The Just Shall Live by GRACE

Did you do a double take at the title?

Certainly, The Bible clearly reiterates (4 times!), “The just shall live by faith”, referring to faith in all that God is, as represented by His Word and His Savior, Jesus. Like me, have you heard the expression, “Prayer is the key, and faith unlocks the door”?  This is quite true, as prayer and faith are crucial spiritual tools/weapons for any serious Christian. However, rather than prayer or faith, it is God’s GRACE that actually empowers us to live the life that corresponds to our calling. Only by His Grace, accessed through faith, will we will live, die, resurrect and reign with Christ. Our faith in God’s Word activates, appropriates and endlessly sustains His Grace to us. So, in a real sense:

Faith is the Avenue to God’s GRACE~

GRACE is God’s Response to Faith in Jesus, His Word~

When you’re in a pinch to have needs met, what mental pictures do you persistently see? At every turn, do you see various angles of the need, perhaps growing bigger than it really is; or perhaps the varied consequences of the needs not being met in time?  Two things in life are inescapably certain (apart from death): Needs and Desires. All of life seems to boil down to an incredible, concentrated focus on meeting needs and desires. God’s Word, The Bible, has many great promises that cover them both, as He earnestly desires us to embrace Him, through Christ, as the source of meeting our needs and desires.

Since so many of our needs and desires are seemingly inextricably tied to the world’s money systems, it is easy for us to focus more on getting money to meet those needs, than on God, the source of all our supply. Rather than being tricked into becoming so ‘money-centric’, let’s develop ways and means to become GRACE-centric. This could be easily achieved if we mentally and spiritually embraced every need and desire as an opportunity to experience God’s Grace, whether as a recipient or giver. Here are two hopefully useful tips to achieve this objective.

Become ‘others focused’.  As noted in a much earlier post, I am regularly reminded that every need and desire I experience may well be a faint mirror-like reflection of a similar, but more intense need or desire another person may be experiencing; hence I should be moved to intercede.* This helps to place my needs/desires in a different (higher) perspective. It also reminds me God desires to meet the needs of others as well, and He does so via us who are available to LOVE by praying, believing, sharing, giving, etc.  

Got a need? 

First look for an opportunity to intercede.     

Develop your own Grace symbol.  For example, in lieu of the natural tendency to focus on money, symbolized by $, €, £, ¥, P, W, N, etc., consider the power of this illustrative symbol:

|  G |

This simple symbol gives me a handy tool to shift and maintain my focus on God’s Grace as His power working in and through me to meet needs and to give the desires of our hearts as we delight ourselves in Him. (Psalm 37:4)

Since God originally intended to meet mankind’s needs/desires directly (before sin corrupted our world), and He intends on eternally meeting the needs/desires of anyone who accepts His Grace for salvation through Jesus, it make sense to get a running start now in learning to live by Grace, through faith. While faith is relevant to life in our fallen world, it may not be required after joining God in perfect union. Grace, however, may well be the only constant that transfers from this life to the next -- eternal life. (Sound-off if you disagree.)

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* (See: http://jwootenjr.blogspot.com/2011/09/putting-face-on-faith-trust-actualized.html)

The Façade of Scarcity

Economics has been called the study of scarcity. Since God is the source of all abundance, from whence comes scarcity? Is it real, or simply a figment of our collective imaginations, figments that we have been tricked into translating into actualities? Could scarcity be simply an unfortunate, but mere option?

Many experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the concept called groupthink has some validity in shaping actual events experienced by a group of people. At first glance, we may be tempted to discount the very notion. Yet, any careful study of The Bible affirms how this principle (a spiritual law, perhaps?) works both at the individual level, also the community and even national levels. Still a doubter?

Consider this:

·          ...As he thinks [and eventually believes in his heart], so is he, i.e., so ‘becomes’ his factual actuality. (Proverbs 23:7)

     ...Righteousness exalts a [whole/entire] nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. (Proverbs 14:34)

Each of these starts first at the individual level, then expands to the community level, and eventually affects or infects the national level. This process reflects ‘culture’ – the collective behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group; the sum total of ways of living built up by a group and transmitted to subsequent generations. Reprogramming culture similarly starts at the individual level and, over time, may affect or infect a nation via the community level, as a drop of ink stains a cup of water. Human cultures always initiate on a positive path, and then quickly deteriorate negatively.

Persistent, individual thought, thus is the ‘seed’ of culture. This is why God reiterated His concern about ‘the imaginations of the thoughts of man’s heart’, knowing full well persistent thoughts/imaginations become beliefs, eventually produce their fruit, and then quickly spread their seeds to take root exponentially. This is how the earth realm is programmed to respond to seed of any kind.

This exact process is how abundance becomes scarcity -- thoughts ‘thunk’ persistently, then spread exponentially. Our challenge remains: how to reprogram our mindsets, beliefs, speech, and expectations to root out the sickness-poverty-lack mentality we all grew up with. Re-training our imagination is not so easy, especially as we daily ‘behold’ the deteriorated conditions in our world that we have created via the above process. What a conundrum!

The answer is clear and simple, and is reiterated in The Bible four (4) times as:

The just (people whom God calls ‘righteous’) 

shall live by faith. *

The object of faith (i.e., that at which the eyes of faith must steadfastly look) must be something other than that which is in front of our natural/physical eyes. Why? Continually looking at the latter will only ensure continuing thoughts, imaginations, beliefs and seeds to produce more of the same! Rather, we need to focus on (imagine) things associated with and related to our God of abundance to the point that these become real, inwardly. As we do, they will eventually become actual, outwardly. How? 

Faith thus becomes the ‘avenue’ to God’s Grace,

The portal through which things of Heaven we taste.

Grace is the pure essence of God’s mighty power.

It’s exactly what we need in this dark hour!

Thus we may aptly say, ‘The Just Shall Live by GRACE’,

And thus our scarcity mindsets we will erase!

Grace, God’s power through us that accomplishes

That which pleases Him, that which He cherishes.

Economics is the study of façades,

Figments of our imaginations so flawed.

The only shortage that really exists

Is one of faith in God's Grace in our midst!

Imagine this: God has made available to each person the equivalent of a nuclear power plant to generate power to accomplish whatever we need to live a righteous/Godly life, but we stupidly ignore this because we cannot imagine that it's true. And so we make do in life, trying to get by on a couple of rechargeable AA batteries! 

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* Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38

To You, Do I Stink?

Pardon me, Sir/Ma’am, to you, do I stink??

Or to you, am I a pleasant fragrance?

Before responding with blank stares and blinks,

Let me clarify my question’s essence.

I speak not of my breath or body personal,

But of all my messages Biblical.

To you, are the words I speak Godly seed kernel,

Or just useless spiritual babel?

Knowledge of Christ is a dual fragrance. *

That knowledge is likely what you smell; perhaps it’s God’s breath.

To us who’re saved, it’s ever so pleasant.

To those who are hell-bound, it’s the stench of eternal death.

So take a deep breath, smell me and my kind.

I hope you’ll not only smell, but also taste,

Taste the love of Christ; to you it’s inclined.

Come! Experience His astonishing Grace.

Here is one thing to ponder before I quit:

You, yes you have dual fragrances, too!

Think about the fragrances your life emits,

Then imagine: ‘Who smells which smell’ from YOU?

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* Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing. To the (latter) one, we are the aroma of death, leading to death, and to the other (former), the aroma of life, leading to life. 

(2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

So Delightfully Yours (Poem)

I AM delightfully your God, AM I.

I’m faithfully guiding you with My eye; *

Loving, disciplining you with My hand;

Letting you know it’s on your side I stand.

In faith, lift to Me the bread that you sup.

By faith, ‘toast’ Me with that wine in your cup.

Privately, as it's Me whom you are ‘toasting’,

Publicly, it’s about you I'll be boasting. **

My love for you, so universally vast.

My loving Grace to you, time will not outlast.

I AM The Lord Almighty, Creator.

Let My Word be your heart’s motivator.

That which you diligently put inside your heart

Is what My earth and angels will surely bring out. ***

I AM The Lord, ALL powerful, and I’ll never be mocked. ****

So beware what you put inside, 
          so your world won’t be rocked.

You will live by what you diligently ‘hear’,

Whether what you hear produces faith or fear.

Imagine, believe, pretend it’s My Word that’s true,

So my angels and I can bring our world to you.

I AM The Lord, in you I delight.

Between you and Me, there’s no more fight.

So glad to Me you have opened your heart’s doors.

Yes, I AM The Lord, so delightfully yours.

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* Psalm 32:8

** Matthew 6:6, 18

*** Proverbs 4:23

**** Galatians 6:7

Blood Moons, So What? (Poem)

  Tetrad of Blood Moons - Genesis 1:14 Rune
(Middle East, 2014 – 2015)

Blood moons have come and gone; it's now all a blur.
“So what?”, you may ask; “Now what?”, you may wonder.
T’was much speculation on what they all meant.
God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament
To divide the day and night, for years and seasons.” *
Then He said, for these there was one other reason.

He said they'd especially be to us as ‘signs’.
Interesting, to this one reason we pay no mind,
Ignoring His Word, thinking we can manage,
Ignoring their role as God’s great sign language.
Jesus said look for signs in the sun, moon and stars,
Then pray and ‘watch the fig tree’, not planet Mars! **

The fig tree is the nation of Israel,
But what to watch on this long spinning newsreel?
What is the unique sign to us, from Him?
It’ His beloved city, Jerusalem!
He said it’ll be “trampled by Gentiles until
The times of the Gentiles are completely fulfilled.” ***

Since then, Gentile rule had been in prominence
Until Israel overcame all resistance, (1967)
Then decided one key area to yield --
That thrice holy’ spot up there on a great hill.
Al-Aqsa mosque is there and The Dome of the Rock.
Some call it Temple Mount. All eye it like a hawk!

You see, this tiny bit of thrice holy real estate
Is a microcosm of regional spite and hate.
It’s to this city and site nations anxiously look,
Just as predicted in The Bible, God’s Holy book.
The stage is set! To this lend eye and ear,
As the meltdown moves into higher gear!

In the U.S. we have an old expression:
“As goes California, so goes the nation.”
Now, as goes Jerusalem, so goes the Middle East,
And, as goes the Middle East, so goes ... the entire world!
That the Middle East is God's great caldron, there can be no doubt.
So watch it closely to see what life on earth is all about.

Jerusalem is to the Middle East,
As the Middle East is to the whole world.
Heads up! Stay tuned. No time to fall asleep!
Watch and take heed as our world is ... unfurled. 

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* Genesis 1:14

** Luke 21:29

*** Luke 21:24