Grace Gems - Christ Is Our Root

Jesus came to remove our root in Adam by dying as us on the cross and give us His root of righteousness as a free gift. Notice, in both cases we cannot produce fruit by our performance. Good fruit or bad fruit is a result of our root. Self righteousness because of Adam or the gift of righteousness because of the second Adam, Christ. As believers we’re now grafted into the root called Christ and when we feed from the root, good fruits are produced unconsciously, effortlessly. This is why, when we see Jesus in the Bible, we feed on the root and fruits just happen. When you as a believer find yourself struggling with sin or feel disgusted about yourself, stop trying to change yourself. Behaviour modification can only go so far. Continue feeding on your root Jesus and when you feed on Him, true heart transformation happens.

Revelation of Grace

Grace Gems - God is Not Obsessed by Sin

Grace Gems - We Have been...

Grace Gems - God's Love

Grace Gems - The Ocean Of Grace by Mick Mooney

The ocean is one body of water, but it is made up of an immeasurable amount of drops. Though small when compared to the whole, each drop has an equally important place in making the ocean what it is.

I think of God's love like an ocean, and each time someone shares about it, it's like a drop of grace, a beautiful drop of grace, that has been shared from this cosmic-sized ocean of love.

When it comes to expressing God's love, no one person, no one group, no one generation will ever be able to express the fullness of God's love, but each of us still has an important part in the expression of God's love on earth. We share drops of grace in words and deeds with one another, with ourselves, and with the world around us.

We are all drops of grace. The joy of this reality is experienced when we remember the ocean we are part of, and that our part, while seemingly small, is in no way insignificant. Truthfully, there is no such thing as an individual insignificance when we remember that together we more than a drop, we are an ocean of love, we are the light in the world. We are one.

By Mick Mooney

Grace Gems - I Am A New Creation

You don't have to do another thing for God to get Him to accept you or to get Him to love you. He loves you completely and utterly and fully! We live with this thing in our mind that if we are not praying enough or winning the lost enough then God is a little bit unpleased with us! That is a LIE from the devil!

If you never read your Bible for the rest of your life and praying another prayer to God for the rest of your life or never tried to win one more person to Christ for the rest of your life then God would still fully love you, accept you and be pleased with you!

But then won't Christians not want to do anything? No! Actually it takes all the "have-tos" off Christians! I don't want to live my life by someone saying "You have to do this". That is the 10 Commandments again! Grace takes all the "have-tos" off us and says we don't have to do another thing! You don't have to live for God or try and stop sinning! It takes all the "have-tos" off and when they get taken off then all the "want-tos" begin to come out!

Grace awakens your spirit to all the goodness that God put in there at the point of salvation and draws those things out!

Because my spirit is being made perfect in Christ - Ephesians 4:23 - says we have been created after the very nature of God. My spirit has got the nature of God in it! So many people preach that we still have got a sinful nature and that is a load of rubbish! My spirit is part of the new creation order and that means nothing from the old got put back into my spirit.

Ryan Rufus

Grace Gems - Knowing Jesus

My personal experience of the relentless tenderness of God came not from exegesis, theologians, and spiritual writers, but from sitting still in the presence of the living Word and beseeching Him to help me understand with my head and heart His written Word. Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace. We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of "knowing" Jesus Christ personally and directly.

When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never visited.”

― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

Grace Gems - Clothed In Christ

For just as the body is clad in clothes, and the flesh in skin, and the bones in flesh, and the heart in the whole, so we, body and soul, clad and enclosed in the goodness of God. Yes, and even more intimately because all these other things will wear out and vanish, but the goodness of God is always whole and close to us without compare.

Elizabeth Obbard

Grace Gems - Blessed

Do you believe that every day, your family and work life are blessed? Or do you think that you are blessed only during Christmas when you receive your gifts and year-end bonus, or when you get that promotion you have been wanting? Perhaps you think that the blessed life only begins when you meet the man or woman of your dreams!

No, my friend, you are blessed every day and you have God’s Word for it. Psalm 68:19 says, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!”And because God’s Word says so, believe that every day of your life is loaded with benefits. Every morning, when you get up, believe that it is a day that the Lord has made, and rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24) Start the day expecting it to be loaded with the benefits that God has prepared just for you.

At night, when it is time to sleep, know that you will be blessed when you get up in the morning because there will be another load of benefits from your heavenly Father, who so loves you unconditionally, waiting for you!

You can’t make your blessings happen. But if you will just believe what God has said in His Word and act like it is so, the blessings will manifest in your life. In fact, God wants to bless you more than you want to be blessed! His Word declares it: “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out…Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!”

Joseph Prince

Grace Gems - Access

You stand before the Father on equal terms with how Jesus stands before the Father. YOU have access to the Father. Access to grace. Access to intimacy with the Father - you can stand there with innocence just as if you have never sinned and just as if no one had sinned against you. YOU are accepted in the Beloved just as Jesus is because the Law that demanded righteousness and brought wrath on your life has been cancelled.

Rob Rufus

Grace Gems - Jesus Took My Place.

Everything that happened to Jesus also happened to you! The good thing about it is that when He hung on the Cross, you were united with Him in that - but you didn't have to go through it! He hung there for us - He took all our sins and sickness for us and the full weight of the wrath of God, the full fire of the judgement and punishment and wrath of God was poured out fully upon Jesus and He died for your sins! Thank God we didn't have to face that judgement! Jesus faced that for us so we will never have to face that.

God will never punish the same sin twice. If God has already punished Christ for your sins, He is not then going to punish you for your sins!

That's either true or it's not! Some people preach as though God is going to punish you for your sins! Some will preach that you are sick because God is punishing you for your sins. That is a sin to say such things! That is unbelief! The Bible says that Jesus was punished for all of our sins!

Ryan Rufus

Grace Gems - The Intent of Scripture by Jeff Turner

The intent of the scriptures is to reveal a God who is infinitely loving, good, and loyal to His creation. This revelation, though often missed and obscured by the ignorance of certain of the scriptural writers, is perfectly revealed, unhindered, in the person of Jesus Christ!

What the scriptures do *NOT* seek to reveal are their own perfection, and internal harmony. The truth of God's nature, from beginning to end, is what they are attempting to communicate. Again, this message is often missed or misinterpreted, due to the pre-Christ understandings of those who wrote the scriptures, but is ultimately at the heart of all that they seek to reveal. Even when things are gotten wrong, the right answer is always God's love.

What we often do, however, in the name of apologetics, is use the scriptures to prove the perfection of the scriptures, instead of to reveal the true nature of God. This is where we often fall into error and unnecessary debate, for the scriptures are not seeking to prove their perfection, but to reveal God as infinitely loving and good, which is an understanding that sometimes runs contradictory to the writer's understanding. The beautiful thing about God is that He has allowed men - yes, even sometimes ignorant men - to tell His story, but has finished and perfected it Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ. Every misconception and every improper view of Himself is done away with through the revelation of His Son.

When we make the scriptures themselves the point of the scriptures, however, we are not left with perfection. When we see, however, that their purpose is to reveal God as loving, even when that means contradicting themselves, we are left with nothing but perfection.

Jeff Turner

Grace Gems - The Blood Of Christ

The Christian stands out as the revelation of divine power of Jesus Christ to come into the spirit of man, and change it and make it sweet and lovely like God Himself. To come into the mind of man, and take possession of all its faculties. To come into the nature of man and change it by the power of God until his thoughts are pure, holy, and lovely. To come into his old diseased body until God’s action revolutionizes every cell of the blood.

I believe that when the Blood of Jesus Christ is applied to a man’s nature, spirit, soul and body, that when his sin is forgiven, the effects of that sin should be eliminated from his life. This may not be true in all Christian lives because we have not been educated in our Christian faith to believe with the same force and power for physical cleansing, as we have for the cleansing of our soul. But the word of God says,“I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: For the Lord dwelleth in Zion.” Joel 3:21.

John G. Lake

Grace Gems - Light

Whenever Christ enters the heart if man He brings wholesome life and light in place of darkness and corruption. A new pattern of life emerges, free from the enslavement of self and sinful habits, a life that is consciously aware of the good, the true and the beautiful, and which ever aspires to fineness of character.

Edith Banks

Grace Gems - God's Temple

In the Old Testament God used to live in temples built with human hands. During the dedication of the Tabernacle (Ex 4:34) and also of Solomon’s temple (2 Chr 5:11-14) God’s presence filled the building like a cloud and that was where He chose to dwell among His people. The building was not made for people; only the high priest could enter once per year to make sacrifices. The building was for God alone.

In the New Covenant God does not live in buildings anymore –He dwells in people: [1 Cor 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?].

Now we are His holy priests, given free access into the Holy of Holies: [1 Pet 2:5 Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ] (GNB). The only reason we should have for wanting to meet in a physical building is to prevent the rain from falling on our heads or being scorched by the sun. The building only serves to accommodate the people. So to say that we are “going to church” or that “we attend church” is actually erroneous, since we ARE the church.

Andre van der Merwe

Grace Gems - Love Wins

Jesus isn't your potential savior. He is your absolute savior. The gospel isn't an invitation, an ultimatum, or a demand, but a proclamation!

Put your trust in him, alone. Don't be duped by religion that mixes grace with your efforts. Jesus + your efforts = fallen from grace.

Jesus + nothing is absolute life & rest in him eternally.

He loves you way more than to leave you wondering if you're going to be saved or not.

Assurance of salvation is as absolute as His existence. So long as he lives, you are saved, being saved, and will be saved!

Love has the final word. Love wins.

You can chill, rest, relax, enjoy his life & love.

When He said, "It is finished" He didn't mean "potentially finished," or "I'm finished, so now you get to work."

No, it is absolutely finished and done. The work now is to believe it and enter into his rest.

Live your whole life depending on your ability to remember sins, confess them, live perfect according to the law, stressing over losing your salvation, trying to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, thinking it is your responsibility to save everyone because Jesus' blood will only touch those who you "minister to.."

OR

Actually believe what He said.

It
Is
Finished

Either He's the lamb of God that took away the sin of the WHOLE WORLD, or He's not. Are you going to believe your theology or what the bible says clear as day?

Or how about this one?

"God was in Christ reconciling the world (cosmos) to himself, NOT COUNTING THEIR SINS AGAINST THEM." ( 2 Cor 5:19)

You ever seen that scripture? Probably not if you've been lodged in evangelicalism.

Or what about this one - the mother of bombs to be dropped:

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, **that one died for all, therefore all died**; (2 Corinthians 5:14 NASB)

Whoa! So...all of creation was in Christ when He was at the cross? All creation was included in his work, died with Him, was buried and united with Him, and rose with him?? Really?!

and through Him to **reconcile all things to Himself**, having made peace **through the blood of His cross**; through Him, I say, **whether things on earth or things in heaven**. (Colossians 1:20 NASB)

Wow..

Just read your bible folks. This gospel (too-good-to-be-true-news) is a WHOOOOLE lot better than any of us could ever dream!

And we're barely scratching the surface!

Be loved, be free, live your holy, righteous life happy & joyful! Your Jesus was mighty to save & did a complete work!

You can bank on that!

Zach Langhamer

Grace Gems - A New Creation

When you were born again it was because the Holy Spirit convicted you of that unbelief in grace and He circumcised your heart. We don’t have a sinful nature and a righteousness nature! That old nature has been cut away! Under the Old Covenant you had physical circumcision. I am not trying to be crude – but it was a snip on the tip and then they threw the tip away. They didn’t try to stick it back on again with Bos-Stick or glue! So when your old nature is cut away it is thrown away!

So you do not have a sinning nature on the inside of you! You have a new creation nature that wants to believe in the goodness of God! It doesn’t want to run out and do terrible things! Yes you still have appetites in your physical body and memories in your mind. Some of our appetites want to do wrong things and it is not coming from the old nature but memories of the flesh.


Rob Rufus

Grace Gems - Grace Revealed in Jesus

For years, the Gospel that most have been exposed to is one that has emphasized personal sin, and, therefore, the need for personal forgiveness by a personal Savior. In short, the message has been one that centers around the individual and his need for saving. When this message became twisted, distorted, and turned into a hell-happy, condemnation circus, naturally, the feelings of personal guilt, and individual condemnation became overwhelming and excruciating. After all, the whole message was focused on the individual, and so when it went awry it wreaked havoc on our individuality.

In the name of course correction, many have adopted a grace message which, while containing truth, is simply an opposite, but equally individual-centered message. It takes away the individual's sense of guilt and feelings of condemnation, and leaves them feeling free as a bird! The euphoria that one experiences is similar to that which a newly licensed 16 year old driver feels while taking their first solo drive in their new car. The problem, however, is that the individual self remains at the center of the message, leaving people open to the misunderstanding that they are now free to do certain things without worrying about how it affects others. "I'm free!", many cry, but the sad truth is that they have simply traded personal condemnation for a personal freedom that can quickly become as much of a snare as was the condemnation.

The Grace exhibited in the life of Jesus was not one that indulged personal freedom at the expense of others. No! It was an others-centered love that would do anything for the betterment of another. Paul, the apostle of Grace, spoke of the necessity of serving our spouses, submitting to parents, governmental authorities and the like, not because he was a hardnosed "law" preacher (as if!) but because the Jesus type of Grace empowers us to be others-centered, and to lay our lives down for the betterment of others. The Grace revealed by Jesus causes us to love and live for the "other" and not simply for ourselves!

The false Gospel of personal condemnation, however, has created an imbalanced response that only emphasizes personal freedom. You are free, don't get me wrong, and God is *NOT* a demented Santa Claus who makes lists, checks twice, and always finds you to be naughty rather than nice. He is Love! And Love keeps no record of wrongs. However, Love, when internalized and experienced, becomes manifest through a life of others-centeredness. It will cause you to delight in emulating Christ's example and in giving of yourself for the benefit of others. While some would label such a thing "law", it's actually the fruit of experienced love.

Dear friends, the Gospel is not primarily a message about individual sin, salvation and freedom! It's a message about humanity, and about how God sees the world. When it becomes active in our lives we will naturally shed all forms of self-centeredness, and burn to live for the betterment of others - and we'll love every minute of it, by the way!

Jeff Turner

Grace Gems - The Glory Of The New Covenant

The old covenant had a glory, and this is seen when Moses received the law. His face shone so brightly that he had to wear a veil to cover his face.

This represents the glory of the old covenant. Its glory is that it brought to us the knowledge of God’s holiness and our sin. Through the law people would be conscious of their need of a Saviour.

The new covenant has a glory that surpasses that of the old covenant, and brings a fuller revelation of God’s character. “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”(Jn.1:17).

If Moses’ face shone so brightly that people could not look upon it, and yet the covenant he brought ministered condemnation, how much more glorious will the new covenant that brings righteousness be? If there was glory in that which brought death, how much more glory is there in that which ministers righteousness and life?

Ken Legg

Grace Gems - Jesus Freed Us From Sin

Luke 23:18"And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:"

What happened to Barabbas is a picture of what happens when a person is born again. Barabbas was guilty; Jesus was innocent. Yet Jesus suffered the death that Barabbas should have experienced, and Barabbas went free.

Likewise, we were all guilty and condemned to death , yet Jesus suffered our punishment so that we may go free. Just as Barabbas didn't ask for this substitution, so "God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).

Barabbas was freed, but he had to choose whether or not to accept this new start and remain free, or go back to his old ways and come under the judgment of Rome again. Likewise, we have all been freed through the substitutionary death of Jesus, but we have to choose whether to accept our freedom by putting faith in Jesus or to reject it, by denying Him.

Our death to sin and resurrection to life with Christ, is already a reality in our spirits but will only become a physical reality when we know and believe it. In the same way that Jesus died unto sin once, and death no longer has dominion over Him, the person who recognizes their death with Christ unto sin, will not allow sin to rule over him anymore. Any Christian who is struggling with sin has not recognized that they are dead unto sin.

Andrew Wommack