Archives for June 2015

A Call to Respond to the Charleston Church Shooting

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I cannot sit in silence without writing about the atrocity at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last week, when a shooter killed nine of our other brothers and sisters. My feelings about this are so strong, that I am compelled by the love of Christ to respond.

I believe the killings were demonically motivated in the mind of the shooter. (I don’t care to give the shooter more fame by using his name.) Satan’s mission statement, according to Jesus in John 10:10, is to “kill, steal and destroy.” He succeeded in killing these precious nine members. That is how this story begins, but hopefully, not how it ends. And, a lot of that depends on whether we choose to live like who we are in Christ.

Here are some piercing questions that challenged me that I had to ask myself in how God can use this tragedy for good. Each of these questions is really about a bigger question? “Is Christ living through me in regard to racism?”

Do I feel our Father’s grief over this or have I resigned myself to the inevitability of these kinds of killings?
Have I recognized my own sin of racism as evidenced by telling racial jokes or passing on my racist views to my children and others?
Have I prayed for the family members of the nine slain brothers and sisters in Christ?
Have I prayed for the remaining members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church?
Have I asked God if there is a lonely person in my life He wants me to befriend and share Christ with, who just might be the next shooter unless someone reaches out to him?
Have I prayed that the church as a whole would stop being the most segregated institution in America?
If I preach each Sunday, have I considered preaching on this?
If I blog, have I considered writing on this?

My prayer more than ever is that we let Jesus live through us to be a part of the answer, instead of perpetuating the problem. Something to look forward to is that God’s kingdom in heaven is full of every race, tribe, tongue and nation according to Revelation 5:9 and 7:9. Heaven will not have different sections based on skin color. Every neighborhood will be multi-ethnic.

Jesus taught us to pray for the kingdom of God to come to the earth. That includes racial diversity in the body of Christ, as well as economic and ability/disability diversity. As His children, we can all be united in prayer that His Kingdom will come to the part of the earth we journey on.

The Jesus who lives in us grieves over what happened last week. But He also knows it is an opportunity for the church to rise up and act as His agent, through whom He brings His kingdom to this earth. No one person can do it all but, the One Person living in us can do more when we rely on Him to do it through each of us.

This is the Gospel in action because just as the Gospel of grace frees us from our own junk, He also desires to express Himself through us into a dark world that desperately needs His light to shine brightly.

Would you stop for a moment and ask your Heavenly Father what He might be saying to you in this devo/blog?

Believe it! It’s the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

A Call to Respond to the Charleston Church Shooting

Do I feel our Father’s grief over this or have I resigned myself to the inevitability of these kinds of killings?
Have I recognized my own sin of racism as evidenced by telling racial jokes or passing on my racist views to my children and others?
Have I prayed for the family members of the nine slain brothers and sisters in Christ?
Have I prayed for the remaining members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church?
Have I asked God if there is a lonely person in my life He wants me to befriend and share Christ with, who just might be the next shooter unless someone reaches out to him?
Have I prayed that the church as a whole would stop being the most segregated institution in America?
If I preach each Sunday, have I considered preaching on this?
If I blog, have I considered writing on this?

Would you stop for a moment and ask your Heavenly Father what He might be saying to you in this devo/blog?

Believe it! It’s the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

3 Ways I’d Reform Reformed Theology

People sometimes ask if aspects of my teaching are different from a Reformed view of living under grace. Here below are three key differences. Difference #1: We Don’t Use the Law to Convict Christians of Sin We should not use the Law to convict Christians of disobedience. After all, it’s a slippery slope. I mean, [Read More…]

Do You Know Your Unique Flesh?

Defining the meaning of words is of the utmost importance when you are attempting to understand their true meaning. Think about the meaning of these words when they were used just a few years ago.

Far Out – in the 70s it meant something was awesome.

Gnarly – in the 80’s it was a surfer term that came to mean something was cool.

Da Bomb – in the 90’s it means something was really amazing.

GitRDone – in the 2000’s it meant to get something accomplished.

It’s the same in Scripture. Words often have very specific meaning and it does matter. Though I read lots of different versions of the Bible, my favorites for understanding specific words is the New American Standard Bible (NASB) or The English Standard Version (ESV).

That brings us to the word “flesh”. As I wrote about in last week’s blog, this is not the old nature, the sinful nature or our identity in Adam. It’s something very different. The rawest meaning is simply meat. In the Scriptures it is used to mean a few other things. One definition is simply our physical body. For example, In John 3:6, Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (NASB)

The main meaning for the word “flesh” used in the New Covenant is what we are interested in today. Let’s first see what the Bible says. Then we will make it very practical.

1. The flesh has desires that are the opposite of those of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. (NASB)

2. The flesh expresses itself in specific ways. Galatians 5:19-21a Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. (NASB)

Here is the practical part. This is what we help people discover in their personal lives when they come to us for counseling.

1. Fleshly living is acting the opposite of living like who you are in Christ.

2. Fleshly living is strategies of living dependent on you instead of Jesus in you.

3. Flesh is unique for everyone since it is often programmed from relationships and events which you experienced growing up.

Here is a visual for you. If you drive a car through the mud, even after the car is long gone, the tracks can be imprinted in the mud long afterwards. The old nature like that car is long gone. It was crucified with Christ according to Romans 6:6 and Galatians 2:20. However, there are left over “tracks”, meaning fleshly sins (independent living) you may still struggle with after you are saved, that you were controlled by before you were saved. You can also develop new fleshly sins after you are saved.

When we provide discipleship counseling, we ask the Holy Spirit through us to show a person that they have beliefs, feelings and behaviors that they are using to try to make life work apart from Christ. They come to see this as their unique flesh patterns. We diagram it for them so that they see why life is not working for them. Then, we show them as a result of the Cross, that’s no longer representative of who they are in Christ, in fact, it’s the opposite. Next, we take ample time helping them with the day by day journey of learning relying on Jesus in them to “cope with life.” Then, the Holy Spirit begins to replace the former fleshly patterns of coping with the fruit of the Spirit, providing new ways of living.

Do you know the specific patterns of your unique flesh which are defeating you over and over? If not, I invite you to attend one of our Grace Life Conferences or get counseling from us. You can take advantage of these opportunities to experience a better way of life, either in person or by Skype. Contact us at info@gracelifeinternational.com or call us at 704-522-9026. Also, a listing of the monthly Conferences are available on our website at www.gracelifeinternational.com We have three locations as well.

If you missed last week’s blog and are interested in reading it and others, go to www. markmaulding.com.