Radical Grace Church

Preacher by accident not by intention.

2011-11-03T03:51:00.000-07:00

I look back into those days when i thought differently as a man ignorant of the truth and what i wanted to become going forward in my life. I never wanted to be a preacher or anything to do with something of that sort. I was on my way into doing something that i so valued and thought would add to my identity.
When i ask myself this question about why i am here doing what i am doing ie sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no other better reason i can come up with except for what lies at the core of my experience when i heard the true Gospel and was introduced to the True God.
The excitement that was of the Good news about God's love and Grace was redefining me as a person , how i thought about myself and my reference to life was changing. It was deep down in my thought life that i was beginning to see everything from another perspective having lost mine own. It was not being applied to parts of my life but to me as a person entirely. This Gospel was spreading through my thoughts rapidly and was redefining the way i saw everything, to the point that i could not be excited with anything else but this.
The Gospel was taking over. I needed no man to push me, approve me any more. Before i knew i was out sharing this message with a passion like it was my own. I was amazed at how we could all have missed it, knowing how good God is. I saw myself understanding everything through a filter of Grace and love. I saw how our beliefs were established in something that was completely different than the true understanding that i had received. I began to wonder how man could live out of any other understanding than that of God's. I had realized that the whole world was on one side agreeing with their opinions and i was on this other side with another opinion on everything. In short it was crazy.
Later as i went on to grow in this understanding i saw myself taking a beating in prayer meetings and church gatherings. I was getting hurt more that i was being edified. The misrepresentation of who God was was being preached in the name of God and it was beginning to get rough with me. I had to go through a mental battle of pushing myself to sit through the services because it was supposed to be so. It was not long before i was out of this whole circuit of similar minded gatherings in which i saw no point in being part of.
On the other side my weekdays were getting more exciting with the gospel. I was being comforted by God. The message of the cross became my eyes. Now i was eager without intending to to share this with the folks i knew. I would somehow begin a talk and bring it right to the point of the Gospel and then i wouldn't know time going by. I still had so much to say. It was not a choice i was making to share this excitement that could not be contained. It over came me and i followed. I had began to tap into the same source the apostles were drawing from. Christ, and his work had started to make more sense to me. I was addicted. I was termed as a preacher everywhere i went more than i had realized it. Grace had made me a preacher in peoples eyes. It wasnt a choice i had made, never worked on it.

Parable of the lost son

2011-10-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

There is more i see in the parable than just about the lost son. Traditionally Christianity has focused heavily on the 'being lost in sin' part of the picture and so nothing else seems more important. Reading the parable through the spirit of Christ was to me so different from every other interpretation. Usually the parable is read with the 'parable of the lost son' title in mind and this could be a blinding factor to a lot of what we can see in the story.
The context of why Jesus spoke the parable is mentioned and i like the message translation which says, Luk 15:1,2 By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends."
WRONG JUDGMENT from the religious folks triggered this comment. It was self justification and carnal judgment they were indulging in and saw and perceived this gathering of people of doubtful reputation with Jesus Christ. Oh, THERE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A VEIL that in their minds was appropriate when it comes to treating immoral folks. Here JESUS WAS DIRECT IN CONTACT with the socially outcast and i can imagine what impact this would have on a self oriented believer. Then Jesus perceiving this goes on sharing a series of stories, one of which is the parable we are discussing today.
This story was about a man, who had two sons. We know the younger one and his famous act of demanding his share in the inheritance, going out into a distant land and blowing it all up on wayward living. It talks about how he comes to his senses when acute poverty strikes him with a realization of the better state of life the servants in his house back home live. He considers coming back and pleading his way into being accepted as a servant at least. Now the story goes on to explain how he came back and TO HIS SURPRISE the father received him freely with loving arms waiting to embrace him and a heart which was celebrating his return with a feast. Then there is an interesting twist in the story as we see the focus falling on the first son who wasn't too impressed with the celebration. It rubbed him the wrong way and this is where i wondered as to why he wasn't celebrating the return of his brother like His father was.
This is what he says, "Luk 15:29 The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends?"
This was something i never saw in my religious christian days since i was taught only on how the younger son mended his ways to return to the father. But now thank God through the spirit of Christ we see what exactly was happening. Though the younger son returned he never repented and the same goes with the elder son who was big on boasting in his right ways which he thought was key to relating to the father. It is surprising how both the sons although different in their ways never knew the father and His love for them. They had no clue about the deep love with which the father related with them both. The two sons were no different when it came to understanding the fathers love. They had missed it altogether.

Married to another

2011-10-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

God is not your surveillance camera

2011-10-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

I looked up the meaning of the word Surveillance on the internet and it said, ' is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people.
The popular belief when it comes to God is so similar to the definition of surveillance. Imagine how we have reduced God to a person who is busy monitoring our activities or behaviour. Such is the belief that an average christian's conscience is filled with thanks to the misunderstood preacher, preaching a misrepresentation of God. I am sure it is not intentional but surely does the damage to ones belief that can take years to rectify.
God's true personality is contrary to this belief. This is error that causes us to respond to him in fear and engages us in the carnal mindset(works mentality) trapping us in it through pushing us to see and relate to God in it. Thank God i am personally free from this which gripped my heart and constantly reminded me about myself and the burdening task of cleansing myself that comes free with it.
It took for me to realize and awaken to the message of God's Grace which is what the new testament is all about. The true perspective of God the Father which was declared by the son, who was the only one who knew who the father accurately, started to set me free from the clutches of this 'God is a surveillance camera' who's battery never dies kind of belief.
So, does God record our acts to finally play them before the millions when we die and go to him?
No way. That is not the real God. God's intentions for mankind is clear in the coming of Christ. John3:16,17 states "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
His motive for coming down as a man in Jesus Christ was not condemnation but salvation. Hallelujah, what a radical thought. He wasn't kicking at the fallen world but treating its condition with His Love manifest in Christ.
We know that Christ being the lamb of God took away the SIN OF THE WORLD with his death on the cross. God had laid on Him the iniquity of the whole world that we might be justified freely in His son's work of redemption. Thank God this the true belief about God and this helps take away the blindness that misrepresentation of God had put over our hearts hindering us from seeing truth.
Our reference point to relationship with God is Christ and not our lives which we live. The greater truth about my life is what is see happened on the cross in Jesus dying for me and raising from the dead in newness and i identify with it as me in His death and me in His resurrection. Therefore i am filled with gladness knowing the newness in which God raised me up with Christ. It renews my approach to who God is. Now i am free from that trap and the futility of seeking justification by my best efforts of staying clean. Hallelujah!

Not just a book of moral science.

2011-10-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

The term 'Sinner' understood.

2011-10-25T02:23:00.000-07:00

So, who is a sinner? A debate that almost everyone has a say on. Differing opinions on who a sinner often influences our understanding of what Christ was here to do and could end up derailing us from the freedom that Christ died for.
It takes us to genesis to properly construct our views on this one because we must recognise that we aren't sinners by ourselves which means our acts of ungodliness did not get us into the trap of being identified as a sinner. No matter how much one can confess about his or her personal life and how evil one's acts have been it simply does not carry enough weight to change the identity of the individual. Our identity is independent of what we do, it is inherited.
Inheritance the word spells 'you get it for free' by being connected to the family chain. The book of genesis reveals how Man was created, a thought conceived in the mind of God and recorded in genesis (Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth)
Adam the first man was created as a reflection of God's personality and that was our identity. All of us were to inherit what God had made in Adam the first man. What ever Adam was we were. Now we come to a study of what happened to us in Adam because he was the father of mankind and what happened to him would impact all of us without our contribution. In a sense we would have no say in it at all. It was all dependent on Adam alone.
In a capsule this is what happened to us in adam, separation from God through the law living in us which is also called as the fall of adam.
The fall of adam is recorded in(Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Gen 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden).

Condemnation, fear and guilt filled the conscience of man soon after the fall happened. It was not God who left us like many believe. It did not put away God from being with us but had ruined our minds from where we live and perceive everything. Man's disobedience was not a choice but through deception he ended up disobeying- Now this is important truth right here. It really matters what you are feeding on because what you feed on is what influences you not what you do. You can end up being on the side of God being under the knowledge jesus brought or in SIN living by your own opinion of who you are and who God is.

God had to work His work of redeeming us and he did that by taking on a form of a human in Christ Jesus and here we see another like Adam just as powerful as he was in changing all that had been corrupted in the first Adam. The second and the last Adam, Jesus Christ, died and brought an end to the first creation and rose again from the dead as a new man and God put us all in Him and through this finished work we awaken to the truth of our freedom from an old identity we were trapped in.

Therefore, having been freed from our old self in Christ's work we through the hearing of the Goodnews and accepting Jesus and His work find in us the new man formed in the new identity of Christlikeness. This is how we identify ourself, in the work of Christ as believers of the work of Jesus we know we have been made new and are the righteousness of God in Christ. This persuasion is of God and the knowledge he brought to separate us from the wrong corrupt knowledge of the law that ruled us. Having now constructed our arguments from Christ's perspective we now come to understanding who a sinner is and how he is defined.
A sinner can be explained as a man living ignorant of the emancipation(freedom from slavery) that is proclaimed from the Highest authority, The office of God. God in Christ liberated mankind from the trap of a false influenced self. (adamic corrupted in the mind, man).

Understanding the Bible2

2010-03-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

2010-03-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

understanding the Bible

2010-03-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

Good stuff

2010-03-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

2010-03-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

'The gospel is proof that God has only good intentions towards us'

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

2010-03-11T22:29:00.000-08:00

'God is void of all evil. God is holy(seperate from evil)'

As innocent a new born child is, God is a million times more. He is not this person who has some hidden motives or is manipulative in his ways. God is simple and his will is revealed. He wants nothing to be hidden. He desires us to walk in the light.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

2010-03-11T22:25:00.000-08:00

'Preaching on revival makes you desperate
Preaching Jesus gets you revived'

A true revivalist is the one who preaches Jesus and not revival. Jesus revives the dead.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

2010-03-11T22:09:00.000-08:00

'To be born again is not to adopt a moral lifestyle but it is to simply put on Christ'.

It is religion that teaches you character modification. The aim of religion is to cause a man to change his actions through the knowledge of right and wrong(the law).

Grace for the humble

2010-03-09T03:46:00.000-08:00

The Divine Response.

2010-03-09T03:00:00.001-08:00

Christ is the answer from God to a suffering, painful, imperfect world.

I was just thinking on how God answered me in response to many questions i had in my walk with God. I was this christian on fire, full of zeal wanting to work for God. My only goal was to be pleasing to him. I remember praying for the first love for God to return to me. I wanted to have the same love experience i had toward God in the beginning of my born again life. At the same time i battled guilt and condemnation as i set high goals for myself to reach. I saw myself failing everywhere. Finally when i was almost ready to give up the answer came.

God was drawing me toward Christ. He started to open my eyes to this person who i always preached about but never understood. God was pointing toward Jesus Christ. He started to teach me on the plan of God spread out throughout the entire history of mankind. From the book of genesis he showed me his plan of redemption. It was the message of the cross that was the power of God and the answer to all my questions. Finally God never answered my questions to the point but through revealing Christ my questions simply faded away. God had provided all that i needed in Christ. I had to get into the finished work, into rest where everything was provided.

This is the very example i see in egypt with israel. God heard the cry of his people and sent them a mediator in moses to lead them to their salvation to a land where there is no hunger, pain or sorrow but a land flowing with prosperity. All israel had to do was trust God and his good will toward them and enter in to this great place where everything they asked was all provided. God had answered them. The promised land was the divine response.

This is the very thing God has done in Christ. His answer to every man who is asking is all in Christ. If you are standing apart from Christ trying to get a blessing it is like israel trying to get the answer in egypt.

God has answered. Christ Jesus is the Saviour of the World. Being in Christ is being in the real promised land.

True Worship

2010-03-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

I remember going to my church service on a particular sunday and was meditating on the truth that God never leaves us (mat28:20 and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world). It was edifying me and i was experiencing the joy of God dwelling with us even as the choir was getting ready to minister. The Choir began and it was a song of praise which was sung first and as they moved on to the second song i remember something unpleasant happened to me. The words of the song said 'Lord you seem so far away" and i was confused for a moment as something in me didnt seem to agree. The song and my thoughts were contrary to each other. I was at the cross roads finding it hard to decide whether i should sing along with the choir or continue worshiping the Lord and enjoy his presence and ponder on the truth.
I later realized it is the understanding of the truth which leads you into true worship. John 4:24 says, God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. This is an amazing radical statement. This is saying that true worship and truth cant exist without each other. In fact knowing the truth gives birth to worship. Thats right, worship takes on a new meaning in knowing the goodness of God that is revealed in Christ and this is the truth that the new testament presents through the gospel.
Praise God, worship is not done so that you can connect with God through it. Nor is it so that you can please him through a display of true devotion and emotional honesty. Only out of those who realise that they are already connected with God and have been accepted and are pleasing to him through Jesus Christ flows true worship. I have known that God is pleased with me and unconditionally. Out of this a true appreciation for God is birthed and this is a place where it is effortless and real.This is the beginning of true worship.

Seeing yourself IN CHRIST.

2010-03-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

It is amazing what God has done in Christ. He has indeed changed me. I have personally learnt to identify myself with this reality in me. One of the greatest truth is that we are as Jesus is (1Jn 4:17) in this world. Victorious, anointed, accepted by God filled with all power, wisdom just like Jesus. Understanding this is the beginning of true supernatural faith. Our christian life starts with knowing that our identity is who Jesus is.
Trying to be like Jesus was my greatest desire as i was taught to imitate Christ. Many a times this lead to great disappointment. In my attempts to try and be like Jesus i was simply failing to understand and receive what Christ had already done in me. What a glorious work He had finished. God opened my eyes and revealed his son in me. The truth is God has made us in Jesus. All what Jesus is we are too.

The Real Goal of Grace.

2009-12-17T22:08:00.000-08:00

Grace among many definitions can be simply described as Favour. The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ has brought us favour with God. Paul writes declaring (eph2:8) For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Now consider a Relationship which is not based on Grace. A husband and wife taking account of rights and wrongs done to each other, treating one another according to what they deserve based on their actions, bringing judgement upon each other or simply being conscious of their short comings and constantly being condemned and worried about what their image is become in each others minds. This is a perfect recipe for a disastrous relationship.

As poor as that example looks, walking in Grace in a relationship is the cure for it. A grace based relationship is a godly relationship. God is the perfect example for a grace based relationship. Grace is an experience and not a theory. Life is imparted through Grace.

The Grace which God is offering is applicable between two individuals God and man. The true Goal of Grace is to establish man in a perfect, unbreakable, performance free, guilt free, loving relationship with God the Father. Praise God, no sin can ever separate us from this divine bond with the Father. But rather grace ends up teaching us to deny ungodliness and acquaints us to the Righteousness of God in which we have been made (Tit2:12).

The truth about your Salvation.

2009-12-01T05:39:00.000-08:00

The word salvation today for a christian simply means going to heaven after you are done with your earthly life. Some times we hear statements like 'are you saved' which means, are you going to heaven when you die. Is salvation all about reaching heaven? There are many preachers asking people in their sermons to make sure that they are going to go to heaven at all costs or be raptured(caught up) when Jesus returns. This often causes christians to respond in fear and doubt, as they begin to search within themselves in their actions toward doing good and measuring up to the known standard of holy acts demanded by the commandments.

So, what is the truth about salvation?

Salvation is a person, Jesus Christ. When Jesus was brought to the temple to be presented to the Lord, simeon a devout man full of the Holy spirit looking at Jesus said, 'For mine eyes have seen thy salvation' (Luk 2:30).

Who ever has Jesus has salvation (1John5:11,12). It is got nothing to do with your keeping the commandments.

Sozo is the Greek word for Salvation. It was used in the new testament to describe the salvation of God. It is the salvation that only comes through the name and person of Jesus. It means complete deliverance from your current disposition, psychologically, physically, and eternally. Body, mind and spirit. It means deliverance from bad health, poverty, broken emotions, condemnation.

Praise God. Salvation is being made complete (Col2:9,10). He who has received Jesus Christ has been made whole. Salvation is for your well being on the earth right now as much as it is going to heaven once you die. Salvation is a now thing. It is experiencing the redemption which is come to us through the work of Jesus on the cross (1John5:11,12). In simple words Salvation is a God powered sweat free life.

You can experience your salvation today. It is not just going to heaven one day.

The Free Flowing Life.

2009-11-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

There was a man who once went out with his friends and had as much as 10 coffees that night. At 3 in the morning he was knocking on doors and woke his friends up who told him to go to bed n let them sleep. He replied saying he cant help it, its coffee its kicking in and is keeping him wide awake while naturally he knows he is supposed to go to bed.

You cant help it when the message of Jesus is in you. It bears fruit accidentally, without having anything to do with you. You aint working towards loving, you had no lesson on loving, yet God’s supernatural love is flowing out of you because of the Gospel bearing fruit in you. (Col1:6)

Christian life is Allowing God to live through you. Only God can live this supernatural Christian new testament life, not man. This life the new testament potrays in the Bible is impossible for any man (By himself) to walk in. Jesus said “you cannot bear fruit” John15:4.

This verse is surprising to many people (John15:4) because it eliminates all our efforts and determination to do good and achieve the ultimate goal of being like Jesus himself in our deeds. It is in a sense discouraging to the average Law following Christian. Just in case you miss it in this verse, the next one makes it absolute ‘John 15:5 without me ye can do nothing.’

Let us now consider this words of Jesus as it is. The two categories in these verses are ‘in me’ and ‘without me’. This is very clear that these are the two ways Christians adopt to manifest change in them. John15:5 is an absolute statement which means without Jesus we (with our ability) cannot manifest the divine nature.

It is high time Christians begin to understand that it is God living through us and it has nothing to do with us. This eliminates the concept of confessing faith or having faith or even praying for things to get better, but brings us to an enlightened truth that God with all his power and goodness lives in us and we need nothing more than this for any thing we face in this life on the earth ‘2 Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:’Notice that this verse says all this is given to us through the “Knowledge of Him(God)’.

I am not after humanly(natural) patience or love or goodness in my life. I know i have a supernatural God with His nature dwelling in me. God has done this for all who believe in Him. The knowledge of the truth is what sets us free. The truth by itself has no effect on an individual until he knows it. Now that we know God with his nature lives in us it is clear we have no need to put in any work towards doing good and avoiding evil. There is no need to achieve holiness by keeping rules because all the holiness we need is available to us in Christ who lives in us.

All of this Goodness is available to us through the knowledge of God. Knowing God and what he has done bears fruit in our lives. John15:4 says abide in me, meaning abiding in the Goodnews message of God’s work and favour in our lives. This is what brings fruit. Filling your self with the message of JESUS brings out supernatural life in us. Hallelujah!

2008-12-26T07:49:00.001-08:00

Hello guys. Welcome to the Radical Grace blog. The Blog is here with a goal to edify, encourage and enlighten anyone who is interested in knowing The Love and Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on behalf of mankind..