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Trust Jesus... That one phrase rings out in my heart and my mind, Trust Jesus. What does it really mean to trust Jesus? Is it trusting Him only when things are going well and life is rosey, or can we trust Jesus when all hell is breaking loose in us and around us? Somedays I feel secure in my Lords arms, I feel loved and I feel accepted, but sometimes I can feel the flames of hell, stoked hot awaiting my arrival. Then comes two words, "Trust Jesus." I will admit sometimes my trust in grace fails, and I feel that I am a sinner slipping farther into darkness, but two words ring out, "Trust Jesus." I cling to one statement that I heard from one of my favorite writers, "He loves us just as we are, and not as we should be, because, we will never be as we should be." I am at a crossroads in my life, and I realize one thing must happen. I must either place my confidence in myself and try it on my own, or I trust Jesus. Folks this isn't some trust that crops up in certain situations, but this is a trust that trusts Him in and for everything. I have indulged the flesh for many years, many, many years in fact, so it is dying hard. It is such a hope and comfort to read in Hebrews, that we have a Lord that understands, one that is sympathetic to our plight. So I call out to my Lord, come and heal my broken heart, open it up, and bring the real thing, like only You can do. I finally realize, that the only way that I can fully trust Jesus, is if He takes this stone heart, and makes it soft. This is a miracle that only He can do. So I am going to Trust Jesus. I am tired, exhausted really, and He is calling out to me, come here son, and rest.

Oh Lord, only you know the real me, only your eyes can see, what's under the veil that I have put up. Open up my heart, and bring the real thing. Open up your church Oh God and bring the real thing, Open up your children Oh God, and bring the real thing, take away the pain, and pour out your Spirit.

I want to spend some time talking about righteousness, or how I will say it “Goodness.”

Not just any old type of Goodness, and not the type of Goodness that is in bondage to external actions, as the Pharisees.

I want to talk about, true goodness, the God type goodness.
The type of goodness evidenced in love. But not just any old type of love, but agape love, True Love(selfless love.)

Jesus came to earth and lived a life that exhibited this type of goodness.

This type of righteousness or “Goodness” is the word DIKAIOSUNE which means “the inner life of the soul when it is how it should be.” In easier terms, of “being a really good person.”

The life of Jesus was a demonstration of the God type goodness.

The Pharisees pinned being a good person by outward actions in adherence to the law.

The Pharisee takes his aim keeping the law, rather than becoming the kind of person whose deeds naturally conform to the law.

In the Discourse on the Hill (sermon on the mount) Jesus is telling us, and teaching us, what it’s like to live from kingdom of God, and have His goodness or “righteousness.”

Now how is it that we have His righteousness? It is because of we have His life, and His righteousness comes from His life.

John 10:10
”I came that they may have life, and have it running out there ears!” (in the original is used the word Abundantely)

Whose life, His life, and where is the life of Jesus? It is caught up in the kingdom of God

That’s the new birth, the birth from above. It is the Life of Jesus deposited into a trusting disciple of Jesus. It is His life, by which we are saved.

Romans 5:10 (NASB)
”10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

It is the by our Lords blood we are cleansed, reconciled (say I like the use of this other word HARMONIZED-means to form a pleasing relationship) back to God, but it is by His life we achieve salvation.

His Righteousness comes from His life, and His life is the way by which you can make contact with the Kingdom of God, and its transformation power.

2 Peter 1:4 says that we have become partakers of His Divine Nature.

Now we have to come to realize what is the divine nature. Now we know that Divine Nature is evidence of something, and that something is LOVE. True, God type Love, Agape Love.

And you can see that when Paul gives his exposition of Love Is in 1 Corinthians 13, he is describing the same thing as when he writes about the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.

Now you see, some people will read these two descriptions of Love and say, now I have to go out and do these things, or I need to try harder to be this person.

But you can clearly see, by what Paul is saying, that it is Love that does these things, and not us, what we are to do is “pursue Love” 1 Corinthians 14:1

Jesus says the same thing to us when He says to us “Seek first the kingdom of God…”

Seek first His kingdom, and what is His kingdom, the Kingdom of God is Love, the very essence of the Kingdom of God is love, and that can be seen by Jesus personally inviting the unlovable and embracing the unlovely.

The only way that way that this life of love can be cultivated in us is if we train.

Instead of trying to live the Christian life (and failing) we ought to be training.

When Jesus was hanging on the cross and He prayed “Father, forgive them because they don’t understand what they are doing.” That wasn’t hard for Him. That prayer flowed out of who He was internally.

When we hunker down and train with Jesus, learning from Him how to be like Him, when we hit the playing field (the world) we won’t have to think about returning good for evil, it’ll just happen. We won’t have to think about how we can be patient, it’ll just happen.

The Lord does not call us to do what He did, but to be as He was, permeated with Love.
Then the doing of what He did and said becomes the natural expression of who we are, in Him.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His kind of Goodness, and all these things will be given to you.”

This is a excerpt from a book that I am reading right now. I think it is one of the most powerful commentaries I have ever read, and I wanted to share it. Grace is something most believers don't really understand, I will admit I didn't, and I am still in the process of learning about it. Grace has either paralyzed us, or has become the resource from which we draw our lives. It is the power that sustains us, and enables us to get up each day, and rejoice in our sufferings. It is what spur's our growth, and bids us come, Follow Him, the one from whom that grace extends. Grace and Peace to you, through my Lord Jesus Christ, enjoy.

Costly Grace by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.

Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjack's wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap?

Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian "conception" of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. The Church which holds the correct doctrine of grace has, it is supposed, ipso facto a part in that grace. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. "All for sin could not atone." The world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners "even in the best life" as Luther said. Well, then let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world's standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin. That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs. Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the Cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him.

Costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it costs God the life of His Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but deliver Him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

Costly grace is the santuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs. It is therefore the living word, the Word of God, which He speaks as it pleases Him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow Him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and My burden light."

The one question that each of needs to ask ourselves is, "How do we operationally define the Lordship of Christ in our lives?" Plainly speaking, is Jesus actually lording our lives, or are we spiritual vampires, who have gladly taken a little of His blood, but meanwhile are telling Him, thanks but I can handle it from here, see you in heaven. In the lives of today's "believers" the focus of our spiritual lives has blurred, it has become focused on the benefits of belief, instead of the one whom we believe in, Jesus. Jesus says in Luke 6:46 "You call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say." My question simply is, how can we begin to do what He says, if we decide not devote our lives to Him, and learn from Him, how to be like Him? We have to make a decision in our lives, a very poignant, and critical decision, are we going to be disciples of the Jesus, or are we going to be spiritual lepers, constantly roaming on the boundary of His kingdom? Listen to a man named Paul, formerly called Saul, in his letter to the 1st century church in Philippi "More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,.." This is a man who defined the lordship of Christ in his life, as the sole purpose of his existence. He had lost everything the world deemed important, but had gained the only thing of importance, Jesus. He had been beaten numerous times, left for dead, shipwrecked and snake bitten, and had become an outcast of his own people, yet deemed living under the lordship of Christ, and as a citizen of the kingdom as the one thing of surpassing value in his life. Can we say that in our lives? Are we willing to lose all, to gain Christ? How do we operationally define the lordship of Christ in our lives? As disciples we should define the lordship of Christ in our lives, as our life. Our lives should be devoted to being with Him, learning to be like Him.

Disciples of Jesus are people that are living a new life, a life that is impossible in the natural human condition. Disciples of Jesus are those, as Jon Bailey said, who make grace the resource for their lives. That resource, Gods grace, is God's direct action in our lives, bringing about what we cannot by direct effort. God's will working in our lives, transforming our character, our very nature, into His. The Apostle Apostle Peter says "grow in grace", but this growth is not in the forgiveness of sins, but in God's action in your life. This is what Jesus came preaching about. That now, through our trust in Him, God’s will can now come into our lives and begin to rule. And by becoming ruled, directed, and guided by that will, we are now living in the Kingdom of God.

If salvation was the goal of the Christian life, then the journey would be over with the first step. The life of today's Christianity cries out "There must be something more!" We leave our churchs today empty of substance, and that substance is Jesus, living, breathing, existing in each one of us. Jesus himself cries out, there must be something more when he calls out "Follow Me!" That one statement resounds through history to all of those who call themselves His disciples. The goal of the Christian life is transformation, by the Spirit of God, into Christ likeness. Paul says to the church in Galatians 4:19 "...I am in labor, until Christ is formed in you." Christ formed in us, that means the character of Jesus becoming our character, the actions of Jesus becoming our actions. An inward transformation, that results in outward manifested actions that resemble Jesus. This is grace. Grace is God's action in our lives, to bring about what we cannot by direct effort. Christians, or disciples of Jesus, are those living a life that is impossible in the natural human condition. All of this is now open to us through our trust in Jesus. To say that we trust Jesus, is to say that we place our confidence in Jesus. We don't place our confidence in something He said, or something He did, but in Jesus alone. The Apostle Peter says "..grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." That is the goal of the Christian life, growth in Jesus, and transformation of our very nature brought on by the work of the Holy Spirit in our life, through our trust in Jesus. Do we trust Him? Do we trust Him with our lives? He is calling us out of history to Follow Him, to slip our hand, into his nail scarred hand, and be with Him, learning to be like Him.

For love my Lord went to the Cross. For love my Lord rose from the dead. For love I will follow hard after the savior of my soul.

The teachings of Jesus are not a set of heavy yoked laws, but a revelation of the manifested actions of a transformed heart.

The radical demands of Jesus daily remind us of our shortcomings and make us realize that salvation is God's free gift. Here we reach the heart of revelation. If the gospel tells us anything, if the church proclaims just one thing year in and year out, it is that salvation is God's free gift. The gospel is the glad tiding of gratuitous redemption. "You are a chosen people, a royal preisthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" The Apostle Peter's First Letter, Chapter 9, verses 9-10. We have been translated into the kingdom of God's beloved Son not by our merit, but by His mercy.

When Jesus bids us come, He is calling us out of our lives and into His. He calls us from unrighteousness to righteousness, from unholiness to holiness. He calls us to die, that we might truly live. When the call of Christ comes on our lives it is the most precious moment in our lives. The declaration of Follow Me is one that calls for the forfeiting of our lives, of or our own desires and passions, and a pursuit of the surpassing knowledge of Christ. We pick up our cross and Follow Him, told that hardships and hatred are assured, but girded with hope and joy, promised that He will be with us every step of the way, even until the end of the age. We Follow Him and we learn from Him, how to be like Him. We Follow Him and discover what it means to truly love. We Follow Him, because, we are truly loved. Jesus Christ is the one great hope, in a world devoid of hope. Jesus is the great promise, in a world full of broken promises. Jesus Christ is the balm that eases the pain, in a world that enjoys inflicting pain. Jesus calls all men with the declaration, FOLLOW ME! Do we trust Him? Do we trust Him with our lives? Do we trust Him with all that we are? Can we, as the select few did, leave our lives and desires to rot on that beach, as we straight-away drop our nets, and answer the Shepherds call.. FOLLOW ME!

John 1:4 "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men."