Steve McVey Writes:

 Love Changes Everything

Jackie is a young woman who lived in the inner city projects for many years. She had lived a hard life as a drug addict who sometimes sold her body to men to sustain her habit. Some might have blamed it on her upbringing, which had been anything but normal. From the time she was a child, the men in her life had abused and exploited her. Now, as an adult, she trusted no man. None. She was callused. Her language was unusually foul for a woman and she despised men.

A Christian man was visiting in her community when one day he met Jackie, smiled and said hello. Jackie rudely frowned at Don and immediately turned away. The next day Don returned to her community and again smiled and said hello. Again she turned away. However, Don was persistent. Day after day he came to visit her neighbors and each day he smiled and spoke to Jackie.

After a while, she actually began to think that maybe - just maybe, this guy was sincerely nice. Then the thought would rush into her mind, "But why would he have any interest in me? What does he want?" However, despite her skepticism and suspicions about his kindness, she began to respond to him a little more each day, until finally she was having conversations with Don.

As weeks turned into months, Jackie began to realize something. Don was interested in her as a lady. Not in an inappropriate way either. He seemed to genuinely care for her in the way that a man loves a woman with a purity that she had only dreamed about until now. Could it be that what she was feeling might be true? Did he really love her, as it seemed?

As the thought of being the recipient of this wonderful man’s love took root in her mind, Jackie began to change. First, she found that she didn’t want to use foul language when she talked to him anymore. She began to anticipate his visits each day and would get dressed up, put on her makeup and even wear perfume. She wanted to be pleasing to him. He had never criticized her looks or behavior. To the contrary, from the beginning Don had accepted her just like she was. That itself motivated her to want to change.

As Don shared his love with Jackie day after day, she bloomed. Little by little, her life was transformed from a hardened, drug-addicted prostitute into a real lady. The change didn’t happen because Don pointed out all her faults because he didn’t. She wasn’t transformed into a lady because it was what she thought she ought to do. His love motivated her to want to become the lady she was created to be. He didn’t lay religious rules on her; he just loved her and his relationship to her caused the change in her to become a natural result.

Have you realized the transforming power that comes through knowing that Jesus Christ loves you exactly where you are at this moment? Your religious upbringing may cause a haunting voice to criticize you, causing you to feel a shameful need to do better first, but don’t confuse that for the voice of Christ. He never criticizes, never tells you that youhave to change to be loved and completely accepted by Him. He loves you right where you are, no matter what you’re doing or not doing. It’s amazing. Even at times you don’t love yourself, He does.

This issue is one of the biggest differences between authentic Christianity and the legalistic counterfeit that often calls itself by the same name. New Testament Christianity is as immersed in grace as a fish living in the ocean. Where there is no loving grace present, there is no authentic expression of Christianity. God is love and Jesus has come to make that love known to us. He loves you at every moment, in every situation you find yourself.

The pseudo-Christianity of the modern world focuses primarily on a need to change ourselves to position ourselves into a better standing with God. This unloving brand of legalism will not help you because it is not biblical Christianity. It is a poser, a counterfeit, and an imposter. It can never empower anybody to change because its core value isn’t the love of God revealed in Jesus. At its core is the demand for an improved religious performance.

Even if you could change the way you behave, it would have absolutely no effect on how God feels about you. His love isn’t provoked by our actions but by the miraculous agape that flows out of Him completely independent of our actions or attitudes. Rules may tell you to change to gain God’s love but grace tells you that you are loved right now and couldn’t be loved any more.

Legalism changes nothing for the better. The love of God truly changes everything. If you hunger to see growth in your personal grace walk, abandon every religious thought. Embrace the biblical truth of Divine Love in order to experience the transformation you long to know.

Do you know how much He loves you? It is humanly illogical that He should love us so much, but He does. Stop trying to change yourself. That’s an empty religious act. You don’t have to do that. Just receive His love and He will change you. Until then, enjoy Him. You’ll be amazed at the power to change you’ll discover rising up in you as you simply accept His love.

Define Yourself

 

Steve McVey Writes: Can we trust our hearts

 A young student once approached Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and said, “I would like to write a concerto. Can you help me?"

"You're too young," Mozart told him, "wait a few years."

"But is it not true that you were composing music when you were just seven or eight?" the student persisted.

"Yes," answered Mozart, "but I didn't have to ask anybody how."

People often recognize what is within their heart at an early age. It takes a jaded adult perspective to strip a child of the simple faith to believe that he can be an astronaut or inventor or even President. Children have no trouble trusting that their heart will tell them the truth. Maybe that is part of the reason why Jesus said we must become like a little child to live in God's kingdom.

To recognize what is in your own heart is a major step in fulfilling the plan your Father has for your life. Once a person has the capacity to know what is in his heart and, along with that knowledge, possesses a childlike faith to trust His heart, his realm of possibilities multiply exponentially. Your dreams and core desires aren't silly. They never were. They have been divinely placed within you. They aren't coincidental, but have been joined together by Divine Design.

To live from the heart is to reconnect with your core desires that have been divinely deposited within you. In rediscovering your heart you’re likely to learn that your gifts and abilities align perfectly with those desires. After all, a loving God who has a master plan for your life has created you.

Living from the heart is different than living from the head. Our minds rationalize, scrutinize and analyze to determine whether or not our dreams are possible. The mind considers the external factors related to the situation and decides whether or not to pursue the course based on what it perceives to be the probability of a successful outcome. The heart knows no such boundaries, but challenges us to reach beyond natural limitations as if there were no limits to what might be done.

To successfully integrate your faith into your daily lifestyle, it is necessary to learn to trust your heart again, as you did when you were a child. Your mind certainly isn't an enemy of your heart, but in a world where we have been programmed to believe that reason alone reigns, it is important to once again lay hold of the dreams of your heart and realize that you can trust what you discover there.

How do you recognize the calling of your heart? The answer is closely related to understanding what moves you, what matters most to you. Do you want to rediscover your heart? You can find it by identifying the things you value most in life. Your heart isn't interested in becoming rich, but in becoming real - to live from your authentic self. It is what matters most, not what pays most that captures the heart.

One highly successful man said to me, "I can make money, but what I really want is to make a difference." That man was speaking from his heart. The well-known statement about having climbed the ladder to the top only to discover it was against the wrong wall describes an all too common situation for many people. We know instinctively that we were created for a higher calling in the workplace than simply to gain prestige, power and possessions. Blaise Pascal said in the seventeenth century, "the heart has reasons of which reason knows nothing."

Many with a church background grew up being bombarded with the Old Testament teaching that, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Because they have locked in on that single verse to the exclusion of others, they have come to doubt their own heart, believing it to be untrustworthy. While it is true that apart from God’s transforming grace, man’s heart is deceitful and wicked, you don’t live at that place. You have been embraced by the grace of God and have been transformed.

God promised in another place, “I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart” (Ezekiel 36:36, NLT). As a child of God, that is where you live. Your heart’s desire is to be obedient to God and to glorify Him. Why else would you be reading a book like this? Trust your heart. God has transformed it by His grace.

You can trust your heart because it belongs to Jesus Christ. You have become a partaker of the divine nature. (See 2 Peter 1:4) His life is your life. Learning to trust your heart will progress in direct proportion to choosing to believe that truth.

If Christ is your life (and He is), then you can live boldly and confidently, knowing that the One who has begun a good work in you will finish what He has started. (See Philippians 1:6) Your role is to trust your heart, knowing that Christ indwells it. His role is to see to it that the mission to which you have been appointed is discovered and fulfilled.

When you have learned to trust your heart, you will find that you become emboldened to experience the next characteristic of one who successfully integrates faith into the marketplace. You will be ready to live with gusto, drawing others to yourself by your enthusiasm.

If Christ is your life (and He is), then you can live boldly and confidently, knowing that the One who has begun a good work in you will finish what He has started. (See Philippians 1:6) Your role is to trust your heart, knowing that Christ indwells it. Step out in faith knowing that His role is to see to it that the mission to which you have been appointed is discovered and fulfilled.

Pastoral Prayer of Spurgeon

Our Father, blessed be Thy name forever and ever. Oh, that we praised Thee more! We must confess we never bless Thee as we ought, and our life is far too full of murmuring, or at the best too full of self-seeking, for even in prayer we may do this; and there is too little of lauding and adoring, and praising, and magnifying, and singing the high praises of Jehovah.

O God, wilt Thou teach us to begin the music of heaven! Grant us grace to have many rehearsals of the eternal Hallelujah. ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.’ Grant us grace that we may not bring Thee blessings merely because Thou dost feed us, and clothe us, and because we receive so many mercies at Thy hand, but may we learn to praise Thee even when Thou dost put us under the rod, and when the heart is heavy, and when mercies seem but scant. Oh, that when the flocks are cut off from the stall, and there is no harvest, we may nevertheless rejoice in God.

O Lord, teach us this very morning the art of praise. Let our soul take fire, and like a censer full of frankincense, may our whole nature send forth a delicious perfume of praiseful gratitude unto the ever blessed One, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

America's President

 

How to Share With Just Friends

How to share with just friends.

Posted by Facebook on Friday, December 5, 2014

Silly Game of Shame: Steve McVey Writes:

 Shame may well be the most destructive force that works against many people. It is a weapon intended by our Adversary to paralyze us with fear and insecurity. Nothing more effectively stops us dead in our tracks and brings all progress in our grace walk to a screeching halt.

Shame sneers at us with its sharp point gouging the raw nerves of our insecurities, challenging us, “Who do you think you are? Look at yourself! How could God possibly be pleased with somebody like you?” When we don’t know the truth, our immediate response is to lower our heads, look away from our Father’s loving gaze and then go into hiding.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, things changed for them. The Bible says, “But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Genesis 3:9-10). Fear stemming from shame was the immediate result of Adam’s sin and has been the lingering problem for humanity ever since then.

Adam hid because he was naked. Imagine that. From the moment Adam and Eve were created, they’d never been anything but naked and it didn’t matter to them at all because it didn’t matter to God. Now, after eating from the forbidden tree, embarrassment and shame enters the human story. Adam and Eve imagined that God wouldn’t be accepting of them the way they were anymore.

God hadn’t changed at all. He still came for His walk as He had done every day, but Adam and Eve had changed completely. Sin had perverted their perception of God’s character so that they now imagined Him as One who would be angry and punitive toward them.

Remember this important truth: Adam’s sin did not change God; it only changed Adam. The same is true about your own life. There is nothing you have done or could ever do that would change how God feels toward you. God is love and your sin cannot negate that fact. Until you realize that God isn’t upset with you, angry with you, disappointed in you or has distanced Himself from you, peace will elude you. Freedom comes in knowing that God doesn’t run away because we’ve sinned.

God didn’t run from Adam because of his sin but instead came to Adam, seeking Him in His sin. Fail to understand that and you’ll find yourself thinking like Adam, imagining a god who retreats from your sins rather than approaching you in your sins to make things right for you. The religious world may tell you that God will remove Himself from your sin, but Adam’s situation shows differently. Your Father rushes to you in your sin to rescue you from it. That’s the very reason for the incarnation of Jesus Christ!

How did God promise to make things right for Adam and Eve? In Genesis 3:15, He spoke to the Serpent: “From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” The offspring He speaks about who will crush the head of the serpent is Jesus. This is the first reference to the coming of Christ to deal with sin to be found in Scripture. Satan would hurt Jesus at the cross, but Jesus would destroy his power. (A wound to the head is fatal.)

Jesus has come and your sin has been remedied. Satan has lost his power over you. The promise of Genesis 3:15 has come to pass!

Sin caused Adam and Eve to become self-conscious and decided they needed to embark on a self-improvement program. Thus came the birth of religion – the attempt to make ourselves more acceptable to God by doing the things we think He would require of us in order for us to be acceptable to Him. The whole thing is ridiculous. God accepts us just like we are. Adam and Eve weren’t hiding from God. They were hiding from some imaginary god they concocted in their newly darkened minds.

They were cringing before somebody that doesn’t even exist. Can you see the foolishness of the whole thing? From that day in the garden until Jesus came, humanity was trapped in shame and embarrassment.

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. You 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). This verse reminds us that we sometimes can’t trust our emotions, but we can trust God. He knows that we are totally forgiven. 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 that 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. You belong in the conscious awareness of your permanent place in our Father’s embrace. That embrace will transform your life.

Absurd Forgiveness - Steve McVey Writes:

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he wrongly assumed God would be angry but instead God came looking for Him to take His regular evening walk.

​When Abraham sent his wife, Sarah, into Pharaoh’s tent to protect his own life by allowing her to have sex with another man, God told Pharaoh that he was on dangerous ground and that he’d better get her out of there right now. The next words out of God’s mouth to Abraham were to reassure him of the covenant He had made with him. Not a word about his sin.

​When Elisha was depressed and afraid and angry and prayed to die, God sent an angel to feed him so that he might regain his strength. No shame or blame.

​When Peter denied Jesus, our Lord made sure when he arose to mention Peter by name and said to make sure he knew Jesus was alive. No reference to what Peter had done.

​These were giants in the Bible – giants who made horrific choices. In each instance, the love of God swallows up their sins and foolishness in one great gush of grace. It's absurd. What have you done that causes you to think God may be disappointed or perturbed toward you? Whatever it is, you need to set it aside because that's what He has done. As absurd as it sounds, God isn't interested in what you've done in the past. He lives with you in the now and wants you to live in this moment of grace and accept His forgiveness.

​Jesus showed us our Father’s heart when He had the Father of the prodigal son throw him a party when he returned home without so much as a mention of what the boy had done. That’s your God.

​Refuse to accept His acceptance and you’ll lock yourself inside a prison of your own making. Accept His acceptance and you’ll run in the joyful freedom only known by those who know their sins never appear on God’s radar – never.

​You’ve messed up? Welcome to the world of great children of God. It happened. So put it aside now. Don’t insult the grace of God by insisting on trying to share in dealing with it through your own gnawing guilt and spiritually suicidal self-consciousness. You are forgiven. You are free. You are one with the One who keeps no record of wrongs and promises to never remember them again.

​So dance. Run. Laugh. Play. Celebrate. That’s what the Father, Son and Spirit are doing and He asks you to join in right now.