Staying Warm

The Silent Sermon

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire.

Guessing the reason for his pastor's visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited. The pastor made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs.

After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lone ember's flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more.

Soon it was cold and dead. Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. The Pastor glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave; he slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.

As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, "Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon.” I shall be back in church next Sunday."

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, ESV)

Staying warm, Ron Ross

http://devoted2god.com/2014/02/28/staying-warm/ ‎

It's Time for Joel's Perspective

It’s Time for Joel’s Perspective

“Our cities (and our personal lives) may seem like those in Canaan, surrounded by walls that reach up to heaven – walled in by unbelief. But – let’s not forget–-the walls of Jericho fell. The walls of unbelief are beginning to crumble. What is long overdue is the shout of the people of God. I grew up near the mouth of the river Elbe in North Germany where I used to see huge flat-bottom river barges set fast in the mud banks.

No tug or marine engine could shift them. But the tide quietly rippled in, hardly perceptible, creeping higher and higher up the sides of those immovable hulks. Soon those hundreds of tons were floating. From the quay I could move them with the slightest kick. When we obey the Holy Spirit the waters begin to rise. That is fact, not wishful thinking.
We are seeing promises fulfilled which once sounded like fantasy. The words of Joel 2:28 are coming true before our very eyes. God says: “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. We see it happening. God is doing mighty things in our world. Challenge yourself. Ask Holy Spirit to reveal the walls in your life that must crumble for your “expected end and destiny” to be fulfilled.”(Inspired by Reinhard Bonnke)
23Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice in the LORD your God! For the rains he sends are an expression of his grace. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring. 24The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain, and the presses will overflow with wine and olive oil. 25The LORD says, "I will give you back what you lost to the stripping locusts, the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts, and the hopping locusts.
It was I who sent this great destroying army against you. 26Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the LORD your God, who does these miracles for you. Never again will my people be disgraced like this. 27Then you will know that I am here among my people of Israel and that I alone am the LORD your God. My people will never again be disgraced like this.
28"Then after I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. 29In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike.
30"I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth -- blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 31The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon will turn bloodred before that great and terrible day of the LORD arrives. 32And anyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. There will be people on Mount Zion in Jerusalem who escape, just as the LORD has said. These will be among the survivors whom the LORD has called.
I need this reminder everyday...

To our graceless world comes the revelation of grace. To merciless Nineveh is offered mercy. To hypocritical Jerusalem comes truth. To faithless humanity comes faithfulness. That is God! That is Jesus! He is a God of faithfulness, without injustice, of inexhaustible patience and unsolicited concern for us all. Rejoice.

To us has come the revelation of Grace. The mystery hidden for ages is being revealed in and through us! We walk daily in the very same mercy as Nineveh! Our hypocrisy is swallowed up in boundless loving truth. And Jesus daily exchanges our faithlessness with His faithfulness.

“Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be a charlatan.

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him.

Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego (e.dging G.od o.ut) is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous (truth is the reality that lay behind appearances) before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, than Christ died unnecessarily.” Galatians 2:17-21 (Msg).

Living in the grip of grace, Ron Ross

It’s Time for Joel’s Perspective

“Our cities (and our personal lives) may seem like those in Canaan, surrounded by walls that reach up to heaven – walled in by unbelief. But – let’s not forget–-the walls of Jericho fell. The walls of unbelief are beginning to crumble. What is long overdue is the shout of the people of God. I grew up near the mouth of the river Elbe in North Germany where I used to see huge flat-bottom river barges set fast in the mud banks.

No tug or marine engine could shift them. But the tide quietly rippled in, hardly perceptible, creeping higher and higher up the sides of those immovable hulks. Soon those hundreds of tons were floating. From the quay I could move them with the slightest kick. When we obey the Holy Spirit the waters begin to rise. That is fact, not wishful thinking.
We are seeing promises fulfilled which once sounded like fantasy. The words of Joel 2:28 are coming true before our very eyes. God says: “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. We see it happening. God is doing mighty things in our world. Challenge yourself. Ask Holy Spirit to reveal the walls in your life that must crumble for your “expected end and destiny” to be fulfilled.”(Inspired by Reinhard Bonnke)
23Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice in the LORD your God! For the rains he sends are an expression of his grace. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring. 24The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain, and the presses will overflow with wine and olive oil. 25The LORD says, "I will give you back what you lost to the stripping locusts, the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts, and the hopping locusts.
It was I who sent this great destroying army against you. 26Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the LORD your God, who does these miracles for you. Never again will my people be disgraced like this. 27Then you will know that I am here among my people of Israel and that I alone am the LORD your God. My people will never again be disgraced like this.
28"Then after I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. 29In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike.
30"I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth -- blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 31The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon will turn bloodred before that great and terrible day of the LORD arrives. 32And anyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. There will be people on Mount Zion in Jerusalem who escape, just as the LORD has said. These will be among the survivors whom the LORD has called.
I need this reminder everyday...

To our graceless world comes the revelation of grace. To merciless Nineveh is offered mercy. To hypocritical Jerusalem comes truth. To faithless humanity comes faithfulness. That is God! That is Jesus! He is a God of faithfulness, without injustice, of inexhaustible patience and unsolicited concern for us all. Rejoice.

To us has come the revelation of Grace. The mystery hidden for ages is being revealed in and through us! We walk daily in the very same mercy as Nineveh! Our hypocrisy is swallowed up in boundless loving truth. And Jesus daily exchanges our faithlessness with His faithfulness.

“Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be a charlatan.

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him.

Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego (e.dging G.od o.ut) is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous (truth is the reality that lay behind appearances) before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, than Christ died unnecessarily.” Galatians 2:17-21 (Msg).

Living in the grip of grace, Ron Ross

http://devoted2god.com/2014/02/17/its-time-for-joels-perspective/

Love Gives Truth Its Voice

 “The Word became a human being; we are his address; he resides in us! He captivates our gaze! The glory we see there is not a religious replica; he is the authentic begotten son. The glory (that Adam lost) returns in fullness! Only grace can communicate truth in such complete context! He is the source of our completeness. The Love Expressed in Grace Gives Truth its Voice!

Grace against grace!  (Garin anti garitos, grace undeserved. Grace prevailed against the tide of darkness due to Adam’s fall. His fullness is the source of all that grace communicates as our portion, against all odds!) Against the stark backdrop of the law, with Moses representing the condemned state of mankind, Jesus Christ unveils grace and truth!” (John 1:14b, 16, 17, The Mirror)

”Love and Grace give truth its voice. The conversation that truth inspires creates the atmosphere wherein growth is both spontaneous and inevitable. The whole person is addressed in Christ who is the head of the body; he is the conclusion of God’s communication with man.” (Ephesians 4:15, The Mirror)

1:7 “Since we are (fully represented) in him, his blood is the ransom that secures our redemption. His forgiving us our sins measures the wealth of his grace. 1:8 This grace shown towards us communicates a wisdom and discernment of our worth that completely surpasses any definition. 1:9 The secret is out! His cherished love-dream now unfolds in front of our very eyes.” (Ephesians 1: 7-9, The Mirror)

All of these magnificent gifts are ours by way of Grace! “How great is the grace of God.” Father’s love gives the truth of Grace its voice.

Grace! What a declaration! What an unanswerable question that beckons a life long journey of seeking, searching, researching and being utterly amazed at how little we have yet discovered. Instead, we are left amazed by the moment by moment assaults it brings of authentic indescribable love.

Grace; 5 letters that explode into countless possibilities and experiences of help and hope. Grace seems to be right on the edge of heresy! And for the religionist, it is! Grace is so good, it defies comprehension or explanation. It seems surreal or even to be a ‘Divine Conspiracy’ that appears to skirt our senses/judgments of right or fair. Grace compensates all the servants with the same wage, no matter when they arrived on the scene.

Grace is centered and anchored in the character of a Sovereign Loving God. It overtakes sin, failure, hopelessness and death. It surprises the recipient with forgiveness and innocence. It never rests and always flows from the Abba echo in Heavenly Father’s heart toward any and all who would dare take Him up on it!

Grace is a conversation with Jesus that plumbs the depths of knowing and being known in secure safety! Grace opens the human heart to the discovery of identity, purpose, worth, destiny and restored innocence.

Grace! Do you dare partner with Grace in a journey into the endless dimensions of Christ’s Kingdom? Do you have the audacity to attempt life without Grace? Do you have the spiritual courage to believe the claims of Grace in the face of the challenges of the Goliath’s of religious taunting?

Grace is calling this generation like never before! What is your answer to Grace?

Embracing the Love that Gives the Truth of Grace its Voice! Ron Ross

Gripped by the Answer-Jesus

Wrong questions are the breeding ground of doubt, despair and unbelief. I know; I've asked the wrong questions for almost sixty years. But, in the midst of those questions mercy, grace, atonement and the answer burst its way into my darkened questions. Tell Me Why is the most foreboding of all wrong questions.

Don't miss-hear me; questions are natural and a part of our God given DNA. But: to end up at Why? That wrong question is not a part of the likeness and image of God that we are all endowed with. It is the epitome of our fallen, darkened condition! So, how do we approach these unanswerable questions?

Before there are answers, there is a relationship you must have your heart opened to. There is a knowing that paves the way for sufficient answers. Here it comes! You must know that God's plan is God; revealed in a "baby wrapped in old dirty clothes", a Son of Man, a life lived exemplary for all generations, on a Cross-disfigured and murdered by His own and in an empty tomb. He is not a program, or an impersonal idea.

"You must know it's Me pouring My life into you, into all of your children. I punish only those who insist on their own way and their own answers, who reject Me! Those who invest their all in knowing Me, pressing into Me will have the answer in the face of every imaginable hurt, suffering, and injustice. This fallen world is not nice, never! Stop insisting on your own understanding. Heaven is the enjoyment of My way forever! Hell is the enjoyment of your own way forever, eternally apart from Me!"

"I allow suffering for those I love, because it draws them to concentrate on Me as their only source for life. In order to rest in hope, you must first writhe in pain. You must repent of demanding fair and your own understanding. Look; no, study all of those in the scriptures who rested only in Me! They didn't get answers to the wrong questions. And they often had to wait for a future time for the fulfillment of My promises."

"Only I can awaken your intimacy taste buds, to enjoy the feast of Me. To know Me well you must also first be confused by Me. What! That's not fair! Only in the mystery of suffering well, of not wasting your sorrows will you cease to try to fit Me into your understanding! As you continue to stand before Me in mystery you will; in time, rest in Me in the strong, sufficient arms of trust. Suffering without demanding an explanation will create the fertile ground of faith in Me; the faith that simply looks for My heart, not My answers." One put it this way; 'As long as there are many springs from which to draw water, anxiety about possible water failure does not arise.'

 "Blessed are those who thirst and hunger for Me"! Trust and faith are opened when there is only one source of water-Me! Knowing My love is the answer. Because it is My love that seeks and supplies the well-being of another. If that requires suffering, then love permits and, sometimes, brings about suffering. But my love never allows you to suffer more than is necessary to achieve the well-being of the beloved!"

"Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!" Proverbs 3: 5-7, The Message.

In the grip of the answer-Jesus! Ron Ross