Victory over condemnation

I recomend downloading www.citychurchinternational.net/mp3_2/2007_07_29.zip

Rob Rufus tackles this head on, during his teaching on Sunday 29/07/07. Jul from Voice of grace (www.julnbde.blogspot.com) and I have found this to be a word in season.

Only believe?

"John also records: "Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has

sent'" (John 6:29). We can imagine the response of the crowd to those words: "What about sacrifices? What about feast days? What about the Temple tax?" Then as now there is a tendency to create complexity when the beauty of simplicity will do. God's assigned task for us is to believe.

  Believing that Christ gave up everything and asks for nothing but faith from us changes how we view God, others, even ourselves."

 

From "The Secrets God Kept" - by John Van Diest and Alton Gansky (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc - Wheaton Illinois 2005)

God hand picked us

 

"Second, one doesn't find Christ; Jesus finds the person. In salvation, God is the initiator. A few Scriptures help us see this. Jesus says, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:44). The apostle John teaches. "We love, because He first loved us" (1John 4:19). Perhaps the clearest statement on the matter is Jesus' assertion. "For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost" (Matthew 18:11). 

  The most telling argument is that no one can purchase his or her salvation. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:25). Salvation-entrance into the Kingdom-is always described as a gift, never as payment for work, never as something earned or deserved, but as something achieved by Christ."

 

From "The Secrets God Kept" - by John Van Diest and Alton Gansky (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc - Wheaton Illinois 2005)

Sin

Rom 4:8 blessed is the man to whom the Lord will in no way impute sin."

Heb 10:17 also He adds, "their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more."
Psa 130:3 If You will keep in mind iniquities, O Jehovah, who shall stand, O Lord? 4But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.

Able Ministers

This is something that I believe the Father showed me recently. It is so simple, but it woke me up very quickly.
Our task on this planet is to be "able ministers of the New Covenant" (2Cor 3v6).
We are of no effect if we are convinced that we are not "able ministers" and thus nullifying our mission on planet Earth.
If we are constantly told, and believe that "only when you read your Bible more", or "when you are holy enough".... then we are able to be God's ambassadors, you will never be in a place to be relevant for God purpose for you.

We have to live with the knowledge that "it is finished" and we are sons and daughters in the Fathers house. We have to stand on the fact that we are accepted and are His chosen ambassadors/able ministers. We are dangerous. All of creation is waiting (Rom 8v19)

What are you allowing to be put on you?

Act 15:10 Now therefore why do you tempt God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, according to which manner they also believed.

Who am I? - Part 5

"Jesus said that as this new reality takes over our hearts and lives and minds and actions, we are crossing over "from death to life". He called this kind of life "eternal life". For Jesus, eternal life wasn't a state of being for the future that we would enter into somewhere else: it is a quality of life that starts now."

 

From "Valvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Why don't they just preach grace?

 

Gal 6:12 As many as desire to look well in the flesh, these compel you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 13 For they themselves, having been circumcised, do not even keep the Law, but they desire you to be circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh.

Who am I? - Part 4

"It is trusting that I am loved. That I always have been. That I always will be. I don't have to do anything. I don't have to prove anything or achieve anything or accomplish one more thing. That exactly as I am, I am totally accepted, forgiven, and there is nothing I could ever do to lose this acceptance. (Rom 8v37-39)"

 

From "Valvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Rufus facing the New Frountiers

Rob Rufus just spent last week in Brighton, England, teaching 6000 leaders from 40 nations, a series on the Power of God - signs and wonders, the visitation of God's glory.

Praise be to God as He breaks the walls down.

Who am I? - Part 3

"So what does this mean for the Christian life? To begin, Christians are people learning who they are in Christ. We are being taught about our new identity. Do  you see how deeply this new identity affects the life of a community? I heard a teacher say that if people were taught more about who they are, they wouldn't have to be told what to do. It would come naturally. When we see religious communities spending most of their time trying to convince people not to sin, we are seeing a community that has missed the point. The point isn't sin management. The point is who we are now."

 

From "Valvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Who am I? - Part 2

"This is an issue of identity. It is letting what God says about us shape what we believe about ourselves. This is why shame has no place whatsoever in the Christian experience. It is simply against all that Jesus is for. As the writer to the Romans put it, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Rom 8v1)"

From "Valvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Who am I?

" The issue then isn't my beating myself up over all of the things I am not doing or the things I am doing poorly; the issue is my learning who this person is who God keeps insisting I already am."

From "Valvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Restoration 4

"Which leads to forgiveness. The point of the cross isn't forgiveness. Forgiveness leads to something much bigger: restoration. God isn't just interested in the covering over of our sins; God wants to make us into the people we were originally created to be. It is not just the removal of what's being held against us; it is God pulling us into the people he originally had in mind when he made us. This restoration is why Jesus always orients his message around becoming the kind of people who are generous and loving and compassionate. The goal here isn't simply to not sin. Our purpose is to increase the shalom in this world, which is why approaches to the Christian faith that deal solely with not sinning always fail. They aim at the wrong thing. It is not about what you don't do. The point is becoming more and more the kind of people God had in mind when we were first created."

 

From "Valvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Restoration 3

"When we understand salvation from a legal-transaction perspective, then the point of the cross becomes what it has done for us. There is the once-and-for-all work of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and saying, "It is finished." Nothing more to be offered and nothing more to be sacrificed. Jesus' death perfectly satisfies God. We claim this truth as Christians. All has been forgiven. But lets also use a slightly different phrase: the work of the cross in us. There is Jesus' death on our behalf once and for all, but there is the ongoing work of the cross in our hearts and minds and souls and lives. There is the ongoing need to return to the cross to be reminded of our brokenness and dependence on God. There is the healing we need from the cross every single day."

 

From "Valvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Restoration 2

"For Jesus, however, salvation is far more. It includes this understanding, but it is far more comprehensive - it is a way of life. To be saved or redeemed or set free is to enter into a totally new way of living in harmony with God. The rabbis called harmony with God olam haba, which translates "life in the world to come". Salvation is living more and more in harmony with God, a process that will go on forever"

 

From "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Restoration 1

"To say that salvation is holistic is to acknowledge that there are many dimensions to living in harmony with God. In one sense, salvation is a legal transaction. Humans are guilty because of our sin, and God is the judge who has to deal with our sin because he is holy and any act of sin goes against his core nature. He has to deal with it. Enter Jesus, who dies on the cross in our place. Jesus gets what we deserve; we get what Jesus deserved."

 

From "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Engaging the mind

"Being a Christian is about engaging the mind and heart more and more, not shutting them off or letting someone else think for you. The writer Peter urged Christians to be alert (1Peter 5v8). Paul tells his listeners in Thessalonica to test everything and hold on to the good (1Thess 5v21)."

From "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Free

Joh 8:36 Therefore if the Son shall make you free G1659, you shall be free indeed.

G1659 ἐλευθερόω eleutheroō el-yoo-ther-o'-o :  to liberate, that is, (figuratively) to exempt (from moral, ceremonial or mortal liability): - deliver, make free.

Free 1 a. (compar. freer /'fri:e/;surerl. freest /'fri:ist)

Not a slave or under the control of another, having  personal rights and social and political liberty;(of State, citizens, or institutions) subject neither to foreign domination nor to despotic government; unrestricted, unimpeded, not confined or fixed; released or exempt from; spontaneous, unforced (free offer, compliment); not subject to tax etc; costing nothing; not occupied or in use (the bathroom is free now); lavish, unstinted; permitted, at liberty, to; frank, unreserved; (of talk, stories, etc) slightly indecent; familiar, impudent; (of literary style) not observing strict laws of form; (of translation) not literal; available to all; independent (a free agent).

- The Pocket Oxford Dictionary - 1984 -Clarendon Press - Oxford

 

Revelation of grace

"People say "If you take the law off me then I can just go out and commit adultery."

They are not getting the revelation of the message of grace.

They are getting a revelation of the adultery that is in their hearts."

From Rob Rufus on www.citychurchinternational.net/mp3_2/2007_06_10.zip

What the law can't do?

 

a) The law does not make you righteous. Rom 3v19

b) The law is not to give you life. John 10v10

c) The law is not to save us. Rom 7v6

d) The law is not to encourage us.

e) The law is not to strengthen you. Rom 6v14

f) The law is not to keep you from over coming sin. Rom 7v5

g) The law will strengthen sin and weaken you against sin. Rom 5v20

 

By Rob Rufus

Joy

"The point is our joy. That is when God is most pleased. They aren't two different things: God's joy over here and our joy over there. They are the same. God takes great pleasure in us living as we were made to live. He commands it in the Psalms: "Take delight in the Lord." (Psa 37v4). It's such an odd command, isn't it?
You will be happy or else...But God is serious about this. Now this joy doesn't rule out suffering, difficulty, and struggle. In fact, taking Jesus seriously almost guarantees that our lives will be difficult. History proves it. And very few actually set out to live such a focused, beautiful life. Narrow is the way, and only a few find it. (Matt 7v13-14). But the kind of joy God speaks of transcends these struggles and difficulties. I love how one writer put it: "The peace of God, which transcends all understanding." (Phil 4v7)"

From "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell - Zondervan 2005

Inheritance

1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in Heaven for you 5 by the power of God, having been kept through faith to a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time;