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Brother Love
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« Reply #30 on: October 17, 2004, 08:19:32 AM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional

Moving From Mercy To Grace



by Steve McVey
 
_________________


 
An article in Progress magazine reported that Billy Graham received a speeding ticket driving through a small town many years ago. He readily admitted his guilt, but was told by the police officer that he would have to appear in court.


Mr. Graham was asked by the judge, “Do you plead guilty or not guilty?” When Graham pleaded guilty, the judge replied that will be ten dollars – a dollar for every mile you went over the limit.


Suddenly the judge recognized the famous evangelist. “You have violated the law,” he said. The fine must be paid, but I’m going to pay it for you.” Then he took a ten dollar bill from his own wallet, attached it to the ticket, and settled the case. After court, the judge took Mr. Graham out and bought him a steak dinner. “That,” said Billy Graham, “is how God treats repentant sinners.”


God’s mercy has been extended to us because He didn’t give us what we deserve for our sins. He paid the penalty at the cross. But He didn’t stop there. He extended His grace by giving us what we don’t deserve – Divine life.


Many churches focus their evangelistic efforts on sharing the news that salvation means having our sins forgiven. But the complete gospel is even better than that! In His grace, God forgives us, then gives us an abundant life in Jesus Christ. Salvation isn’t only getting a man into heaven, but getting heaven into him!


Jesus Christ wants you to enjoy the fullness of being a Christian. Don’t settle for simply receiving forgiveness and anticipating your arrival in heaven one day. Your heavenly Father is rich in mercy and has forgiven your sins. Then He took a quantum leap forward even beyond that. He has given you the life of Jesus Christ and has seated you at His right hand. (See Ephesians 2:4-6). You have received every blessing in Christ (see Ephesians 1:3) and have the capability of living a lifestyle that is flooded by His goodness every day. Rest in His mercy. Know, without a doubt, that your sins are forgiven. Then revel in His grace by enjoying the Spirit-led party that the we know as “the Christian life.”




Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org








 
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« Reply #31 on: October 18, 2004, 04:12:15 AM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional



Archie Bunker and Our Concept Of God




by Steve McVey
 
_________________

 
In the popular 1970's television series, All In The Family, there was an episode where Archie Bunker discovered he had accidently locked himself in his basement on a cold winter morning. His family members were all gone for the day and the only thing Archie could find to try to warm himself was an old bottle of scotch. As the day progressed and the contents of the bottle diminished more and more, an inebriated Archie found himself praying, asking God to help him get out of the basement before he froze to death.


Finally, late in the day, he heard a sound coming from upstairs. “Is that you, Lord?” he asked, now in a drunken stupor. “Mr. Bunker? Where are you?” the voiced answered. “I’m down here in the basement, Lord,” Archie replied.


What Archie didn’t know was that the voice was that of his black neighbor, who from outside the house, had heard Archie calling for help. This stranger had come into the house to help him in response to his cry.


Anybody who is familiar with the character, Archie Bunker, would probably choose the word “racist” as the first adjective to describe him. On this particular occasion, the last thing Archie was expecting to see was a black man come to the rescue. In his drunken frame of mind, he was looking for God.


“I’m coming to get you, Mr. Bunker,”the benevolent visitor assured him. “Thank you, Lord,” Archie answered. “Something fell across the door from the outside and locked me in. I’m ready for you to take me now, Lord.”


The door to the basement opened and the neighbor began to walk down the stairs where Archie was slumped over, face down. As the man reached the bottom of the stairs, Archie pushed himself up to take his hand and be carried away. Looking into the man’s black face, with an expression of shock and horror on his face, the drunken racist cried out, “Forgive me, Lord! I didn’t know!”


This scene from a television sitcom, although a comedy, raises a serious question. What if, when you see God face to face, He is nothing like you have imagined Him to be? All of us have formed our concept of who God is based on the input we have received. How accurate our concept of God is depends largely on whether or not that input was reliable or how properly we interpreted the information we received.


The key to becoming all that you are capable of being is to gaze into the face of God. That is the only thing the Bible ever plainly says will change us into the image of the Lord Himself.


It isn’t self-effort that will change our lives. If that worked, most of us would already have reached perfection because we have certainly tried . . . and failed. What does work in changing a person is a consistent Godward gaze into the beautiful face of a Divine Lover, who is more committed to us that we can imagine. Determine now to give up on self-effort and simply look to Him.



Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org



 
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« Reply #32 on: October 19, 2004, 04:33:52 AM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional




Being Lord of the Ring



+++++++++++++++++++++++



When the movie Lord of The Rings: Return of the King opens, it begins with Smeagol and his cousin, Deagol, fishing together. Deagol is pulled into the lake by a big fish he snags and as he is pulled across the bottom he discovers “the ring.”


The attraction of the ring’s power instantly affects them both. “Give it to me,” Smeagol says, but his cousin won’t let go of it. Soon Smeagol’s insatiable thirst to possess the power the ring wields causes him to attack his cousin and choke him to death.


Standing over his beloved cousins body, he murmurs “My precious,” with an evil tone and sinister look on his face. As the scene unfolds, the viewers see the effect the ring has on Smeagol in the days ahead. His obsession with it’s power transforms him, driving him mad and turning him from a normal Hobbit of the Stoor strain into a grotesque form.


Alone in misery and living in a gloomy den under the Misty Mountains, he reflects on his plight, “It cursed us. It drove us away. We want the precious. We want to be so alone. But we forgot the taste of bread, the sound of trees, the softness of the wind. We even forgot our own name.” However, in the depths of his depraved misery he groans in an insanely wicked voice, “My-y-y-y precious.”


The ring represents absolute power. When Smeagol gains possession of the ring it has a hideous metamorphic effect on him. He becomes evil and sneaky. He forgets the taste of bread, the sound of trees, the softness of the wind. He even forgets his name and becomes known as Gollum.


Although a fantasy tale, what happens to Smeagol isn’t so far removed from what happens to man in his desire to become God. “I will be like the Most High,” declares Lucifer before he is cast down from heaven. “You shall be like God” was the promise Satan would later make to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.


Since Eden, unregenerate man has had the insatiable desire to be Lord of the Ring, to be the one who has power over his own destiny and even that of others. To the extent that he seeks that power, he becomes increasingly transformed into a grotesque caricature of man as God created him.


His lust for power is his craving to be a god. It corrupts him completely, leaving him in total depravity. It leaves him miserable, yet still clutching the power for which he longs as he moans in his misery, “My-y-y-y precious.”


Jesus Christ came to free us from our plight. It is when we forfeit our right to own the ring that we find life, that we remember our name and once again eat from the tree of life. By his victory, we have been set free from the curse of the ring and find our world made right again. For the believer, the time of the dominion of sin has ended. The King is on His throne and He makes all things new.




Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2004,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org





 
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« Reply #33 on: October 19, 2004, 05:40:31 PM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional



Don’t Ask, Appropriate!


by Steve McVey
 
_________________


 
When I was a pastor of a local church, I would sometimes go into the worship service and say to my congregation, “Let’s all pray and ask the Lord to give us His blessings today.” Together we would ask, “Lord, pour out Your blessings. Give us Your blessings.” Every Sunday for several weeks I did that.

One Sunday morning I was sitting in my office thinking about the service. I thought about how I would go in and ask everyone to kneel and ask the Lord to give us His blessings. As I was thinking about that, the Holy Spirit spoke very clearly to me and He said to me, “Don’t do that. Stop doing that!” As I looked at my Bible in my lap, my eyes fell on Ephesians 1:3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” I had been asking the church to pray and ask God to give us something when God has already given us everything.

The need is not that God should give us something that we don’t have. The need is that we should know what we do have. Paul didn’t pray for the church to receive more. He prayed that they would understand what they already had. In Ephesians 1:17-19 Paul prays, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”

Are you praying for God to give you more of Him? He has given us everything He has to give in Jesus Christ! What is it that you need? Jesus Christ is your Source. All you need is Him.

Do you need wisdom? That’s Him. Do you need righteousness? That’s Him. Holiness? That’s Him, too. Do you need sanctification, guidance, strength? It’s all Him.

What do you need today? His name is IAM. I AM what? Anything you need. All the fullness of I AM is in Jesus. “For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him” (Col.1:19). All the fullness of Jesus is in you.

Don’t pray for what you already have. Just appropriate the sufficiency of the Christ who is living in you. You don’t have to struggle or beg for what you think you need. You already have it. Just let Jesus be Jesus in and through you.




Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org







 
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« Reply #34 on: October 20, 2004, 04:56:34 AM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional


When Hurricanes Come


Remalia is a cab driver on the island of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. I met her one day after sailing there with a group of friends. As she drove us around the island, giving us “the grand tour,” I began to talk to her about her personal life on the tiny island.


Anegada stands separated from the other islands in the BVI. It is only ten miles from one end to the other. Unlike it’s mountainous neighbors to the south, it’s highest point is only 28 feet above sea level.


As we drove the length of this flat spit of land in the middle of nowhere out in the ocean, I asked Remaila, “Have you ever been here during a hurricane?”


“Yeah, mon.” she answered. “Many times.”


“I would think that since the island is so flat, it would be destroyed by the water surge. You don’t leave the island when a hurricane comes?” I asked.


“No, this is my home,” she answered in a matter of fact way that suggested I should have perfectly understood.


“What do you do when you hear a hurricane is coming?” I persisted.


“We make our preparations, then entrust ourselves to God.” she answered.


Her words bounced around in my mind for the rest of the day. “We make our preparations, then entrust ourselves to God.” So that’s how one handles an impending hurricane.


Have you ever known in advance that some sort of hurricane was about to blow into your life? How did you handle it? With a tendency toward trying to be the “Lord of the Ring” in my own life, I have sometimes found myself trying to be the master of the wind myself.


We all tend to think that hurricanes must be avoided at all costs. We see the hurricanes of life as something evil, something that must be from the devil himself. But the Bible says that “the Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm” (Nahum 1:3). Amazingly, God can accomplish His own sovereign purposes in situations in our lives that threaten to be our total undoing.


When we suspect that a hurricane is coming, we want to run. We may renounce it as being from the enemy. We may see it as a threat to life as we know it. We often scurry around in a panic, hoping to either avoid it or at least ensure that we don’t lose anything if it hits.


Jesus, on the other hand, was in a storm one day while He and his friends were out on the water together. What was He doing while the wind howled? He slept. (See Luke 8:23) He had such confidence in His heavenly Father that storms didn’t threaten Him. He knew that His Father had everything under control.


What are we to do when we believe a hurricane is coming into our lives? We do what Remaila said. We make our preparations. We do so by making sure that everything in life is grounded in the love and sovereignty of the One we profess loves us too much to do us any harm. We give all that we are and all that we have to Him. We recognize that this world is temporary and choose not to allow ourselves to draw our identity from it. We hold a loose grip on everything and everybody, realizing that only God determines what we can hold on to throughout our lives.


Then we entrust ourselves to God. We affirm by faith (not feelings) that He is in control – that nothing can or will happen in our lives which is beyond the bounds of His authority or the scope of His love for us. We trust Him. It’s that simple. We don’t always understand. We just trust. We don’t always feel like He is loving us through our circumstances. We just trust.


We entrust ourselves to the love of One who promised to never leave or forsake us. We lash ourselves to Romans 8:28 and refuse to let go. The storms may rage. The winds may blow. The waves may surge. But we know that our security is in the love of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.


Do you see clouds on the horizon of your own life? Don’t be afraid. The Bible says that those clouds are “the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3). As storms approach, simply make your preparations and then entrust yourself to God.





Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org





 
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« Reply #35 on: October 20, 2004, 05:22:18 PM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional


Discipline And  Grace


Last week was a mile-marker in my life. I finally had to give in and get contact lenses. I’ve known it was coming for some time now. It began when I started holding books further and further from my face as I read. Eventually, I realized I either had to grow longer arms or else stop reading, so I broke down and bought reading glasses at The Dollar Store. I wouldn’t use them in public when I spoke. I’d just lay my Bible and outline notes down on the pulpit and back away until I got far enough to read what I had. When I found myself practically standing with the choir in one church where I spoke, I knew it was time to do something.


So, I did what nearly all men in their forties end up doing – I went to the optometrist. There I learned that not only was my vision unclear up close, but it wasn’t so good for distance either. I thought of all the times my wife, Melanie, had “preached to me” with the tone of an angry prophet about how I would have been killed in the car if she hadn’t strongly urged me to stop just before I ran into the car at the red light in front of me. I had always thought she just found some sort of fleshly pride in thinking she was my mobile guardian angel. Now I knew she had probably been right all along.


The optometrist experimented with different prescription strengths until she found the one that fit me. It has only been a little more than a week now that I’ve been wearing contacts. It has been a good week. I’m noticing individual leaves on trees again. I’ve reduced the font size on my computer screen from 125% back to 100%. I’m even training myself not to hold the things I read as far from my head as possible.


I realize now that I should have gotten these contacts at least a year ago. Life has been harder than necessary because I was too proud or stubborn to give in to my age. The right lenses are allowing me to see life more clearly and enjoy it more fully.


That’s how it is in our spiritual lives. As human beings we tend to be short-sighted. We focus on the things right in our face and often have trouble gaining a clear perspective on things eternal. We’re caught up in our careers, church activities, family responsibilities, and countless other things that demand our constant attention. Gradually, we may lose sight of the most important element of life – our relationship to God through Christ.


It’s not that we forget God, but our vision of Him in our daily lives may become blurry. It’s possible to become so focused on those things which demand our time and energy that eventually we realize that we are neglecting the One whom, although never demanding, loves us more than anybody else ever will or ever could. As time passes, we may practically lose the ability to see the face of God anymore.


Your heavenly Father wants to reveal Himself to you every day, right where you live. He doesn’t want your relationship to Him to simply be a devotional or doctrinal matter. He wants to interact with you, passionately expressing His love to you. He longs for a practical and personal relationship with you.

How can we see the face of God in our daily lives? The answer rests in looking toward Him in faith. The ongoing relationship a Christian has with our heavenly Father isn’t based on works, but neither is it a passive lifestyle. As we walk with Him, the Holy Spirit develops within us, what Eugene Peterson calls in The Message, “the rhythms of grace.”


Do you hunger to know a deeper sense of intimacy with your Father? If so, there are some practical aspects of applied grace which can transform your life. These rhythms of grace, operating in our lives are biblical practices which, when motived by love and practiced in faith, help to create an environment in which we may experience a deeper sense of intimacy with God than we could otherwise know.


When a believer is walking in grace, he wants to do anything that might help facilitate spiritual growth or a deeper sense of intimacy with Christ. The Bible encourages one who loves the Lord to “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (See 1 Timothy 4:7). How does this discipline fit consistently alongside a lifestyle of grace?


Some people are turned off by the word “discipline.” It carries a negative connotation in their minds. Discipline is what one does to a misbehaving child. Discipline may conjure up mental images of gritting your teeth and resolving to do something that you know needs to be done, no matter how much you hate it. One may discipline himself to say no to cheesecake and yes to exercise. When you hear the word “discipline,” you may associate it with something that you ought to do as opposed to something that you want to do.


However, when we understand discipline within the context of grace, we realize that to speak of the disciplines of the Christian life is like talking about the disciplines of marriage. The disciplines of marriage? Let’s see – there is kissing, communication, sharing the same goals, rearing children together and many other aspects of married life that are important to a healthy marriage. But while these aspects of behavior in marriage don’t happen without effort, neither would they be considered discipline in the negative sense of the word. They are all part of the rhythms of marriage.


Don’t think of the rhythms of grace as something that you ought to do, a duty which must be fulfilled by sheer self-discipline. Instead, consider them as gifts from God given to draw you into a great awareness of His love for you. Take off the reading glasses of legalism and view spiritual disciplines through the lens of grace.


Disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness is the result of actions we take in response to an invitation from the Divine Lover. It is the rhythms of grace being expressed from a heart filled with love. These rhythms of grace are definitive acts of faith, motivated by a hunger to know Him more intimately.


Does walking in grace imply a state of passivity? Absolutely not! Is it a lifestyle of self-determination, of sheer will power? Not at all. To walk in grace is to move forward with the motivation of love and the impetus of faith, knowing that as we seek to know the Divine Lover more intimately, He is drawing us to Himself.




Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org




 
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« Reply #36 on: October 21, 2004, 05:13:24 AM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional



Christians and Death


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


I’ve had more friends and family die this year than any other year of my life. An uncle fell dead jogging. A cousin took his own life. Several friends died from cancer. Another from kidney failure. Some of them were relatively young.


A few days after hearing about yet another friend’s death, I commented to my wife, Melanie, “It used to be that it was our parent’s friends who died, now we are at the place in life where it is our own.” We talked about how we’re beginning to know a considerable number of people in heaven these days.


There’s something about the death of friends that reminds us of our own mortality. It almost seems to move us a step closer to death ourselves. The death of friends remind us that this world isn’t a permanent place, but a temporary stopover where we won’t spend much time.


Do you ever think about your own death? How do you feel about that? One pastor asked another, “What would happen to you if you died today?” The other replied, “I’d spend eternity in eternal bliss, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bring up such depressing subjects.”


Physical death is really just a gateway. In a sense we don’t really die. We just move from one location to another. Christians possess the life of Jesus Christ and His life is eternal. We simply one day leave what C.S. Lewis called “The Shadow-Lands” and move into the direct light of his glory.


At the conclusion of Lewis’s story, The Last Battle, Aslan (the Christ figure) reminds the Pevensie children that, despite the pain of this world – the Shadow -Lands – the holidays have begun. “Your father and mother and all of you are – as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands – dead. The term is over; the holidays have begun. The dream is ended; this is the morning.”... Author Barry Morrow wrote, “All of their life in this world and all their adventures in (the land of) Narnia had only been the cover and the title page; now at last they were beginning Chapter One and the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.”


On the day a Christian leaves this human body, we will experience what Dallas Willard calls, “our birthday into God’s full world.” This world is transient, but one day we will move into a world that surpasses anything we can imagine. A child inside his mother’s womb might want to stay there if he knew he was about to be “ejected” from his mother’s body. Little could he know the wonder and beauty of what was awaiting him on the outside of his small world. Thus it is in the life of the Christian about to be born into God’s new world.


I read in the paper this morning that Johnny Cash died last night. He was 71 and had been sick for a while. John Ritter also fell dead yesterday from an undetected heart problem. He was only 54. One day it will be my obituary you read, or else I’ll read yours.


Whichever one of us goes first, let’s remember this fact – Christians don’t die. We just go home and start the next chapter of the Divine Love Story which will never end. Earth introduces the characters. Heaven is the heart of the story.





Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org

 








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« Reply #37 on: October 22, 2004, 05:54:39 AM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional



Christians and Candybars





“Because I longed for eternal life, I went to bed with harlots and drank for nights on end.”

- Albert Camus




The very act of sin is a cry to experience life to the fullest. Every person is born with an insatiable thirst for transcendence, the opportunity to experience something that takes us outside ourselves to a place where we are so enthralled that every fiber of our being feels fully alive. Mankind longs to know what it is to become one with something bigger than ourselves. The best we can do alone is to manufacture a mundane monotony that we intrinsically know is a pale substitute for the Life for which we search.



In an effort to escape the land of Mundane Monotony, we listen to the sultry sirens that seduce us into sin. We mistakenly believe that there is something out there that can scratch the nagging itch in our souls, only to discover after sinning that we weren’t itching there at all. Apart from divine intervention, a person will spend a lifetime trying to satisfy a yearning that refuses to be squelched by artificial means.



James said that Christians sin when we are drawn away by our desires. (James 1:14) Drawn away from what or whom? Temptation is the lure to be carried away from Jesus Christ. Sin happens when we allow ourselves to turn from Him and to something else in order to try to find life elsewhere.



The Christian finds when we sin that it never accomplishes what we really want. Sin can gratify, but never satisfy. It’s like eating a candy bar when you haven’t had a meal all day. It gives you an instant rush of gratification. You feel suddenly energized and it seems like you’ve made the right choice . . . for a short time.



Then the rush disappears and, just like the blood sugar level suddenly and drastically drops after eating the candy bar, you find yourself feeling weaker and more depleted than you did before you made the choice to choose an empty snack over a satisfying meal. You’re left once again feeling fatigued and unfulfilled. You know you need something more substantive and sustaining. It isn’t uncommon at that time to feel a sense of self condemnation for having chosen to try to satisfy our hunger with such an unhealthy snack.



Albert Camus acknowledged that he searched for life in harlots and drunkenness. Where do you seek to find Life when you are drawn way from Jesus? What cheap substitutes have you allowed to take His place? It doesn’t have to be something as garish as harlots and drunkenness.


Whether it is cheap wine or church work, anything we look to other than Jesus to satisfy our hunger becomes a sin to us. Christ alone will satisfy your hunger. Only He will offer the transcendent pleasure of being fully alive. Don’t be drawn away from Him. He loves you and offers you life to the fullest. Anything else is empty calories.






Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org




 
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« Reply #38 on: October 22, 2004, 08:56:34 PM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional

Hearing God's Voice



In his book, Without Feathers, Woody Allen offers an essay which spoofs the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. As Allen tells the story, Abraham is reporting to Sarah and Isaac about how God has instructed him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. While this description contains elements of humor, it isn’t so far removed from the way some Christians think that God must speak to them.


And Abraham awoke in the middle of the night and said to his only son, Isaac, “I have had a dream where the voice of the Lord sayeth that I must sacrifice my only son, so put your pants on.” And Isaac trembled and said, “So what did you say? I mean when He brought this whole thing up?” “What am I going to say?” Abraham said. “I’m standing there at two a.m. in my underwear with the Creator of the Universe. Should I argue?” “Well, did he say why he wants me sacrificed?” Isaac asked his father. But Abraham said, “The faithful do not question. Now let’s go because I have a heavy day tomorrow.” And Sarah . . . said, “How doth thou know it was the Lord?” . . . And Abraham answered, “Because I know it was the Lord. It was a deep, resonant voice, well modulated, and nobody in the desert can get a rumble in it like that.”


Hearing the Divine Lover’s voice necessitates learning to recognize when He speaks. Don’t wait for a deep, resonant voice, and well modulated. The Lord may speak, expressing His love to you in unexpected ways and at unexpected times.


Look within yourself to the indwelling Christ. Jesus isn’t a distant deity to whom you must reach outside yourself. Instead, look inward where He is patiently waiting, longing for the two of you to stare deeply into each other’s eyes and express a greater love than the world can ever know.



Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org




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« Reply #39 on: October 25, 2004, 03:58:12 AM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional


Poison Soup



One day when Elisha instructed one of the sons of the prophets to prepare a meal, he went out into the field and gathered wild gourds from a wild vine and cooked it in the stew. The prophets poured the stew out for all the people to eat when someone discovered, “There is death in the pot!” God’s prophets were serving poison and eating out of the same pot.


That’s what I did for many years. I took the liberating gospel of God’s grace and mixed the wild gourds of religious performance in the same pot with it. The gourds came from a wild vine out in the field. Grace doesn’t grow in a wild field. It is cultivated only in the garden of grace planted and nurtured by God Himself. The idea of religious performance is a wild plant which poisons the grace of God and causes it to cease to be edible, although I did eat and serve it to my church for many years. The tragedy of this kind of poison is that it won’t kill you, but will be just toxic enough to keep you sick for the rest of your life.


The underlying foundation of all religion is performance, whether it’s a tribal dance around a campfire to satisfy the fire god or a dead religious activity performed week after week by an evangelical Christian with the intent of impressing his God. It’s all religious performance and God isn’t impressed by our performance. What impresses Him is faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6). He couldn’t care less about religious ritual void of life. God is in the business of Life. Nothing else interests Him. When it is all said and done, God will either raise dead things or else ultimately separate Himself from them as far as He can get. He is interested in living relationships, not dead religion.


The announcement of the gospel of grace includes the good news that God wants to deliver us from religion. He has extended His grace for the purpose of rescuing us from a lifestyle of futile, feeble efforts to make ourselves acceptable to Him. The essence of religion is man’s attempt to somehow convince himself that he has jumped through enough hoops for God to give him the approving nod. It’s the way we try to validate our own self worth through asinine acts of self righteousness which in reality, separate us from the very goal we seek to achieve. It is poison because it kills any opportunity one will ever have to experience genuine intimacy with God. Religion is a prostitute having fifty dollar sex with a man and telling him it’s love when all the while, deep in his heart, the man knows better. Religion offers false hope that somehow there is something we can do to impress God enough to cause Him to accept us on the basis of our actions. Religion is what rushes in to fill the vacuum created by the absence of personal intimacy with God.


Do my words sound too strong? If so I would encourage you to go back and read Paul’s treatment of legalism in the book of Galatians. My words pale in comparison to his tirade against those who preached circumcision. I deliberately use hard language here because religion is robbing people of Life! Keep in mind that it was religious people who hated Jesus the most. Our identity isn’t in religion, but in our relationship to Him.



Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org



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« Reply #40 on: October 26, 2004, 04:54:04 PM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional



Are You Dying to Find Rest?




For many years the concept of rest was so foreign to me that I couldn’t comprehend it. I didn’t know rest was a gift from God. I thought it was a sin. The invitation of Jesus to those who would follow Him is amazing — “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).


For most of my life, I sincerely believed that the only time we would find rest was when we died and went to heaven. There was a verse I used to read at funeral services to give comfort to bereaved families. I would share Hebrews 4:10 with them: “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”


When I shared this verse, I would tenderly point out that our beloved friend who had died “has now entered into God’s rest and ceased from his own labors.” I talked about how heaven is a place where there are no more struggles. It is a place where we simply rest in Christ and enjoy Him forever. Entering into His rest and ceasing from our own works. It sounded like dying and going to heaven to me.


Then one day I read the next verse in the passage — “Let us be therefore diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall down through following the example of disobedience.” What? Be diligent to enter that rest? Now I was in trouble. I had always taught that rest means dying. Now here I was being confronted with the verse that says to be diligent to enter that rest or else I would be disobedient to God. I knew I had better go back and reexamine that verse again and hope that my interpretation had been wrong or else I was in serious trouble! I didn’t know that I had already died with Christ and was able to cease from my own works, living instead out of His finished work.


The idea of being called by Christ to a place of rest often contradicts the default setting of contemporary Christian thought. We live in a society where people go on vacation with their cell phones, Palm Pilots and laptop computers. To rest in Christ is a concept which often requires a radical paradigm shift for many people.


To rest in Christ, trusting Him to express His life through us, sounds lazy and negligent after having lived in the wilderness of legalism for such a long time. Many mistakenly think of rest as some sort of passivity, which it is not. Resting in Christ simply means trusting Him to be our Life-Source, depending upon Him to empower our actions with His strength and direction.





Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org




 
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« Reply #41 on: October 26, 2004, 09:17:55 PM »

Quote
Brother Love Said:

God’s mercy has been extended to us because He didn’t give us what we deserve for our sins. He paid the penalty at the cross. But He didn’t stop there. He extended His grace by giving us what we don’t deserve – Divine life.

Brother,

AMEN!

I give thanks that I experience HIS Grace, Love, and mercy every day of my life. This old world would be a very depressing place without HIS TREASURES.

Love In Christ,
Tom
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« Reply #42 on: October 27, 2004, 05:29:25 AM »

Quote
Brother Love Said:

God’s mercy has been extended to us because He didn’t give us what we deserve for our sins. He paid the penalty at the cross. But He didn’t stop there. He extended His grace by giving us what we don’t deserve – Divine life.

Brother,

AMEN!

I give thanks that I experience HIS Grace, Love, and mercy every day of my life. This old world would be a very depressing place without HIS TREASURES.

Love In Christ,
Tom

"TWO"Thumbs UP Brother, AMEN!!!


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« Reply #43 on: October 27, 2004, 05:58:04 AM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional


Why God??


Sometimes God makes no sense to me. I simply can’t understand why He allows certain things to happen in our lives. Recently, two friends experienced a horrible tragedy. This couple was driving down the Interstate when the driver of another car on the opposite side of the Interstate fell asleep, crossed the median and slammed head on into their car. The wife (Roxanne) was instantly killed and Greg was seriously injured.


I have prayed often for these friends, but to be honest, I have wondered, “why?” Why would God allow a young couple with two children to experience such a horrible event? Why didn’t He alter the course of their trip by ten seconds, thus saving her life? Why would He allow their two children to face such a horror? Why would the parents of this godly lady be required to endure the worst nightmare of any parent — the death of their own child? Why?


At times, I have stood with Job when he said, “If only I could go to His (God’s) dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would find out what He would answer me” (Job 23:3-5). I was thinking to myself one evening, “It just doesn’t make sense.”


The next day I was talking to Greg’s dad. Greg had been in a coma for weeks, but had recently awakened. When he regained coherence, his dad had the solemn responsibility of telling him that his wife had died. He told me how that, with tears in his eyes, he told his son that his wife had not survived. “How did he respond?” I asked. I expected to hear the worst, but the answer was nothing like I expected.


Upon hearing that his wife had died, Greg looked downward. Tears began to flow down his cheeks and with a quivering voice, he answered, “God is sovereign and He doesn’t have to ask me.” God is sovereign! How could a man say such a thing at a time like that? Nobody can fake it at those kind of moments. That kind of answer isn’t natural; it’s supernatural. There can only be one explanation for such an answer — grace. God’s grace is divine enablement experienced only by the life of Christ within us.


Job said that if he could find where God lived, he would ask for an answer. When I heard what Greg had said, I realized that God was speaking from where He lives today — inside Greg. (He lives inside all believers. See 1 Corinthians 3:16). God spoke through him. Jesus expressed Himself as Greg’s faith, strength and comfort in that moment.


Will he grieve the loss of his wife? Of course. Yet He will not sorrow as others which have no hope. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:13) Jesus will continue to be his life as he passes through this dark valley. I saw Jesus dressed up in Greg and He stunned me with His beauty.


Do people see Jesus in me? Do they see Jesus in you? That’s what the grace walk is all about. It’s Christ being Himself in us and through us in every situation of life. Otherwise, it’s all just religious babble. We each will certainly face difficult circumstances at one time or another, but to know Christ as our Life will sustain us through anything.


That truth is the message I want to spend my lifetime both living and sharing with others. I pray for you as you live this Life too. May He empower you in every situation as you live a supernatural life of grace. Be encouraged today — God is sovereign over every detail of your life .





Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org




 
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« Reply #44 on: October 28, 2004, 04:02:55 AM »

GRACE WALK - Weekly Devotional

Hurricanes And Jugglers




A few weeks ago I was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where I was speaking in a local church. My friend Tim and I had shared the pulpit during the weekend and were scheduled to fly home on Monday morning.

At the end of the last church service, the pastor stood in front of the congregation and announced that he had just received a telephone call informing him that a hurricane was making its way toward Puerto Vallarta very quickly. We were told that it would arrive between eleven and twelve the next morning.

When we left church, we saw the preparations frantically being made for the hurricane. People were boarding up windows at home. Businesses were taping their glass windows and doors in an effort to keep them from being blown apart. We heard on the radio that authorities were already evacuating people from some areas of the city. We even learned that, at some point, the roads leading out of the city would be closed in order to prevent people from trying to leave and being hurt in the process.

Our adrenaline began to pump as we discussed what we would do. We decided to go to the airport and either try to get a flight out of town or else rent a car and begin driving inland while there was still time.

As we made our way toward the airport, the road was jammed with traffic. We inched along until we came to a stop at a red light. When we stopped, I looked on the side of the road beside my window and saw a young man walk out into the street. I never would have expected to see him do what he did next. He began to juggle. He had picked up five or six balls from the sidewalk beside him and started juggling right out in the middle of the road.

It isn’t uncommon to see street entertainers who work for tips in places like Vallarta. But this seemed downright strange to me. Didn’t he know about the coming hurricane? Didn’t he sense the tension in the air as people were scurrying around trying to prepare? Was he crazy?

Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. I don’t know. I do know that, as I thought about the incident later, my thoughts turned to Jesus when He was in a similar situation. He too was in a storm while out in a boat with His disciples.

They were all worried sick about the situation, except Jesus. He was asleep beneath deck. Finally, one awakened Jesus and frantically asked, “Don’t you care that we are about to perish?” I can imagine Jesus smiling, calmly patting the fearful disciple on the shoulder, then looking at the billowing waves and gently saying, “Peace, be still!” (See Mark 4:39). Then He looked back at the disciple, smiled and asked, “What are you so afraid of? Where’s your faith?”

Storms will arise in life. Sometimes they even become hurricanes. What are we to do? Should we just keep on juggling all the things in our lives as if nothing threatening is happening? Should we drop everything and run?

I suppose different situations require different responses. But one thing is sure – we are to trust Jesus at all times. He is in the boat with us and, as long as that is true, we have no reason to be afraid. Are you being threatened by circumstances right now? Don’t be afraid. Jesus is in your situation with you and He will see to it that you reach the destination He has planned for you.

Give your boat (life) and everything in it to Him and He will show you what to do next. He loves you and has guaranteed that you will be safely delivered home.


Steve McVey is the President of Grace Walk Ministries, a discipleship ministry located in Atlanta, GA. If you have been sent this devotional by a friend and want to know more about Grace Walk Ministries, visit our web site at www.gracewalk.org.


This devotional may be duplicated if printed with no changes in its entirety and with the following acknowledgment: “Copyright, 2003,used by permission. Steve McVey, Grace Walk Ministries, www.gracewalk.org



 
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