Welcome to the Victory Blog

This past weekend, I invited our Fusion Young Adults Pastor, Johnson Bowie, to speak. I always enjoy it when he brings the word. He’s so full of passion for the things of God. Here’s a synopsis of his message (if you want to hear the whole thing, click here):

When I truly heard the message of the gospel for the first time, that there was a God who would pardon my sins, making me acceptable and righteous in the sight of God; that I would be saved from hell and know God the Father; I was so excited to receive it! What a great deal! I was on cloud nine. But then, I sinned again. I was devastated. I thought I threw it all away. I felt like the biggest loser ever. I felt like I couldn’t even look to God or talk to Him because He must be so disappointed and disgusted with me.

For years, I believed one of Satan’s biggest lies: that when I do good, God loves me more, but when I do bad, God loves me less – a real emotional rollercoaster. That’s a tough ride to be on. I can’t tell you how many times I told God that if I sinned again, He should just kill me. I preferred to be in Heaven with Him than down here sinning over and over again.

In our current series, BRICKS, we’ve been talking about the foundation stones of the Christian life, such as loving, serving and giving. But today, I’m talking about something that we think we get, but we don’t really. If we really did get it, it would totally revolutionize our lives and change the world. I’m talking about Grace – “God’s unmerited, free love and blessing for sinful man revealed and made effective in Jesus Christ.” That means there’s nothing we can do to earn it or keep it. We can’t. There’s no way we could. It’s only possible because of what Jesus has done.

There’s something we need to know if we’re going to understand grace: We all deserve hell. We all fall short. The standard is pretty high – we have to be perfect…in every thought and motivation of our hearts, not to mention our actions, every moment of our whole lives. Impossible! We have nothing to offer God to make Him love us. Apart from Christ, we are worthless!

But here’s the good news: Through Jesus Christ – through His death and resurrection – those who believe have been made as though they never sinned. Now, God sees us as if we’re perfect – without sin – no matter what we’ve done! Can you believe that?! He’s taken all the guilt and shame and replaced it with holiness, loveliness and peace. He took the just judgment of our sins upon Himself in Christ. Because of this, we can now relate freely to God as sons and daughters!

Nothing we do can make Him love us more, nor can we make Him love us less! We have to stop trying to earn God’s approval. That’s a trap of the devil. It is ONLY by grace through faith in Jesus Christ…only…nothing else…period. All we have to do, is believe. It really is that easy, that simple.

So, let me ask, what do you do when you sin? How do you respond to your own weakness? Do you run to God or away from Him? Do you humbly accept His forgiveness and love? Or, do you try to work your own way out of it? Why pursue futility? Start running into the Father’s arms of grace!