Legalism Recovery Act

Unlike our government is doing with banks, car companies, etc. I can't take over the book stores and make them sell my books at a lower cost, but I can offer my own version of a Recovery Act. So many are trapped in legalism and feel like they're approaching spiritual bankruptcy. They just can't seem to find a way out. So this is my version of a bailout plan!

Of course, I hope you know I'm joking. The truth is, though, that we're all having a tough time financially right now so I've decided to mark down the cost of all my books considerably more than I normally sell them.

This would be a good time to buy books for friends that you've wanted to understand the message. Also, be sure to note Lori Zenker's children's book, Promiseland. This is practically a giveaway price for a book like this. We heard just this week from somebody whose church is using that book in their children's Sunday School Department and he talked about how much they had enjoyed using it. Lori is the wife of Mike Zenker, our Grace Walk Canada National Director. She did a great job with this one.

Check it all out: www.gracewalkresources.com

The Problem With Rededication

Perhaps more than any other challenge I gave people during my years of legalistic teaching in the church was that they should rededicate themselves to Christ. I believed that the need we all have is to try harder, to be more sincere and more zealous in our efforts to live for Jesus Christ. I rededicated myself until I felt worn out from it at times.

Rededication isn’t the grace way. The real answer to a sense of need in our walk with God isn’t to promise Him that we’ll try harder. That’s true even though we may ask for His help when we rededicate ourselves. Although many are sincere in rededicating themselves to Christ, it’s a wrong approach to the desire to be more consistent in our commitment to Him.

The problem with rededicating ourselves to Christ is self, which is really just another word for the self-sufficiency of the flesh. The essence of religious flesh, as strange as it might seem, is our attempt at trying to live the Christian life. That is what actually prevents us from living the Christian life. In fact, the harder we try, the greater the likelihood that we won’t succeed because victory in the Christian life doesn’t come by trying. It comes by trusting.

Self-determination, self-discipline, self-sufficiency – those are what stand in the way. Jesus is the way to victory in your grace walk. He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” Note His words in that statement. What did He say we are to do in regard to our self-life? Dedicate ourselves to Him? No, He said that we are to deny self.

Rededicating ourselves to try harder, then, isn’t the answer. It doesn’t matter how sincere we might be. It simply won’t work. The answer is to trust Him. That’s the only cure for an unstable, up and down sort of spiritual experience.

You won’t ever live a victorious Christian life by rededicating yourself to God, and telling him you’re going to try harder to do a better job. Instead, we must come to the end of ourselves - our self-life. We need to say, “Lord, it’s not just hard for me to live a life that honors you, it is impossible for me to do it. So I will stop trying and just trust you. You are my life, now Lord Jesus, live your life through me.”

We didn't become a Christian by revving up our religious rpm's and trying to make progress toward entering God's kingdom by what we did. Instead, we came to the place where we realized there was nothing we could do to get into a right standing with God. Nothing has changed in that regard now that you are a Christian.

In the same way, now we are to simply acknowledge that, no matter how hard we might try, there is actually nothing we can do to make ourselves stronger. Just like when we were saved, we have to come to Him in faith and total dependence that He will be the One who does what needs to be done; and He will.

The Apostle Paul said, "As you have entered the Lord Jesus Christ, so walk in Him." We continue the walk in the same way we started it -- by grace through faith. The answer to a sense that we are weak in our commitment to Him is to trust in His grace and know that He is committed to us. The one who has begun a good work in you will finish what He has started. Just trust Him, knowing it's not up to you and how hard you try. Faith is the key. That's all it takes.

(This blog is an excerpt from the 101 Lies Taught In Church manuscript I'm working on now.)

A Schizophrenic God?

I grew up with a belief that I now think may border on, if not be, outright heresy. My view of God was skewed at best and totally anti-biblical at worst. The issue revolved around the character of the Godhead. Somehow I developed a mentality that left me seeing God the Father as an angry God whose justice and holiness were screaming for my destruction. He hated sin and since that happened to be the thing I did best, I was in big trouble. I was indeed a sinner in the hand of an angry God. I basically felt like He had one last nerve and I was about to get on it. I envisioned God the Father as watching me carefully, scrutinizing everything I did and not happy about what He saw most of the time.

Then there was Jesus. In my mind, He loved me and didn't want to see me get the brunt of God's anger. That's why He came to earth - to live perfectly and then go to the cross to take the beating that would have been mine. On the one hand, I had always been taught that God loved me and that was why He sent Jesus. On the other, I believed that God callously stood there and watched His own Son die an agonizing death that should have been mine. Somehow it didn't add up to me. God loves Jesus. God loves me. So He torments Jesus so He won't have to torment me???? Umm...so does He love me more than He loved Jesus? Is He schizophrenic with some kind of split personality? I knew I'd been told that He loved me but it didn't make sense. Something's not right here...but after awhile you just learn not to question.

I realize now that the weakness in my understanding came fairly close to what's called a tritheistic heresy. Tritheism teaches that there are three distinct Gods who form a triad. It focuses on the "three" but ignores the "three in one" aspect of the Trinity.

Here's the bottom line: The whole Trinity feel and have always felt the same about you and me. It's not a good-cop/bad-cop scenario in heaven where Jesus keeps God the Father calmed down about us by constantly reminding Him of the scars on His hands. The work on the cross was the work of the entire Trinity - not just the Son.

"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" wrote the Apostle Paul. He wasn't sitting up in heaven, disconnected from the work of the cross. The incarnation of Emmanuel is the eternal reminder of "God with us." Within the humanity of God the Son, the divine love of God the Father was shown by the power of God the Spirit. Like many aspects of Deity, it is a mystery to man how it could all fit together. The point is that we don't have a divided Trinity in which One is constantly on edge about our behavior while the Other keeps Him calmed down.

The Father, Son and Spirit adore you. He lives in you and is with you in every circumstance of life. Divine life is being played out through our humanity every day - in our work, our homes, our play. The Triune God of all things loves you passionately. There's no danger of anger toward you. It's all good because He is all good.

For years, this viewpoint would have made me nervous and filled me with a myriad of "Yeah, but what about ...." questions. I still have unanswered questions today, but one thing I don't question is that we are loved -- more loved than we could ever imagine and nothing or nobody can ever change that.

Just A Reminder...

I post "Sunday Preaching" on my home page at www.gracewalk.org every week. I leave the video up on the site all week. Today's topic is "The Lost Sons" from Luke 15. I hope you'll check it out and help me spread the word about these sermons I post online every week.

Thanks to all those around the world who have emailed to let me know you're watching. Canada, Norway, Africa, Ireland, Vietnam, Israel, England, Greece, the Philippines, Germany, and others that don't come to mind right now - I'm glad you're on board with us in spreading the growing grace revolution! (If I didn't mention your country, list it in the comments section below this post.)

Let those in your email address book know by sending a note to them and giving them the link for gracewalk.org. We want the world to hear the gospel of grace!

A Day In The Life...

I regularly receive many emails from people whose lives are being transformed by God's grace. People often ask me, "Do you get negative mail too?" I do and, though they aren't as many in number as the positive ones, they do come regularly. I decided to post this one just so fellow grace-walkers can see the kind of opposition to God's grace that exists even among other believers. Beneath his note is my response. Some may think it's too harsh, but I typically respond in a similar way as a person writes. If they're gentle, I assume they respond to gentleness. If they are direct, I assume they will only understand a direct answer. I've deleted the name of the sender for obvious reasons.


Subject: "Shame, A Silly Game".

Dear Bro. McVey,

Grace so amazing, Grace so Divine, demands my soul, my life my all. Grace twisted demands to be rebutted. I just finished reading your article entitled "Shame, A Silly Game". How you could twist God's Amazing Grace as you did in this article is also AMAZING.

You stated,Jesus came to free us from the dark legacy of shame and embarrassment left to us by Adam. Thanks to Him, there is no condemnation toward us – none. We may feel shame at times, but it’s only an illusion. “Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything” (1John 3:20). He knows that we are totally forgiven.


Wonderful truth to this point, but then [you write] --The shame-game is over – finished. It’s a silly game we don’t ever have to play again. Once and for all, we can stop fearing some scary god-of-our-own-making who looks at us with disappointment or irritation. It’s an infantile fantasy. There is no divine boogey-man under the cosmic bed of your existence who is going to come out and get you.

We’re all naked, but that’s okay with God. He loves you just like you are. You don’t have to change. You don’t have to be afraid. You don’t have to hide. And you certainly don’t have to be ashamed. Your Father loves and adores you just the way you are. So come out, come out, wherever you are. Somebody is waiting to give you a Hug. He longs to laugh with you. He wants you to feel His embrace and revel in His acceptance for all eternity. Leave shame alone. We belong in the conscious awareness of our permanent place in our Father’s embrace.

Is this the same message Paul preached when he told of how God judged with immediate physical death the sin of his children Annanais and his wife in Acts 5? The Scripture says that great fear came upon all the church. Was that fear caused just by imagination? Paul said in another place, Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear. Did Paul not understand grace? He told the Roman believers to fear the authorities, because they bear not the sword in vain.

Thank God, through faith in Christ, I am accepted. However, if I sin as a child of God, I should fear because whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Shame and fear are without a doubt God caused at times, and rightfully so.

Thank God for His grace, but grace never excuses sin. The law of God and the grace of God both hate sin. The law condemns the sinner. Grace condemed the sinners substitute. Grace cost us nothing but it cost God His Son.

Without both sides of the truth it becomes a lie.

A brother In Christ,
MB

M, my brother,

You have missed the whole point. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We ARE accepted in the Beloved. Shame is not the work of the Holy Spirit. He lovingly convinces (convicts) us of the love of our Father and creates within us a desire to live in a way that honors Him. THAT is our very nature as believers.

Why would you assume that the death of Ananias & Saphira was an expression of God's anger? Why would you not assume that a loving Father chose to spare them and His church from further harm by taking them home immediately? And you need to study the word "fear." Yes, we are to fear the Lord, but surely you as a child of God don't think we are to recoil from Him in horror, do you? Fear, in the biblical sense, is awe - wonder - such respect that it causes a trembling in the presence of His greatness. It doesn't mean that we cower in the presence of a short-tempered god who is ready to zap us if we mess up. If that were the case, both you and I would have been killed by God a long time ago. Or do you disagree?

I never even hinted that "chastening" isn't a part of our Father's ways, but that itself is an expression of love - not the knee-jerk reaction of the short-tempered god you seem to imagine Him as being. I never minimized sin, but truthfully, your viewpoint seems to minimize the value of the finished work of Christ to me. Did Jesus really "pay it all" or not? I believe that He did and that now we can rest in our Father's loving acceptance. THAT becomes the catalyst for transformation in our behavior, not some shaky fear that He is ready to drop the bomb on us because of our behavior.

Thanks for your thoughts. Please accept my plainspoken response to be intended in the same spirit in which you wrote you email. We are simply two brothers who see this in very different ways.

As you believe about me, I see your concept of "grace" as weak, twisted and so far beyond what Scripture teaches that I imagine it would cause the Apostle Paul to shudder in horror.

Blessings,
Steve McVey

A Two Year Old "Sees Grace"

This is one of the sweetest things I've seen...

Change Your Underwear

The Bible really gets down to the nitty-gritty of life in some passages. For instance, did you know that in the Old Testament, God told the priests what kind of underwear they were to wear? No, not boxers or briefs. Here's what He told them:

You shall make for them linen breeches to cover their bare flesh; they shall reach from the loins even to the thighs. They shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they enter the tent of meeting, or when they approach the altar to minister in the holy place, so that they do not incur guilt and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and to his descendants after him. Exodus 28:42-43

Aaron and his sons were required to wear linen breeches as they ministered in the holy place or else they would die. Why is God so strict about what these priests wore as they ministered? It's because of the typology depicted in these matters.

In the OT, there were often literal events which portray NT truths. For instance, we know Jesus said that Jonah being in the whale for three days pointed toward His own resurrection which would also come after three days. We know that the serpent lifted up in the wilderness was a picture of salvation through the cross.

The detailed description of the garments of the priests in the Old Testament give us a picture of what it means to be in Christ. Apart from Him we would be spiritually naked, with no hope of clothing ourselves. The Bible teaches, though, that we are clothed with Christ. (See Galatians 3:27)

What does the Bible tell us about this underwear? It is deeply personal. Nobody sees your underwear but you. The very mention of your underwear is a private, intimate matter. The "breeches" refer to what you are in the secret place of your own life. Your true identity is determined by what you are at the deepest place of your life. You may have on dirty pants and shirt, but because of Him your underwear is clean!

The key to living the life we've been created to live is to act outwardly like who He has made us to be inwardly. At the core of your being you are righteous because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Even when we don't act or look like, that doesn't change the reality of who we are.

Then there's the fabric the underwear is made from. The Bible is specific about that too. It is linen. Why did God care what kind of material was used in making these underwear? Leviticus 16:4 says,

He shall put on the holy linen tunic and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body and he shall be girded with the linen sash, and attired with the linen turban (these are the holy garments). Then he shall bath his body and put them on.

Why linen? Ezekiel answers: Linen turbans shall be on their heads and linen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat. (Ezek 44:18)

God's plan is that His children/priests never sweat. Does the priest serve? Does he work? Yes! The grace walk isn't a passive lifestyle, but it is one in which we don't break a sweat. Why? Because we don't depend on our own strength to do the work we're called to do. We depend on the power of the indwelling Christ.

The priests wore white underwear to show that we are clean to the core. His underwear was linen to show that we don't serve in the energy of our own strength. So if religion has you worn you down and caused you to feel like you're a hypocrite, stop trusting yourself and depend on Christ and Him alone. In other words, change your underwear and everything will be alright.

(Taken from Steve McVey's series entitled Garments of Grace. Available at www.gracewalkresources.com)