Under the Waterfall .....of Grace: May 2012

Aaron Shust - "My Hope is in You, Lord"

This song keeps coming to my mind lately..

It is by Aaron Shust, "My Hope is in You."

I just love how it is all about relationship, not about us and our performance, but just living in a love relationship with Jesus that is based all on His work, not ours!

He has brought us into a relationship with the Father that is absolutely perfect and cannot ever be changed or shaken, because it is based on Christ's unshakable performance and perfection! So we are safely in the refuge of the Father's arms, in Christ, in the Spirit, wrapped in love and safety and joy no matter what.

Our hope is completely in Him, not ourselves, and because it's all based on Him, we have this unfailing and untouchable safe home and haven, being put in His presence for always.

We are given Christ's righteousness, which just means right relationship with the Father, given that forever and ever! What a solid rock is underneath us, what strong everlasting arms hold us, what mighty Spirit wings uplift and carry us and make us to soar!

And in this safe place we get to enjoy the relationship that is the whole purpose of salvation anyway, the intimate union relationship, personal and real, with the God of All! He saved us to be kind to us forever. ("Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:7 Message Bible) I love that! This was the purpose of Jesus coming, of our being saved and regenerated - so the Spirit of God could dwell within us, bonded to our spirit as one forever, to have perfect fellowship and loving intimate friendship with us, to enjoy a love relationship with us forever!

And the way He has set it up, based on Christ's work and on grace, it is an unchangeable relationship. The bond between us is eternal and made of God's own Resurrection Life in us by His Spirit, and we are with Him and in right and loving union relationship with Him forever. Wow!

In Christ, by grace, we just can't lose for winning, as Brennan Manning says!

God Isn't, God Is..

God isn't trying to put burdens on us...

God is there to take off our burdens!

God isn't demanding anything of us before He will bless us..

God is inviting us to see that He has already blessed us for free in Jesus!

God isn't inflicting pain or hardship or sickness or calamity on us..

God is there to heal our wounds, restore our lives and relieve our hurts!

God isn't destroying our dreams..

God is giving us our dreams come true and giving us HIS dreams for us, too!

God isn't bringing sadness and trouble on us..

God is giving us joy and lifting us up in victory over trouble!

God isn't angry with us or disappointed in us..

God is forever delighting in us and pleased with us through Jesus!

God isn't withholding blessing, wisdom, revelation, or anointing..

God is lavishing blessing, wisdom, peace and joy and His presence on us!

God isn't removing Himself from us when we fail to do or believe right..

God is always close - He is IN us! - and has committed to NEVER leave us..

God isn't hard - hearted and looking for a way to punish..

God is soft- hearted and looking for a way to heal, restore and help!

God is never bad and never plans bad things or does bad things to us..

God is always good and always plans good and does good things for us!

God isn't uncaringly moving us around like pawns on a chessboard..

God is tenderly embracing us as little children, holding us close to His heart!

God isn't putting curses on us..

God is the One who lifted the curses off of us in Jesus!

God isn't hiding Himself from us..

God is revealing Himself to us in Christ and by the Spirit!

God isn't forgetful of us..

God remembers us always and we're always in His thoughts!

God is good, God is love, God is grace!

Thoughts and Ideas Seen, Heard, Read..God IS Grace!

Just wanted to share some things I read and heard recently that encouraged me in His grace towards us..He is so good and He is 100% Grace, isn't He?

"He’s a Person, not a machine. He longs for fellowship. He loves to love." Bill Johnson

I love this because it reminds me Christianity isn't a doctrine or a 'blessing machine' where we put in enough faith or works to get out the treat..NO! Far better, it's a real relationship with the Creator of this Universe Who has chosen to dwell within us by His Spirit and actually LOVES to love on us and interact with us! I have felt so alone in my life at times, but now I have a wonderful Best Friend INSIDE me who won't ever leave, who always is ready to help and encourage and lift me up. And all the blessings pour forth from Him as a bonus!

"He isn't trying to take something from us but instead is trying to give something to us." Beth Moore

This idea is so wonderful - God is a giver, not a taker! I think in the past I always saw Him as demanding from me, expecting things of me, putting pressure on me to do more, be more, give more, surrender more. But that wasn't the real truth or the real God at all! God is love and love gives! Love lavishes affection and gifts and delights in doing so. God, who invented love and is Love in a Person, isn't rude or harsh. He isn't demanding and pressuring and pushy. He isn't asking things of me but lavishing blessings on me, and most of all, lavishing Himself - He gives HIMSELF!..

"In my selfishness, You show me grace." Aaron Shust

I heard this quote in the lyrics of a song on the radio, and it came at the perfect time! We don't have to act right, think right, even believe right to be loved and accepted and helped..He loves and blesses for free! He is always delighted with us, whether we are 'doing great spiritually' or flat on our face in the dust! He knows we're dust anyway, so there aren't any expectations on us. All expectations were put on the Son and He fulfilled them perfectly, and we are given everything for free, by grace, based on His work, not our own. Based on His perfection, not our own! So we can fail and still be graced and blessed and loved and accepted..

Photos from Our Recent Trip to the Mountains

Here are some pictures from a recent family trip to the mountains. It was beautiful and cool. We had gorgeous days and enjoyed some hikes through the woods and around a lake.

Thank You, Lord, for Grace...

The New Covenant of grace means we are blessed, forgiven, accepted, included, provided for, protected, loved, cherished, kept secure, and favored FOR FREE!

I just want to thank Him for His precious and marvelous love and grace:

Thank You, Lord, for the wonderful work You did to bring all the blessings of the New Covenant to us.
Thank You that You smile as You give us those gifts, that You delight in giving to us!
Thank You that everything in the New Covenant is for free! Thank You for unmerited favor, which means favor I didn't have to earn or "be worthy" of.
Thank You for loving and favoring those of us who feel so unworthy, who feel our lives are ruined and hopeless, who feel so burned out and like we can't do anything right.
Thank You for reaching into our darkness and shining the light of Your beautiful face upon us!
Thank You for Your presence with us, that melts away the dark clouds of oppression and sends all the demons of hell fleeing in panic!
Thank You for fighting for us against the darkness and winning!
Thank You that we stand in Your freedom, victory, faith, hope, joy and peace today!
Thank You for being a wonderful and beautiful Savior who is with us always by Your Spirit.
Thank You that You will never leave us, no matter what we do or fail to do, and no matter how weak our faith may seem.
Thank You that we stand on Your performance and even live by Your faith and by Your very life and nature pulsing within us.
Thank You that You carried us on eagles' wings and took us into Your bosom. Thank You for holding us - and holding on to us, not letting go - forever!
Thank You that You are the Friend we have been looking for all our lives, the Lover who truly understands us and loves us without condition, without any strings attached.
Thank You that You are 100% good 100% of the time, and we never have to be afraid again, because we are under new management, in the Your kingdom where LOVE reigns over us, protects us, and seeks only to do us good and give us a good future, always and forever.
We love You, O Lord, our strength and our song!
In Jesus' name, Amen.

Everything is Based on HIS Goodness and HIS Faithfulness

I love that the New Covenant and all its blessings are based on His goodness and faithfulness and not my own! If it is based on Him, it is done, secure, perfect, and sure!

Joseph Prince puts it like this:

The good news for you and me is this: Today, we are under the New Covenant of grace (unmerited favor), and God's unmerited favor is upon us. His blessings and His provisions for us are based entirely on HIS GOODNESS and HIS FAITHFULNESS. Hallelujah!..

Therefore, in spite of our sins, God delivers us and provides for us supernaturally, not based on our goodness and faithfulness, but based on His goodness and faithfulness. How cool is that?

Joseph Prince

That's pretty cool! Oh, how wonderful is the grace of God!

More Great Quotes from Joseph Prince

Here are even more great quotes from Joseph Prince's book, Unmerited Favor. I am loving this book! What freedom and release there is in the gospel of grace, the news of His unmerited favor! No wonder it is called the GOOD news!

And now for the quotes:

Christianity is actually an intimate relationship with a loving God.

To the same extent that God is satisfied with Jesus, He is satisfied with you.

The question to ask today is no longer if you are righteous or holy in God's eyes. The questions to ask are, "Is Christ righteous in God's eyes?" and "Is Christ holy in God's eyes?" When you are in Christ, as Christ is, so are you! Is Christ healthy, full of favor and well-pleasing to God today? Then, so are you! [Wow, we can go ahead and declare it: We are righteous! We are holy! He made us that way by putting us in Christ, and AS HE IS, SO ARE WE!]

All the blessing of the righteous that are recorded in God's Word are yours today.

In the New Covenant of grace, God is effectively saying, "I want you to believe you are forgiven. I want you to believe that you are a person enjoying My mercy. I want you to believe that I remember your sins no more."

He cares for you.

No matter where you are, the Lord is with you. Even in the midst of your fears, while you are alone in your room, He is there with you. The moment you being to be aware of His presence and cultivate His presence, all you fears, anxieties and worries will melt like butter on a hot day, or as the psalmist David puts its, "The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord.."

My friend, you are in Christ. Christ has made you righteous. As He is righteous, so are you. Based on God's Word, that means that you can pray and have a confident expectation that your prayers will avail much! God will hear and answer your prayers. The Bible says you have not because you ask not. so be bold and very courageous, and ask God for big things!

Now what does it mean to be in Christ? It means that we are new creations. When we are in Christ, we are blessed with every blessing. When we are in Christ, we are in the secret place of the Most High and we are protected. When we are in Christ, we are the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath.

Joseph Prince

Great Quotes from Joseph Prince's book, Unmerited Favor

I am really enjoying my reading of Joseph Prince's book, Unmerited Favor. I am reading it slowly to really savor the chapters and topics. I love the way he presents the Christian life as so free and joyful. It lightens my spirit just to read the book and feel myself sigh this inner sigh of relief that IT IS NOT UP TO ME! Yay! This Christian life is totally based and founded and dependent on GOD and JESUS' WORK, not on me and my work! I had to write that in capitals to really remind myself of that wonderful truth. What a relief that it is all up to Him, all based on Him, all dependent on His faithfulness, all on account of His good works. And if it is all based on Him, it is DONE! It is sure and secure! Whew!

What a relief to fall back into the arms that will never let me go, that will be sure to hold me up forever, and just REST!

Here are some great quotes from the book that I came across:

[We] actually have access to His blessings all the time, simply because of Jesus and His finished work at the cross. [We don't go 'in and out' of His favor dependent on our changing performance, no! We are always in His favor and thus qualified for His blessings, based on the unchanging, perfect performance record of Christ!]

At the cross, our acceptance is found.

The cross of Jesus qualified you.

When you have Him, you have everything.

Because of the cross, God will not lift His hand of protection over us.

The New Covenant is based entirely on His unmerited favor. There is nothing for you to do, nothing for you to perform, nothing for you to accomplish.

Jesus will never give up on you!

He will never leave you or forsake you no matter what mistakes you may have made.

Even if you fail, relationship and fellowship with God are not broken.

In the New Covenant, the blood of Jesus put an end to sin and gave us everlasting righteousness!

He is the God of more than enough, and that is His style.

Joseph Prince

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Grace Means...

Grace means there are no demands on you today..you do not need to 'do' anything or 'become' anything - you already ARE all you were meant to be, as a gift (something given, not worked for, something already yours, experienced and enjoyed here and now by simple faith - by seeing it is yours), by Jesus' work on your behalf.

You already ARE righteous, loved, accepted, at peace with God, empowered, free from sin's power, strong, holy, pure, and ONE with God, together with Him forever.

You are His child, included in the royal family, and the inheritance is yours in Christ!

There is nothing left for you to do because Jesus did it all and will manifest it all in you! You are free! Free to enjoy a love relationship with the most Perfect Love of all - HIM!

The Experience of Grace

Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when, year and year, the longed-for perfection does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a great voice were saying, "You are accepted. You are accepted, by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not try to do anything, do not perform anything, do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted." If that happens to us, we experience grace. (Paul Tillich)

Accepted..

Grace overcomes shame, not by uncovering an overlooked cache of excellence in ourselves but simply by accepting us, the whole of us, with no regard to our beauty or our ugliness, our virtue or our vices. We are accepted wholesale. Accepted with no possibility of being rejected. Accepted once and accepted forever. Accepted at the ultimate depth of our being. We are given what we have longed for in every nook and nuance of every relationship....There is a weightlessness about grace. It has the feel of a fairy tale; what makes it a very special fairy tale is that it is true. (Lewis Smedes)

About Me

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I am an ordinary person living an ordinary life in the Southern US, a wife and mom, a lover of quiet walks in the woods, summer sunrises over the ocean, reading books aloud to my kids, family movie nights, and just enjoying this wonderful life that is chock-full of grace and acceptance and love. I'm finally learning how to love myself and love my life, all because of the waterfall of Grace, the Loving Presence of our Papa God that gently bathes me within and without, and these posts are my thoughts on that wonderful grace washing over us all and carrying us along in its current throughout our lives. Isn't it wonderful to be on this journey of life and grace together? I thank you for stopping in to visit! I'd love to 'meet' you if you wish to leave a comment or send me an email..blessings to you today and always.. :)

The Gospel of Grace Is..

The Good News of Grace is that God out of His great love and grace and favor toward the world, sent Jesus to take away our sins, and He isn't counting the sins of the world against them! Wow! We are free to be friends with God again, for He's already friends with us. And not only that, He has taken us with Him out of the realm of sin and death and into the realm of His resurrection life! He included all humanity in Him in His work - we died with Him to sin, and we are alive with Him to God! Truly, it is finished!

This is the good news! Repent (change your mind about your status with God) - He isn't against you but FOR you, favoring you and having mercy on you! The incarnation, death and rising of Christ are God's love message to us, to prove we've always been in God's good graces and to give us the real, living relationship with God that we were created for. There is no way to be OUT of His favor, love, grace and acceptance, no way to be out of Him or His life! Jesus showed us that, so we can enjoy forever the relationship of Love with our Dad that's always been our right and privilege!

He has already taken away your sins on the cross and isn't counting your sins against you. He has brought you into harmony with Himself (reconciled you; He always felt harmonious towards us, we were the ones holding back, feeling we might be rejected because of our sins) by exchanging your sins for His right-ness (by removing our sins from us, He gave us a way to feel clean inside and worthy, reconciled our minds to the idea that we were okay with God..this was done for our benefit, not God's. Our Daddy has always been okay with us and never needed a sacrifice in order to forgive us or to make us acceptable in His eyes!) And He has taken you up to the bosom of the Father, accepted and beloved and alive in Him! (Death is conquered! Only Life awaits!)

He is looking at the whole world with the same love and tenderness that He has for His Beloved Son, Jesus! So open up your heart and agree with this and get to know Him! Faith (simple, happy confidence in Him coming from what He did for you - "Wow, Jesus, You did all that for ME! Thank You!") opens the door and allows Him to bring into your experience the newness of life that He is within you! Yes, within you! The scripture says that God reveals Christ, not outside of us trying to get in, but IN us waiting to be seen and known in intimate fellowship!

Isn't it wonderful to think that, since He sustains us all and holds up the whole creation, and we truly live and move and have our being in Him - He is already in us and has been in us all along, just waiting to be discovered and enjoyed! We can open up and receive/welcome Him in fellowship, greet the One who is there within us with the smile of simple childlike faith (remember faith just means seeing what He already did, what is already so!), and He fills and overflows us, makes every part of us truly full of His very own Life! We start to experience the eternal life that is our right! We start to manifest it in this earthly realm, in these earthly bodies! He bursts forth from within your innermost being like a river of living water, His Spirit flooding your life and spilling out! His very own life, joined with us forever!

Yes, His very own life joined with us forever! In the incarnation, God joined Himself to man irrevocably and permanently. So He became the new representative of our race, not Adam - in fact, He had prior claim to us all along, for before creation even happened God chose us to be IN Christ! It was through Christ that we were even created! So He has always been our true head and source of life, always had the strongest claim on us! So all that He did is effective for all of us. When He died, we all died with Him to all the old lies, confusion and ways of life..and when He rose, we rose with Him into the newness of His life!

What a Savior, what a Redeemer (Rescuer)! He came down and joined with us where we were in death and then conquered that death state and separated us from it forever, bringing us up into the glory of His resurrection life! Wow! You are not of the old but all new like the first day of creation (an even better than that, for you're not in the likeness of Adam but in the likeness of Christ)! See and know yourself as He has always seen and known you since before time began - so innocent and pure before Him, so beloved and precious, His very own dear child! You are fresh and sweet like a newborn baby, untouched by evil, innocent and pure - a new person with Him as your very life source - thus, your being, bound as it is to God's life itself, which is eternal, will never die!

All the old is gone and all things are new! You are a new creation, which is really the original you God always had in mind from before time began, now finally realized and manifested in this world! You are righteous (sinless and in right relationship with God) and having a good, new nature (Christ's own nature) so that you naturally love and trust God! You are perfect before Him, with no stains, faults, or anything amiss at all! You are accepted and acceptable! You are loved and lovely!

You are bound up with Him, locked into the love circle of the Trinity forever! He is in heaven and you are in Him, and you are on earth and He is in you! Inseparable union, infinite bliss! You have the same relationship and same fellowship with the Father that Jesus has! You are one with God and have perfect harmony with Him, perfect fellowship with Him at all times - you can talk to Him about anything, He is the Friend you've always wanted, He will be loyal where others could not, He understands you perfectly, He delights in you.

And you are a complete and whole person! This is the way your life was always meant to be - a person filled with God's Spirit and in perfect love relationship with Him!

Nothing is required of you in this life - you are free to bask in Him and His love and be happy in Him, for He will do it all, and you'll find yourself full of new desires to love people, new hope for the future, new authority and freedom over evil, new joy and peace, new strength, new freshness of grace-gifts falling on you every day!

Every day will be a day of just receiving His love and radiating that love back to Him and being a reflection of His love to the world. They are going to want what you have, because they'll see the unconditional love, the satisfaction, the freedom and joy! They'll be attracted to the blessed, full life you have! And Jesus will be glorified and lifted up!

Hallelujah!

You're Under a Fountain

You are accepted and you are the righteousness of God no matter what you do, no matter how much you fail, no matter when you fall into sin - you are STILL the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It is not based on your obedience - it is based on the obedience of Jesus Christ....I don’t care how bad your sin was, get up, you’re under a fountain. When you fall, when you fail under a fountain, the fountain does not fail, it keeps coming over you. You are clean, you are righteous in Him. The more you believe this, the more victory you will have over sinning. Come on now, say amen. Give Him a shout just for the heaven of it. (Rob Rufus)

From the Quote Book

You are not your own enemy. There is nothing wrong with you as a Christian. Steve McVey
God's love will never fail you. Jamie Weeks
God never humiliates, shames, or belittles His young'uns. Mike Fitzpatrick
God never loved you for a reason. Wayne Jacobsen
Knowing that God does not expect anything from us is the only way not to despair. Watchman Nee
I need do nothing for God: that is deliverance from the law. Watchman Nee
We are all we were ever meant to be: one with the One who is life. Dan Stone
You don't have to grow, change, or be good to be loved. Brennan Manning
There is nothing you can do that would cause God to love you any more or any less than He does right now. Steve McVey
You have received the life. You cannot - you cannot - fail to manifest it. Dan Stone
No matter how great we think Him to be, His love is always greater. Brennan Manning
Jesus Christ loves us as we are, and not as we should be. Brennan Manning
A real gift never puts the receiver in debt. A real gift is only to enjoy. Lewis Smedes
Jesus not only loves you, He also likes you. Mike Yaconelli
With grace, failure doesn't make any difference. David Seamands