Monthly Archives: June 2021

Holy Habitation

Unmerited Favor: All Powerful Supply

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“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:8-10‬ ‭

Many people see grace and mercy as being the same things, but they aren’t. Scripturally, grace and mercy are two sides of the same coin, distinctly different, and both necessary for redemption, sanctification, and the work of completion.

Mercy is what most use to define both. Mercy is unmerited favor. It is God’s work to protect, provide, and direct to good that we do not deserve – at all, nor can we. Mercy has nothing to do with our ‘do’ and everything to do with God’s ‘Who’. He loves us, therefore He gives us His mercy. He loves us, thus we experience Him deliver us from consequences our actions and choices deserve. When we are spared a just outcome to unrighteous choices and actions, that is mercy. Woo! The stories of mercy I could tell.

Grace is God’s power made perfect in our weakness, giving us strength and ability (2 Cor. 12:9). We cannot produce the fruit of God in our lives apart from His grace at work in and through us. We cannot serve God or know and do His will, His way without His grace powering it. We cannot even possess and work out of faith in God apart from His grace to power our faith. Mercy gifts us a measure of faith; grace empowers us to use that faith.

We cannot be saved apart from Mercy. And we cannot live Christ apart from grace. We cannot be right within ourselves without mercy; we cannot live outwardly the right mercy produces in us apart from grace pouring through us. Mercy saves. Grace sanctifies.

Holy Habitation

From External Tutor to Internal Teacher

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“… Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. …” Galatians‬ ‭3:19-29‬ ‭NASB

The purpose of God’s Law is to tutor us and cause us to realize our need of His merciful grace. It’s intent is to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. Then the power of God through the Spirit of God moves into us to teach us His ways and equip our success in following Him in the likeness of the perfection of Jesus Christ.

Where we fall short, Jesus covers us so we receive the mercy of God. And our weak flesh does fall short of this glory of God. We need God’s mercy, which means we need Jesus who covers us. We need God’s grace which empowers us to live as Jesus lived, thus we need the filling of the Spirit of God that comes through faith in Christ.

By faith to believe the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus accomplished on our behalf, we find freedom from sin and it’s consequence – death – eternal separation from God. By the work of God’s indwelling Spirit, we find power to live the freedom granted, as honors the God we possess and profess for all eternity.

Got Jesus? Only believe, receive, and profess Him, and He will seal the deal through the powerful work of the indwelling Spirit.

Holy Habitation

True Love Is a River Flow

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“…That’s how you once behaved, characterized by your evil deeds. But now it’s time to eliminate them from your lives once and for all—anger, fits of rage, all forms of hatred (f.n., “including self-hatred”), cursing, filthy speech, and lying. Lay aside your old Adam-self with its masquerade and disguise…” Colossians‬ ‭3:5-17‬ ‭TPT‬‬

We are always dearly loved by God. ‭However, hatred for one’s self closes the door to love. We cannot know and fully receive the love of God or others when self-hate makes us feel unworthy. Nor can we truly give love when we hate self.

To top that, we tend to judge the opinion of others toward us by our own opinion of self, so self-hate produces misunderstanding of others words and actions, thus causing us to react inappropriately toward them.

Self-hate keeps us self focused, so we cannot see the struggle and difficulty others have and are acting out of themselves. Self-hate denies we are worth loving, and when we can’t love self enough to recognize any good in us, we can’t truly give love to those around us who struggle as we do. It’s a vicious cycle that gets confusing with the thought of it.

So, let’s get that out of the way. We are unworthy. In our fleshly struggle of self-hate that cannot truly receive love, we are broken vessels. None of us are perfect apart from Christ, nor can we be perfected without the work of God active and alive in us. We need Him. When we broken vessels think love is earned by worthiness, we cannot recognize true love to receive it, nor can we give it. Broken vessels cannot receive true love and hold onto it long enough to possess it where we can have it to give out freely to others.

Here’s the thing: God IS Love. His love comes to us, not because of who we are or what we do, but because of Who He IS.

We cannot lose what He freely gives. We haven’t earned it, therefore we can’t unearn or lose it. His love is ours by His choice, because love is His “who”. And when we finally learn that truth, the truth of God’s love for us personally, heals us. We become His mended vessels, able to recognize, receive, know, possess, and give true love: which is God in all His fullness.

And here’s another wonderful truth we need to know. When we choose to believe and receive this love from God, He begins to show us who we truly are and can be in our relationship with Him through Christ. Like a River flow reconfigures the riverbed, by His love working in us, He adjusts our “who” to something glorious and new, as we become like Him, including being able to love and give true love out of who we are because of Him.

His unconditional, unearned love flows from Him to us and for us to self, healing our brokenness and filling us up. But it doesn’t fill us like a closed reservoir, He flows through us like a river flows, which makes us love as He is love. An extension of His Who, He flows love from us to all around us. He makes us worthy of love by making us as He is, love, able to truly believe, receive, and give love, even to those who can’t earn it, because they haven’t received for themselves Him who is love.

Beloved, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to pay the price of our unworthiness. By accepting that gift of grace, letting go of our self-loathing to receive God’s unconditional love, we enter the River flow to be made love as He is love. Believe it. Receive it. Begin now to be changed by God’s love flow.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

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Respect. What is it? And what determines the giving of it?

According to The Free Dictionary: respect is a feeling of appreciative, often deferential regard; esteem. The state of being regarded with honor or esteem: a leader held in the greatest respect. Consideration or appreciation. Due regard for something considered important or authoritative: I.e., respect for the law.

My personal answer to both questions is “me”.

In my opinion and, prayerfully, in my personal life, respect is an attribute I must possess and practice. Respect, like love, is who I am and choose to be. It flows out of love, honor, and loyalty, first to God, then to self and others, and finally to the institutions of life: family, church, job, law, nation, etc.

With God in first place, respect is given out of love, honor, and loyalty to Him. He calls us to love Him out of one’s entire being as first, most vital relationship, and love others as self. Respect is first and foremost an act of love that honors God as Lord.

God tells us to honor our parents. He does not specify honoring parents who are worthy. We honor our parents, whether or not they are good at parenting, because God is our God. Honoring parents, honors Him as God. One way we do that as children of God is by living as honors Him in such a way that it makes our parents look good as parents. Honoring Him expresses honor for those He birthed us to. It can be hard, especially if the relationship is a bad one, but God, who requires it, equips us for it.

Loyalty to God spills over to respect self as the temple He chooses as residence. Loyalty to self chooses to BE as He is, through love, honor, and the loyal practice of all He places in us and calls us to. Desire to BE all He desires for me, and all He is making me to BE, requires me to be loyal to self in requiring the best in me. Out of loyalty to being who I am and desire to be, I give respect, at all times, to all people, including myself, in loving care as His temple.

We are called to respect parents, which includes grandparents, because God says to and we respect Him. We are called to respect governing officials, which includes law enforcement, because they are given charge by God to reward good, and punish evil. Respect honors a parent’s wishes through obedience as a love action toward God first. Respect obeys the laws of the land for the same reason. Respect obeys God above all: His laws and requirements take precedence over all others.

When we ignore a request or order given, or do a half hearted job of it, we disrespect God first, denying His Lordship; then we disrespect self, sullying our reputation as God’s representative; and lastly we disrespect the authority figure we dishonor through disobedience or halfhearted service.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T begins and ends with “me”, who I am, who I want to be. And it reflects my true relationship with God, in whose image I am called to live.

Father, as I think on these things and write these words, I can see areas of needed practice using my respect muscles. Make me better at living this necessary attribute. Empower the attribute of respect to flow from me out of love, honor, and loyalty to You as Lord in all my relationships. In Jesus, amen.