Reflection of His Grace

Reflection of His Grace

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

 

There were three seasons of Paul s life where he got so desperate and was in such pain that he fasted and prayed and asked God to give him some relief.  He was a man with amazing faith who ended up dying for what he believed, yet there was a period in his life when God was silent.  He was in the dark as to why God would not hear or answer his prayers, and some of us have mistaken God s silence as His absence.  Although he was a rock star in Christianity with perfect faith, God let him wander around in the dark for a while, and he got No for his answer.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9 But God said to Paul, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

 

Every single one of you has something that we wish God would change and apparently He is not going to change it.  Are you going to shake your fist and walk away, or will you accept No for an answer and lean hard on Him?  Paul said, my faith is not based on an answer to prayer but on the fact that Jesus is the Savior of the world and that He rose from the dead.  I am not going anywhere, but if you are not going to remove this, then I am trusting that your grace is going to empower me to keep on going.

 

When God says No, it is not a reflection of your faith; but if you respond correctly, you will become a refection of His grace, because it takes more faith to endure a No from God than to acquire a Yes.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Our Foundation

Our Foundation

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

 

The foundation of our faith as Christians is not and answer in our circumstances, but it is a person, Jesus Christ.  All of us try to figure out what God is like based on the way circumstances work out.  We are trying to figure out how to try to get God to work in our favor.  The reason we believe is not because things work out and God answers our prayers.  We believe because God sent His Son into the world to be our Savior.  He lived a life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead.  He was seen by hundreds of people who spent their lives telling people not simply what they believed, but what they were convinced they saw with their own two eyes. 

 

Every once in a while you meet somebody that has an extraordinary belief in Christ.  You look at their life and say, How could you continue to believe when God lets terrible things happen to you in your life, and God has not answered any of your prayers?  This is a person who understands the foundation of faith is not an experience, but a relationship with Jesus.  An experience sometimes jump starts your faith, but it is a person who did something in history that we lean our faith on.  That is what it means as a Christian to have faith. 

 

Faith is simply confidence that God is who He says that He is, and He will do everything that He has promised to do.  Hope is, God, here is what I want, and I hope that you will do it.  Faith is, Here is what I want, and you promised to do it.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Victory

Victory

The short excerpt is by Jim Daly, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:54-57  Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

When I was just nine years old, I saw something that made a tremendous impression on me. The day of my mother s funeral was sunny, but as we arrived at the cemetery, a tremendous wind blew up and the skies darkened. The weather mirrored my mood. My mom was dead and as I stood by her graveside and waited to see her casket lowered into the ground, tears fell fast upon my feet. My life as I had known it was now over. The wind served as a metaphor, disrupting what was supposed to be a calm service. All hope seemed lost.

 

But just as the minister completed his remarks, everyone in attendance looked up and saw that a strange cloud configuration had developed in the distance, revealing what looked like a staircase straight up into the sky.

 

A wonderful feeling of peace and joy swept over me. I believe that God used that moment to remind me that my dear mother, who had accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior just days earlier, had walked those white steps on her way to glory.

 

Some might dismiss such a moment as childlike emotion, but everybody that was there that day saw exactly the same thing. In fact, my brother, Mike, who was in the Navy and living a very worldly life was so taken by what he saw that he began to investigate Christianity. He subsequently committed his life to Jesus and is now a strong believer.

 

I have heard many stories that give me chills.  A local pastor has observed that there is a very thin wall between the here and the hereafter, especially at the hour of death.  I have had many people ask me to stop talking – so that they can listen to what they see happening in Heaven!

  

Because Jesus defeated death, we do not have to fear or fight death. Because He took the pain and the penalty we deserve, we can look forward to life eternal with Him.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

The Resurrection

The Resurrection

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  he was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

 

For the last hundred years, scholars have tried to say that the gospels were written so late (100 years after the fact), that there were no eyewitnesses left to contradict.  But now the latest scholarly findings show that the gospels were written within the life-time of eyewitnesses so they could not be fabrications.  Secondly, if these were fabrications, they were the stupidest fabrications in history because the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection were women.  Women were of such low estate in that society and culture that their testimony was not admissible in court.  If you are going to make up a story to try to show that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, you would never have women be the first eyewitnesses.  Why are all the documents saying that women were the first people that Jesus appeared to?  Because He did!   That is just like Jesus.  The Gospel destroys stereotypes and expectations.  There is nothing about the gospels that look like fabrications.  It is also hard to believe that if there were ringleaders for this hoax they all would have died for the hoax.  The evidence is mighty overwhelming, so here is the question.  Why did not everyone believe?

 

If the resurrection is true, then I lose control of my life.  It means that if Jesus is Savior, then He is Lord.  It means I cannot live the way I want to live.  This is still the reason that people cannot be objective about the evidence.  If the resurrection is true, you lose control with what you do with your money, sexuality and life.  It makes everything else unimportant.  But get this.  If the Gospel of the resurrection is not true, then everything is unimportant anyway. 

 

If you do not believe in the resurrection, doubt your doubts.  Be skeptical about your skepticism.  Spend the time.  You have gambled everything on it not being true.  You better be sure.  Look at the evidence.  Do the exploration.  If you do not want to believe in Christianity, do not just shrug and laugh at it because you have taken your life into your own hands.

 

1 Corinthians 15:14,19 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith, and we are of all people most to be pitied.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining