the prayer is not meant for everyone…

i want to make one thing clear.  even though most of you could say the LORD’s prayer word for word without any notes, that prayer is not meant for everyone.  in fact, some of us who are here on the front porch today your greatest need in life is not to pray for daily bread.  your greatest need is to meet the BREAD OF LIFE.  if you’ve never personally crossed the line of faith and made a commitment to JESUS CHRIST, your greatest need today is not your physical need.  and far more exciting and far more satisfying than having GOD answer your prayers and meet the daily needs of your life is having GOD meet the deepest need of your life which is a spiritual need.

the bible says your body, your life on this earth will be short.  in fact the bible describes it like this, life is like a vapor.  it is here for a moment and then it is gone but your spirit will live eternally.  you will live forever.  and JESUS says, “I am the BREAD OF LIFE.  no one who comes to ME will ever be hungry again and those who believe in ME will never thirst.”

the very first step in dealing with anxiety is to enter into a personal relationship with JESUS CHRIST.  then you can begin to pray the model prayer because the very first words of the model prayer are our FATHER.  you can’t honestly begin to call GOD your father until first you have entered into a personal relationship with HIM.  if you’ve never done that i want to ask you today to do that.  i’m going to lead us in a prayer.  you don’t have to pray out loud.  you don’t have to say anything out loud.  but in your heart and mind if you’ll pray a simple prayer along with me wherever  you can make that commitment today.

let’s pray

            dear LORD, thank YOU that YOU are the source of all life.  and thank YOU that YOU love me and YOU sent YOUr SON JESUS to die for me.  and right now i accept YOUr gift of salvation.  i ask for YOUr forgiveness of my sins and i ask YOU to come into my life and to give me eternal life.  thank YOU that YOU keep YOUr promises and that YOU now live in my life.  in JESUS’ name.  amen.

just a thought from the front porch… 

how you acknowledge a relational context…

JESUS begins the LORD’s prayer in matthew 6 by saying, our FATHER and that holds great significance to HIM and to us.   

when you use a name, you make a statement about the nature of the relationship you have with another person.  that’s why names are so powerful.  a name expresses the relationship you have.  you acknowledge a relational context.  you state how much closeness exists.  in a fairly formal relationship, you say mr. or mrs.  if it’s a friend, you call them by their first name.

now if it’s a real close friend you might have a nickname. if it’s a family member there might be a pet name. that expresses the fact that this is a uniquely close relationship.

i only have two people on this earth that call me “father,” and that single word gets my attention probably quicker than any other.

if i pick up the phone and i hear that word first, “dad?” that establishes a context between me and the one who’s speaking to me that is stronger than iron.  and everything else they say, any requests they make, any confession they have to make, anything else they say takes place within the context of the relationship that’s expressed by that one word “father.”

now there were records in the old testament of people using the image of a father to describe GOD.  that had happened before.  but there is no record of anyone ever coming to GOD in prayer and addressing him as FATHER until JESUS did it.

then HE uses an aramaic word “abba.”  it’s a real tender word.  little children used it.  adults would use it too.  it’s not quite exactly like our word “daddy” because it was an adult word as well as a child’s word, but it was a very tender word.

and there’s no record of anybody coming to GOD in prayer and calling him that until JESUS.  and JESUS not only does it, HE invites you and me to do it.

that’s unbelievable. so when you pray, you put everything else aside.  you put aside a hurried mind.  you remember that you’re not just sitting there thinking right now or worrying, and you begin with the word our FATHER.

just a thought from the front porch…

let’s get serious about our relationships…

we dealt yesterday that you can develop a healthy strong relationship through hard work and GOD.  you can but james 4 says let’s get serious.  verse 1 (ncv), do you know where your fights and arguments come from? they come from the selfish desires that war within you.  the message paraphrase says that you and i don’t get along, we argue with each other because you want your own way.  i want my own way.

yes, you and i can get along with each other through GOD and through hard work [james 3.18 (msg)] but let’s get serious.  there is a real problem here.  when my wants conflict with your wants, sparks are going to fly.  this is where the hard work comes in.

now conflict starts early in life, even before you could talk.  have you noticed that a baby, if there needs are not instantly gratified, they let you know?  you can argue even if you don’t know how to talk.

marriage has built in conditions for conflict.  think about the things you expected of your spouse before you got married – how idealistic and unrealistic you were about marriage.  what a rude awakening that was, the day you woke up!

all marriages go through three stages:  stage one, happy honeymoon; stage two, the party’s over; stage three, let’s make a deal.  at stage three you have to learn how to handle arguments because they’re going to happen.  there are going to be conflicting desires.  frustrated feeling cause fights.

there is a phrase that i have said over and over, too high expectations causes frustration.  we each have our own selfish desires and these desires are legitimate desires unless they’re out of control.  they are GOD given desires but when you put them above other people, when they become number one in your life, they will cause conflict.

margaret my wife loves to shop.  she doesn’t have to buy anything but she finds walking up and down each isle in target and looking at all the stuff a kind of detoxing experienced.  i find it toxic.  now in our beginning days together we had some arguments over doing that together until i found that i could take a book or now my kindle and find a spot and read.  i love to read she loves to shop.  in the beginning our conflicting desires caused a conflict.  i’m sure that has also been true of you. 

just a beginning thought from the front porch… 

it is so worth it…

we are about to head over to chapter 4 in james but before we do 3.18 has a reminder for us to see.  it says (msg), you can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with GOD and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

now relationships are hard work.  a healthy, strong marriage takes hard work.  it doesn’t just happen.  we’ve just seen a celebrity marriage break up after a few days.  it just was too hard work for them.  of course it is but it is so worth it. 

margaret and i have been married 37 years and we have found at this time in our life that all of the struggles and all of the hard work that we have gone through in our marriage has been so worth it.  she is my best friend.  it hasn’t been easy.  we’ve jokingly said that we haven’t contemplated divorce, murder yes.  we have had some very tough times but it has been worth it and our best years are ahead.  yes there still is a lot of work left for both of us but we are going to keep at it.   

a strong healthy relationship with your brothers and sisters takes hard work.  when you were young your dad and mom demanded that you get along and for the most part you did but after you became adults you said, “it is just too hard a job to get along with my family.  it is just not worth the effort.”  that what james is saying.  it is hard work but it is worth it . 

i’ll be honest it would really hurt me deeply as a parent if brett and stefanie as adults didn’t get along.  both of them have their own families now and that means their relationship is different from when they were kids but they love each other, love to be with each other and they believe in each other.  as their father i am so thankful for that.   it hasn’t been easy because they are both so different but it has been worth the effort.

have you ever thought about how much hard work it was for JESUS to have a relationship with you and me.  HE died for us so we could have a personal relationship with HIM so we could live right with GOD and enjoy its results, so we could also have a right relationship with each other.

the last part of the verse is also good where it says, treating each other with dignity and honor.  that is how we get along and that is hard work sometimes.  now honor doesn’t mean you agree with each other but it does mean you listen to them, you treat them with respect, you value them as a person who CHRIST died for.

now we need JESUS inside of us take care of our selfishness but it doesn’t stop there.  there is some hard work for us to do.  maybe this time of celebration of HIS birth would be a good time for you to step it up and do the hard stuff in mending some of those lost relationship.  that is the reason why HE came.  that would mean so much to your FATHER if you at least tried to do that.

just a thought from the front porch… 

the relationship that makes a difference…

so what’s it going to be on this road?  are you going to choose comfort and just make life easy?  or are you going to choose to develop those relationships where change can really begin to happen?  that’s probably the toughest one of all. 

now i’d be leaving you without the answer if i didn’t talk to you about the one relationship that helps you, that strengthens you at every one of these crossroads.  i’d be leaving you empty if i didn’t talk to you about the one person that loves you more than anyone else, that can do everyone of these things for you and help you do everyone of these things in all of your relationships.  that person is JESUS CHRIST.  HE wants to have a relationship with you. 

look at how HE talked about it in revelation 3.20 (nlt), look!  here I stand at the door and knock.  if you hear ME calling and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal as friends. 

that’s HIS picture.  HE says, “here’s what I want.  I want a relationship with you.  it’s like I’m standing at a door and knocking.  if you’ll open up the door I want to come in and I want to sit down with you.  I want to share a meal with you.  I want to have a relationship with you where we talk about what’s going on in your life.  where we talk about what you’re struggling with, where we talk about the victories and the joys.” 

some of you may be thinking, “you don’t understand.  my life’s pretty messy right now.  it’s a mess inside.  if i open the door of my life to JESUS CHRIST and let HIM in HE’s going to see what a mess it really is.” 

i’ve got some news for you.  HE already knows what a mess it really is and still HE says, “I want to come in.”  still HE says, “I want to be a part of your life.”  still HE says, “I want to have a relationship with you.”  and HE doesn’t ask you to clean up the mess before HE comes in.  HE says, right now, just as you are, I want to come in, messy as it is and I want to be a part of your life.  I want to sit down.  I want to have a relationship with you.  and then I’ll even help you to start to clean up the mess.”  that's the kind of relationship that HE wants to have with you.

just a thought from the front porch…

helping GOD out a little bit…

we are looking at the man in the old testament whose name means, “schemer”.  jacob had many phases in his life that may be common to you and me.  one of them was his scheming phase where he schemed his older brother, esau, out of his birthright.

then he steals a blessing.  skip to chapter 27 of genesis.  we’ve heard this story, the story of the blessing.  rebecca overheard in verse 5 as isaac spoke to esau that he was wanting to give him a blessing before he died. 

“go out and kill me some game and bring it in,” so rebecca said to her son jacob, “i overheard your father say to esau,” ‘bring me some wild game.’  “why don’t you cook up something that tastes like this, bring it in and why don’t you get the blessing?”  jacob [spiritual man that he is] said,  “but my brother esau is a hairy man and i’m a man with smooth skin.  what if my father touches me?  i would appear to be tricking him.”  [notice he doesn’t say, “mom, this is wrong, immoral.”  he says, “what if i get caught?”  that’s his major fear in life.  that’s the fear of every schemer.  they don’t care if it’s right or wrong.  the real wrong in life is getting caught in their scheming.  but they tried anyway.  he takes a little fur – isaac’s very old here, he’s barely able to see, to feel – and they trick him.  he takes the food in.  isaac’s got some suspicions.  he says, “let me touch your arm.”  and jacob puts the fur out and he touches that and isaac thinks, “i guess that must be him,” and he gives him the blessing. 

when esau comes in with the wild game the blessing has already been given to jacob.  they took words so seriously then that once a word was spoken it could not be taken back.  maybe we should take it more seriously sometimes too.  so isaac couldn’t take the blessing back.  it had been stolen.

in this case, it’s much easier to blame jacob.  immediately he hears that esau is out to kill him.  he’s stolen his blessing, the most precious thing in his life.  so jacob and rebecca get together and hatch a great plan – run.  get out of here.  “let’s make sure he has no opportunity to harm my life.” 

and jacob was going to spend the next twenty years of his life paying for this decision.  there’s a shocking truth behind all of this.  he steals a blessing.  he steals a birthright.  but he didn’t have to!  he didn’t have to steal them.  GOD had already told him that they were his.  but he has to plan where he’d help GOD out a little bit. 

have ever done this?  you can relate to jacob if you’ve ever tried to do the right thing the wrong way.  jacob was supposed to get the birthright.  but that wasn’t the way he was supposed to get it.  in fact, jacob spends much of his life trying to get for himself, earn for himself, what GOD wants to give him as a gift.  isn’t that sad? 

and we do that as believers today.  we spend much of our lives trying to earn for ourselves what JESUS wants to give us as a gift.  if we build that kind of relationship with GOD rather than a “i’m working for you, GOD.  now you can give it to me,” the joy would soar in our lives. 

just a thought from the front porch…

balance schedule and relationships - discipline and flexibility…

i’ve got to balance schedule and relationships.  have you noticed that you can’t always schedule your relationships?  guys, you say, “i know i’ve got to talk with my wife.  ‘babe, 8:00 to 8:05 tonight we’re having a conversation!’”  you may as well schedule the argument in until 11:00.  you cannot schedule relationships.  they just sort of spill out all over.  they don’t work like we want them to.  sure we’ve got to get things done.  sometimes you’ve just got to buckle down and get things done.  but there are other times when you say, “let’s set that aside.  we need to talk.”  that’s a part of the balance.  it’s not always easy.  it’s not always simple.  but it is a key perspective in the way you manage your time. 

you have to balance discipline and flexibility.  you have to be disciplined to get the task done and stick to the schedule but you also have to be flexible when it doesn’t work out.

some of you are so disciplined about how every minute has to work.  you’re uptight all day long.  every single second has to work because you’ve got to get the most out of every day.  you’re going to live 20 years less because you’re getting the most out of every minute.  what kind of time management is that?  you need to be a little more flexible.  some of you are so flexible you’re a slave to other people’s schedule.  there are moments in your life when you need to say “no.  i can’t do that because this is what i’m supposed to be doing today.”  there’s a balance between the two. 

i love what james says about this balance in our lives.  james is writing to some people who were saying, “here’s what we’re going to do.  we’re going to go to this city, make that much money, create this business.  that is what we’re going to do!  that’s GOD’s plan for our lives.”  he writes in james 4.13-15 (tev), you don’t even know what your life tomorrow will be.  you’re like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears.  what you should say is this, if the LORD is willing then we will live and do this or that. 

i love the balance there.  he doesn’t say don’t make any plans, whatever is going to happen.  but on the other hand, you say it’s if it’s going to be it’s up to me and you plan it all.  if GOD is willing this is what i’m going to do.  that’s the balance of how this works.

just a thought from the front porch…

that is where hope starts…

hope is determined by the way you think about GOD’s love, by the way you look at problems, the way you talk to GOD, by the way you read the bible, the way you think about eternity. 

the bible says in romans 4.23-24 (msg), it’s not just about abraham. [he was a great believer]  it’s also us.  the same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the ONE who brought JESUS to life when conditions were equally hopeless.  the ultimate moment of hope in this world is when JESUS CHRIST came into this world, lived life for you, gave HIS life for you and was resurrected again for you.  if you haven’t connected to that hope as yet, that’s where you start.  that’s where you start.  because GOD wants to develop a relationship with you where HE can give you hope. 

if you think that somehow you’ve got to impress GOD or you’ve got to live up to GOD’s standard in order for GOD to like you, or GOD to want to be a part of your life, that’s not what JESUS came to teach.  HE came to say, none of us are good enough to be in GOD’s presence.  none of us are perfect.  we’ve all blown it.  couldn’t we all admit that one?  no one’s perfect yet GOD wants to have a relationship with you.  so JESUS came and said, “I’ll give MY life for you.  I’ll begin a new life for you by being resurrected.  I want to give you the gift of a relationship with ME.” 

don't try to get a relationship with GOD based on the good things that you do.  you’ll never get there.  none of us can be good enough.  some of us are better than others but none of us are good enough because GOD’s perfect.  instead of that, let GOD give you a relationship with CHRIST and let HIM begin to build the good things in your life HE wants to do.  don’t get the cart before the horse. 

if you’ve not started a relationship with HIM you can do it right now.  you might think, “that’s all i have to do?  that doesn’t seem fair.”  it doesn’t seem fair because GOD’s already done it all.  HE already sent HIS SON to give HIS life for you and to say to you I love you and say to you, I want to open the door wide for a relationship with you.  start there.

just a thought from the front porch…

love is what life is all about…

human beings have an amazing capacity to both remember and forget.  we remember every single little hurt we ever had in life and we always forget the lessons.  we have to learn the lessons over and over and over again.  we need to pray like david prayed in psalm 39.4 (nlt), LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.  and in psalm 90.12 (nlt), teach us to make the most of our time. 

now there are some truths that we need to remember to help us to focus our lives.  if you do you’ll have a happier family.  you’ll have a more productive business.  there will be far fewer divorces and separations in our culture, if we will just listen to what GOD has said about relationships.

one of these truths is that the best use of our life is love.

1 corinthians 14.1 (nlt) says, let love be your highest goal.  make it your number one priority. make it number one!

GOD says love is what life is all about.  1 corinthians 13.3 in the message paraphrase, no matter what i say, what i believe, and what i do, i'm bankrupt without love. if you don’t have love, GOD says you’re bankrupt.

too often we act like loving relationships are something we have to squeeze into our schedule as if they are an important part but just another important part along with many other things.  wrong!  GOD says loving relationships are your life.  it’s all about love. 

one day a guy comes to JESUS and says, “i need cliff notes on the bible.  summarize the bible for me.”  JESUS says, love GOD with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.  in a word, JESUS is saying the point of life is “relationships”. if you miss that you miss the point of life.  that’s the bottom line.  what matters most is loving relationships. 

now if that’s true, why do we always allow our relationships to get the short end of the stick?  when we get overloaded we start skimming relationally.  we fulfill all kinds of other commitments but we don’t give our relationships the time, the energy and the attention they deserve because we’re too busy with what we think are more important pressing matters. 

why do we do that?  because we focus on the urgent rather than on the important and i hope you know the difference by now.  not everything that’s urgent in your life is important in your life.  so as a result we spend all of our time focusing on making a living, getting the job done, finishing the work, paying the bills, making progress, accomplishing the goal as if that’s the point of life.  it is not.  the point of life GOD says is love.  the point of life, GOD says, is relationship. 

just a thought from the front porch…

something greater than ourselves…

JESUS said, “i am the truth.” HE said, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. the more you know JESUS the freer you are.

you can change. how do you do it?

you start by establishing a personal relationship to CHRIST. you become what the bible calls being born again. that doesn't solve all your depression but without CHRIST in your life, you won't have the power to change. HE wants to be a part of your life and if you give HIM control, HE will help you.

then once HE's in your life, you ask HIM to give you a new purpose and a new meaning to your life. what we need is something greater than ourselves that draws us out of ourselves so we won't be depressed. you need something greater to live for than just your own self. people who live for themselves are guaranteed to get depressed. you need something greater that draws you out of yourself. that is a relationship to CHRIST that takes you out of depression.

maybe you're depressed because you feel guilty. GOD says “I want to forgive you. I want to clear your conscious. I want to set you free from regrets.” maybe you feel depressed because you think, “I don't even like myself. I don't like myself at all!” JESUS said, “I didn't create you for nothing. you are worthwhile, significant. you're special. there's value to your life.” when you start basing your value on the opinions of other people then anytime anybody criticizes you, condemns you, puts you down, disapproves of you, or simply doesn't express appreciation, you're going to get depressed. that's what elijah did. he said, “i've had enough. they don't appreciate me.” he got depressed.

also, when you base your self-worth on your achievements you're going to get depressed. you're always going to find people who have done more than you. you're always going to find people who are doing a better job than you are right now. you're going to compare yourself and say, "why shouldn't i be like that?" and you'll get down.

what do we base our feelings about ourselves on, then? something that cannot be taken away. i am a child of GOD. nothing can take that out of my life. i may lose everything else, but nobody can take that away from me. if i'm a child of GOD, i'm significant. and GOD, in my life, can help me make the changes in my thoughts so that i don't think like the world does, but i think like the truth. the truth will set you free.

just a thought from the front porch…

confronting and affirming…

we have been dealing here on the front porch about having loving relationships and that sometimes love speaks the truth. and when we do we must first check our motivation and then plan our presentation.

the next thing you do is you give them affirmation. that’s very important in speaking the truth in love. give them affirmation.

you need to understand that a healthy, strong relationship is always built on two legs. confronting in truth, affirming in love. if you only have one, you’ve got a one-legged relationship and it isn’t going to stand. it will fall over at anything. to have a strong marriage, you must be able to confront in truth and affirm in love.

the bible says that the truth will set you free. when you go through that tunnel of truth, it does free you to the deeper level relationship. the truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable. if i were to come to you today and say, “let’s go have some coffee. i want to point out the areas that need changing,” you would not be thanking me for it. you’d be going, “who do you think you are?” you’d be resentful, rebellious, resistant, determined, stubborn. you wouldn’t be going, “this is great! tell me the areas i need to work on! tell me the areas that are messed up in my life.” no. you would be miserable. because when you share the truth, it first hurts. sometimes a surgeon has to cut out a cancer, has to hurt, in order to heal.

because the truth often does hurt, we must speak it in love, and you couch it in affirmations. you put affirmations on either side of it. proverbs 12.25 (lb) says, a word of encouragement does wonders. when you are having a speaking-the-truth-in-love session with somebody, you want to affirm three things:

1. you want to affirm that you deeply love and care for them.
2. you want to affirm that you will pray for them and help them.
3. you want to affirm that you believe they can change.

and you believe that the relationship can be better. you believe that you can be even closer as a result of this confrontation.

just a thought from the front porch..

a meaningful, significant, relationship...

if you never confront anyone, you’re never going to be close to anyone. because closeness only comes through conflict and confrontation.

in life, there are two kinds of relationships. on one side you have shallow, superficial relationships. that’s what most of the people in the world are – shallow, superficial relationships.

on the other side, you have meaningful, deep, significant, intimate relationships. soul-to-soul bonding and connection.

how do you get from superficial relationship to intimacy whether in a friendship, a marriage, a partnership, whatever? how do you get from superficial to deep, close, intimate connection with another person?

there’s only one way. that is to go down through the tunnel of truth. in the tunnel of truth, you deal with all the issues of the relationship you really don’t want to deal with. “let’s push that aside... let’s not talk about that... let’s have happy smiles…” you push it down. but in the tunnel of truth, you have chaos, you have conflict and you have confrontation. and it’s not fun.

when you leave a shallow relationship and say, “we’re going to take this relationship to a new level,” and you go into that tunnel of truth, it’s going to scare you to death. it’s dark, it’s dank, it’s scary. sometimes it’s painful. sometimes it can get a little loud. everything in your body in the middle of the conversation says, “let’s just back out to the shallow side and smooth over it and stay out. it’s a whole lot easier. let’s just preserve the status quo, and don’t rock the boat.”

but if you will stay in that tunnel of truth and deal with those issues and come to some compromise, deal with some issues in a person’s life that need to be confronted, you will eventually come up on the other side into genuine intimacy.

you only confront people you want to be close to.

just a thought from the front porch…

an attitdote for loneliness…

ephesians 3.17-18 (niv), i pray that you will grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of CHRIST.

GOD's love is wide enough to include everybody…GOD's love is long enough to last forever.

GOD's love is high enough to be everywhere

romans 8:39 (niv), neither height not depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of GOD that is in CHRIST JESUS our LORD.

there is no place that you can go where GOD's love isn't. you'll never be separated from GOD's love. nothing, no circumstance, no situation can separate you because GOD's love is everywhere.

if you want an antidote for loneliness, that's it. you will never be separated from GOD's love. the fact is we do lose loved ones. if you're married, one of you is going to die first. and you will grieve over that. but if you're a CHRISTian, you'll never be lonely, because you can tune into GOD's love. i'm not talking about religion, i'm talking about a relationship to JESUS CHRIST. HIS love lasts forever and HIS love is everywhere.

just a thought from the front porch…

the biggest problem in CHRISTianity…

GOD's saving grace removes my guilt. then comes GOD's strengthening grace which reshapes my life. it helps me to become the person i really want to be, that GOD wants me to be. it molds me and reshapes me. GOD remakes my life.

listen, GOD loves you just the way you are but HE loves you too much to let you stay that way. the bible says, in jeremiah, that GOD is the potter, we are the clay. HE's got us on the potter's wheel. HE's making us and molding us and shaping our lives. we say, "thank you, LORD. i'm just going to jump off the potter's wheel. i'll take care of myself. i can shape myself into the right thing." we blow it!

hebrews 13.9 (nlt), your spiritual strength comes from GOD's special favor, not from ceremonial rules.

the biggest problem in CHRISTianity is people start with a relationship and revert to rules. they start with just being in love with GOD and then fall back into a religious syndrome of rituals and regulations.

a brand new CHRISTian is excited and happy and rejoicing how great it is to be in love with the LORD. then all of a sudden he makes the fatal mistake of beginning to watch other CHRISTians, how they dress, how they act, the SPIRITual sounding phrases. he no longer says "it was fun!" he now says, "it was a blessing." we never say "we're going to eat food" but "we partake of nourishment." we don't get angry anymore but say, "i was grieved in my SPIRIT."

you stop using english and revert back to a religious thing trying to earn GOD's pleasure by trying to keep certain rules and regulations. paul says that was the problem with the galatians. they started one way and ended up going back to a religion.

if that's not the way to live a CHRISTian life, then how do you?

colossians 2.6 (niv), just as you received CHRIST JESUS as LORD, continue to live in HIM. the way you became a CHRISTian is the way you continue as a CHRISTian.

how did you become a CHRISTian? by promising to do good? by promising to be perfect? no. how do you live the CHRISTian life? by promising to do good? no. simply by receiving GOD's grace and letting it come into your life.

the bible says grow in grace. the bible says GOD is working in your life. the more you trust in GOD – the more you let HIM work through you – the faster you're going to grow. GOD's saving grace removes my guilt and GOD's strengthening grace reshapes my life.

just a thought from the front porch…