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.
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Hi everyone,

I wanted to share with you how I see the future of what I do here with ‘searching for grace’ and ask for your input as to the direction I take. I find myself at a crossroads in how I can continue all I’m doing. To be honest, I work more than 40 hours a week drawing, writing, interviewing, corresponding and administrating all that I do with searching for grace, and although I love it so much, I don’t see how I can continue at this capacity without having a way to support what I’m doing financially. I don’t want donations, but I do want to create a way that offers you the opportunity to support what I do by receiving a significant piece of my work on a monthly basis.

So, I’m considering offering a subscription to Searching For Grace of $10 per month. For this you will receive a digital copy of a completed book from me each month. Yes, one new book every month! These will be a combination of comic books, non-fiction books, paraphrase and commentaries, and also fiction (finishing off my first novel at the moment!) Subscribing means you will always get an advanced copy of everything I write and create. You’ll also be helping me plan my life, pay the rent and be able to switch off my computer after 8-10 hours.

For this to be possible, I need a minimum of 150 readers to subscribe (you can see how many have currently said yes in the comments section). So, I have not set this up yet, but rather would like to ask if you are interested in being part of this to let me know by filling out the form below. I will send you an email back letting you know, if 150 readers do say they would like to subscribe, when I will send the first book and how to subscribe (most likely Paypal).

So for now I’m just asking, would you like to be part of this? It’s $10 per month. I currently don’t receive any kind of support from any organization or persons, and self-fund all that I am doing. But have come to realise I do need support in order to continue at this capacity. If you find my work of value, and are in the position to be able to subscribe, I ask that you would do so and help me continue to do what I do.

Some of the books planned include:

1. The Gospel Cannot Be Chained: Searching for grace in Paul’s prision letters. (Paraphrase)

2. Searching For Grace, The Comic #1: A halarious look at a 21st Century Church Pushed To Its Extremes. (Comic Book)

3. God’s Grace, Apart From Law: Understanding the most important truth in the New Testament. (Non-Fiction/Commentary)

4. The Kingdom Of Love Is Within You (A collection of quotes, poems and thoughts posted on Facebook over the past 2 years)

5. Pastorman: The Greatest Superpastor Of All Time, An Autobiography. (Humour)

5. God’s Grammar (Novel)

6. Jesus In Genesis. Seeing The Gospel Message In The Creation Account. (Commentary)

Below is just a survey to help me see if people are interested in this offer or not. Thanks in advance, Mick.

We all have a dream. Something we aim for, hope for, and pray for. Well, today I thought I’d share mine with you all.

My dream is to be a full time author. I am passionate about the wonderfully good news of God, the gospel of his grace, and nothing fills me with more joy than sharing it with others. Of course I also enjoy creating my comic for the very reason it is a way to get the conversation started about God’s grace. (On a side note, this year I plan on releasing a few comic books that you can even have sitting on your coffee table)

But back to writing; as most of you know I have already written one book called: Look! The finished work of Jesus. I wrote it to be an encouraging testimony of the radical love of God revealed through the life, and finished work of Jesus upon the cross. I made the book also free as an e book for those who can’t afford to purchase a paperback copy (the link is in the navigation bar above)

As you may have noticed, I don’t have a ‘donate’ button on my website (and I don’t want to ask you for donations either). I currently work a full time job as a freelance teacher/designer to support the work I do within my ministry, but the truth is I wrestle with the time it takes away from my great passion to share the gospel. So my hope is that I will be able to write, release and sell enough books to produce a part time, or hopefully full time income so I can then invest the majority of my time writing and sharing the gospel, and less time working in my secular job.

So, if you would like to encourage me and help my dream come to pass (that is to make a living as an author that will then allow me to also freely preach, teach, and create other creative media to share the good news) please consider buying a copy of my first book. You can click on the book cover or click this link: Look! The finished work of Jesus to purchase it from Amazon.

I know that many of you would love to help support me in the work I’m doing, so this is the best way to help support my work. Perhaps you have a few friends that you think would benefit from my book and you could buy them a copy as a gift? Or simply buy a copy and enjoy reading it yourself. Trust me, it’s good news!

Of course if you can’t afford to buy a copy that is totally fine, and don’t forget you can still download it and read it for free. Thanks also to you all for reading my blog and comic each week, and for sharing my work with your friends throughout facebook and other social media. It’s a great encouragement to me, and I honestly appreciate you all so much.

Blue skies,
Mick

P.S I’m also happy to announce I will be releasing my second book in the coming months titled: “The gospel cannot be chained” I’ll share more about that in the coming weeks, so stay tuned

I thought it would be a good idea to share the forward of my new book Look! The finished work of Jesus with you all. It was written by a great gospel preacher and author Steve Mcvey.

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Many books have been written about Jesus Christ that inspire us to want to know him more intimately. While that’s an admirable goal for an author, the book you are about to read does something greater. Look! The finished work of Jesus doesn’t just cause the reader to hunger to know him more; it fills that very hunger by presenting Jesus in such a way that you actually sense his loving embrace as you read the book.

As I read this book, I found myself delighting again and again in some of the things Mick Mooney has written here. While this book will certainly teach you, it does more than that; it will touch you with a personal awareness of divine agape being expressed to you even as you read. More than once I felt as if my Father’s arms were holding me close while his voice whispered of his love to me through these chapters.

Religion complicates and confuses people by its demands and harsh scrutiny of our behaviour. The grace of God stands in stark contrast to religion by assuring us that because of the finished work of Jesus, we are not only in good standing with God but are actually cherished by him. Grace frees us from trying to prove anything to him, to others or even to ourselves. Mick has a firm grasp on that reality and writes in a way that causes others to understand it too.

The religious climate of the world today promotes the idea that we need to do certain things to earn God’s blessings and to make spiritual progress. This is a book that is counter-cultural to the world of legalism. It points us to Jesus Christ and causes us to see and really believe that what he has done on our behalf is indeed sufficient and that there is nothing left for us to do other than live out of the reality of his finished work.

I predict that Look! The finished work of Jesus is going to be used by our Father to set many people free from the prison of religious performance and usher them into the rest that only comes by living in his grace.

Steve McVey
Author, Grace Walk

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You can check out my book on Amazon by Clicking here

(FYI: If you don’t have a Kindle that’s no problem, as amazon have many free reading applications that you can download and then read any kindle book directly from your computer, or even your phone.)

Blue skies,
Mick

It seems this world is spinning faster and faster. We only have a precious few years, 80 or so if we’re lucky, to experience life on this planet. In the grand scheme of eternity, that really is a short time, and it’s a tragedy to live those years feeling insignificant.

I must admit, it’s easy to do. It’s easy to look at what other people have accomplished, the success they have achieved and their significance in the eyes of society, and feel we have some how missed the boat; we’ve fallen short. It’s all too easy to feel we’ve landed in the vast ocean called ‘insignificance’. It’s easy to look at people who ‘are’ significant, and conclude that we, being so far behind such people, ‘are not.’

But, if we ever do think in such a way, we would only be fooling ourselves, for it is quite clearly not the truth. The truth is that we are incredibly significant, every one of us. Regardless if we’ve never succeeded in anything we’ve attempted, or if we’ve never attempted anything to begin with. It’s regardless if we’ve failed time and time again, or if we’ve never started anything because of the fear of possible failure. It’s regardless of the missed opportunities, foolish decision, or wasted years. It’s regardless if society tells us we are insignificant and thinks we are at the bottom of the pile; irrelevant, unpopular and unknown. Despite any, or all, of these things, you still are significant – but why?

You are significant because God thinks you are. Now that may sound simple, but I can assure you it is divinely profound. It can come as a shock at first, but it really is quite logical. Significance is, after all, not really about what you do, but about what others think of you.

Now, in the world, what others think about you has everything to do with ‘what you do’, but in God’s eyes it’s different. In God’s eyes, your significance has nothing to do with ‘what you do’; rather it’s got everything to do with ‘who God is‘. God is love, and without a doubt he loves you incredibly. He loves you so much he was actually willing to let his divine Son die for you. In fact he Jesus was not only willing, but he actually did die for you.

It’s easy for us to accept that Jesus is truly significant in the eyes of God; he has, after all, ‘accomplished’ so much (you know, he did create all things, that’s a pretty big accomplishment by anyone’s standards.) and I think that’s why, in part, Jesus laid down his life for us. He wanted us to know just how significant we are in the eyes of our Father in heaven. God actually finds us as significant as Jesus himself. So much so that he allowed Jesus to lay down his life for us, that we could actually become like him, one with him – as significant as him.

The reality is that God doesn’t consider someone significant because of what they accomplish, but rather because he is Love, it’s his nature, and he loves his children wildly and completly. Jesus, who ‘did‘ so much, is ultimately not considered significant by God for his works, but for his sonship. God desires that we also recognise our significance in our sonship.

I believe that it is only through the revelation of Jesus, and the reality of his love for us, that we can rest in the truth of our own significance. Sure, the world may disagree, but we know that God doesn’t, for he is the one who makes us significant.

The world will always push you to strive to become someone significant; Jesus simply asks you to rest in the knowledge that you are significant to him.

What good news! You are significant, not based on what you do or accomplish, but based on the fact that God considered you significant enough to not only die for, but even more than that, significant enough to unite himself to you for the rest of eternity, living forever with him in his endless love.

If God thinks you are this significant, then I choose to see you that way too. You are so loved.

Written by Mick Mooney

In the old covenant, the people asked if they could build a temple for God to live in. They wanted a place where God could rest in; a place where they could then come and visit him. They wanted a place that everyone understood was ‘holy.’ They wanted a place that was set apart as sacred.

The truth is that God also wanted such a place; he too desired a resting place, but his idea was radically different. For while those in the old covenant wanted the temple to be a building, God wanted it to be – us!

Within the framework of God’s eternal plan, we know that he never wanted a temple to be built for him by the hands of man. God was never seeking a building made by stones that he could find his resting place in. He wasn’t interested in a place where mankind could visit, and pay homage to him. Indeed, he allowed the people of the old covenant to build a temple, but its purpose, from God’s eternal perspective, was simply to serve as a shadow, and example, of a far greater reality that was to come. The truth is that God’s desired a temple that would be built by his Spirit; a temple where he could rest; a temple far more glorious than anything man could ever build.

“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: ” ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?’” Acts 7:48

It is through the finished work of Jesus, that the ‘temple’ God always desired finally became a reality; for, through the working of his grace, God has made us the temple.

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16

It’s amazing, I know: God, in his profound wisdom, has actually made us his temple.

Why did he do this? I think he did it so we could be assured that he is always abiding in us. The people in the old covenant never doubted that God was in the temple. If ever they needed to meet with God, and be assured that God would be at the meeting, they would go to the temple.

So, now that we are the temple, we can live with that same understanding; but for us it is so much more glorious! We don’t have to run to a building to be assured we can meet with God, for we are now the temple. This means we can be assured that we can always meet with God, because we are always in his presence; we always have  access to his council and his blessing. We can always have this confidence, because God always abides in his holy temple; and by the grace of God all of us, together in Christ, are that temple!

In Jesus the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:21-22

He is always with us. We don’t need to go any ‘holy place’ to meet with him, for now we have become God’s ‘holy place.’ We have access to God all the time, for he lives in us.

How amazing it is to know that we have become ‘the resting place of God!’

It’s interesting to recognise that so often we want God to simply outline for us what his will is, whereas God seems to continue to want us to simply follow him.

God’s desire, that we follow him, is not only an answer to our original question, but more profoundly it’s an invitation to live a life that is led by the Spirit. It easy to think that it would be better if God would simply give us a clear cut, point for point, systematic action plan for our life. But God doesn’t do that, and I think it’s for a very good reason.

You see, God loves you, and me, far more than we can ever truly comprehend. He loves us; he’s actually crazy about us – and he wants to be an active part in our lives everyday. He is the Spirit, and he wants to walk with us, to talk with us, to give us advice, to give us comfort, to give us direction. He wants to live his life together with us; and that’s why he offers to personally lead us, and invites us to personally follow him.

I’m so thankful that when Jesus came he didn’t drop off some instructions and leave us to ‘follow them’, but rather he said: ‘follow me’. God is interested in a relationship. Not a theoretical one, but a living and active one.  It’s a profound gift that Jesus offers us: The invitation to be led by the Spirit of the living God.

God wants us all to be led by the Spirit, because God desires a relationship with each of us, and he knows that it requires a relationship to be led by the Spirit. You see, the Spirit is alive, where as a written code is not. Following a written code doesn’t require a relationship, but following the Spirit does. God isn’t trying to make things difficult, he’s actually trying to offer us more  intimacy. More than anything else, God simply desires a loving, living and active relationship with us.

Think about it: If God were to simply hand out a written code to each of us, outlining every step and every turn we were meant to take, what then would we need the Spirit for? What would we need a daily relationship with God for?

The truth is that we don’t need to know the details, the directions, or even the reasons relating to God’s will for our life – we only need to know him. He loves us so much and he enjoys his relationship with us; he enjoys leading us by his Spirit; let’s enjoy following his Spirit too.

Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Romans 8:13-15