The High Calling of God

Ephesians 1:7-8 "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us…” NASB Lately I have been thinking a lot about the grace of God.   I am referring to an extravagant, expensive, costly grace- a grace that breaks chains, delivers from bondage and sets a person free from all the sinful works of the flesh. In the Church world- or should I say, “worldly Church”, you will hear a lot of talk about grace.   But it is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer often calls "cheap grace" in his book “The Cost of Discipleship" .   It is a counterfeit, a substitute, a fake type of grace that frustrates and is a reproach to Christ’s sacrificial death.   If one has every truly experienced the true grace afforded by God through Christ, you will never have a desire to cheapen or tarnish it with your own fleshly desires. True grace doesn’t allow us to live the way that we want.   It is NOT a ...

Jeremiah 6:16,17 “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths , where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen’” Isaiah 30:9-11 “That this is a rebellious people, lying children. Children who will not hear the law of the Lord; who say to the seers, ‘do not see,’ and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.   Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.’” I love reading the Christian Classics.   Those men and women really had a revelation and a walk with the Lord, more than what some of the modern authors have today.   They had spiritual depth: Tozer, Spurgeon, Bounds, Murray, Kempis, Brother Lawrence, Guyon and many more.   They may have had dif...

Revelation 4:1 “After these things, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven.   And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this.” My husband and I love to visit lighthouses.   We enjoy the history of lighthouses and then also the spiritual application to Christ as our lighthouse.   I most enjoy going to the top!   Usually, there are a number of steps to get there.   On   our latest visit to a lighthouse, I was most determined to make it to the top.   My husband chose not to venture up the tower.   Of course, most of the lighthouses that are open to visitors are out of commission, so the light and the lens are   not longer present.   But I wanted to go to the top to see what I could see.   I wanted a better view! After climbing 39 twisting, winding,  narrow stone steps, there was a metal ladde...