Grace and Conviction

So last night I was talking to my friend Hayley about 'The perfect type of love' which turned into a conversation about Grace and Conviction, and the more we spoke the more i realised that so many of us have different viewpoints on what Christianity is to us and what it consists of. The more heated our conversation became the more Grace and Conviction and how the Holy Spirit is a part of it stood out to me. So what are the definitions of Grace and Conviction?

Oxford Dictionary

Grace: (in Christian belief) the free and unmerited favour of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

A divinely given talent or blessing: the graces of the Holy Spirit

The condition or fact of being favoured by someone: he fell from grace because of drug use at the Olympics

Conviction: A formal declaration by the verdict of a jury or the decision of a judge in a court of law that someone is guilty of a criminal offence: she had a previous conviction for a similar offence

 A firmly held belief or opinion: she takes pride in stating her political convictions

Now Hayley's view was that we once Jesus died on the cross for us and gave us eternal life, we cannot be convicted?

So I asked her this: "K, so give me your opinion on conviction"

Hayley’s Answer: hmmm... as humans, we are imperfect, as soon as Adam and Eve ate from the fruit it became a broken world and sin was inevitable. It’s impossible to not sin. So, think of it like this, God is Daddy and we are the little children. He says we must do something, and it’s impossible for us to do, he doesn’t get mad at us, or disappointed, it’s like asking a baby to write... they can’t. Because you see that what they are asking is impossible. God put the Ten Commandments in place to show how no one can compare to Jesus.

I asked “Do you believe you can be convicted?"

Hayley: "God doesn’t convict, daddy wouldn’t tell the kid that he/she's bad because he knows that it is impossible for us. He helps us to learn how to be better people; he doesn’t guilt us into trying of our own accord only to fail again"

So basically my understanding of what she is saying is that, God wont makes us convict us to only see us fail again.

I asked “what is your opinion on grace?"

Hayley "Grace... well Gods forgiven us of all our sins. He became our sins while on the cross. Every sin we've ever committed has been forgiven and forgotten, even if we haven’t committed that sin yet. I guess grace is just the pure forgiveness and love of God... i can’t put it into words really well though! "

So now that you've heard her opinion on Conviction and Grace, here is mine.

What does grace mean? What is grace? Well...

THE HOLY SPIRIT'S PART IN GRACE AND CONVICTION

There are two types of grace that we want to think about. We will look at common grace first and then efficacious grace.

Common grace:

Is that grace which God extends to all of us throughout our lives and conditions? This is the grace which brings the seasons, the rains, the sunshine and the revelation of God within nature. This is seen in Ps. 145:9, "The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works" There are other verses as well, Matt. 5:45, Luke 6:35, Acts 14:17, and Rom. 1:19-20

Simply meaning, being able to survive 'the end of the world' and seeing the next day is God’s grace, instead of God saying, ' you choose to believe in something other than what my scripture says, but i still allow you to live'

EFFICACIOUS GRACE

Efficacious grace is that product that we fail to realize many times in our witnessing. It is the grace that extends from God to allow the person to believe and accept the Lord.

Efficacious grace might also show up in some books as effective grace. It is grace that is effective in bringing the lost to God. Efficacious means: ".....having the power to produce a desired effect....." Efficacious grace then, is grace that is able to produce the desired effect, that effect being, the drawing of us to God. You see i believe that this type of Grace is a Grace that moves us towards trying to be more Christ like as we move along in life and on our walk with Christ.

Which brings me onto Conviction?

CONVICTION

Bushwell mentions, "Jesus promised, 'When He [the Spirit of Truth] is come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment' (John 16:8). This was Jesus' promise as He told of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The world of our day is strangely unconvinced, unconvinced, and unconcerned; yet where Spirit-filled men faithfully present the Spirit-inspired Word of God, conviction of sin comes. The great need of the world today is for consecrated channels for the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. Only so can there be a genuine turning to the Lord and acceptance of the Gospel." (Bushwell, James Oliver; "A SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION")

Bushwell submits that the Romans one revelation of God is accepted or rejected. The revelation being the common grace and the acceptance of it the first step in what he calls "effectual calling". His effectual calling would be what we have established as efficacious grace.

Lost man not only is guilty, but the Holy Spirit will convict him of his error.

And that is why i believe Grace, Conviction and the Holy Spirit go hand in hand.

I hope it all made sense :)

please feel free to email me on any questions so we can discuss this or leave a comment... SERIOUSLY :|

 
 
 
 

Its ok

So I thought that I’d tackle depression as I noticed it’s one of those things that it leads some away from God and really effects people in negative ways (DUH) ha ha. It also makes people ask questions about God and sometimes those questions aren't answered, which create doubt in our lives.

So let’s start with the causes of depression:

Genetics. Genetics play an important part in depression. It can run in families for generations. 

Trauma and stress. Financial, Social, or even environmental problems, the breakup of a relationship, or the death of a loved one can cause depression. 

Physical conditions. Serious medical conditions like heart disease, cancer, and HIV can contribute to depression, partly because of the physical weakness and stress they bring on. 

Psychological disorders. Anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and (especially) substance abuse often appear along with depression

Now sometime in our lives I’m sure we have felt those feelings or experienced those causes, so let’s talk about how to tackle those situations from a biblical view.

Now depression like any other sickness or diseases as mentioned in the Bible is curable. We believe what the doctors are doing is correct and you need to follow their advice. However, we do believe that Jesus Christ is also a GREAT PHYSICIAN. He is able to cure you of depression and set you free in His powerful name, Amen

David now for instance went through great depression, there was a moment where David had lost everything but even though all that had happened he found the strength to encourage himself through Christ I know that it would be hard to self encourage yourself but its something that you would have to-do sometime in your life.

Now I understand that this will be hard, but we cannot base our lives on emotions, Christian’s base life on truth, not feelings. Philippians 4:1 commands us to rejoice (whether we feel like it or not!). And James 1:2 asks us to “Consider it all joy when we fall into various trials.” Notice that James doesn't tell us to feel joyful; he tells us to reckon, to choose to think about your situation as a spot where you can have joy.

Faith

Choosing to trust truth rather than your feelings may require a lot of faith. And if that is what we mean by asking if faith can solve depression, then faith may be enough in some cases. Trusting what God says rather than your feelings is certainly a more realistic approach to life!

Take Gods advice

many of us ignore Gods principals on how to live a healthy life, if we take the good advice and apply it to our lives as we should be doing we will be able to handle stress a lot better and even get rid of it.

Chemical Imbalances

Some cases of depression may be caused by chemical imbalances. If that is the cause, then antidepressant drugs may be the answer. I know that God has aloud man kind to study medicine and further it, God has healed many people through medicine and I do not know of any scripture that says we are not aloud to use medication to help with problems i.e. depression.

Root causes

Some of us completely let little things just fly over our heads and go straight to the big things. some of us have unresolved issues with our friends or family which might be small but takes a huge toll on us, we need to talk to someone about those issues and address them, the bible does say that when we openly talk to someone about an issue and bring it into the light it is easier to deal with it.

Here is some encouragement

 Jeremiah 30:17 “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds declares the LORD.” So be it, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

I know for a fact in my heart that our God is a healer, deliver, father, and compassionate person and so much more, dont let depression bring doubt into your life. You are the son of the King of ALL Kings. Your prayers might not be answered straight away but im telling you now it takes a hang of a lot of patients.

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dress code 101

so how does the way we dress on stage affect lives of other people around us, watching us or looking up to us?

We are worshippers, what we wear reflects our hearts towards what we love most. If we are wearing clothing that distracts away from God, then we are not on the stage to honor God, more to attract attention to ourselves.

Think about how society has changed and what is now accepted as normal in the last 50 years 

Your behavior sets the tone for how others see you and your faith. 

One issue many non-Christians have with believers is that they tend to be hypocritical. If you are preaching about purity and modesty to others while wearing revealing clothes you may be seen as a hypocrite. By being modest you allow people to see your inner faith rather than your outer appearance.

 1 Peter 3:3~4 A Christian should wear what is appropriate and stylish for any given occasion, with proper modesty; God will look on the heart of such a woman with approval.

Guidelines 

1) Show the difference in men to woman clothing

Duet. 22:5 A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the LORD your God 

Apparel should indicate the sex of the person; men and women are to honor God in who He created us to be 

2) Consider the effect our clothing has on our influence 

Matt. 5:14~16 A Christian is to be salt and light in this world. 

The way that you dress is an important part of your testimony. The way that you and other people dress is an indication of your character and spiritual maturity. Your dress code should conform to the rules of the bible, modesty, non-conformed to the dress code rules of the world and show humility and simplicity. And this does not apply to how your friends or family will see you but how God will see you...our aim is to be modest towards God.

We should be setting examples in our churches, schools and work places with how we dress. Clothes should not be exposing body parts that normally attract people of the opposite sex. If you have certain rules to abide to like at the work place or school you should obey them e.g. being well shaved, hair tied up or well cut, we should not look sloppy and unseat like we climb out of the jungle every morning. In general your appearance should not bring down the name of the lord.

3) make sure your clothing doesn’t offend anyone.

The world is not interested in following the word so therefore a Christian should not be interested in following the world and its "word". The unbelievers and some Christians prefer to wear clothes that attract attention to themselves or their bodies.

Take this for example, a man is meant to guard his mind from lustful images and a woman is meant to help prevent these images from entering his mind or the lustful stare. lust is part of a mans life, it is expected but if a woman wears clothing that is lustful and attractive towards men then she is also guilty for lust.

Improper dress should not be a problem, but then again so shouldn’t allot of things be. But ill tell you this, a man that is reborn again should take delight in following the word of God.

Rom. 14:21 it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak 

Matt 5:28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

Rom. 14:23 says, “But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin - teaches that if someone has doubts about something, even if it is lawful they sin if they do it because they go against their conscience.

4) Be sure our clothing is modest in God's sight

 When Adam and eve had sinned they were ashamed of their nakedness and had decided to cover themselves with their hands, but they were still ashamed and God was not happy with their "dress" so he sacrificed an animal and made clothes for them to wear.

Gen. 3:21 "Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them" 

Here we are reminded that the purpose of clothes is to cover up and not reveal ourselves.

Now I’ll leave you with this last question 

Are you buying the outfit to attract the opposite sex and draw attention to you?

One way to tell if an outfit is modest is to ask yourself why you are buying it 
Remember; it is not Christian like to tempt others through your dress.
It is not a sin to like nice clothes, but it is a sin when the desire for fashion becomes more important than your faith.

Excellence

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

What does it mean to pursue excellence in everything that we do? What does it mean to do things to the best of your ability to glorify God? Most of the time when we have an urge to pursue excellence at something we tend to do it to better ourselves, or maybe impress others or maybe see how good we can become at a task? So what does it mean to be excellent? What is God trying to say to us by telling us to be excellent?

What is excellence? We must first understand the word before we can apply it to our lives or speaking about the excellence we must have in our work.  We must have a working definition of excellence in a way that God defines it.

 In 2 Peter 1:3 we will read a catch phrase that says God has called us to His glory and His excellence. This kind of excellence is the excellence of God’s character or His moral perfection. We are called to be moral perfect.  There is no greater question than this.  How can we be excellent in God’s sight? God desires us to mirror His excellence. We must be imitators of God.

Eph 5:1-Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children

  Being like Him is our goal as Christian in our walk with Jesus.  So being excellent before Him would mean being perfect like Him?  It is a mirroring of His attributes and character.

Excellence inspires people.

When Solomon built God's temple with excellence, he wanted to attract people to his God.  He wanted their hearts to skip a beat.  He wanted them to do a cartwheel and go crazy .  He wanted them to taste something of God's greatness and excellence.

when it comes to the church, non-Christians have a whole different idea on how things are done in the church, they   have a completely different idea to what we know, some might think that we are lazy and have things handed to us on a silver platter e.g (salvation might give that idea) But when we value excellence, as Solomon did, it makes a statement about the kind of God we worship.  It makes a statement about the commitment we have to our excellent God. it shows that we care how things are ran and that we pursue excellence and that we are hardworking, that is one of our Gods attributes, so therefore it shows what we aspire to be which inspires.

The pursuit of excellence should be 27/8

Many people will do a job to the best of their ability but then when is come to us having to do another job on top of that job that you have worked so hard you just give up and work in a messy fashion or play your guitar in a lazy fashion. God demands our full attention no matter where we are or how busy we are, we are talking about the god who put the stars in the sky and the hairs on you legs, he deserves all the attention we can possible give.

God demands excellence in worship

God had demanded excellence in the Israelites worship

And so in Malachi, God responds in different ways.  First, in Malachi 1:6 (NIV), God quizzes them. "Am I not worthy of excellence?"  In this passage God says, "A son honors his father, and a servant his master.  If I am a father, where is the honor due me?  If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" 

Second, in Malachi 1:8 (NIV), God basically tells them straight out "No one wants your rubbish.  Try giving your rubbish to anyone and see what they say!"  The verse reads, "When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong?  When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?  Try offering them to your governor!  Would he be pleased with you?  Would he accept you?" 

Third, in Malachi 1:10 (NIV), God pleads with them.  "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar!  I am not pleased with you."  God is saying,  "You might as well have stayed at home rather than coming here to offer me anything short of your very best.  I'm not a donation box, I deserve more than your hand me downs!"

Lastly, in Malachi 1:14 (NIV), God says a curse.  "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord.  For I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations."

Excellence honors God.  Our very best honors God.  "Good enough" is just not good enough when it comes to glorifying God.  Excellence honors God, but excellence does something else as well.

so ill leave you with this...do you choose to honor our king of all kings, father to all fathers or Simply our God with only "good enough" or do you choose to honor our God with excellence? To work to glorify his great name with EVERYTHING you have inside of you?

purpose driven worship: God first

What is our purpose as worship leaders? Because all of us are leading in some way or another in their worship walk with God. We need to know what our purpose is before we go on stage, before we minister with each other.

Romans 14

• Our relationships with God need to be our first and most important priority.
• Give
• Ourselves
• Daily

• 1 john 5:1-4                

 ¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. ²This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. ³This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, ⁴for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith

• Gal 2:19-21

¹⁹For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.²⁰I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

When a person accepts Christ as their personal Savior, the life that they once lived is a thing of the past. The Holy Spirit lives within a person after being saved, and leads and guides a person in the right direction.  when this happens you are no longer your own, you are bought with a price and redeemed and set free from the bondage of sin. If we listen to the holy spirit in us, we will place ourself aside and put God first in our lives. 
A Christian is meant to put the desire to put God first in their lives, but there are times that we fail which results in a broken fellowship between you and God. When we do not put God first in our lives, we leave our lives wide open for things of the world that can lead us down paths that we do not need to go. Sometimes we are tempted by evil things of the world, and if we are not in fellowship with God, and he is not our top priority, then our weak human nature takes over and before we know it we are in over our heads in some situation that only God can get us out of. At this time God becomes first priority because we know in our hearts that He is the only one that can make things right. 
There are several things that enable us to put God first in our lives. Prayer is the basic key that will open our hearts and minds to the will of God for our lives. Bible study and worship are also essential in putting God first. If we are praying on a daily basis and reading the bible, our desires become nothing less that putting God first in everything that we do.