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JULY 29, 2021

Let’s face it. Let’s be honest with ourselves and with everyone else. We are blessed. Even in our most challenging of situations, our difficult circumstances and our stressed relationships, we are blessed. To view our life as anything less than extremely blessed is to allow ourselves to focus down to the narrowest of perspectives and to ignore the totality of our lives. Bad things happen to good people. How are we to address and to regard our challenges?

2 Corinthians 4:8-18 English Standard Version (ESV):

8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our “outer self” [a] is wasting away, our “inner self” is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

We must understand eternity and our eternalness to correctly comprehend what success for humanity really is. 

How old are you? This scripture says that our outer self is “wasting away.” Our body is aging and physically, time challenges and diminishes the strength and capability of our body. Our body ages.  But, our “inner self”, our spirit man, the eternal us who will never die, is being renewed day by day. The real us is as strong and as capable as we have ever been.  Our mind, the gatekeeper and the part of us who chooses who will decide what thoughts and what actions control our lives in time, must be programmed to agree with what our Creator says and has said.  Our spirit does not age. Our spirit does not get old and lose capacity. So, how old are you really? The real you that does not die but lives forever.  How does this perspective impact the living of our lives in time? While our outer self diminishes and loses strength and ability, our inner self should increase in strength and in ability. We have the ability to develop our inner self continually and to gain capacity in the forever realm of who we really are. With this knowledge we have the ability to develop the wisdom of application in the most important part of who we are, the eternal us.

JULY 21, 2021

The Dynamic of Mercy is the favor and grace of our God and the cleansing that occurs when we ask for forgiveness and clemency when we have sinned and deserve punishment.

Often the most difficult step of mercy and grace is our forgiving ourselves. We must reckon the Words of our God to be true, even in our lives. It must be a legal settled fact, which we enter into the ledger of our lives.

Our follow-up actions are “to go and sin no more.”  There is a very serious warning against continuing in sin because of the grace and mercy of our God.

Hebrews 10:26-29 says:

“Dear Friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received a full knowledge of the truth, there is no other sacrifice that will cover these sins.” 

It continues to verse 29 that says: “Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant as if it were common and unholy.”

Our God is a consuming fire.  He is the GREAT and Mighty KING. He loves humanity. His plans for us are for good, for hope and for a future.

He has provided a wonderful system for His Citizens to live victoriously on earth. He has empowered His Citizens to bring Heaven to Earth to direct the course and outcomes of their lives. We can disrupt the plans of the defeated Satan and deliver the power of the Angel Armies of our God to any situation, circumstance, or relationship we encounter in order to bring about unlimited good where Satan has meant evil and disaster. Do not accept the defeated Satan’s lies. Obey God’s commandments, walk in His ways and call Heaven down to destroy all of the works of the Devil.

May we understand the Dynamic of Grace and the Dynamic of Mercy, the Rule of Conference and the Rule of Clemency and share them at every opportunity.

JULY 15, 2021

To understand the Dynamic of Mercy, we must recognize our position in Christ and the process of development in grace. We are born again, regenerated  spirits in relationship with our God. The challenge we face is dealing with the Gatekeeper into our spirits and their development process, our minds. The mind is the seat of our will. That is also where our emotions, our personalities, and our character live. The imagination operates a theater there in our minds that no Director or Producer on Earth can come close to replicating or duplicating. In vivid, living color, much better than the latest HD technology, we see things that do not exist. The most exciting thing for us is the fact that these movies are interactive and we are required to decide the outcomes of these cinematography wonders. We must engage in the story. We must participate in the outcome or the endings. This is much better than 3D. I am sure someone somewhere has determined how many of these movies we watch daily. I do not know, but there are many.

What we are talking about and describing are choices that we make. Our decisions are based on our emotions, our feelings, and our personalities. The question is where did what we believe come from? What is the source of our beliefs? We can bring our minds into agreement with our re-born spirits by placing the Words of our God in our minds. We are told in Romans 12 to “not think like the world thinks, but to allow God to change the way we think to become agreeable with what He thinks – His Word and His Spirit. Then we are told we will know how good and how pleasing and how perfect His will really is.” (Personal paraphrasing).

We know that when our thoughts become agreeable with His thoughts, our plans are established and succeed. I believe the Word confirms and that we must understand that this is a process.

We make mistakes. Sometimes without knowledge and sometimes we know better. We choose to disobey. We sin. That is where the Dynamic of Mercy comes into play. We are told there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Christ does not condemn us, but the Holy Spirit God reveals our transgression (bad choice) to us, and draws/encourages us to not sulk over it, hide from it, or to deny it,  but to recognize it, take it to our God and ask His forgiveness. He will always forgive us and remove the stain of sin from our lives. That is how the the Dynamic of Mercy works, and what it does in our lives.

We will continue next week in our discussion of Grace and Mercy.

JULY 8, 2021

What is the difference between grace and mercy? When does the need for grace apply and when does the need for mercy apply?

Grace -The exercise of love, kindness, mercy, favor, disposition to serve or benefit another, favor bestowed or privilege conferred.

Mercy- Forbearance to inflict harm under circumstances of provocation, when one has the power to inflict it, compassionate treatment of an offender or adversary, clemency.

Under these definitions, grace addresses the favor and privilege provided to anyone, all of humanity, no matter the cause of the transgression. Humanity is born into this world in sin. That sin is imputed to everyone because of the sin of Adam. Nothing has to be done to inherit sin. Birth to the pIanet carries the pronouncement and inheritance of sin because of Adam.

Mercy appears to imply clemency for a particular transgression(s) or a specific act by an individual. Mercy applies to  an offender or an adversary, one who of his own volition or his own free will has chosen to transgress or sin. It could pertain to imputed sin, but clemency seems to suggest otherwise.

“Foreigners will come to rebuild your cities, Kings and Rulers will send you aid. For though I have destroyed you in my anger, I will have mercy on you through my grace.” Isaiah 60:10 (NLT)

Favor “bestowed or conferred” indicates you receive an honor, a right or a gift. It indicates the fault/need is the responsibility of the action of another. To attribute to a particular cause or action. You receive this or it is conferred to you because of the act/action of another. Our part is to believe in our spirits and our minds and to receive faith for this truth. We then must declare it with our mouths and accept or receive this grace.

“For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead/ you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 (NLT)

“The sin of this one man/ Adam, caused death to rule over us/ but all who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17 (NLT)

Clemency is the grant by the ruling authority, King, President, and/or Governor of a ruling territory, nation or state of an amnesty, pardon or reprieve or of a commutation of a criminal sentence. Commutation is the substitution of one kind of payment for another.

Grace deals with our imputed sins, those inherited from Adam. This is a completed work. The provision of Christ on the cross. Mercy is provided through grace for the behavioral transgressions we commit.   These decisions are where we make the willful choices to perform or to do disobedient acts of rebellion.  When we do so, we fail to honor or to recognize the imputed grace of God Himself as Jesus Christ on the cross.

“But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.” 1 John 1:9 (NLT)

The Dynamic of Grace is the provision whereby God provided a way for us to be free from the sin that all of humanity inherited from Adam. This is what all of humanity has longed for and is searching so diligently to find. We no longer have to be burdened by the heavy load Adam placed on us by his rebellion and disobedience. Through faith, if we believe in our spirits and in our minds that Jesus is Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead and we boldly confess that with our mouths, we will be saved. Our spirits become new, and we begin the process of renewing our minds by His Words. Grace is bestowed upon us and conferred unto us. We are Citizens of the everlasting, eternal, all powerful Kingdom of our God. We are a royal priesthood and a holy nation unto our God. We enter into a governmental  system that controls everything in heaven and on the Eart h. No longer are we subject to the whims, the actions or the threats of the defeated Satan. No longer can he terrorize us. We are Citizens. We tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the defeated Satan. Greater is He that is living in and working through us than he that is in this world. We are more than conquerors. In every situation we are made to triumph and prosper in Christ Jesus. Praises be to our God for such a marvelous plan, a powerful purpose and the complete provision.

JUNE 29, 2021

The challenge and the dilemma the first man and the first woman on this planet faced was their identity, their origin and their purpose. Their desire to know and to understand who they were, where they came from and why they were here presented them with profound choices they would have to make. Whether to choose or not to choose was not optional. They would have to choose. That was the plan.

They could choose to take these questions to their minds and to allow their intellect, their emotions, and their feelings to determine their choice. They could gather all of the information they had observed and learned from their environment and the physical universe that they had seen, and what they had heard to be the basis and the foundation for their existence.

Or, they could choose to believe and to accept their relationship with their Friend whom they had spent hours in the garden walking with, talking with, and learning from Him. They had enjoyed fellowshipping together. They could choose to trust their experience, the results of what He said to them and to allow His Words and their relationship to be the foundation for their existence.  

From humanity’s very beginning our lives and our outcomes are based on choices. Our choices determine our outcomes. Our life experience is determined completely by our choices of conduct and behavior. Our charge and our challenges were, are and will always be to make informed, qualified choices. Our Choices are interactive Dynamics that contain within them the inertia for the outcomes we are designed to desire and to accomplish.

So, let me ask the question: as you live your everyday life, how are you making your choices? Are you relying on your intellect, your emotions, and all the information you can gather about your situations and circumstances? Or are you using a Higher metric? Are you basing your choices on the One who created it all, who sees the end from the beginning, and with whom you have a relationship and constant fellowship? It is a question worth reflecting upon. My prayer is that you are led by your Creator and Designer in everything you do, and every choice you make.