In the parables that Jesus told, I think the one that raised the most eyebrows during His time and probably even now is the Parable of the Vineyard Workers. (Matthew 20:1-16 NIV)
The last verse says "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." No wonder that the first group of workers who toiled the longest were mad! They had worked the longest under the hot sun and these late comers who were doing nothing earlier but loafing around at the market square barely worked for a few hours they were given the job and they received the same pay cheque.
Let's examine his answer "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? vs.14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. vs15. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
The landowner hit the nail on the head! He asked if they were jealous because he was generous! I call it Generous Grace!
When Jesus told this story, He was giving us a parable about GRACIOUS GRACE, and yes God's grace is unfair because it cannot be measured, not by a day's wage or by our performance or good works. Jesus put it very plainly, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." Grace means it is not about counting! Grace is not about our hard works and sacrifice only. Grace is a GIFT to be RECEIVED from God, we cannot do anything to earn it. Yes, God's grace is unfair, it is unfairly GOOD!
Philip Yancey in his book, "What's So Amazing About Grace?" sums it up so eloquently. "We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers, and the employer's strange behavior baffles us as it did the original hearers. We risk missing the story - that God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God's requirements for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell."
Have you embraced this unfair grace? The gift of GRACE and RIGHTEOUSNESS! (Roman 5:15-17) tells us "much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And vs. 17 says, "much more those who received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One Jesus Christ."
The two group of workers I see were saints in the old covenant and the new covenant. These are bands of workers of the Old Testament saints. And those New Testament saints are called at the 11th hour are the New Covenant Grace workers believers. In the last days, God's grace is going to pour out into the church as never before in an over abundance, overflowing, overwhelming, overcoming and overtaking. And we cannot stop God's grace coming through strongly at us and in us. He is graciously good enough! Believe it! You are one of His 11th hour workers picked for the hour.
SERVICE FOR GOD
One thing this parable tells us is that whatever service we do for God it is not the amount of time and work that you do. It is the Grace of God in our lives that works that service and our service and ministry will be acceptable with God always. There is no rejection, no condemnation and failure in our service for God. When God looks at your work and ministry God looks at Jesus first at the Cross in you.
So the last will be first and the first will be last - Matthew 20:16 There are reasons why? Comparing Law and Grace dispensation, Grace will always be the first and never last. They will outlast the rest and just with a short time they can achieve good results. They will outlast and outrun most of those who go first in ministry, in jobs, in career, etc.........
Another way I see it, the first workers who spend the whole day in the service, were working under a legal agreement and they were working for wages represent LAW rather than for the joy (GRACE). Joy flows from the grace of God. These are new covenant believers in the last days. They went to the field with no binding agreement but free to trust God and give themselves entirely to God - they believe their BOSS JESUS.
Just think of Jesus giving. It is totally different kind of giving. When Jesus gives life, He give abundantly, overflowing and overjoying life. When I planted my seed it can goes to 30 fold, 60 fold and 100 fold. When He rewards us for service He gives 10,000 percent now in this life and in the age to come eternal life. We cannot out give God. He gives and gives 100 times the best and we can learn from Him. He never stops giving until we stop it by our limitation of vessels, strength or fear. Just like the oil of Elisha time it stopped when there was no vessels left.
Do you know we are living in the 11th hour now? YES! God is saying at the 11th hour I am going to be so, so, so generous with grace and I am going to give and give and give unless you stop me. Can you go too far with GRACE! Have we touch grace yet? Grace is like an ocean! And we are just playing around the beach and some go swimming! And we are so satisfied! THERE IS MORE TO COME DON'T LIMIT GOD NOW! GOD IS ABLE TO DO EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY AND BEYOND WHAT WE ASK OR THINK. What are you thinking or asking now?
COMMAND THIS DAY TO DELIVER AND BRING FORTH FRUITS!
Thank you Father for the Precious Gift and Grace of Jesus! Today I declare and decree that this is the day the Lord has made specially for me! I will rejoice and exceeding glad in it. TODAY I AM PREGNANT WITH MY BLESSINGS, BENEFITS AND BREAKTHROUGHS! TODAY, I am going to expect many Great and Wonderful Things happen in my life. My hope is from the Lord. Yes I today I receive the BLESSING OF HIS GRACIOUS GRACE AND GOODNESS! AND I AM OVERFLOWING AND FULL WITH HIS GOOD GRACE. TODAY I CHOOSE TO LIVE THE LIFE OF OVERFLOWING, OVERCOMING, OVERTAKING ABUNDANT LIFE OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD. I CHOOSE TO REACH OUT AND RECEIVE THE ABUNDANT GENEROUS GRACIOUS GRACE OF GOD!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
GRACE WELCOMES YOU BACK
Story of the Father and the Prodical Son
God's Grace welcomes the son back. His father ran and met him and hugged him. The grace of God flows out of the Fathers heart instead of putting a condemnation, guilt and fear in his son. He embraced him and kissed him instead. Grace will kiss and forgive you. God grace will not find fault with you even you are wrong and failed.
Sin does not stop God's grace from flowing, but God's grace will stop sin. The word says, "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" I like to share grace! The Grace of the Lord Jesus! Grace is in a person not in a doctrine or in a teaching. Head knowledge does not saved us. Grace and truth is with Jesus Christ. Grace empowers us to live holy lives. We don't struggle to be holy. We are holy by faith trusting Jesus.
You say, how to be holy then? Holiness comes knowing where you are seated. The bible says, "you are raised up together and made to sit (you have no choice) together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus - that in the ages to come (which is now) He might show the exceeding riches of His grace towards us..." The riches of His grace pour out upon you when you know your spiritual position. And that is where your power comes from and your blessings too.
When you know where you are seated and its where the Holy Throne of Grace is, then His Grace will empower you to live holy lives. Just believe in His Holy Grace! The Grace of Holiness! That is why I agree with some ministers that we don't preach holiness, we don't preach obedience, we don't preach performance - we preach grace first and who you are in Christ because when you have a revelation of who you are, what you are then your obedience will flow from your spirit, holiness will flow from your spirit and power will flow from your spirit. It is just that easy! For durians (Malaysian fruit) will come from durian trees and mangoes can only be pluck from mango trees. So God says, "Be ye holy for I am Holy"
True holiness is not behavior that changes character; it is character that changes behavior, and character can only be changed by God from the inside out. (Rob Rufus)
The devil want us to be self-conscious (you and your sins) and sin conscious but God wants you to be grace and holy conscious! Grace consciousness will set you free today! The devil wants you to be so self-righteous but God wants you to be so righteous conscious in Christ.
Let grace kill sin consciousness! Someone says "O well, why I still can sin or fall?" The reason we tend to sin is because of an unrenewed mind not because of a sin nature. That old man is crucified at the cross already. So we need to recognize it as dead. Our old man is dead. Just as an old road that has not been used, it will slowly disappear and wipe off its tracks. Nobody will notice it is a road before. So don't use the old road - its too dark. You walk in the new road of the New Man - a Highway of Holiness. That's your direction and destiny! Amen!
God's Grace welcomes the son back. His father ran and met him and hugged him. The grace of God flows out of the Fathers heart instead of putting a condemnation, guilt and fear in his son. He embraced him and kissed him instead. Grace will kiss and forgive you. God grace will not find fault with you even you are wrong and failed.
Sin does not stop God's grace from flowing, but God's grace will stop sin. The word says, "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" I like to share grace! The Grace of the Lord Jesus! Grace is in a person not in a doctrine or in a teaching. Head knowledge does not saved us. Grace and truth is with Jesus Christ. Grace empowers us to live holy lives. We don't struggle to be holy. We are holy by faith trusting Jesus.
You say, how to be holy then? Holiness comes knowing where you are seated. The bible says, "you are raised up together and made to sit (you have no choice) together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus - that in the ages to come (which is now) He might show the exceeding riches of His grace towards us..." The riches of His grace pour out upon you when you know your spiritual position. And that is where your power comes from and your blessings too.
When you know where you are seated and its where the Holy Throne of Grace is, then His Grace will empower you to live holy lives. Just believe in His Holy Grace! The Grace of Holiness! That is why I agree with some ministers that we don't preach holiness, we don't preach obedience, we don't preach performance - we preach grace first and who you are in Christ because when you have a revelation of who you are, what you are then your obedience will flow from your spirit, holiness will flow from your spirit and power will flow from your spirit. It is just that easy! For durians (Malaysian fruit) will come from durian trees and mangoes can only be pluck from mango trees. So God says, "Be ye holy for I am Holy"
True holiness is not behavior that changes character; it is character that changes behavior, and character can only be changed by God from the inside out. (Rob Rufus)
The devil want us to be self-conscious (you and your sins) and sin conscious but God wants you to be grace and holy conscious! Grace consciousness will set you free today! The devil wants you to be so self-righteous but God wants you to be so righteous conscious in Christ.
Let grace kill sin consciousness! Someone says "O well, why I still can sin or fall?" The reason we tend to sin is because of an unrenewed mind not because of a sin nature. That old man is crucified at the cross already. So we need to recognize it as dead. Our old man is dead. Just as an old road that has not been used, it will slowly disappear and wipe off its tracks. Nobody will notice it is a road before. So don't use the old road - its too dark. You walk in the new road of the New Man - a Highway of Holiness. That's your direction and destiny! Amen!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
PREACHING GRACE WITHOUT BALANCE
We emphasize grace because grace is the emphasis of the New Testament. In fact, the word grace is used 128 times—it is the most emphasized word in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul used the word grace 94 times in his writings.
Like book ends Paul begins his epistles with “Grace and peace with you all” and ends his epistles with the same pattern everywhere from Romans to Philemon with “the grace of the Lord be with you or your spirit” For me it is like two book ends that hold us all the books (believers) together and no one can fall out of place. Believers are rubbing shoulders to shoulders but with his grace holding us together into one. Here we all stand and not fall away.
We need to preach is radical grace because if try to balance grace we will nullify grace. If we try to balance grace it will hinder grace in our lives. Grace cannot be balance even with obedience. This is not to do away with obedience. I believe obedience comes only with the power of grace.
Many people believe obedience must come first. I tell you, you are pushing the cart without the horse. The horse must pull the cart of goods (blessings). So Grace gives you the strength to obey God. Grace does not replace obedience but grace empowers obedience. So that’s our obedience is the obedience of faith from God. This blessings can only flow through grace only.
We emphasize grace not to make light of sin. Sin is sin and God is not soft on sin. His wrath on sin is demonstrated in the Old Testament with his wrath. This shows the severity of his actions. God came hard on sin. He is fire and brimstone God. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in a few seconds. So we don’t get easy grace. We don’t get cheap grace or soft grace. We get severe grace. We get a grace from God that sent Jesus to die on the bloody cross with so much pain with we could not even bear. Sin was so severe that is why it took such tremendous gracious grace to quench it. God for us is a good loving God and for all mankind.
People stress obedience over grace and say we think too lightly of sin; however, I believe the exact opposite. Those who stress obedience over grace do not understand how deadly sin is. We are saying that sin is a monster that we do not have any ability to conquer in ourselves, although we hate it—we want sin out of our lives, and the only way to get it out is to rely on grace. That is why we have to emphasize grace.
Grace is not God overlooking sin but Grace is God killing sin as someone says. When God saved us, judicially He killed our sin; in fact, judicially He killed us (our old man). The Lord God can now look at me as perfect because of God imputed righteousness on me and He had already paid the death penalty for my sin. That is the grace that saved me, the grace that sustains me and blessed me. Let the layer of grace comes upon us – grace upon grace like Jesus.
The grace that saved me was God judicially killing off every bit of sin at the Cross.
That is the grace we proclaim! Amen! May the grace of God be with you all in your spirit. Why spirit – because it must be embedded in our spirit to manifest the power of His works, love and blessings in our lives. By Sunny
Like book ends Paul begins his epistles with “Grace and peace with you all” and ends his epistles with the same pattern everywhere from Romans to Philemon with “the grace of the Lord be with you or your spirit” For me it is like two book ends that hold us all the books (believers) together and no one can fall out of place. Believers are rubbing shoulders to shoulders but with his grace holding us together into one. Here we all stand and not fall away.
We need to preach is radical grace because if try to balance grace we will nullify grace. If we try to balance grace it will hinder grace in our lives. Grace cannot be balance even with obedience. This is not to do away with obedience. I believe obedience comes only with the power of grace.
Many people believe obedience must come first. I tell you, you are pushing the cart without the horse. The horse must pull the cart of goods (blessings). So Grace gives you the strength to obey God. Grace does not replace obedience but grace empowers obedience. So that’s our obedience is the obedience of faith from God. This blessings can only flow through grace only.
We emphasize grace not to make light of sin. Sin is sin and God is not soft on sin. His wrath on sin is demonstrated in the Old Testament with his wrath. This shows the severity of his actions. God came hard on sin. He is fire and brimstone God. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in a few seconds. So we don’t get easy grace. We don’t get cheap grace or soft grace. We get severe grace. We get a grace from God that sent Jesus to die on the bloody cross with so much pain with we could not even bear. Sin was so severe that is why it took such tremendous gracious grace to quench it. God for us is a good loving God and for all mankind.
People stress obedience over grace and say we think too lightly of sin; however, I believe the exact opposite. Those who stress obedience over grace do not understand how deadly sin is. We are saying that sin is a monster that we do not have any ability to conquer in ourselves, although we hate it—we want sin out of our lives, and the only way to get it out is to rely on grace. That is why we have to emphasize grace.
Grace is not God overlooking sin but Grace is God killing sin as someone says. When God saved us, judicially He killed our sin; in fact, judicially He killed us (our old man). The Lord God can now look at me as perfect because of God imputed righteousness on me and He had already paid the death penalty for my sin. That is the grace that saved me, the grace that sustains me and blessed me. Let the layer of grace comes upon us – grace upon grace like Jesus.
The grace that saved me was God judicially killing off every bit of sin at the Cross.
That is the grace we proclaim! Amen! May the grace of God be with you all in your spirit. Why spirit – because it must be embedded in our spirit to manifest the power of His works, love and blessings in our lives. By Sunny
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