After John declined Eric’s invitation to attend worship ‘practice’ night (see comic here) he felt he should accept his next invitation to attend a prayer meeting at the church. Eric love to pray, and is proud to call himself a prayer warrior, but he does have the habit of praying with the popular Christianese vocabulary, which, although sounds religiously awesome, doesn’t actually make any sense at all.
Hi Everyone, just wanted to share some very exciting news. My new book:
“The Gospel Cannot Be Chained:Searching for grace in Paul’s prison letters.”
Is being released on the 1st July (this Friday!) It is now available to be pre-ordered on amazon.com. If you are thinking of getting a copy, it would be great if you could order a copy before Friday, because it will encourage amazon then start promoting the book on more on more of their website’s pages.
(Click Here if you want to pre-order a copy on Amazon.com)
If you enjoy my blog posts and daily status updates on facebook about the love and grace of God, then you’ll really love this book. I hope it really helps you to see the message of God’s grace and love in Paul’s four prison letters (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians & Philemon) Below is my forward to the book. If you do get a copy and read it, please drop me a line and let me know your thoughts.
‘The Gospel Cannot Be Chained’ is a collection of Paul’s prison letters that he wrote during his imprisonment in Rome, paraphrased, with a great deal of respect, in a way that highlights what I believe to be the heart of his message. I find it amazing that even in prison Paul still knew he was free; he still knew of a far greater reality that was his in Christ. The beauty of his message of God’s love and grace in his prison letters touches my heart every time I read them. This book is an expression of my understanding of Paul’s letters. I hope it blesses your heart also.
Paul’s letters reveal so much of his heart of love, his joy in God’s grace, and his uncompromising faith in the redemptive work of Jesus. Paul has, in a spiritual way, become one of my dearest friends; a wonderful brother in my own faith walk who has always encouraged me through his letters that I can truly live by the Spirit of God. Although I haven’t yet met him personally, I certainly appreciate the letters he wrote to me, to you, and to all who are part of the body of Christ.
I didn’t approach paraphrasing Paul’s letters with the mindset that I was rewriting Scripture, but rather, respectfully attempting to clarify the heart of a dear friend who is no longer with us. The best way to read this book is in rest. Relax, and read it as if you are reading a few letters from a dear brother in Christ who is writing you a personal letter to remind you of the wonderful reality of God’s grace.
As this is not a Bible, but rather a modern expression of four letters from a friend, I have not formatted it in the way modern Bibles format Paul’s letters. There are no verses or chapters. The best way to read these letters is in one sitting, as you would with any letter you received from a friend today.
I hope that through reading my interpretation of Paul’s letters it helps highlight for you his message of love and grace in whatever Bible translation you normally read.
Although everyone loves in Pastor Moses’ church, it seems they are not all loving the same thing. John wants to keep his faith simple and rest in the grace of God. But Pastor Moses is more keen to preach his principles then he is God’s grace, with a knock on effect in his church to the point that young Bobby loves his pastor, his pastor’s principles, and everything about his pastor… but, who is that Jesus guy again? (see comic here)
After John spoke with Pastor Moses yesterday, and was told his most important priority was to be in the church service each week (see comic here) John thought he must have simply misunderstood his pastor, and so he went to chat with Eric about all the good things he has in Christ. But, while John wants to make the good news his priority, it seems Eric is more concerned about following Pastor Moses’ priority list. It’s not that Eric is against the gospel, its just that he’s too busy with the program to really give it any attention.
Now that John has been a member of the church for a few weeks, Pastor Moses is working on getting John accustomed to the culture of the church. First thing is making sure his priorities are correct. But, is ‘church service attendance‘ really meant to be John’s Number 1 priority in life?
Sometimes, on our journey of growing together in God’s grace and understanding of our new covenant reality, some questions can come up that we are either unsure how to answer, or over zealous to answer for others. It can be a little tricky, because we all need one another. We all want to journey and grow together, but what we don’t want is to be belittled or dictated to. We want a conversation.
I guess when we boil it down, we simply want our hearts to be heard.
Fasting is a topic that I get asked about from time to time, I was recently asked about it again lately, so I decided to share my thoughts on the topic. Like I said above, I’m sharing as an equal, I don’t claim to have the answers, but I can share my heart and belief on the subject, and perhaps it will be a help to you also.
So, fasting under grace, is it right or wrong for Christians to do? I think as soon as we start asking questions of “Is it right or wrong” we fall back into the old covenant ‘check list’ mentality. But the new covenant is not defined by a checklist, it is defined by the Spirit of God living in us, to guide us and lead us into all truth. When trying to understand anything in our faith, I think it helps us all to remember that our covenant is a covenant of the Spirit. We all have the Holy Spirit living in us, and he is our leader.
I wouldn’t ever recommend fasting to someone, because I’m not the Holy Spirit. Sure, I could look at their situation, and make some suggestions, but that would just be me thinking of ways to get God’s attention. If we think we can ‘do something’ to get God’s attention, we are in danger of wandering back into a law based idea of God, and that is never a good sign.
But does that mean Christians shouldn’t fast? Well, here is my take on it.
If you want to fast because you heard an amazing testimony about fasting. Don’t do it.
If you want to get God’s attention. Don’t do it.
If you think you are required to do it. Don’t do it.
If you genuinely feel the Spirit encouraging you to do it. Do it.
There are no rules to follow in the new covenant. There are no principles to get closer to God. The new covenant is about rest. It is about trust. God is with us always. We are holy and blameless in his eyes. He is pleased with us.
In the place of rest, allow the Spirit to lead you. Maybe he’ll lead you to fast, or maybe he’ll lead you to eat a juicy steak. Maybe, like my testimony about fasting below, you’ll get it all a little mixed up and try to fast because it feels religiously right to do so, but actually the Spirit really just wants you to enjoy a nice meal and praise God that you are his beloved. Follow @searching4grace
John is trying to figure Eric out. He certainly seems passionate to serve Pastor Moses, going so far as to become his official armor-bearer (see comic here) but does he really think that the church program is on the same level of importance as Jesus himself?
It is shocking, but it seems like he may even think the church program is slightly better!
Today I interviewed Annette Presley. Annette is the co-author of The Liberation Diet and a passionate believer in the gospel of God’s grace.
Annette shared with me her amazing testimony of coming out of a cult, seeking and discovering the gospel of God’s grace and how that journey effected her professional life as a Registered Dietitian. We had a great discussion about how information about food and diet, and how, like many strongly held doctrines, it is often based not on truth but on tradition and how she sees the gospel in context to food & health.
You can visit Annette’s website for more info: www.findyourweigh.com. It was a very cool and interesting chat. I really enjoyed it & hope you enjoy it too! The interview is below. Follow @searching4grace
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The pressure to conform to Pastor Moses’ way of thinking by serving his every religious idea without question doesn’t seem to be working on the new member to the church, in fact, after speaking with different members over the past week, it has become clear to John that most of Pastor Moses’ church members, although extremely passionate for Pastor Moses and his ‘vision’, don’t actually know even the basic truths to the gospel of God’s grace.
After confronting Pastor Moses with this information, John discovered the reason why. If Pastor Moses doesn’t even understand God’s grace, what hope is there for the rest? Who really needs to be evangelised?
John is not really sure just how much his pastor is focused on the good news of the gospel, so he thought it would be a good idea to try engage him in a conversation about all the good things Christians have received through the love and grace of God… but, it seems Pastor Moses isn’t so interested in talking about those things, what he really gets excited about it being the great teacher who tells John and the other church members what they should be doing as Christians. But, is that really what his focus should be?
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