This day—this very moment—millions are living their lives in shame, fear, and intimidation who should be free, productive individuals. The tragedy is they think it is the way they should be. They have never known the truth that could set them free. They are victimized, existing as if living on death row instead of enjoying the beauty and fresh air of the abundant life Christ modeled and made possible for all of His followers to claim. Unfortunately, most don’t have a clue as to what they are missing.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Grace
My Grace Awakening – How God Made My Marriage Bloom
When I wrote The Grace Awakening almost 30 years ago, I couldn’t have imagined the book’s widespread impact. People still write to tell me how it changed their lives and even their marriages. Little do they know that, in part, the book originated from my own “grace awakening.” This June, Cynthia and I will be […]
Read MoreHow Could It Be?
Whoever is soft on depravity should see Schindler’s List. It’s not for the fainthearted, I warn you. It is a raw, harsh, shocking exposé of unbridled prejudice, the kind of anti-Semitic prejudice spawned in hellish hate among the Nazis prior to and during World War II.
Read MoreGrace: God’s Masterplan for You . . . God’s Masterplan for All
There’s one Sunday from the 1970s that I’ll never forget. I had just finished preaching in Fullerton, California, when my friend and radio expert, Al Sanders, came to me and said, “Chuck, this ought to be on the radio.” I responded, “What ought to be on the radio?” Being heard anywhere other than the pulpit […]
Read MoreWhat Do You Look For?
Noise can distract us from the voice of the Spirit, but God often speaks in the silence. In a rare moment recently, my house was quiet. So I chose to sit and carefully observe the room I was in, and a number of emotions flooded my soul. My daughter’s art supplies rested by her canvas […]
Read MoreThe Risk in Grace
You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12 NLT) Is grace risky? You bet your life it is. I am well aware that this issue of grace is indeed […]
Read MorePharisaism
Jesus opened a five-gallon can of worms the day He preached His Sermon on the Mount. There wasn’t a Pharisee within gunshot range who wouldn’t have given his last denarius to see Him strung up by sundown. Did they hate Him! They hated Him because He refused to let them get away with their phony […]
Read MoreFour Antilegalistic Strategies
Galatians 5:1 NLT Grace killers cannot be mildly ignored or kindly tolerated. You can no more allow legalism to continue than you could permit a rattlesnake to slip into your house and hide. Before long, somebody is going to get hurt. So then, since liberty is worth fighting for, how do we do it? Where […]
Read MoreDefining Liberty
Without becoming needlessly academic, I want to define a term that I’ve been tossing around. What do I mean when I declare that the Christian has liberty? Essentially, liberty is freedom . . . freedom from something and freedom to do something. Liberty is freedom from slavery or bondage. It is initially freedom from sin’s […]
Read MoreIt’s Time to Embrace Grace by Embracing the Unlovely
Is horizontal grace missing in your life? You may have embraced God’s vertical grace to you, but missed its all-important connection in your relationships. Allow me to probe under your skin with a few penetrating questions. Do you free people, or do you hold them hostage? Do you relieve them of guilt and shame, or […]
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