"TRUTHformation;" Sermon for Reformation Sunday 2014 by Nicole A.M. Collins

A coffee house conversation on Grace voices lift like the sounds of the steam from the expresso machines: “¹⁰ Be still and know that I AM God!...”  Another voice, another table: “²³... since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by His Grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  And still at yet another table: “²⁷ Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” At the head table and the final voice to ascend and quiet those around Him, we hear: “³¹... If you continue in my Word, you are truly my disciples; ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

In a perfect world, this is the disciple’s dream, where the Living Word is not only heard deeply and etched gracefully and gratefully upon the heart of the believer but LIVED!  To Tell you the TRUTH however... You can’t handle the truth! None of us can! For we want our money for nothin’ and our kicks for free~ Yes another song innuendo but such is the winding, twisting and challenging path of the disciple of Jesus trying to LIVE, go against the grain of human nature!

The randomness of how we wander away from the truth is our ongoing stumbling block...  The headlines don’t really help us either these days.  We have the world “painted” before our eyes as either self-absorbed idolatry and trivia or see the black cloud of evil hearken back to primitive history—not seeming real... but surreal.  The main stream news this past week spent an inordinate amount of time on actress Renee Zellweger’s plastic surgery’s “change of face;” while across the ocean and across the miles, a video “trends” showing a young woman pleading her father to not be stoned to death for adultery (she was falsely accused), outside of her pleading the father remarks that he does not know her anymore and that he can’t forgive yet alone go against Sharia law... Amongst the sobbing, he binds her and drags her to the pit to be put to death.

Just with these two examples we have the two extremes of bondage: transaction (what’s in it for me?) and following the Law while forsaking obedience to Love neighbor (No Grace, no forgiveness, no mercy!). The latter half of that sentence is the opposite from the Gospel for us Christians in that we are called to love God and neighbor with no partiality (the challenge of living into Grace).  For the ancient “faiths” the Code of Hammurabi and the Ten commandments hold within them the timeless commandment of Love the Lord Your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength as well as Love your neighbor.

The black cloud of death and evil that ISIS brings with it into the world is in how they see the Law and “commands” of their God being the death and demise of neighbor, “submission to perfect obedience.”  Convert or Die is not an evangelist model... unless you were seeing it and understanding it quite abstractly, quite spiritually.  What do I mean by that?  We have learned from St. Paul’s conversion-fed heart knowledge that if we want to grow in Christ, we are to die to the Old Nature and rise into the New Nature which is fully and completely putting on Christ as our loving and gracious response to a loving and gracious God: LIVING GRACE.

Easier said than done, for what we even celebrate today being Reformation Sunday.  Around 500 years ago, a relatively unknown German monk nailed his treatise, words of debate upon the “closed” cathedral doors of the “universal” church of Christ seeking well-needed reforms.  A number of years later and some 774 pages later we have the Book of Concord which essentially struggles to find and define:  what is GRACE? What do we do with it?  How are we to respond? And so on...

Nearly 2,000 years ago St. Paul’s conversion-fed theology defines this to the Romans as: “²⁸For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” Living into this takes a grand leap of faith, it takes intentionality and Being still to Know (and GROW spiritually) that Jesus is our redeemer, our crucified Lord! 

It is Living into the Word as most actively realizing our cross and “cross-roads.”  As disciples of Jesus living into the TRUTH of the Gospel, we live to strengthen our relationship to God (the vertical) AND to graciously, naturally share from the gift of faith as fruits of the spirit freely given to and for neighbor (the horizontal).  This is living our lives into the lifestyle of Grace as shaped by the cross.  The cross, Jesus gift of defeating sin, death and the devil was given to where we can never fathom its magnitude.... for as St. Paul said we all fall short of the glory of God.  

We are in bondage to sin but we are offered radical freedom: GRACE.  Justification by Grace through faith are those five Words we are unnaturally challenged to know and grow truthfully into as professed disciples of Jesus. There is no righteousness that can stand alone before God, except the righteousness of Christ Alone.

Living into the lifestyle of Grace is a process plain and simple.  It is living into an accountability that was founded through the gift of faith.  The health-wealth Gospel people may fill arenas and bank accounts with temporal, transactional success but like changing the news channel... there is no lasting truth or purpose without the cross.

Modern theologian, N.T. Wright personifies our struggle with being and purpose as a child of Grace in saying that there are “existential” needs.  These needs are: “the longing for justice, the quest for spirituality, the hunger for relationships, and the delight in beauty.”  None of these can be satisfied through “works-righteousness.” They can only be answered through our genuine faith realized in, with and through us.  For what is done and left undone can only be heard and seen by God in the heart effected by the TRUTH of the Living Word—The Gospel!  The ultimate objective of Grace is for us to be transformed and re-formed into the image and character of Jesus Christ.

In our everyday lives, there are little things we do that we may be completely unaware of or even avoid.  We can say that we love someone, yet it may not feel real enough for us...  Chauncey Gardener, Peter Seller’s character in “Being There,” spent his days and hours wandering, tending to his garden of course, but nothing around him seemed real more than a painted picture of snapshots of life lived.  What a tragic view of the world, when you limit yourself into being and becoming, defining a reason, a purpose to LIVE?!

That foundation of who you are and who you will be, become will always be fragile—this is human nature.  Let us not forget nor not hear deeply enough as people of faith: Christ IS that cornerstone of redemption, New Life, mercy and Grace planted within our very hearts.  To re-form, transform is formation to the TRUTH—the Living Word. Jesus said to His disciples: “³⁶So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

AMEN

Sunday October 26^th, 2014; Reformation Sunday; Year A; SOLA Lectionary Exegesis

Psalm 46; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28 & John 8:31-36

"Unwavering Grace;" Sermon for Sunday October 19th, 2014 By Nicole Collins

Telling it like it is—is truly easier said than done; but Jesus sure told them didn’t He?  ^21b... “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  Do we really give unwavering credence to the world or do we give unwavering hope and express even Joy in the Kingdom of God? Truth be told as Luther once said: We all fall short of the Glory of God.  It is human nature...

At the end of last week’s service and near the beginning of our Bible study I asked:  What does unwavering hope and Joy inspired by the Holy Spirit even look like to us today? Do we really understand what is being said here as the Good News? Both the terms for Hope and Joy have been profoundly twisted into meaning entirely earthly, and even transactional things for us today.  For we neither can be remotely patient enough to be unwavering... yet alone harbor hope with a trust and confidence that discipleship in Jesus essentially demands.

I don’t know how many of you have been following the story about the judge who is demanding to review sermons of Pastors in the Houston area but I recently signed a petition concerning the rights of expression and opinion.  As we are all too bombarded with in today’s cultural distortion of the Gospel of Jesus; it’s all become about politics, social agenda and the world of the self.  I didn’t sign this petition to take sides; I signed it in wondering about the future certainty, integrity and authority of the Gospel.

Perhaps these pastors may resort to distorting the Gospel of Jesus by preaching and teaching political opinions which DO NOT ever belong in the message we are to build disciples with AT ALL!  These are the things Satan uses to divide people and turn people away from God. The formation of a graceless universe is one devoid of the understanding of unwavering, the reality of hope and the truth of Joy which is the awareness of GRACE.

There may be many a sermon that my dear brothers and sisters in Christ may have composed for today that talk about this situation of censorship, monitoring and “justice...” BUT what about the Gospel, I ask?  What is Jesus REALLY wanting us to HEAR let alone discern as His Disciples?  Over and over during my spiritual formation journey towards becoming a pastor for the Lord, I was told on many occasions: You better stop studying the texts daily, you best stop writing sermons weekly....  I ask for ALL disciples everywhere who want to GROW in their faith: WHY??

Controlling the Living Word’s work within the heart of the believer is our human, worldly mistrust in God’s Grace working in, with and through His freely responsible servants, PERIOD.  If I were an aspiring political theologian, perhaps there would be something to fear... God forbid I influence people against the agenda of established religion! (YIKES!)  Let’s think about the Pharisees again, here they are in today’s Gospel, plotting cleverly to see if they can ensnare Jesus into making a political statement. DID He however?

It is interesting that they even begin their dialogue with Him essentially mocking the reality of the Truth of who He is and what He represents!  BUT let us remember, he was starting to win over the common folk... threatening the Pharisaic power and control to their “vision” of righteousness.  They were Old Testament scholars, politicians for the oppressed Israelites to keep the Mosaic Laws and keep that worldly understanding of God working through rulers.   It is human nature, the health-wealth gospel agenda practitioners of today’s culture are feeding their flocks that God’s Grace is purely for your “gain.”  Gain as a distorted layer of understanding intellectual power and idolatry of the transactional world of the self with NO accountability or sacrifice!

The reality and truth of Grace is “Joy.” The original meaning of the word Joy means to harbor an awareness of God’s grace favorably disposed.  Truth be told, I have had a very difficult time in spiritually understanding Joy, since there is so much unhappiness, evil and division in our world these days.  How can I be “joyful?” especially when tears during petitions are flowing!!  Ha~ did you catch the “play” on Words there?  Petition—people of faith recognize that as the Word for prayers—composing prayers to ascend to the Lord.  In a worldly and secular view, petitions are political “cattle-prods” to “influence” elected officials to do our bidding.

Again, Jesus is saying to us in the here and now of our very divided world: ^21b... “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” As a future pastoral servant within Christ Jesus’ church in this world but not of this world; we are to learn from St. Paul’s beautiful encouraging, empowering and graceful/ Joyous message he delivers to the Thessalonians.  He tells them look at the Good work they have been doing following his, Silvanus and Timothy (the 1^st seminarian)’s example: “⁸For the Word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. ⁹For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, ¹⁰and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.”

This is living into the lifestyle of Grace—discipleship joyfully realized through the Christ-centered heart enacted in our hands and feet as the unified, impartial, unwaveringly hopeful priesthood of all believers! Amen and Thanks Be to the God and Father through whom we are called and commissioned!  Not to a worldly evangelism of our own Gospel, but to the only Gospel of Grace, Love and mercy: Jesus Christ!

Truth be told about our own gospels—how can we come to know God if we are at the center facing inward?  Welcome and diversity are also words that have become twisted into the language of our new worldly religion: Politics.  Care and concern for the world is all temporal, transactional and not really for the purpose of living into the reality of Grace.  If anything, perhaps the Pharisees had it all figured out: Control, power, following political agendas/ plans of action to create a “state” of righteousness is what life is all about?  I certainly hope not!  But there is that Word again.... “Hope.”  What is Hope? 

A warm fuzzies word or the reality of the challenge of lived faith: discipleship?  

Hope is the cost and empowering factor of discipleship—it is taking up our cross to follow Jesus.  It is not just a Sunday-morning or evening reality but an everyday reality within the lifestyle of Grace. It is at this point of discerning our discipleship as well, that we need to return to the cause and mission of Christ Jesus Gospel with urgency and “telling it like it is....”  There may be no horsemen in the horizon or rivers of blood apparent; but we must face our calling and commissioning to transform not only inwardly but outwardly as ambassadors of Christ—agents of Grace.  Our “agenda” is Christ alone in a hurting, and dark world.  Through our unwavering Hope in His living and transforming Word; we can shine, build and create light in our times today.  We can allow Grace to rebuild this world through our lives lived in imitation of our servant King, Christ Jesus the Lord.

AMEN

Sunday October 19^th, 2014; 19^th Sunday after Pentecost; Year A; Lect. 29; SOLA Lectionary  Nicole Collins

Psalm 96:1-13; Isaiah 45:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 & Matthew 22:15-22

Youtube sermon:
http://youtu.be/-mBOpobLfqo

A S.O.A.P. Series around St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians; Ephesians 4:1-16 By Nicole Collins

Scripture|| Observation|| Application|| Prayer

Ephesians 4:1-16

¹I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. ⁷But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” ⁹(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) ¹¹The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹²to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. ¹⁴We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. ¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

For Tuesday August 19^th, 2014

Verses Scripture: ¹I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

Observation: Being bound to the will of God is living into His calling and commissioning of our hearts into ministry.

Application: Living into the lifestyle of Grace is fully committing yourself to serve within and through the priesthood of all believers.  This is a calling that must take priority in your life and your life lived in gracious response to a loving and gracious God must bear fruit in honor and praise of God. 

Prayer:  Gracious Jesus, King of Peace,

May your calling of grace and commissioning to our hearts

Be incorporated and lived fully with the gracious fruits of our lives

May we hear deeply Your Living Word

To be and become salt and light in the world but not of the world

For Your Name’s sake

May our spirits be bound to being active participants

In the priesthood of all believers

For Your glory, honor and praise—

AMEN

For Thursday August 21^st, 2014

Verses Scripture: ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Observation: With a good humble perspective, meekness, and enduring patience; We are to empower each other with agape love (great compassionate indiscriminating love).

Application: We are to live into the call of discipleship keeping by keeping a good kind of humility to our responding in kind to empower, love neighbor being and harboring a gentle nature that is ruled by the Lord and His precepts.

Prayer:  Dear Lord,

You are the ruler of our hearts

Continue to encourage our inward reflection to harbor a good kind of humility

A kind of humility that bears the beautiful fruit of being gracious

Of being salt and light through compassion and empowerment

To our neighbors for Your Gospel’s sake

We pray for your continued guidance as we sojourn into living into the lifestyle of Grace

For it is Your Love and Grace that fuels us

May we be worthy servants to Your Will.

AMEN

For Sunday August 24^th, 2014

Verses Scripture: ³making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Observation: Using heart knowledge in consideration of all is allowing the Holy Spirit to bring people together and bear among many blessed fruits; the fruit of peace.

Application: We are to first develop and operate from a Holy Spirit-informed heart knowledge to then bear forth the gracious fruits of love, compassion, generosity, kindness, mercy and so on.  Developing heart knowledge first requires us to develop our prayer-filled union with Christ.  This union with Christ further transforms our hearts, our inner being to be obedient, accountable and willing to respond with Grace as this is the reality of the Kingdom of God.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, Prince of Peace,

We adore your endless font of Grace which pours down upon us

And into us as the Living waters of New life

These Living waters like Your Living Word challenge and shape us

To live into the lifestyle of Grace to be and become the servant leaders

You need for Your Will and precepts

Help us to continue to discipline our hearts

In obedience to grow in Your Grace

For Your Glory and truly out of Love for You and Neighbor.

AMEN

For Monday August 25^th, 2014

Verses Scripture: ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,

Observation: We were summoned and commissioned to build together through hope as the spiritually unified body of Christ in the world.

Application: Living into being and building true community together takes unity in heart knowledge, and a good kind of humility that allows hope to flourish and bring the Holy Spirit’s work within us to fruition.

Prayer:  Gracious and Loving God,

You are our light of binding hope

You connect our hearts to reflect upon Your love

Confess through our hands and feet our faith

And repent—keep in perspective, Your Will and precepts for our lives

Our renewal is baptismally lived through our transformed lives

In loving and gracious response to you

And all that you have given us

May our lives spiritually know and live unity

Through Your Grace

AMEN

For Tuesday August 26^th, 2014

Verses Scripture: ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Observation: Alone and universally we have Our Lord, faith and baptism—a truly connected reality.

Application: As Lutherans we affirm that we believe in Christ alone, faith alone and we baptismally affirm our lives lived in community, for community through Grace alone guided by the Living Word alone.

Prayer:  Dear Jesus,

We are never alone

Especially when we ground our lives around you, alone

It is through Your Grace alone

We find our place within the Priesthood of all believers

It is through Your Living Word alone

We are shaped by faith alone

To lead lives worthy of Your Gospel

Lives regenerated and spiritual connected to one another

In great fellowship, a profound unity as developing children of Grace

May our lives continue to baptismally transform

Daily reflecting, confessing, repenting and renewing

Our love for You and for neighbor—

AMEN

For Wednesday August 27^th, 2014

Verses Scripture: ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Observation: Our Sovereign Lord, Creator and Loving parent is present with us truly everywhere and most importantly in our hearts transformed, united to His will and precepts.

Application: One of the more beautiful tenets of the theology of the cross is spiritually realizing that we have a Lord and savior who comes down to us.  The reality of the lifestyle of Grace is becoming aware of the sovereignty of God at the center of your lives.  This awareness of a loving and gracious God alone shaping and transforming your lives to His is being and becoming the children of Grace the Lord aspires for us to be/ become.

Prayer:  Gracious and Sovereign Lord,

You are our heavenly parent

Whose love and Grace builds us up

Shapes us into knowing profoundly how you are everywhere

In everything to tap into

As Living into the lifestyle of Grace

May we continue to grow in unity to Your Will and precepts

May we love You and neighbor fully and completely

As Your growing to go with Your Gospel, children of Grace.

May You always inspire us to be and become the disciples

You need us to be.

AMEN

For Thursday August 28^th, 2014

Verses Scripture: ⁷But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Observation: The Grace given is both unmerited and sufficient for all.

Application: As humans it is hard to fathom the magnitude of Grace yet alone aspire to live into the lifestyle of Grace as faith-filled disciples of Jesus. We want to measure and make finite that which is boundless, more than sufficient and profound.  Christus Victor is Christ the victor.  Why is he called this?  For through Him, His cross and His resurrection defeated sin, death and the devil restoring a right relationship with the Father. We must always with good humility hold the truth and magnitude of grace as our fuel and reason to persevere and fight the good fight of the Gospel for Christ sake and our neighbor.

Prayer:  Dear Jesus

You Grace truly freed us from bondage

It magnitude we may never truly or truthfully understand

May it however, motivate our hearts

To bear gracious fruits

As you have been gracious and shown no partiality to us

May we in turn harbor a beautiful humility

One that knows we can never repay this Grace given freely

But live lives bound to Your Living and ever-sufficient Word

May we know deeply, Your Victory for our sake

May we live deeply Your Gospel for You and our neighbors sake

AMEN

For Monday September 1^st, 2014

Verses Scripture:  ⁸Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.”

Observation: The Grace of God freed us by taking captive all that had put us in bondage(sin, death and the devil); therefore releasing us (through the gift and cost of Grace) to be and become freely responsible and freely expressive servants of Him.

Application: Being and becoming children of Grace is living into an empowered servant leadership out of Love and obedience to God and through the spiritual fruits of the grace given:  compassion, mercy, kindness, love and so forth for our neighbor

Prayer:  Loving and Gracious God,

May our hearts come to realize

With all humility and true transformation

That the spiritual fruits we bear are from the Gift and cost of Grace

May we grow to be and become fully accountable

To the Living Word—to be freely responsible servants to and through Jesus

May our Faith be shaped and regenerated by Your Grace

To realize this throughout the journey of our lives

Lived for You and for Your Glory—

AMEN

For Sunday September 7^th, 2014

Verses Scripture:  ⁹(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)

Observation: Our God of Grace is one who is truly sovereign as well as a God who comes down to us; Our Crucified Lord—victorious Christ.

Application: According to Martin Luther, the theologian of the cross preaches that humans can in no way earn righteousness, humans cannot add to or increase the righteousness of the cross, and any righteousness given to humanity comes from outside of us. Being a theologian of the cross today means for us to live lives shaped by and through the cross—this is being and becoming a sacrificial, merciful, compassionate servant leader to Love God and neighbor with the fullness of faith built by Grace.

Prayer:  Dear Jesus,

You are Our Crucified and Sovereign Lord

May our lives be shaped by Your Grace

More importantly shaped by Your Cross

Help our hearts to be transformed by Your Holy Spirit

To be sacrificial in our lives lived under Your Grace

To be merciful as we can never match that which you have given us

To be a compassionate servant and leader

May we live and die through You, for You as children of Grace

May we never not be grateful—

AMEN

For Monday September 8^th, 2014

Verses Scripture:  ¹¹The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹²to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

Observation: Being a part of the Body also involves an awareness of the body of individuals who come with creative and unique gifts to serve God and neighbor. 

Application: The role and most important function of the corporate church is to enlighten, encourage, educate and equip the people of faith to live into their faith actively as disciples.  This means nurturing witnessing, spiritual formation, education—study & share the faith in fellowship. It is not about what God can give you or do for you... It is about what can you do in response naturally from faith to love God and neighbor.

Prayer:  Dear Jesus,

Help to inspire Your church in the world

To faithfully disciple others through solid mentoring

Solid and encouraging, enlightening and enhancing proclamation

And a healthy humility that centers all concerned under your cross

Help us to find sanctuary and fellowship again as a feeding and leading opportunity

A Place where Grace is lived within grateful hearts

For Your will, for Your Glory and truly to love you and neighbor

With our unique gifts given to build the Kingdom of God

Thank You Lord for all you have Blessed us with—

AMEN

For Tuesday September 9^th, 2014

Verses Scripture:  ¹³until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

Observation: Unity is more than an accord and the development required is more than heart knowledge but spiritually growing in union to the Will and precepts of Christ.

Application: Unity is more than fellowship it is to be a family bond.  We are the children of God, brothers and sisters to Christ Jesus who is Lord.  In order for us to come to full development as the Body in the world; we must be and become spiritually focused on nurturing and bringing to fruition—our heart knowledge—intentional spiritual transformation through faith by Grace for the Love of God and neighbor.

Prayer:  Gracious Lord,

You are the giver of life

As Your Holy Living Word inspires us

And challenges us to be and become unified

As Children of Grace

Help to transform our hearts to grow and go with Your Gospel

For the sake of the world

May we truly be and become what You have always hoped for us

May we live for You and die to You

For the Glory of Your heavenly Kingdom—

AMEN

For Wednesday September 17^th, 2014

Verses Scripture:  ¹⁴We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.

Observation: We must be truly careful to not stray from the Living Word’s True message; for it is all too easy to be lead astray into our own agendas and perspectives that are divisive and against God’s Will.

Application: Human nature is, by its nature, contradictory to the godly nature the Living Word tries to instruct us to live into baptismally as freely responsible disciples of Christ.  Instead we cave into selfishness, greed, indifference and idolatry which renders God’s Word ineffective especially when we are lawless and unwilling to be accountable to being and becoming agents of Grace for the sake of loving God and neighbor.

Prayer:  Gracious & Loving Lord,

Help us to fight the temptation to be servants to ourselves

Help us to be and become agents of Grace for Your Holy Gospel’s sake

Help us to daily reflect, confess, repent and renew

With Your Living Word as the fuel to our hearts being shaped to Yours

May we never become intellectual idolaters manipulating Your Living Word

For our self-concerned agendas and goals

May we never, as well become lawless and nihilistic in our duties

As disciples to love and care for the world you gave and for our brothers and sisters

Help us, O Lord, to truly be and become Children of Grace

For the Glory of Your heavenly Kingdom—

AMEN

For Monday September 22^nd, 2014

Verses Scripture:  ¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Observation: As both a disciple and a member of the corporate church of Christ; we must be accountable to His Will and upholding the integrity and supremacy of the Living Word by living Gospel-centered lives as children of Grace.

Application: Being and becoming a completely Christ-centered disciple takes spiritual obedience—a willingness to adhere to the Living Word of God in order to go and grow with the Gospel abroad.

Prayer:  Gracious & Loving Lord,

Speaking the Truth in Love is our responsibility to be a steward

To Your Living Word and its central transforming authority within our Lives

We must be and become spiritually obedient

To Your Will and precepts for the glory of the Kingdom of God

In order for us to grow and go with Your Holy Gospel

We need to be and become accountable

As children of Grace and as freely responsible servant leaders

Who are in the world, but not of the world

Living Grace is living the truth of the Gospel

For Your sake and our neighbor through Love—

AMEN

For Sunday October 12^th, 2014

Verses Scripture:  ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Observation: Being in unity as disciples means being truly connected to Christ in order to lovingly and spiritually grow to then GO with the Gospel!

Application: Being and becoming is the constant state and process of spiritual formation.  In order to be in true fellowship (Koinonia) and in true mission (Kerygma) we must live into the priesthood of all believers as servant leaders (Diakonia) to most effectively live into our call and commissioning to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father,

We have come together and indeed confess

Jesus is Lord to Your glory

Help to build within us an unbreakable unity

One that does indeed build, reveal Your Kingdom

Here and Now

May the love and Grace You have showered upon us

Inspire and discipline our hearts to continue the process

Being and becoming children of Grace, cross-bearing disciples

May our hearts to hands and feet

Illumine and steward the Gospel for centuries to come—

AMEN

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