Are we abiding in grace or merely saved by it?

A main difference in Christians today is not the means of salvation. Being saved by grace is a dividing line between Christianity and cult.

How we live as believers brings a wide range of ideas. The goal of a holy life, led pleasing to God is the same.

But the path we take to get there can be radically different, especially in the area of our motives.

Do we live to earn God’s favor or out of a response to it?
Is obedience inspired by love or duty?
Are we slaves or sons and daughters?

By: Christian Scheja

Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)

Jesus himself said we cannot grow as a believer apart from abiding in Christ, in his gift of grace.

“No longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (John 15:15-16)

We are no longer servants but friends (or sons and daughters)

As Andrew Murray said so well, grace is so much more than salvation. Grace is for all of life. Grace helps us live.

Human nature tells us it is all up to us.

God says success comes when we stop trying so hard and allow God, and grace, to work in us.

Obedience is important. But perhaps we need to be reminded of one of the commands we should first and foremost seek to obey.

Abide.

No wandering one; as it was Jesus who drew you when He said, “Come” so it is Jesus who keeps you when He says, “Abide.” The grace to come and the grace to abide are both from Him alone.”
Andrew Murray

If you are a Dad, the answer is “Of Course!”   Eventually, even the best dad will succumb to the inevitable instruction manual searching when attempting to assemble a “simple” toy.

We often treat our lives this way.

We do our best to figure it out, but eventually need to seek God for the instruction manual.  

By: zaphad1

Have you ever stopped to think about why God does not tell us our entire life in advance?

Remember back to when you were in your late teens or early twenties and asked God the serious question of, “What do you want me to do with my life?”

If he had showed you where you would be today, what would you have done?

I would have RUN!!

I would have pulled a Jonah and run to the farthest reaches of the known world to escape my calling (Jonah 1:3)

If God would have told me I would have a teaching and public speaking ministry in Africa, I would have freaked out!   As a teenager, I was petrified of public speaking. Even answering simple questions in class caused me to turn beet red.

No outsider would have picked the short, zit faced, and insecure kid as a future leader of an international ministry!

I had absolutely no ambition or even dreams of living in Africa. To top it off, I never in my wildest day dreaming session, envisioned having a black son! (which I do!)

God doesn’t give us the full picture because He knows we are not ready for it. He shows us His will and His plan as we are ready. This keeps us at the place of trusting Him.  

It also allows God to build into us gifts, talents, and character we never dreamed. If God shared with us all His dreams for our lives, we would find a way to mess it up. Rather God, in his Omniscience, takes us one step at a time, working for our good in all situations.

We know this is true.

He never tells us the season we will meet our spouse, He does not prepare us for the inevitable challenges marriage and children will bring. You simply cannot plan for these events, you respond to them.

God knows. We respond.
God releases when we are ready.
We can trust He has our best interest in mind.

God does possess the ultimate instruction manual and knows what the finished product will look like.

Our job is to look to the master architect each day and say, “What’s Next.”

So let’s do that. Thank him for where He has brought you from and ask, “What’s Next.”

In today’s day and age it is easy to benefit from one aspect of the missionary life. Frequent travel. The nature of missions involves being traveling missionaries. We have left home to go somewhere.

There are great opportunities and value given to those who find themselves on the road often. It is easy to believe that obtaining these perks are not something “spiritual” missionaries do. I would like to contend it is the practice of the wise

I’ve written several posts on my blog regarding how to benefit from these perks. Some of the topics I have covered are:
- Racking Up Frequent Flyer Miles.
- Finding the Best Flight Deals
- Avoiding the Middle Seat and more Travel Tips.

By: Oveth Martinez

These posts have been some of my most successful. I will not repeat what is in them, but would like to offer a few points based on my experience and mention the benefits of following the advice to the Life Overseas community.

Join the Conversation at www.ALIfeOverseas.com to see what my suggestions are!

God Uses Ordinary People is a message I have preached on many times. When the post went live, it did not attract much traffic.

But recently this changed.

Little by little, the post received more traffic. Each week and month, it would pick up more and more readers. Recently it hit number one all time, with hits on this post literally every day.  This is a picture of steady incremental growth.

The words “ordinary” and “God uses ordinary people” appear in my google search results.

The post is based on the passage in 2 Corinthians where Paul talks about an extra ordinary power cloaked in the common so God gets the glory.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” ( 2 Cor. 4:7)

By: oatsy40

I think there are several reasons why this post resonates with people.

1. Most of us feel very ordinary. Gospel centered people know they are not superstars, feeling as if  they are something special.  Proud and self-absorbed people aren’t looking for God to use the ordinary, they will attempt to succeed based on their own talent or wisdom. The gospel promotes the ordinary becoming extra-ordinary.

2. To embrace the gospel requires a declaration of need. The gospel lends itself to those of us who feel unqualified, but rely on God to give us strength in our weakness.

3. There is a comfort in God using the ordinary. It gives hope. We have enough bad news out there, this offers a truth people want to embrace.

4. There is a hope that as we declare our weakness, God through His strength can do something of significance in spite of our shortcomings. Most jobs require an application selling our qualifications. God accepts us with our deficiencies and allows us to grow where we are at.

This is a message which is connecting with where people are at. The proof is in the traffic.

To read the full original post, Click here.

Otherwise, feel free to add reasons why you believe this truth connects with people.
Are there other reasons you would offer as to why this is resonating?  

I have just completed an EBook.

I would like to introduce to you: United We Build: Creating a Team Environment 

This book takes many of the principles I used to build my team here in South Africa and shows how these can be translated into any goal you desire to rally a team around. It is full of external resources and practical, challenging questions.

Some of the topics covered are:

The Importance of Vision

The Creation of a Team Environment

Recruiting Team Members

Growing the Members of your Team

Enduring for the Long Haul

and much, much more….

Best of all…..

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This deal won’t last forever so go grab the Ebook. Share it with your friends!

Then…..if you like it

Please, leave a review on Amazon.com. The more reviews, the more Amazon promotes the book. The more the leadership truths go out, as well as the more exposure NoSuperHeroes gets in sharing the message of grace.

It’s a Win / Win!

So, enjoy the gift. Thank you for your support of NoSuperHeroes.

And as always, Tell others!