Saturday, August 17, 2019

Day 153 - I Take It Back!


Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 350
         
Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL
Littleton, Colorado
(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.


Anyone who had any experience talking with Michael, or listened to him at one of the many presentations he made of the Abiding Life, knew he could come out of nowhere with some very interesting thoughts, ideas, and illustrations. Today’s writing gives us one of those.

However, he always “brought it home,” as some say when the master teacher gives the overriding thought a landing place. Michael points us to a freedom we have as Christians to take it back when someone just doesn’t care to hear or receive the Bread of Life.



DAY 153

I Take It Back!


When they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. --John 6:12, 13

In this astounding story Jesus had fed 5,000 people, and what was left over, He wanted . . . but for what? What are twelve men and a teacher on the move going to do with twelve baskets of barley bread? I imagine that they found a few hungry people along the way. The miracle had provided exactly enough food for all of the people, so I wonder if some, like the boy that offered the five loaves and two fish, had their own food with them. When the bread that Jesus gave came, they simply ate their own food; they did not feel the need for His bread. Therefore, He took it back. Matthew 7:6, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Jesus then continues with the theme that He is the bread of life; He let us know that He was the true bread that came down out of heaven. In the same way that some would rather have their bread than His, there are those that would prefer to have what the world offers than what Jesus offers. For such people the bread is withdrawn. Sometimes I am talking to someone and am met with one argument after another. That person simply is not interested in Jesus, so I say, “I take it back; I take back everything!” He may believe that I am retracting my conviction over what I have said about Jesus, but it is not so! I am withdrawing the presentation of Jesus. A word not received is a wasted word, and there must be no waste. I pick up the message and wait to give it to others who hunger for the bread that comes from heaven. On our journey we will always find a few hungry people.

I remember being in India. As I left the airport, a band of men were attempting to grapple my luggage out of my hands. I made it clear that I would carry them myself. Since I would not relinquish the bags, they walked alongside me, each with a hand touching the bags, so that when I arrived at the car they all asked for a tip. Reluctantly, I gave them all one rupee apiece. They began to curse at me and demanded more. I responded, “So one rupee is not enough?” I then took back from each man his one rupee. They expectantly assumed I would be giving them something bigger. Instead, I simply got in the taxi and rode away with them following me, now shouting and wanting the one rupee back. However, I had taken back what they did not like and was not giving it again.

Jesus offers the bread of life; if someone does not want it, He will take it back and leave the person exactly as he was before he heard of Him.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory


Spiritual encounters are like nothing else on earth. If Holy Spirit has moved, but a listener hasn’t heard, the end result is different from what we might wish…but God knows what the next encounter might produce.

Our instructions are to keep handing out, and relish the moments when God gives us a hungry soul.

As I sit and finish this, my mind races back immediately to some of those moments…how beautiful they are! Divine moments. And worth every rejection…


To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com


Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696

Thursday, August 8, 2019

Day 144 - The Crucified Christ


Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 350
         
Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL
Littleton, Colorado
(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.


The idea that God come in the flesh is foreign to the natural mind. To Believers it is a magnificent reality.


DAY 144

The Crucified Christ

But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. --Galatians 6:14

When people saw Jesus they were seeing God, for He was attached, so to speak, by a divine umbilical cord to the Father, whose LIFE flowed through Him. Satan could not defeat God in heaven, so he thought he would try again with his next best chance, which was when God was no longer in heaven but on the earth. Wrong! It was the same God on earth in a body, and in that body God defeated sin, the world, and every aspect of the flesh. How? The “I” attitude of Jesus intertwined throughout His mind, will, emotion, and body was this: “Of My own self I can do nothing.” To the world, He hung on the cross as a defeated man; in actuality, there hung the greatest conqueror the world would ever know.

Jesus’ body went to the grave, but His LIFE departed and descended. Jesus had no choice but to descend when He died; that is what was happening to dead people. There were a couple of battles along the way, all easily won by the power of an indestructible life. Death encountered a new foe, LIFE, and death went running. Captivity was taken captive, and a Man tore open the very gates of hell and preached! All who believed in Jesus left with Him. In short, Hell was plundered. What a time! Next, God reconnected with Him to raise Him from the dead, and Jesus returned to His body in the tomb. His life was so powerful, having overcome sin; Satan; the world; the mind, will, emotions, and body of man; the “I” attitude; and Death, Captivity, and Hell, all by doing nothing of “Himself.” When this powerful life reentered His body, His body was instantly transformed by the power of an indestructible life. His fleshly body could not decay; it was overcome by LIFE and was transformed. We men can only take our spirit along where our body allows us to go. His transformed body had to go wherever His spirit went. If He wanted to walk through a wall, His transformed body followed. Lest we forget, when He returned to His body, He was soaked with the “I” that proved the Love of God, an “I” attitude that trusted God and was holy, righteous, acceptable, and dependent.

Remember that every believer is the dry sponge attached to the soaked One that fills him. Formerly dead in trespasses and sins, believers are filled with a new “I” that soaks into their whole being and gets into every corner until thinking, will, emotions, and body all change. Believers may look the same but they are not; they are having a conversion, being filled with His Spirit, His “I” attitude, and His life. Again, like the great tree root, this divine “I” wraps itself around everything. The flesh of man does not like it, for in the past the flesh was allowed to follow flesh; now the flesh must fight to do so. However, it is fighting an “I” that has already overcome flesh and counterattacks from a place of victory. Believers are filled with THE SPIRIT and are raised up. 

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

That Believers may look the same, but in Reality are not…is another mystery (parable) that God has given to all mankind to ponder. Well, amen.

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the Light, and the burden of my heart rolled away! (rolled away), It was there by belief I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day!

There are multitudes who will not believe, and they miss out on being raised up.


To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com


Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Day 143 - The Crucified "I"


Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 349
         
Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL
Littleton, Colorado
(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.


One thing about Michael, he never shied away from tackling something God said that others would not tackle. And we can all appreciate his willingness to say, “If (you) differ with my definitions and descriptions…”

Well, amen.

As you read today’s writing, keep in mind where you are in your walk with the Lord, how much you know about the Abiding Life, what your definitions and descriptions are of the things embraced Michael’s writing.


DAY 143
The Crucified “I”

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the {life} which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. -- Galatians 2:20

What is the “I” that was crucified with Christ, and exactly how did that “I” get crucified? I am always making a feeble attempt to give definition to phrases that have for so long been used by believers that few stop to think about and grasp their meaning. Think of how the phrase, “How are you today?” got so overused that saying it today just means, “Hello.” Rarely does someone care to hear a prolonged assessment of the state of another’s health and disposition. The world and the enemy have plotted to overuse words to reduce their significance, words like Jesus or love. “I have been crucified with Christ” has been thrown around, quoted, and memorized to the point that its meaning and importance have been diminished. My motive in discussing what it could mean is that believers might increasingly understand it and incorporate it into their being. If the reader differs with my definitions and descriptions, I urge you to search for a definition that you can satisfactorily accept, that it might encourage you in your walk with Christ.

Imagine a team of physicians converging on a live man lying on an operating table; they were charged with the task of finding the “I” in the man. Would they be able to find it? No! It is because the “I” of Galatians 2:20 is not a material thing but an attitude; the “I” has wrapped itself, like the roots of a great tree, around every visible fiber of the man. Try to cut it out of the mind and next find it in the will; remove it from the will and discover it has grown back into the mind. “I” is the attitude of glory, pride, righteousness, and strength; in short, it is the attitude of wanting to be God. Being made in His image is not enough, for “I” wants to be worshipped and occupy the center of the universe that belongs to God. The body cooperates, for since it was made from the dust, it is not drawn to the spirit and therefore enjoys the indwelling “I” that allows the flesh to follow flesh.

A wet sponge placed on a dry one will become dry itself, because its water will flow to the other in transference. The day one believes on Jesus, God takes his body and nails it together with Christ on the cross, nailing, as it were, the two sponges together, the believer’s dripping with proud “I” and Christ’s empty “I” of humility. What happens next is transference; the believer loses all of his “I” attitude and life as it soaks into Him. When it is all over, the believer is nothing but a dry sponge, no anti-God attitudes and no life. The believer’s “I” coming into Jesus to do battle for supremacy is no different than the other battles He had already won; He kills the believer’s “I” attitude or life center. It may not be hard to imagine one sponge soaked with “I” being nailed to the One void of “I,” but what of the billions of people, and all at one time? There was so much anti-God “I” in Jesus on the cross that the Father had to cut the umbilical cord. The great I AM, Jesus, the Word, had always been in unbroken fellowship with God, Who was Jesus’ “I” attitude and life. The break killed His body. II Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory


Ok. What are your thoughts, definitions, and descriptions? What translation are you reading God’s Word from?

Let me give you two thoughts to ponder: as you read Galatians 2:20, try and put a person, or Person, to each pronoun used in this verse. I have personally found that gives me more identification and recognition of what Holy Spirit was telling me through the Apostle Paul.

Secondly, have you come to believe and receive that your old man was indeed crucified, and the new you in Christ IS the righteousness of God?


To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com


Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Day 136 - He Who Knew No Sin Became Sin


Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 348
         
Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL
Littleton, Colorado
(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.


The devil is very smart, but not smarter than God, Who is Omniscient. The devil is powerful, but not more powerful than God, Who is Omnipotent. The devil may have gotten Adam and Eve to sin, but God has a plan to remove sin.

The text for today’s writing by Michael lays the foundation for The Eternal Life becoming available for those who are Truthful Believers.



DAY 136

He Who Knew No Sin Became Sin

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. --II Corinthians 5:21

Spiritual glue is holding all things together (Colossians 1; Ephesians 4; Acts 17). Jesus is the invisible nuclear glue that is holding all things together. He is the positive. Like opposing ends of magnets, God is naturally attracted to man, and man is very drawn toward God. Think, though, of trying to force together two positive sides of magnets; those repel one another, and it is very difficult to bring them near to one another. Man is fine as long as he views himself as the negative that he is when compared to all that is positive in Christ. However, through pride and believing himself sufficiently positive not to rely on God, man invites sin into his being, which causes the glue holding him together to be repelled by the sin. The glue withdraws, and the man is less and less a reflection of the image of God. If sin continues to be invited in, the man will, in time, no longer resemble the image of God; in fact, the sin makes him sick. God did allow for a fix for all of this. The sin could be taken out of a man and placed on an animal, though because an animal is not created in the image of God, sin so distorts it that it must be killed. The animal was a good representation of the loss caused by what man had done. For example, a dove represents freedom, song, and peace, all things that man lost through sin and the dove would lose by way of death. Sacrifice of a man was never required until the fullness of time when the sins of the whole world (past, present, and future) had reached their culmination. On the cross God broke the divine umbilical cord that ran from Himself to the Son and placed on the Son the sins of the whole world. That sin was so great that it drove the very life out of Him, at which point sin, Satan, the world, death, captivity, and hell encased Him. He sank to the depths of hell but, to the surprise of all, broke out! He conquered all that had encased His life, ripped open the gates of hell, preached, and even took captivity captive to disable the free exercise of its power. He then waited until God raised Him back into His slain body, in which awaited the sins of the whole world. This time He entered back into the body with the power of an indestructible life, met the sin, and conquered sin in the body! His Life was so powerful that it even transformed His earthly body. It is one thing to accept that He has done all that in His body, but the next step is for the believer to acknowledge the truth that Jesus can do it in his own body! He can, He will, and He has.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Sinful mankind is not created in the image of God, but rather in the image of Adam, the result of the Fall of Adam and Eve. As Michael points out, God did allow for a fix for this. On the Cross of Christ God placed on the Son the sins of the whole world.

Yet after His death, and three days in the tomb, Christ arose in the power of his indestructible Life, providing The Life whereby we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Therein is The Eternal Life.

To biblically believe or acknowledge Truth is something we must do, to commit to the fact that is Truth, not just mentally give assent. As Michael points out, it is one thing to accept all that Jesus did, but quite another to believe or acknowledge that His death, burial, resurrection (the Good News of the Gospel of Christ) can and will provide for Unbelievers to become Born Again, Believers, the righteousness of God in Christ. Well, amen.



To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com


Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Day 364 - With Him Or In Him


Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 347
         
Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL
Littleton, Colorado
(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.


Sometimes the most uncomplicated, subtle words can swing the meaning of a biblical Truth almost 180*. Michael points out such a wording in today’s writing.


DAY 364
           

With Him Or In Him


For in Him we live and move and exist. As even some of your own poets have said, “For we also are His offspring.” --Acts 17:28

A friend of mine was asked where he was with the Lord. He responded, “I am in Denver.” We laughed when we talked of it, but what he said was really quite true. I have often been asked, “How much time do you spend with the Lord each day?” It is a false concept to think that we are “spending time with the Lord,” and therefore confining His presence to a time and a place. It is much more accurate to say that we are spending time in the Lord. This is a great secret. The presence of God is not something that we must search after. Psalm 139:7, “Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence?” The presence of God is simply something that we acknowledge by faith. We live in His presence, we enjoy His presence, and He is forever near, as near as the words in our mouths. Today, all day, we are in Him!

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory


What a beautiful Truth to know and experience Christ being IN us, rather than “up there somewhere.” So, how is it that so much energy is spent by so many Believers trying to find Christ to spend some time with Him, instead of believing God and His clear location of where Christ is?


To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com


Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Day 363 - Wings


Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 346
         
Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL
Littleton, Colorado
(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.



“Wait,” almost a disdained word in today’s world. And yet, it is one of the most crucial words in God’s realm. Michael gives us another word that can be synonymous with “wait”; “rest.” Actually, it reads that Betty gives us this word in today’s writing.

Enjoy the “peace” that comes with this day’s words…



DAY 363

Wings

Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up {with} wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary --Isaiah 40:31

It has been believed for some time that the South American condor, when old, commits suicide. Many have thought that the great bird would gain enough altitude to ensure its death, fold its wings, and fall to the earth. I was talking to a friend from Argentina whose uncle, a famous gaucho, often observed the odd behavior of the condor and began his own investigation. He discovered that the condor was not committing suicide at all. Actually, increasingly with age the great bird lost its eyesight, so instead of catching the wind and riding high on his magnificent wings, the vulture would flap unnaturally with all its strength to avoid what it thought was imminent danger. The bird would continue fleeing what did not exist until it gained so much altitude that it would run out of oxygen, have a heart attack, and fall to its death. 
           
I was recently told that many believers never receive answers to their prayers, so they need to learn to deal with disappointment. However, as believers we always receive answers to prayers, and the problem lies in so often praying wanting resolution; we want to know what to do or we want to direct the activity of God. We seek and do not find because we have wrongly defined what finding is. What we find when we pray, ask, and seek is faith, a simple thing that is much more enjoyable than immediate answers. Faith takes the whole situation out of our hands and places it in God's hands, removing us from the throne and stopping the frenetic beating of our little wings, giving us our birthright: the gliding, soaring wings of eagles. If through unbelief we begin to beat our wings and lose sight of Jesus, gaining what we think to be altitude, we are only giving ourselves heart attacks. I told Betty the story of the condor and asked, “Where do you think I will go with this story?” She responded, “For you, it can only go to one place: rest.” We laughed, but I acknowledged the fact. Rest in God will not make us tired or weary. Rest is not passivity but trusting in God’s activity. 

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory


Once again we come to an oft-quoted verse that seldom is lived. How many who go around quoting about “waiting on the LORD (God)” actually do any “waiting.” What they are really looking for is the last part of this verse. “Fly like an eagle, and conquer the world.” It doesn’t work that way.

God’s Way is to “wait on Him,” trusting in His activity while we wait. Well, amen.

Michael gives us seven definitive Truths in his last paragraph. Make note of them and enjoy the “wings” GOD gives you!

Oh, by the way, Michael points out one of ploys of our enemy: getting us to wrongly define words…like “finding.” Truth makes us free. Truth comes from correct definitions to start with. “Yea, hath God said?” Yes, we just need to get it correct.


To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com


Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Day 362 - Will Your Preaching Disqualify You?


Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength (Vol. 1) - # 345
         
Michael’s book is available through:

ABIDING LIFE MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL
Littleton, Colorado
(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  Why a blog?  So that many can receive these thoughts in an easy manner.  If you are not getting these weekly postings via an email, go to the website: www.leemccm.blogspot.com …in the top right corner there is a place to register to receive each post.


Grace and Law, the pair that never seem to be completely understood by most Christians, much less Unbelievers. Michael addresses the issue raised in Paul’s statement by giving exactly what Paul was always preaching, and what he most feared he would stop doing (and therefore “disqualify” himself, be a castaway).

Check out what Michael points to as God’s way of getting past any failure and moving forward…



DAY 362

Will Your Preaching Disqualify You?

But I keep charge of my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. --I Corinthians 9:27

This is a beautiful, love-filled, strong warning by Paul, whose concern is legitimate. The fear is simple, that we will preach one thing and then do another, and thus discredit our message. The common interpretation of that passage would lead one to believe that Paul was preaching law and judging his lack of hypocrisy by his ability to keep the law. He already mentioned in verse 20 that he was not himself under the Law. I would be willing to assert that most who preach on this passage use it to set a standard that they do not even reach, then draw the contrast between what the listeners do and what Paul did, leaving the audience bleeding on the ground as hopeless hypocrites. Just what was Paul mentioning that he did not want to go against? We do not want our standard to be different from his. Paul was preaching grace, love, mercy, hope, and, more than anything, a devotion to Jesus. I believe it is these things, being preached regularly, that he was afraid not to do and disqualify himself. Many preach grace, but then when they fail, they move farther away from Jesus. They have just disqualified themselves from the message they preach. When a Christian fails he must get up and move forward in the love of God. If he cannot, there is a big problem. In short, Christianity is different, much different, than religious legalism. 

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory



Grace and Law, the famous pair that most Christians see opposing each other. That is not what Jesus taught. He taught that He kept the law (Lived it), and He taught that He would give us His Life in our earthsuit to Live “as He Lived,” (His Grace). Except that most miss His teaching that it is Him, not us, doing the keeping.

Paul knew and understood Jesus’ teaching. Paul Lived it. Paul taught it. Paul was the number one believer and recipient of the Grace of God. Paul enjoyed Jesus’ Life more abundantly (re: John 10:10) than anyone else I see in Scripture. He preached Grace (Jesus’ Life) in us.

Grace is Christ Living His Life through us. Put that in any place grace appears in Scripture and see how the Word comes alive for you.



To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Living Life With a Capital “C” by logging onto www .leemccm.blogspot.com 

NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, Sidetracked In The Wilderness, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  You can access by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com


Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
P.O. Box 633244   Nacogdoches, TX 75963              936-559-5696