Carriers of grace

Ephesians 2:1-10 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, ^2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, ^3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. ^4But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ^5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ^6and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ^7that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ^8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ^9not of works, lest anyone should boast. ^10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. [1]

The gift of grace, my daughter is named Grace, I love that name because for me she is my daily reminder of Gods grace. She is the fruit of a marriage of grace along with my two other children. But that is just the beginning of understanding of Gods grace. The evidence of grace is easy to see for some, but for others it is almost impossible to see. Most of us can’t even begin to understand the part about how he loved us and forgave us while we were yet sinner. We still want to earn Gods grace, which is impossible and yet when we don’t live in a way that feels righteous enough for us to feel worthy of Gods grace we tend believe that we are outside of His grace, which is impossible.

As the betrothed of Christ, His friends, children, servants and warriors one of the greatest weapons we possess is the weapon of grace. God will be faithful in giving you ample opportunity to be like Him in a small way by giving the gift of grace to others. As leaders of spiritual influence, and extenders of Gods kingdom one of the greatest things we can do is give the gift of grace to those in our lives. One of the greatest ways to change a person is to help them see Gods grace for them. We violently extend the kingdom when we open the eyes of one who is cowering in guilt shame and self loathing and lift their eyes to the throne room which has been opened up to them by Christ who stands at that door longing for his little ones to come in. we are the greeters at the gates of heaven, grace is the smile and the handshake that ushers in His beloved.

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[1] The New King James Version. 1996, c1982 (Eph 2:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Train Strengths, Not Weaknesses

In developing somebody, the odds of improving existing strengths far outweigh the odds of improving weaknesses. An individual can improve his weaknesses, but it’s rarely done from the outside. You can threaten the person. You can make him afraid. But that won’t bring improvement. On the other hand, if you point out strengths and help develop them, you capitalize on the person’s desire to do those things he’s already good at. (He obviously has no ambition for things he does poorly.) If a certain weakness is so bad you can’t ignore it, you may have to do one of two things: get him to work on it, or admit you can’t utilize this person. This amounts to developing someone through fear (the fear of losing his job)—which is far from ideal. By taking the positive approach, you may awaken a strength the person didn’t know he had. I've seen people discover artistic talent in middle life—a craft, painting, music, or something else. Part of training is testing for areas of additional capability.

Training Is Costly

1. commit yourself to people who make mistakes

a. some times it costs, money and time

b. Handle grievances quickly

People are the most valuable part of what we do, and they come before our own convenience.”

c. Follow up the next day after a correction

Not Everything at Once

2. Pace the training and break it into parts

Training also has to be paced. People can make only so much progress at a time. Even though you see several things they have to learn, you are wiser to break them into pieces they can handle. Have the patience to give the other pieces as time goes along.

3. Treat the topic more than once

Pacing means not only spreading out our topics but treating each topic more than once. People rarely get anything the first time you say it. So you vary the wording each time, even though you’re saying exactly the same thing.

Celebrate God

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Philippians 4:4, 5 & 8 The Message

Over the summer I taught from the book of Philippians, the process of studying this book was life giving for me and I am still spending my personal study time in this section of scripture. One of the most important areas of personal focus and a focus that is relevant for all of us in this culture is the discipline of our minds. What we think and how we think determines everything we do or don’t do. Our thoughts are like the rudder that steers us towards or away from our purpose in every area of our lives. Many problems or struggles are improved by simply applying thought, for instance our finances our health or our friendships. However, just thinking about something is only part of the equation. How we think about a given situation or person is critical to victory or success with that situation or person. The bottom line is that our attitude is everything. The attitude of our heart towards our job, spouse, family, or church can impact our relationships with each of those areas in a positive or negative way. Beyond that, what we think has power spiritually in our lives and the lives of others. We release blessing or cursing through our thoughts, our thoughts lead to words, which if received, bring others into unity with the blessing or curse thus increasing its power. When the seeds of our thought life have come to fruition they become visible in the lives and or organizations where they were fostered. A lack of ability to thrive or continuous strife is often the evidences of a culture where attitudes and thoughts are negative and destructive. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Cor 10:5. Not only do our thoughts need to be taken captive to the obedience of Christ, but also our attitudes. If you are finding that there are areas or relationships in your life where you continuously struggle, I would challenge you to examine your attitudes as well as your thoughts towards those areas. Changing your attitude will often change the situation both personally and spiritually. Charles Swindoll offers the following perspective on attitude:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there is no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

May your attitudes be blessed, Pastor James