Gtcotr/ss061321
I want to say a special thanks to all those who accompanied me to Turkey this past week. It was an exciting and fruitful trip and we heard so many powerful testimonies as to what the Lord did during those 9 days. As well, I wish to share my appreciation for all who continued here at GTCOTR and at Church Online. You kept the vision running and met untold numbers of needs both here in Southeast Texas and around the world. May God bless each and every one of us in the Name of Jesus. He is a covenant God who brought us all home safely and with joy, peace, and health.
Romans 1:7 To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:2 Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:3 Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
Philippians 1: 2 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Timothy 1:2 Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
2 Timothy 1:2 To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Titus 1:4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Philemon 1:3 Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
Revelation 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
I believe any reader of the New Testament would conclude that it is the will of God for His children to have grace and peace in their daily lives.
·
Grace
is the God factor in our lives that makes us able to do and be what we could
not do and be on our own.
o Grace is the unmerited
favor and ability of God.
·
Peace
is what we experience in life when we truly trust God.
o It is the rich soil
cultivated by faith in God.
o If we know God and are satisfied with His will, we will have peace.
God’s grace is always sufficient for our every need in life.
Yet, I’ve seen people, good people, God’s people, fall from grace!
How can a person know if they or someone else has fallen from grace?
One of the greatest indicators is that when a person falls from grace, they begin to lose passion for what they once loved and soon the peace of God that passes all understanding goes right out of the door with it.
A
person can still be doing good things and still look like they did before.
However, when a person falls from grace, they begin to lose:
·
Peace
with God
·
Peace
with others
· Peace within themselves
It is interesting. When we lose peace with God, we stop trusting Him and begin to imagine we know best. When we lose peace with others, we also stop trusting them. And when we lose peace within ourselves, we often don’t know where to turn and we feel cut off from all help and hope. It is a sad thing to fall or see someone else fall from the grace of God which they once enjoyed so freely.
However, our wonderful loving caring Father God gave us both warning and instruction concerning what we should do if we ever feel the grace or peace slipping from our lives. There is a biblical precedence for this spiritual syndrome. We can read about it happening to the first century Church in the First Letter to Ephesus.
1 Ephesus 1
1 ¶ Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in
Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The
First Letter to Ephesus continues with great admonitions and encouragements
concerning how to stay in the grace of God and how to live our lives in the peace
which passes all understanding. It continues:
·
Pray
·
Be
thankful for salvation which was a gift of love by grace and mercy, not works.
(2:8-9) Because …
·
Jesus
is our peace Who has broken down every wall …
·
He
abolished the handwriting against us
·
He
came and preached peace to the world
·
Do
not lose heart
·
Be
rooted and Grounded in love
·
Know
the love of Christ
·
Walk
worth of Christ
·
Grow
up and walk in the unity of the faith
·
Put
off the Old Man which is corrupt and put on the New Man
·
Don’t
allow anger to make you sin
·
Give
no place to the devil
·
Don’t
use foul or abusive language which only hurts others
·
Choose
your words carefully to encourage others and to build them up, not hurt their
feelings or tear them down
·
Don’t
grieve the Holy Spirit by being all angry and bitter and filled with hate and
wrath.
·
Don’t
do anything with malicious intent
·
Be
kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving, knowing Jesus forgave you.
·
Walk
in love
·
Wives,
submit yourselves to your husbands
·
Husbands,
love your wives
·
Children,
honor and obey your parents
·
Servants
and Employees, obey your masters and bosses
· Everyone put on the whole armor of God
These are the admonitions concerning how to continue in the grace and peace of God.
The first letter to the Church in Ephesus concludes with:
1 Ephesus 6
23 Peace to the brethren, and
love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.
The word grace is found 159 times in the Bible; 12 times in the 6 chapters of the book of Ephesians alone.
The word peace is found 429 times in the scriptures.
The prayer “Grace and peace be multiplied to you” is included in virtually every Epistle of the New Testament. The Church in Ephesus heeded the Holy Spirit’s inspired Words of God. They adapted their lives to reflect Christ and His love for the lost. The Believers in Ephesus worked hard to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole of Eurasia, and they were very successful.
They did great things for Jesus and others yet somewhere along the way they forgot why they were doing it.
A mere 40 years after they received that first Holy Spirit inspired letter, the Church in Ephesus fell into need of another fresh Word from God. Hence, The Second Letter to Ephesus was delivered by Jesus Himself.
The Apostle Paul who had lived in Ephesus for almost 3 years penned the first letter to the Church. The second letter to the Church in Ephesus was penned by the Apostle John who had lived in Ephesus for perhaps a quarter century or more, long after the Apostle Paul’s death. Let’s read it. It is the Second Letter to the Church at Ephesus. We find this letter in:
Revelation 2
1 ¶ “To the angel of the
church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His
right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
2 “I know your works, your
labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have
tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;
3 “and you have persevered
and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become
weary.
4 “Nevertheless I have this
against you, that you have left your first love.
5 “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place — unless you repent.
Somewhere along the way these believers in the Church experienced a fall from grace – the grace to love Jesus and others as they did at the first.
The NLT says it like this:
Revelation 2:4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!”
These saints did not lose their salvation, rather they lost the joy of their salvation and were in danger of becoming unusable to Jesus.
How sad it would be to fall from Grace … to lose the passion you once had for the work of God and no longer be in love with what you do for Him. Going through the motions is just not enough for either you or for Jesus.
I love to be excited about what we do. It would be terrible to lose or to leave that first love.
How can a person who has fallen from grace, who has no peace, perhaps even lost faith in God, trust in others and joy within themselves for the things of Christ, recover? Listen to the words of Jesus …
1.
Remember
2.
Repent
3. Return
You can begin that process right now! Why not? Why live without peace and outside of the grace of God, without joy, angry, bitter, unloving, unkind, and uncaring about others? All of that can change with one decision. Life and thoughts, words and actions can all be cleaned up and put back on track under the blood of Jesus. The passion and joys of serving Jesus and others in His name can once again be found.
God will restore … give Him this chance … He still wants to use you for His glory.
Remember
… Repent … Return!!!
