Amazing Grace!!

Do you ever feel like a big disappointment to God?  Do you ever feel like you just can't measure up?  Do you ever feel like you have let God down?  I can answer "yes" to all of those questions.  For all of my Christian walk I have struggled with feeling of inadequacy as a child of God.  I cannot tell you exactly why I feel that way.  I think some of it is from growing up in a time of fire and brimstone preaching.  I am not saying the way I was raised was bad.  I praise God for a Godly upbringing!  I praise God for a solid foundation in the Word of God.  But, in that time I received a message in my mind that created a stronghold of religion. This stronghold says that I must do something to be accepted.  I must be as perfect as I can so that God will be pleased with me.  I have been delivered from much of this mindset but the lingering effects still exist.

Lately, everywhere I turn, God is speaking to me about grace.  It is as if He is standing in my face, saying, "Cathi, please listen to this.  I am not who you think I am.  I am not mad or disappointed in you".  I hear that voice speaking, yet something in me still struggles to believe.

Over the weekend I attended a Beth Moore conference and all she talked about was grace.  She made the point, we have in our minds that we have just enough grace to cover our sin.  In other words, If I sin "this much", I have "this much" grace.  But, she made the point, "where sin abounds, grace MUCH MORE abounds".  There is a lot more grace than our sin!  It covers my sin, and then some!

Before you worry that I am going to go off the deep end with the grace message and give myself an excuse to go on a sin rampage, don't trouble yourself.  I know what the Word says.  Grace is not a permission slip to sin.  It is the mercy we receive when we do sin, because we will.  I am going to mess up.  I am probably going to mess up big time occasionally, but I am learning that my standing with God does not change, based on how much I mess up.  His grace extends to every mess up.

Another point that Beth Moore made was that the word "disappoint" is not even in the Word of God.  And the word, "disappointment" is only found 4 or 5 times and it is never in the context of God being disappointed in His children.  I can truthfully say, I have felt that I was a disappointment to God, because I thought a certain way, or struggled in certain areas.  How freeing to find that He has never been disappointed in me.  He knew what He was getting and He still chose me.  I  know this is elementary teaching and all of this I already knew, but I didn't KNOW it.  It is becoming revelation to me and setting me free.  I have not arrived, believe me.

I told a friend the other day, if I hear a message on anything that is hard and brings condemnation, I am the first to jump on that bandwagon and feel that condemnation to the core.  I feel guilty even if it doesn't apply to me.  That, dear friends, is what you call a stronghold.  But, I am being set free from this!

I know I appear to be Super Saint, and I have been told I'm a rock.  The truth is, you don't see or hear the inward battle that goes on inside of me daily.  I am exposing that today so, hopefully, it can help someone who is going through the same thing.  Mine has been almost a lifelong battle.

How wonderful to know that God loves me, just as I am.  I am His and He is mine.  Oh, what love.  I cannot fathom that kind of love.

Please read what Beth Moore read on Saturday at the conference about grace below:

Grace is an inflated raft that can submerge to the floor of a sea to save you.

 Grace is the silver thread that stitches up the shreds of mangled souls.

 Grace is the eye that finds us where it refuses, there, to leave us.

 Grace calls the waitress to the table and sits her down to wash her feet.

 Grace sees underneath the manhole on a street of self-destruction.

 Grace is the air to draw a breath in the belly of a whale.

 Grace is the courage to stand in the shamed wake of a frightful falling.

 Grace is the only fire hot enough to burn down a living hell.

 Grace waits with healing in His wings when we’re too mad to pray.

 Grace is the gravity that pulls us from depravity.

 Grace races us to the Throne when we make haste to repent and always outruns us.

 Grace treats us like we already are what we fear we’ll never become.

 Grace is the doorpost dripping red when the angel of death grips the knob.

 Grace is the stamp that says Ransomed on a life that screams Ruined.

 Grace sets a table before me in the presence of my enemy even when my enemy is me.

 Grace is the cloak that covers the naked and the palm that drops the rock.

 Grace is divine power burgeoning in the absence of all strength.

 Grace proves God true and every self-made man a liar for the sake of his own soul.

 Grace is the power to do what we cannot do for the Name of Christ to go where it has not been.

Grace is a room of a thousand mirrors, all reflecting the face of Christ.

Grace is…

The eye popping

Knee dropping

Earth quaking

Pride breaking

Dark stabbing

Heart grabbing

Friend mending

Mind bending

Lame walking

Mute taking

Slave freeing

Devil fleeing

Death tolling

Stone rolling

Veil tearing

Glory flaring

Chin lifting

Sin sifting

Dirt bleaching

World reaching

Past covering

Spirit hovering

Child defending

Happy ending

Heaven glancing

Feet dancing…

Power of the Cross.

Jesus Christ, Grace Incarnate.

Copyright 2013 Beth Moore

Now, that will preach!!!

You Have Always Had The Power

I’m sure most everyone has seen the movie, “The Wizard of Oz”. At the end of the movie, Dorothy is crying because everyone received what they wanted except her. She only wanted to go home to Kansas. The “Good Witch, Glenda” tells her that she always had the power to go home. It was in the red shoes she had been wearing all along. At anytime during her adventure, she could have clicked her heels and been home. The problem was, Dorothy wasn’t aware of the power she had at her disposal. Isn’t this the state of most believers? We have this power at our disposal, but because we aren’t aware of it, we are stuck in situations, circumstances, attitudes, relationships that we desperately want out of. We, like Dorothy, cry out that we are helpless when God is saying, “You have always had the power!”. 

I remember one morning when as I was studying the Word, I asked the Lord to help me get the knowledge from my head to my heart. We’ve probably all used the expression, “head knowledge”. God spoke to me and told me that I was asking for something that I already had. He gave me the revelation that my heart (or spirit) already had it. It was my head (or mind) that needed convincing of the truth. When we study His word, our spirit receives what we put in it. The problem is that our minds haven’t been changed to agree with what our spirit already knows is true. That’s why Paul says in Romans that we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are transformed from the inside out. So, how do we get it from our spirit to our minds? The scripture says, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I think we need to begin to say aloud what God’s Word says. We need to make declarations of the truth that is ours. When we hear it enough, we’ll begin to think that way. You need to convince your mind of the truth. Say things like, I am the righteousness of God, in Christ. I’m the head and not the tail. I’m above and not beneath. The blessings of God pursue and overtake me. I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms far above every principality and power, therefore the enemy is under my feet! I have the mind of Christ. Get my point? This really works. I have seen it work in my own life. I am starting to think differently. I have a different perspective. I don’t look at things the way I used to. 

So, here is your challenge for today. Take a promise in the Word of God. Meditate on it. Begin to speak it aloud, even if you don’t feel like it’s true. I promise, before long you will begin to really believe that it’s true. You already have it in your spirit. Now, convince your mind!

Who Do You Think You Are?

I am truly blessed. I am a child of God. I know who I am in Christ. I am rare. Most born again believers don’t know who they are in Christ. They don’t know what their true identity is, therefore they have found their identity in something other than Christ. Worse still, they have found their identity in their works in the church. I was one of those people. I was identified with my family, my church, my choir, my group of friends. I didn’t have a real understanding of who I really was. What happens when you are removed from those things that identified you and you identified with? I can tell you it is life changing. Thank God He planted me in a place where I was taught my true identity. Had I not been taught this truth, I would still be striving to find myself in what I do. 

I think the church has failed its’ people in this area. The average church focuses on the “do” rather than teaching the “who”. I have learned that identity always comes first. Activity always comes next. God created man on the sixth day of creation. Can you imagine the scene as God created man from the dust of the earth? He gets down on all fours, breathes the breath of life into Adam. Adam opens his eyes and the first person He sees is God leaning over him and God says, “You are man and I am your God”. Adam looks into God’s eyes and sees himself. Adam receives his identity from His creator. What did God do the next day? He rested. He didn’t get out his “to do” list for Adam. I imagine that the seventh day was spent with Adam getting to know His Father. As my Dad would say, “That’ll get you out of the mire and put you in the choir!” The Word says that one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day to God. That day of rest could have actually been a thousand years of God spending time with Adam and Adam finding out who he was. Hmmmm… Food for thought. 

I kind of like to think that God knows what He’s doing, don’t you? He gave man his identity and then told him what belonged to him and then told him to rule and reign over it. Don’t you think we should follow God’s example? When someone comes to know the Lord they should first be taught who they are. How can they know how to act or live if they don’t know who they are? When a person is born into a royal family they are told from birth who they are. For example, I’m sure Prince Charles, from birth, has been told that he is a Prince, and that he is royalty, that he comes from a royal lineage, and then was taught how a person of royalty behaves. In other words, this is who you are therefore, this is how you behave. In the same way, we need to teach new converts their new identity, who they are identified with and how to live. We are sometimes guilty of doing right the opposite. We teach what to do first and maybe they will learn something of who they are along the way. Is it any wonder so many get discouraged and fall by the wayside? No wonder so many Christians are being burned out in the churches. They are “doing” all these things out of their own strength and have never taught that His strength is now their strength. 

I have seen brand new Christians given jobs as Sunday School teachers. A new Christian needs to be trained up in the knowledge of who they are before they are given any job to do. Not only do new believers need to be taught who they are but the church as a whole needs this teaching. My mother has been teaching the Crucified Life for many years and has seen it change lives. My life has been changed by this teaching. I have seen it transform lives. 

I wish all of our churches were teaching this. If we want the church to be the church we must first learn who we are in Christ. It’s not how big our Sunday School is, or how many contacts we had this week. Is your church growing spiritually? Do they know who they are in Christ? Do they know their authority in Christ? Do they know the work of the cross? Do they know the power that is available through the gospel of Jesus Christ? Do they know they are a new creation in Christ? I pray that you will find a place to learn the truth about who you really are.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2Cor. 5:17 

(This is one of my earlier writings)

Get Rich Quick Gospel?

I am going do some stirring up with this blog, but it is one of those areas where many churches are way off balance.  I'm going to address the prosperity gospel.

I think the one key word I used was balance.  We can get out of balance in any area and make a doctrine out of scriptures that we pick and choose, without studying them in light of what the writer was saying and the culture he was addressing.  I can take any scripture out of context and go crazy with it.  Just because I use scripture doesn't mean what I am teaching is correct.

I have been in churches that teach that no Christian should be poor.  I have been taught that Jesus was rich because He supported a ministry and a ministry team.  I am not going to debate this, but the Bible does not teach that He was rich.  In fact, He left the riches of Heaven to come to earth so that He could represent all of us.  He didn't wear His crown while on earth.

I do know that Jesus taught about selling what you have and following Him.  I believe He was addressing holding our possessions in higher regard than Him.

I have heard the scripture taught, "Give and it shall be given unto, good measure, shaken together, and running over".  Do I believe this?  Yes.  I do believe that is we give, we do receive a blessing.  I don't believe it is always monetary.  I am blessed by giving food to a hungry person. I receive the satisfaction that I have done what God's Word says and I receive the blessing of seeing that person walk away, with a smile or even tears in their eyes of gratitude. And, I am blessed monetarily when I give, but that is not to make me rich. That is so I can give more!

I have a hard time preaching the prosperity message to people I encounter who struggle each day for everything they have.  Many of them don't have enough food to feed their families.  They live in poverty and don't have cars or any type of electronic gadgets.  Many don't have electricity.  Do I walk in their tiny, hot church and preach that it's God's will for them to be rich?  That would be a slap in their faces.  They are serving God, giving what they have, but because of where they live, they don't have the opportunity to have more.  They are not in sin, they were simply born in the wrong place for prosperity.

To these people the good news is not, "you can be rich", but that Jesus loves them right where they are.  He knows where they are and He loves them.  He wants to meet their needs and bless them.  A blessing would be to not have to worry about feeding their children.  Yes, I can preach this!  And more than preach, I can take food to them and show them God's love by being His hands and feet.

I was sickened the other morning when I turned on a station where a well known Preacher was asking all of the audience to "sow" thousands of dollars to his ministry.  I mean thousands!  He read testimonies of people who gave their last dime to him and suddenly their houses were paid off and student loans were cancelled.  I am sorry, but I don't believe that.  Do I think God could do that?  Of course!  Do I think God would do that for "sowing" into a ministry is based on "give to me" and God will give to you?  Give me a break!

 Instead of sending your money to this ministry, sow it where you know people will be helped.  Proverbs 19:17 says "when you help the poor you are lending to the Lord - and He pays wonderful interest on your loan".

My point is, our giving should not be based on what we are going to receive in return.  Our giving should be based on obedience to God and what we can do for His children.  Jesus said, "When you do it unto the least of these, my brothers, you do it unto me".  When we give, we are giving to Jesus.

To sum it up.  No, I don't believe Christians should be poor, but I believe some are, and that doesn't mean they are not blessed.  Blessings are not about money.  I am blessed to live in the United States, to have a Godly husband and healthy children who serve the Lord.  I am blessed to able to serve God as a missionary.  Do I have a lot of money?  Not in the eyes of the world.  Am I rich?  You bet I am!

Missions will spoil you for the things of the world.  I encounter people with nothing who love God and praise Him with all of their hearts.  They are poor by the worlds standards, but I believe Jesus looks at them as having far more riches than the richest person in the world.  Their riches are stored up for them.

If you have thousands of dollars to "sow", make sure your investment is solid and not a "bless me" scheme.  Research ministries who are truly nonprofit, who help others.  Your return will be eternal!!