Growing in Grace

I've continued to make my way through Beth Moore's book Breaking Free . Following her discussion of the benefits and obstacles of being a child of God; she moved on to talk about how to look back at the difficult things in our lives. In our fallen world, bad things happen to people. We can look back on those things and allow them to keep us captive, or we can look back on them to help better equip us to move forward. Sometimes there are areas of devastation or defeat that have occurred in our family. It's important that we identify these. We are not to use these as excuses to continue on in the same manner; we must chose to break the cycle so that we can be free from their hold on us. Bethe Moore reminds us that "even Christ had a blend of the negative and positive in His lineage. . . He broke the chains of all kinds of bondage when He gave His life for us. . . We need to recognize any generational bonds and ask God to remove them" (p. 86). Second, she writes ...

In Beth Moore's book "Breaking Free" she first covered the five benefits of being a child of God. She next wrote about the five obstacles that stand in the way of experiencing the five benefits. The first benefit of being a child of God is to know God and believe Him. The largest obstacle, therefore, to this benefit is that of "unbelief, choosing not to believe in God . We're not talking about believing in God. We're talking about believing God, believing what He says. We can believe in Christ for salvation in a matter of seconds and yet spend the rest of our days believing Him for little more." (p. 53) "Unbelief is crippling. The steps we take forward with God we take through faith. Therefore, unbelief literally cripples our spiritual 'walk', casting huge obstacles in the way of a victorious life. . . If we're willing to admit our lack of confidence in Him, Christ is more than willing to help us overcome our unbelief. Belief - or ...

In her book "Breaking Free", Beth Moore writes about five benefits God intends "to be the daily experience of every child of God." (p. 23) The first benefit is to know God and believe Him . Beth Moore writes that "one of your chief purposes on this planet is to know God intimately and with reverent familiarity. That intimate relationship begins, but was never intended to end, with what we call the 'salvation experience.' So the first question to ask yourself is, Have you received Christ as your personal Savior?" "One of the most beautiful elements of salvation is its simplicity. Christ has already done all the work on the cross. Your response includes four elements: 1) Acknowledge that you are a sinner and that you cannot save yourself. 2) Acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and only He can save you. 3) Believe that His Crucifixion was for your personal sins and that His death was on your behalf. 4) Give Him your life and ...

Although we need to be saved from eternal separation from God only once, Christ continues His saving work in us for the rest of our lives. In Isaiah 61:1-4, Beth Moore points out the following truths: 1) God hears the cry of the oppressed. He even hears the cries of those whose oppression is a result of sin and rebellion. 2) God fulfills these verses in Christ alone. Christ set us free by the power of His Spirit; then He maintains our freedom as we learn to live from day-to-day in the power of His free Spirit. 3) Christ's ministry is a ministry of the heart. Like Beth Moore, I often think of the unsaved as being in bondage to something. But my eyes are being opened to the fact that even the saved can be in bondage; that I remain in bondage in some areas.  As she writes, "a Christian is held captive by anything that hinders the abundant and effective Spirit-filled life God planned for him or her." I know that I desire to live an abundant and effective Spirit-fill...

"If our liberty in Christ is going to be a reality in life, we are going to have to learn to walk in the freedom of Christ, independent of everyone else we know." This quote from Beth Moore's book "Breaking Free" came to light as we were watching "Prince Caspian". As the children are trying to find their way through the woods, Lucy sees Aslan. She believes he wants them to follow him. The others don't believe her, and so they follow Peter's lead. When it turns out to be blocked by King Miraz's army, they go back to where Lucy said she saw Aslan, and they find their way. When Lucy finds Aslan later, she tells him that she had seen him, but the others didn't believe her. He asks why she allowed that to keep her from coming to him. Lucy admits that she was afraid. I think that is what Beth Moore is talking about in this quote. We cannot let others keep us from following Christ. We must follow what we know to be true even if it means ...

A Christian is held captive by anything that hinders the abundant and effective Spirit-filled life God planned for him or her. Pride can lead to captivity (Jeremiah 13:15-17). . .  Pride will be an obstacle every believer must face on the freedom trail. . .  To be free in Christ, our high places will have to fall. We must be willing to take a stand against idolatry. We have a crippling tendency to forget what God has done for us. For a while, we're humbled. Then, if we do not guard our hearts and minds, we begin to think we must have done something right for God to have been so good to us. Therein lies another road to captivity. It is the road to legalism. . . We may be afraid to ask God on a daily basis to keep us humble because humility involves discomfort. We may have to suffer some embarrassment, even some failure. Why are we not far more frightened of what pride can do? Pride can cost us - and probably those after us. Pride, idolatry, unbelief, legalism, these will ...