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

Mercy and Grace

Mercy and Grace

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 

 

When you come to God, come boldly and confidently and with extreme emotion because He knows what you are carrying, and you will receive mercy every single time.  Mercy is Jesus standing outside the tomb of Lazarus already knowing that He is going to raise Lazarus from the dead and that everything is going to work out.  Yet before He intervenes, He pauses and weeps (John 11:35).  Everyone watching said, Look how much He loved Lazarus.  Why did He pause and weep?  It is because your Savior understands, and He is not too big and busy to feel what you feel.  Mercy is, I know, and I am not angry at you for feeling it. Keep bringing it to me every single time, and my response to you is going to be MERCY!  Sometimes it is going to be tangible mercy, and it is going to take the pressure off. Sometimes it is going to be the intangible thing that comes from knowing that my Heavenly Father knows, and that will be enough.

 

There is a second thing that you get every single time and that is the GRACE to help you in your time of need.  Grace in this context is the strength and the energy to endure.  God has not promised to deliver us from our circumstances, but He has promised us to be with us through them.  God says, Sometimes I am going to take the pressure off and intervene in your circumstances, but I can promise you every single time to give you the grace, strength, and power to endure if you will come to me. Do not give up on me just because you could not fine me in the circumstances of life.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

In This World

In This World

 

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

 

If God has not promised to make us rich, to answer all of our prayers, to keep bad things from happening to us, then what has He promised?  John 16:33 says . . . In this world you will have trouble. . .  Anytime a pastor or leader promises you a life without trouble, that's not what Jesus modeled or taught. 

 

Hebrews 4:14-15 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  The high priest is the person that represents us to God.  To empathize is to say that I have been there and done that, and I know exactly how that feels.  When you are talking to Jesus, He knows exactly what you are going through and what it feels like.

 

Jesus was tempted in every single way that you have been tempted.  He has felt what you have felt and has faced what you have faced.  Jesus spent a night dreading the events of the following day.  Your Savior spent the night knowing that the next day He would be tried, beaten and crucified.  He experienced the rejection and the betrayal of His closest friends, and some of you know what that is like.  Jesus watched as His closest friends ran away in front of Him, and He listened as the person that He invested the most time in denied knowing Him three times.  He has experienced the rejection of a family member, and He saw everything He worked so hard and lived so intently for crumble around Him.  He experienced crushing temptation, and He knows about the temptations you face. 

John 16:33  . . . In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I (Jesus) have overcome the world.

Champions, have a great couple of weeks!-David Vining

 

What God Has Not Promised

What God Has Not Promised

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is Matthew 5:45 God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

 

We really would like to use God and get Him to do what we want.  When you read the Bible, you will find that God cannot be shrunk down into a little box that we can manipulate and get Him to cooperate with us.  If you ever decide to embrace Christianity, then you need to look at what God has not promised you.  Most of the men who had the greatest faith in Jesus were martyred, persecuted, stoned or beaten.  They had incredible faith, and bad things still happened to them.  God has not promised to keep bad things from happening to those that believe in Him.  If something bad happens to you, that does not mean that God does not care about you or that He does not love you. 

 

None of the people that were closest to Jesus became wealthy because of their faith.  There was nothing in it for them, yet they continued to have this extraordinary faith in Jesus.  So why did they continue to believe?  They would say, I saw this guy on a cross, and three days later we had lunch.  I do not know if there is anything in this for me or not, but I am just telling you what I saw.  I am just going to go with the guy that rose from the dead.

 

Jesus went around and healed lots of people, but He did not heal everybody.  Every once in a while even now Jesus heals someone miraculously, but it is not the norm.  God has not promised to heal everyone, and He has not promised to reverse the consequences of your bad decisions.  Sometimes you get a break, but He does not promise to rescue you from the consequences of your sin.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining