Truth And The Holy Spirit

I want to begin with a true story from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 21, beginning at verse 23:

Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?"

But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John--where was it from? From heaven or from men?"

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet." So they answered Jesus and said, "We do not know."

And He said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

We see a very similar thing today in many cases.

Saying What People Want To Hear

In America, as I speak these words, we are heading into a Presidential election. The candidates are debating, and as we see the verbal battles between candidates one thing is often clear. Sometimes candidates seem to say what they think the people want to hear, rather than what they think is true.

This makes the truth about a candidate sometimes hard to determine. And of course this doesn't shock us, does it? The bending or distortion, or outright denial of the truth is as old as the Garden of Eden.

And it’s not confined to the politicians. The church is not immune from this practice. In fact, it’s too common. The Scripture says that some will heap up for themselves teachers who will give them what their itching ears want to hear.

And so there are always church leaders to fill that gap. Church leaders who will tell people what they want to hear, instead of what they know to be true.
Now here I want to take a side road for a couple minutes and talk about how this actually works out. It usually comes in one of two ways:

How Teachers Teach What People Want To Hear

1. The first way is avoiding the spiritual life in Jesus Christ as Lord, and teaching practical how-to’s of life. Things that could pretty much apply to the non-believer. 7 Steps To A Happy Home Life, How To Succeed In Business and Get Along With Your Boss, 3 Ways To Improve Your Attitude, and so forth.

Messages that look more like they came out of a book from the self-help section of the bookstore, than from the Bible.

2. The second way is in preaching the Law. Preaching performance. Holding up to the people their sins, message after message, week after week, with an often loud exhortation to get their act together and buckle down and obey, you wretches! Beating the sheep over the head with the clear implication that God is very very displeased with them, and won’t be pleased until they are at least a 9 on the scale of 1 to 10.

Now here’s the sad part. There is something in the flesh of the hearers who like this kind of preaching. They revel in what they see as the hard TRUTH being preached, even if it makes me feel bad. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people comment on how good a message was because “it really convicted me”. They think if they were “convicted” (translated, means made to feel guilty), they have been equipped to get out there and do better this time, and earn that 9. But they haven’t been equipped at all.

I don’t know which of those ways is sadder, the how-to-succeed pablum, or the legalistic bombast.

But again, it’s not just church leaders. It’s Christian brothers and sisters who too often think like those chief priests in our story of Jesus, who think, “If I say this, then I’ll look bad, but if I say this, then I’ll get in trouble, so I’ll just lie. It’s just a little lie, no big deal, but then I’ll look spiritual and nobody will give me any trouble.”

How To Escape Saying What People Want To Hear

O.K., so how are we REALLY equipped in this area? How can we get off the boat of saying what we think people want to hear, and get on the solid ground of speaking the truth in love? How can we get off the boat of being safe and comfortable, and get on the solid ground of walking in truth and surrender with our Lord Who is the Way, and the TRUTH, and the Life?

Well, one of the greatest blessings of the New Covenant is that we have been given the Holy Spirit to actually dwell in us. He is always with us and in us, if we are born again believers in Jesus Christ. In fact the Scripture says that if someone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they are none of His (Rom. 8:9). In other words, they aren’t a Christian at all. So every true Christian has the Holy Spirit in them.

And the Scripture calls this Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Truth.

John 14:17, "...the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

John 15:26, "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me."

John 16:13, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth..."

It’s not surprising that He is called the Spirit of Truth, is it? Jesus Himself is truth, and full of truth.

John 1:14, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

John 1:17, "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

And how are we to worship God?

John 4:24, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

Being Set Free

And what did Jesus say that truth would do for us?

John 8:32, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Avoiding the truth always leads to bondage of some kind.

And God wants you to be free. Even if that might be in prison. Free in spirit, free in our hearts.

Truth can be trouble, as even the sly politician knows. Truth can be trouble for YOU. It was trouble for Jesus, who always spoke the truth. Jesus said to the leaders in

John 8:40, "But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God."

Truth can be trouble for YOU, too. But it still will set you free, inside, in the kingdom of God.

How to Walk In Truth

And that leads us to the question, how do we walk in truth? How do we avoid that man-pleasing flesh-pleasing place that looks safe when we lie, but is really the quicksand of bondage? That place you may have gotten yourself into, because one lie leads to another, and another, until you can hardly sort out the truth anymore?

How do we walk in truth?

By walking in the Spirit.

It may begin by getting alone with God, and just shutting up. Be still and know that I am God. It may be that you just haven’t had what we call a Quiet Time for a long time.

It may be that the things of the world have crowded out your fellowship with Jesus Christ.

It may be that you haven’t taken the time to sit with your Bible open, and just read and prayed and read and prayed and opened your heart to the love of Christ.

It may be that you have been under the teaching of legalistic performance-based Christianity which has taught you that God is mad at you when you fail. That He loves you on a 1 to 10 scale, depending on how well you do. This is wrong.

You may need to understand the basic foundational truth of Grace.

That you were saved by grace, and that grace is still God’s way of viewing you.

That you have been forgiven, not just of former sins, but present ones, and future ones. You are forgiven, child of God.

And not just forgiven, but have become the righteousness of God. God declared you righteous, through what Jesus did on the cross. The old you has been crucified with Christ, and He is now living through you, through your spirit, through you as a New Creation.

You are not a liar anymore. You have been changed. You are a new creation, able to walk in the spirit, as you commune with the Lord.

It takes time, I know. It takes purpose. It takes a sort of striving, but not striving to follow the Law. Striving to fellowship with Jesus through grace.

Then the Spirit of Truth will lead you to speak the truth in love. You don’t have to manipulate like an unscrupulous politician. You are free. You can breathe the air of the freedom of truth, as you are filled with the Spirit of truth.

The flesh will still lust against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, Gal. 5:17 says. But verse 18 says, “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” And verse 16 says, “Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

Truth, like love and joy and peace, can be a fruit of the Spirit. That’s why we don’t want to just speak the truth, we want to speak the truth in love.

Don’t be like those chief priests, parsing every word and thinking, “If I say this, I’ll look bad, and if I say this, I’ll get in trouble.”

Be being filled with the Spirit of Truth, speak the truth in love, and even if you’re a prisoner of circumstances, you can be free inside.

Truth And The Holy Spirit

This week's audio message:

Truth And The Holy Spirit

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Reservation Legalism - A Cultic Form of Legalism

There is a form of legalism which is so subtle that most people wouldn't even notice that it's legalism at all. And yet it is extremely powerful.

I mean “extremely powerful” in the sense that it causes Christians to be fake, phony and stifled.

Now when a Christian is fake, phony and stifled, something happens. They quench the Holy Spirit, and live as though they were of the world.

You may be asking at this point, “Terry, what in the world are you talking about?” Okay, let me jump into this subject.

Off The Reservation

You may be familiar with the phrase “off the reservation”. It is a sort of politically incorrect statement originally referring to a Native American, otherwise known as an Indian, who has left the reservation and has become rebellious to one degree or another.

The “reservation”, of course, is the piece of land that was reserved for the Native American to live on. Having usually been kicked off of his original land, but that's another story.

He was given a place to live, which was often not the best place, and which could even be considered a form of incarceration. For him to travel off of the “reservation” was considered an act of disobedience or rebellion against the Government, and he could be punished, or even engaged in battle.

Anyway, the term has come to refer to anyone who has a different view from some sort of group. He is an oddball. One who doesn't go along with the crowd. Theoretically, he may be right or wrong, but the point is that he doesn't go along with the majority, and so he is considered at least a rebel or maverick, if not an outright enemy.

A Cultic Form of Legalism

I say all that to say this. There is a form of legalism that is not just unfortunate, but cultic. It is a form of legalism that keeps a Christian from being able to dig into the Scriptures and think.

It keeps a Christian from exploring the meaning of Scripture to see if it really means what the group has always thought it meant, because if he questions whether it means what the group has always thought it meant, he will be thought of as “off the reservation”.

End of thought.
End of inquiry.
End of exploration.
End of being a Berean.

You remember the Bereans were applauded by Paul the Apostle, because they not only welcomed the preaching of the Word, but they also searched the Word to see if the preaching really was accurate. To see if the preaching matched up to the Word of God.

This Berean attitude is often applauded today by those who teach the Word. They exhort us to be Bereans. To not just accept anything we hear preached, but to examine the Scriptures to see if what is preached is really true. The term “Berean” is typically used as a compliment. “He is a Berean”, or “she is a Berean”, meaning that they are discerning, and not easily fooled by a false teacher, because they check it out against the Scriptures.

However, when that ugly spirit of Reservation Legalism rears its head, the Berean spirit is quenched. If you are a part of a certain group, and you even begin to question the way that something is usually taught, you are likely to be considered an oddball, if not an outright heretic. Not for teaching false teaching, but for even questioning the way it's always been taught.

An Example

I hesitate to give examples, but I feel like I must, in order to really get the point across. So here's one example:

Suppose you are a Covenant Theologian. And so you have been taught that the Ten Commandments are not only operative for today, but that they are the “rule of life” for the believer. And that the Fourth Commandment, to keep the Sabbath, is one of these rules that the believer is to follow even today.

And suppose that you are reading some Scripture that seems to indicate that the Sabbath is no longer binding on Christians under the New Covenant, but that the Sabbath in the Old Covenant was symbolic of our rest in Jesus. That is, our rest from our works as a means of earning God's salvation, or His love and favor.

And suppose that you want to discuss this question with someone from your group. Are you free to examine this Scripture? Are you free to question whether a Christian today is to follow the Sabbath, and cease from working on Sunday? Or are you free to question whether the Sabbath was ever changed from Saturday (the seventh day) to Sunday in the first place?

The answer is “no”, you are not free to question the group's belief.

Of course you may question it, but you are not really "free" to do so, because you will be thought of as “off the reservation”, and the group pressure to stay “on the reservation” is fierce. To even attempt to discuss it is to mark you.

You are not free, because you know in your heart that if you even bring the subject up, you will be thought of as “weak” in some way. You will be thought of as someone who is not strong on doctrine, someone who is not discerning. Someone who may even be a troublemaker, who is not “one of us”. Someone who is “off the reservation”.

I hope that gives you a feel for the concept I'm talking about. It's very subtle, yet I believe it is one of the most prevalent forms of legalism, and one of the most destructive.

If you are not free to go before the Lord and study His Word, and question whether your group is right or wrong, without your group thinking you are not “one of them”, then you may hurt your own spiritual growth by suppressing the truth in some way, or outright denying what you see as true, according to the Scriptures.

Many years ago, I heard Dallas Theological Seminary professor Howard Hendricks define “friendship”. He said a real friend is someone you can share your worst heresies with. Think about that. That's pretty good.

We all have questions or thoughts from time to time, that make us question whether our most cherished doctrines are true. And it's good that we ideally have others who can correct us when we're clearly wrong, or at least sharpen some iron with us by discussing it.

But when that same person subtly or not-so-subtly makes us feel like we would be somehow a traitor or an undiscerning fool if we brought up an opposing view for consideration – well, we just don't bring it up. And so we lose not only the chance to hash it out together and see if it might be true or false, but we lose the courage that it takes to question the way it's always been.

The loss of courage in these things is a very serious thing, because when we cower from examining the Scripture and questioning the group, because we want to fit in with the group, error often takes hold, a cultic attitude develops, and we think more of the group's opinion of us than we do of God's truth.

When we fear going “off the reservation”, even if we think the reservation is wrong, truth suffers, we suffer, and those whom we might have helped suffer. And the guardians of the reservation are puffed up and proud, having saved another soul from drifting off the reservation.

But hopefully you are different. You don't want to be obnoxious, but you want to be courageous. You don't want to be someone's thorn in the side, but you want to be truthful. You don't want to go off the reservation just to be a troublemaker, but you don't fear going off the reservation if you think it is right and true, either.

Which brings me to the subject of reservation legalism and grace.

Reservation Legalism & Grace

See, when you really begin to get a handle on grace; when you really begin to understand the Scriptural principle that we are no longer under law, but under grace; when you really begin to understand that your performance isn't the basis of God's love for you, then you are veering off the reservation of most churches, who desperately need to be set free from their bondage of performance-based Christianity.

And when you begin to realize that you are no longer a sinner as far as your biblical identity, but that you are a new creation who loves Jesus and hates sin;

when you begin to realize that you are righteous because God declared you to be righteous when you believed in Jesus Christ;

and that you are righteous apart from your performance or your obedience;

then you are wandering off the reservation of most churches, who are so focused on their sin that they can't really see their Savior.

And when you come to realize that, although doctrine is important, without love doctrine is empty;

without the life of Jesus living through us, doctrine is cold and dead;

without the fullness of the Spirit, doctrine is an academic graveyard;

without a warm fellowship with Christ, doctrine kills; and

without seeing Jesus in every part of the Word of God, even the Word of God is just a bunch of facts, and history, and rules;

when you come to realize that, [then] you are so far off the reservation that those cold sterile pushers of what they consider perfect doctrine, think there is no help for you.

Yet it is they who need help. It is they who need to understand Galatians 2:20 when it says that we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live, but Christ lives in us.

At worst, you will be called a heretic, one way or another. At best, you might be looked at with suspicion, and you might not be understood. But what they will understand is that you're different. What they will understand is that you are not on the reservation. That you have wandered over the line to another land that doesn't fit with their group-think. That you don't line up with their Christian guru or their cultic Seminary culture.

Unlike Howard Hendricks, they don't think that a friend is someone you can share your worst heresies with. They think a friend is someone who will be so horrified if you even mention the possibility of another view, that he will pounce on you and do his best to herd you back onto the reservation.

That, friends, is reservation legalism.

How To Fight Reservation Legalism

Here are three things to do in order to combat Reservation Legalism:

1. First, walk in the Spirit.

You be in fellowship with Jesus. You be filled with the Spirit. You commune with the Lord and practice His presence day by day. Without Him you can do nothing. But with Him nothing is impossible, including shaking off reservation legalism. This close fellowship with Christ is the foundation for the next two points.

2. Be courageous.

Always strive to be true to Scripture, but always have the courage to put your honest understanding of Scripture above what any person or group has established as politically correct. Even if they shun you. Even if they look at you funny. Even if they wonder about your faith. Die to self, and follow Jesus. Now there's someone who was off the reservation.

3. Err on the side of love.

You won't do this thing perfectly. Love one another, in Christ. Be humble off the reservation. Don't flaunt your freedom. Don't be a rebel for rebellion's sake. Don't scoff at those who have not come to understand what you have.

Don't be a grace Pharisee, pouncing on everyone for every single statement that could be seen as legalistic. Even though they may be wrong, graciously give them line upon line, precept upon precept, gently leading them toward the truth, as best you can.

Perhaps the day may come when they join you "off the reservation".

Reservation Legalism

This week's audio message:

Reservation Legalism

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

So Walk In Him (Transcript)

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I’d like us to take a look at a terrific verse of Scripture, Colossians 2:6, which reads, "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."

The only way to become a son or daughter of God is to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, to believe in Him (John 1:12, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name").

This entrance into the family of God is accomplished by God's GRACE through faith. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9).

We can’t brag about earning our salvation, because we didn’t earn it, did we? It’s completely based on God’s Grace, His undeserved favor toward us. It’s a free gift.

Good works are the fruit of our new life, and we are a New Creation, with a new life. But no good works have any part in our receiving eternal life, or as the Bible calls it, being saved. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10).

A Free Gift

The salvation, the eternal life is an absolutely free gift.

Some say that’s not fair. It’s too easy. You don’t know the sins I’ve committed. You don’t know how I’ve spit in God’s face for so many years. It’s not just, it’s too simple. Why should I be saved through simply believing in Jesus? We naturally gravitate toward trying to earn acceptance, and that attitude resists the simplicity of God's grace.

Yet the Bible is clear:

"But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness." (Romans 4:5). "And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. . ." (Romans 11:6).

No wonder John Newton's hymn Amazing Grace has such meaning to saved people of God!

So we received Him by Grace, didn’t we?

Well, let’s go back to our verse, Colossians 2:6, "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."

The Role Of Grace In Living And Growing In Christ

What role does God’s grace play in living and growing in Christ? What role does God’s grace play in living abundantly?

Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

That they may have life (that’s salvation, the new birth, the new creation, eternal life)...

And that they may have it more abundantly (that’s living as a believer AFTER our initial salvation).

What role does grace play in that?!

Well, it is VITAL to the Christian life.

Why? Why can’t I just pull out my Bible, find all the rules and laws for living the Christian life, and live it?

I’m tempted to just say, "Okay, go ahead and try it." But I know better than that. I know from personal experience, from the experience of others, and from the Bible itself, that this makes a miserable Christian life. It’s what we call Performance-based Christianity, and it stinks.

Problems With Performance-Based Christianity

1. First of all, if we make the Christian life about rules and laws, we will find ourselves constantly falling short.

If we think we are successfully following the laws and rules, then we don’t really understand them. We don’t understand how Jesus elevated the laws to reflect how holy and perfect God is. When He said that adultery included even the very THOUGHT of lust in our hearts, He put the cards on the table.

2. And if we try to live the Law way, we will always be thinking that God is angry with us, His children.

You may already think that God must be angry with you, either directly or by implication. Admit it.

You may even think when you are sinful or disobedient to the Word of God that God sees you as "wicked", and everyone knows "God is angry with the wicked every day", right?

Confusion

Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon, "Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God" in the 1700's, and the picture has been applied to believers and has stuck...

...with those who don't understand the difference between a Sinner and a Saint. Or who don't understand the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

The Devil loves this confusion. He loves confusion between the biblical concept of a "saint" as anyone who is a born-again child of God, and the Roman Catholic nonsense that a "saint" is someone who meets some elaborate criteria of the Mother Church, and is "voted in".

The Devil loves confusion between the Old Covenant (which Hebrews 8 says failed in bringing righteousness because of man's inability to keep the Law) and the New Covenant, in which God puts His laws in our hearts, fulfills those laws in Christ on the cross, declares us righteous, and forgives us of all our sins, past, present and future.

Yes, the Devil loves confusion.

So it's no surprise (though a crying shame), that children of God think that God is angry at them when they fall short and sin. And otherwise fine Christians, who mean well, perpetuate this ridiculous notion, without one shred of support from the New Covenant scriptures!

Running Away From God?

And so Christians often run away from this "angry" God, instead of toward Him, when they fail. They won't look Him in the face, because they think it's a face of anger. What a tragedy.

This is not the place for an extended explanation of the subject in the scriptures. But here's a challenge for those who doubt what I'm saying: Search the epistles of the New Testament for any teaching that God is ever angry with His children.

By the way, don't think the passages on God's chastisement are regarding some kind of punishment out of anger.

Study them closely, and you will see they involve loving, usually gentle correction, from a loving Father, who just wants his kids to be in close fellowship with Him. No condemnation, no unforgiveness, no bitterness, no anger.

Like a daddy teaching his 1-year-old to walk, while the kid keeps wobbling, staggering, and falling...sometimes painfully in the wrong direction, but often into a laughing Daddy's arms for a big hug.

The Biggest Reason

And that’s the biggest reason why grace is so important to the Christian life. Because it causes us to want to fellowship with Christ. To draw near to Him, and not away. And that drawing near is the very SOURCE of our Life. Christ, who IS our life, the Scripture says.

And ironically, moving away from a law-based life to a grace-based life doesn’t cause us to sin more, but less. That’s why Romans 6:14 says “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” You are not under Law, which says “do”, but under grace, which says “done”.

With apologies to Jimmy Stewart, it can be a Wonderful Life between our initial salvation and our glorification, if we heed Colossians 2:6, and walk in grace just as we received Christ in grace, by simple faith.

Faith that He has already forgiven us of all our sins, past present and future.

Faith that we are no longer under condemnation, because our sins have been paid for and put away as far as the East is from the West.

Does God Overlook Our Sins?

Notice I didn’t say He overlooked our sins. He couldn’t be that unjust. No, He exercised His great justice, by taking our sins on Himself. He became sin FOR us, that we might be made the righteousness of God.

I love the hymn by Annie Johnson Flint that goes,

"His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again."

You see, it’s His love that supplies that grace for salvation and living. His love for you and me.

On Sunday, August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 225 crashed just after take-off at Detroit, Michigan.

155 died, and one lived.

That one who lived was a little 4-year-old girl named Cecelia. The wreckage was so bad, that the authorities thought at first she had not been on the plane. Checking the flight roster, however, and with Cecelia's own testimony, the following was discovered:

As the crash was developing, Paula Chichan had unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and would not let her go! Nothing could separate that child from her parent's love...neither disaster, nor crash, nor flames, nor pain.

Such is our Savior's love for us...

"...that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38,39)

So Walk In Him

This week's audio message:

So Walk In Him

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Daisy Theology - He Love Me, He Loves Me Not (Transcript)

I suppose someone listening to this may not be familiar with the plucking of Daisy petals to determine someone’s love.

A young lady might pick a Daisy flower, and stare at it as she picks off its petals one by one. As she picks a petal, she says aloud, “He loves me.”

As she picks off the next petal, she says, “He loves me not.”

Petal by petal she speaks the words, “He loves me, he loves me not; he loves me, he loves me not,” until the last petal is plucked off. And whichever phrase coincides with the last petal, tells her whether the one she loves...loves her.

Silly superstition, I know. But even sillier is building our view of God around Daisy Theology.

Performance Is What It's All About?

Daisy Theology is that view of God that basically says, God loves me when I perform well, and when I don’t perform well...well, how could God love somebody like me, when I act like that, or think this or that?

And so many have built their Christian lives around the awful thought pattern, “He loves me, he loves me not; He loves me, He loves me not.”

They may not SAY that God doesn't love them, but they FEEL it. And they feel it because they THINK it. And they think it because it's TAUGHT to them every time performance-based Christianity is held up as an idol.

And it's a shame. And it's not just a shame. It's a blasphemous denial of the Cross of Christ, where He said, "it is finished". It's Galatianism at its most subtle. It's the attitude that God loves me when I'm "good", and frowns with disappointment and anger when I'm not "good".

It's screamed from the pulpit every time condemnation is heaped on the sheep, because they aren't performing to perfection. It's screamed by pop Christian books that consist of nothing but 10 or 40 or 100 "rules to live by".

Books like How to Be A Good ______ [husband, wife, friend, Christian, worshiper, charity worker, pray-er, etc. ad nauseum]. Written by men and women who know that they fall short, but think it is incumbent on them to tell everyone else how to be a "Good ______."

Not precious principles from a loving God who loves us because He chose to before the foundation of the world, but rules to measure by. Rules to condemn by.

Daisy Theology is hurtful to the Christian life.

Why Daisy Theology Is Hurtful To The Christian Life

Here are 7 reasons why:

1. It quenches the peace of God.

Peace is a fruit of the Spirit. When we are filled with the Spirit and walking by the Spirit, we have peace in our hearts. This is a cycle, because the more we have peace in our hearts, the more we desire to commune with the Lord. We want to draw near to Him, and express our love to Him, and draw on His wonderful love for us.

When wrong thoughts about God creep into our thinking, it pushes out the right thoughts. And this quenches the Holy Spirit, and causes us to be robbed of our peace. Instead of resting and basking in the love of God, we fret and worry and amazingly, we may not even know we’re doing it for a while.

We may even try to perform better, trying to earn God’s favor and love and peace. And so we get off of the ground of Grace, and onto the ground of Law. And the cycle goes the other way. Until we come back to the great truth that God loves us by Grace, unconditionally, accepting us in the Beloved, Jesus Christ.

So Daisy Theology quenches the peace of God.

2. It causes believers to experience condemnation, in direct violation of Romans 8:1.

Rom. 8:1 says that there is now NO condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But that doesn’t mean believers don’t sometimes FEEL condemnation. And if you FEEL condemned, then in a way you are. And so there is this odd thing going on where one is experiencing what is not even true.

And when a believer experiences condemnation, they will either have discouragement and despair for a time, or they will muster up their flesh and determine to perform well to earn God’s love. And under this lie-based scenario, the Spirit is quenched, and there’s another spiritual tailspin.

3. It steals the joy of salvation.

Joy is also a fruit of the Spirit, and is robbed from us for the same reason peace is robbed from us. The cry of David in Psalm 51:12 is the same cry that comes from the one who is in the dry desert of Daisy Theology: Lord, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation”. But cry as we might, that joy won’t be restored until we abandon “He loves me, He loves me not,” and acknowledge the precious truth that He loves me.

4. It's contagious, spreading it's lie like a virus, everytime someone "sneezes" it.

The world, the flesh and the devil are intent on deceiving believers in Jesus Christ about God’s love for us. Every day in a thousand ways, every Sunday even in the pulpits of preachers who love Jesus, the virus of Legalism is spread.

Every time the Christian life is portrayed as some measure of performance, making it man-centered while pretending to be Christ-centered, the virus is spread. Every time God is taught to be angry and frowning on His born-again children until they get their act together, the virus is spread.

Every time the Christian life is looked at as a list of rules to live by, or else...the virus of Daisy Theology is spread.

We need to immunize ourselves from this virus, by proclaiming from the Word of God, and meditating in our hearts on the truth that God has already forgiven all of our sins, past present and future.

And there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more, and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. He loves us, because He has chosen to do so, even while we were yet unsaved.


5. It is rampant in the minds of many believers, and therefore in the church.

This may sound a little redundant, but it’s important to realize that this is not an isolated problem in the Church. We need to be on guard against Legalism and Daisy Theology all the time.

I don’t mean that we become Grace police, and jump down someone’s throat every time we hear it. But we can help the cause of Jesus and His Grace among our brethren, by speaking the truth in love, and by guarding our own hearts against the lie that God loves and favors us based on our performance.

6. It is seldom directly taught from the pulpit, but it's virus is smeared all over congregations by implication.

What do I mean by that? Well, hardly anyone preaches, “God doesn’t love you when you sin. He hates you, and you are going to Hell if you don’t stop that sinning and be perfect.”

No, it’s much more subtle than that, and unfortunately, is preached by preachers who themselves are fuzzy on God’s unconditional acceptance of us in Christ. They have often been taught Law-based theology in Seminary or Bible College.

They have been “warned” by well-meaning teachers that if you really preach Grace in all its fullness that the sheep will run wild. They’ve been taught that focusing on our performance is the best way to honor God. And so on.

And so they pass on these concepts to their flocks, never understanding that we are not only saved by Grace apart from works initially, but that we are to live by Grace apart from works AFTER we are saved.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t DO good works after we’re saved. We will. It’s God who is at work in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure, Paul tells the Philippians.

And as New Creations in Christ, who love Jesus, we WANT to live holy lives. But what about when we don’t? Does God withhold His love from us? Of course not.

7. It seems to "make sense", but is utterly unbiblical, destructive, and anti-Christ.

I know it seems to make sense. Humanly speaking, why shouldn’t God be angry at us, and frown on us when we fail? After all, didn’t He give us the
Bible with all the rules for living? And didn’t He give us His Holy Spirit so we have the power to obey all those rules? I mean it only makes sense.

The problem with that is that it is simply not true. It’s not the way it is. Why? Because Jesus became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

Romans 5:10: "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"

See, we have been reconciled to God, forever. We have been declared righteous by Him, through the blood of Christ. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).

And so there is no barrier to His love for us.

And for that we can love Him.

Daisy Theology is one of the most subtle and destructive corruptions of the Word of God that has ever been cooked up by the Doctrines of Demons, Inc. lie factory.

Don't buy their product! Call the Better Bible Bureau and report them!

If you are Christ's, there is nothing that can separate you from His love. Don't forget that. There is nothing you can do that will make Him love you more or love you less. He loves you, period.

The curtain has been torn apart. The wall has been torn down. It is finished. He loves you, period.

Don't even look at a daisy, until you are completely recovered.

Daisy Theology - He Love Me, He Loves Me Not

This week's audio message:

Daisy Theology - He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Resentment and Forgiveness - Part 3 (Transcript)

In Part 1 we talked about how resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. We talked about how toxic unforgiveness is to our bodies, as well as our souls.

Then we looked at a few verses of Scripture which gave us some instruction and some wisdom on forgiveness, forgiving one another, and not holding resentment against others.

Then in Part 2 we made an attempt to actually define “forgiveness”, and we said it was sort of the other side of the coin to biblical unconditional love as found in 1 Corinthians 13, for example.

Here's the definition we gave for “forgiveness”:

“Forgiveness is not holding something against someone as regards your unconditional love for them.”

And since it's the other side of the coin to biblical unconditional love, here's how we defined “love”:

“Love is truly, by the Holy Spirit, desiring the best for the one loved.”

So we said that when you forgive someone, you no longer hold their sin against them by withholding your love for them, that is, you still desire the best for them, in your heart. You still love them, with the love described in 1 Cor. 13.

What Do Forgiveness and Unforgiveness Look Like, And What Hinders Forgiveness?

OK, now let’s talk about what forgiveness LOOKS like, and what unforgiveness looks like, and how to forgive, and what hinders forgiveness.

And we’re going to do that backwards, starting with what hinders forgiveness.

Well if forgiveness is the other side of love, that unconditional God kind of love, then the main thing that hinders forgiveness, the one thing that keeps us from forgiving is a lack of love. And since love is a fruit of the spirit, then the main hindrance to forgiveness is what we call walking by the flesh, instead of walking by the Spirit.

A Little Side Road About Anthropology

Now let's take a small side-road and give a reminder of biblical Anthropology. That's the study of Man, what he was like before being born again, and after being born again. When you were born again, you became a new creature or a new creation, it says in 2 Cor. 5:17.

You were given a new spirit, a new nature, and in your new nature you love Jesus and hate sin. And of course the Holy Spirit came to dwell in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). And you became one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17).

Your old nature was killed, crucified with Christ, the Bible says. Gal. 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” And that's the new lifestyle that we want to live, isn't it? We want to live such that Christ is living out His life through us, and that requires walking by the Spirit.

Now, when we are in fellowship with Jesus, in surrender to Him, thinking “Not my will, but yours, Lord”, and being filled with the Word of God, the Bible, we are being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us not to be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).

And you may have heard that by the verb tense of the original Greek, we know that it actually means to “be being filled” with the Spirit. In other words, it’s not a one-time thing, but should be a lifestyle. And so when we are in fellowship with Jesus, and being in surrender to Him and His will, and being filled with the Word of God, we ARE being filled with the Holy Spirit.

How Exactly Do We Forgive?

When this is happening, we will be walking, or living, by the Spirit, and we will have the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, and so forth. But we’re keying in here on love. Because when we are loving, we will be forgiving. We will be casting aside the hindrance to forgiveness, which is lack of love, and we will love and forgive.

Remember, when we're walking by His Spirit, we are also walking by our own new spirit, too, in harmony with God.

So that pretty much also answers the question, How do we forgive, but let’s expand on that a little more.

How do we forgive? Do we just SAY “I forgive you”, or is it like a New Year’s Resolution, “From this day forth, I will forgive so-and-so”? Or is it a change of heart and mind that I just hang around and wait for the Holy Spirit to do for me?

How do we forgive?

First of all, if we are walking by the Spirit as a general lifestyle, we won’t even normally have to ask the question. Forgiving will be as natural as breathing. Forgiveness will flow out of us like carbon dioxide does when we exhale.

But what if we sense that we’re NOT forgiving? What if the very mention of a person riles up our bad intentions toward them? What if we not only don’t desire the best for them, but frankly we’d just as soon they’d exit the Planet, or at least exit our lives?

Then there is a process to get back to square one.

A Practical Process For Forgiveness

It’s not a complicated process, in fact it’s simple. It’s as simple as the simplicity which is in Christ, as the Bible says. It’s not an exact formula, but it might go something like this:

1.A recognition of the wrongness of unforgiveness, coupled with repentence, a change of mind, perhaps a prayer,

“Lord, I’m sorry for harboring that resentment. I know it’s sinful. I know it’s wrong. I want to love that person, and therefore forgive them. Fill me with your Spirit, because without you I can do nothing. But with you all things are possible.”

2.Coming back to the recognition of your new life in Christ. Again reckoning yourself dead to sin, and alive to God through Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11). It won’t hurt to say it out loud, but of course it’s not magic:

“I am dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ. I don’t have to hold resentment, and withhold love for that person. I am free in Christ to love and forgive, because the old me died and I am now a New Creation."

3.Exercising love toward that person. It may not be face to face. You may not even have that opportunity. If you do, great. Go ahead and show them love. Show them you are not holding a grudge or resentment. But if you don’t have the opportunity in person, pray for them. Every time you think of them, put off the resentment, and put on a prayer of love for them.

“Lord bless so-and-so. Draw them near to yourself, and work your wonderful will in their lives. And if possible, Lord, let them know that I love and forgive them.”

4.Rinse and repeat, just like shampooing your hair. Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever let a root of bitterness grow. Practice is not unbiblical. Part of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control, and sometimes we just need to PRACTICE these things, until they are habit.

It can be a habit to walk by the Flesh, and it can be a habit to walk by the Spirit. So practice walking by the Spirit. Practice loving, practice forgiving.

Then you may find that in some mysterious way, it’s not you doing it, but Jesus, living His live through you. You may be skywalking in another realm, a heavenly realm, an eternal realm, and wondering how it was you used to hold all that resentment and bitterness for anybody.

A miracle will have been worked in you by God Himself. You will be walking by faith, not by sight. You will be setting your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. You will be walking in forgiveness.

And what does that forgiveness look like? It looks like love.

It’s patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor. 13)

And then you are free.

Part 1
Part 2

Resentment and Forgiveness - Part 3

This week's audio message:

Resentment and Forgiveness - Part 3

Grace For Life audio archives are here.