Christ says that He is 'humble and meek' and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings. I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish things that people often say about Him; 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You an shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a g

Therefore, we make it our aim. . .to be well pleasing to Him. - 2 Corinthians 5:9 (NKJV)  David Ax from Calvary Chapel Chino Hills was our speaker in Friday school Chapel this morning. He spoke to us about "aiming for the bulls eye". As followers of Christ we are to stand out from the crowd. One way we can do this is by doing things the RIGHT WAY. He pointed out that there is a difference between being nice and being kind. Nice means to be pleasing or agreeable. Handing out candy to all the kids at Chapel is nice. Being kind stems from a good or benevolent nature. Kindness is helping someone who has fallen down; encouraging someone who is sad or struggling; or inviting the new kid to join your group. It's a matter of being more involved with the person, spending time with them and maybe even sacrificing to meet the other person's need. Another example he gave was the difference between caring and compassion. If you care about something you are expressing a con