Living Daily By Grace

Is there anything harder than living daily by grace and finding that God's grace is sufficient for every issue, temptation and character flaw? Give me works any day and I can be pretty successful because all I need to do is fool you all and that is easy.

We have proven time and again that people love to be fooled by religious leaders. And, religious leaders find that the best way to be considered great is to fool people. As an old con man named P.T. Barnum once cracked, "There's a sucker born every minute." He made millions of dollars by following this adage at a time when a thousand was considered real money.

Modern religious leaders are racking up millions as well by acting like they have all the answers. With modern TV, radio, iPod and CD communications a million is just a drop in the bucket. Just take a look at the kinds of titles that really sell.

"Seven Steps to a Spiritual Breakthrough" and "The 25 Laws of a Leader". (Following the Ten Commandments is not enough to be a success!) I love the one that so many of my friends in Singapore bought, "The God Chasers!" Yep, God is elusive and must be sought out with hard work and following the correct 25 laws or we will be left out. God hides from us and comes out like the Groundhog only once a year and if He sees His shadow He scampers back into His hole until the next year.

What hucksterism! What nonsense! What drivel! But cons continually get away with such talks and writings. Why? Because we really believe we are saved or at least kept saved by our own good deeds. We are little better than Muslims and Buddhists in that regard. In fact, they are better off than we in some ways. At least they openly say it's works that give them eternal bliss. We claim to believe that we are "Saved by grace through faith and not by works lest anyone should be able to boast". (See Eph 2:)

For about six weeks I tried to teach about the power of God's grace to save, keep, deliver and heal. We had a wonderful time. Right in the middle of that series Rev. Ted Haggard had his "Thorn in the Flesh" come out into the open. Over a few days his attempts to live and grow by works rather than grace were exposed to the world. The response by many Christians was something on the order of, "He should have tried harder to do good works and reject temptation." We do love works and dislike grace.

In his open confession, Mr. Haggard admitted he had struggled to keep his thorn under control his entire adult life and he failed to get relief. If what we are doing works; do more of it. If what we are doing does not work; STOP and TRY SOMETHING ELSE!

Works do not work. Works do not heal. Works do no help us grow. Works do not deliver us from the flesh.

Go to my web page at www.garysweeten.com and read the Power Point slides for my class at the Vineyard. Then, read the posts called, Gary's Insights about Double Bind Theology of Works and how it kills rather than heals. I hope Mr. Haggard finds a minister who can help him discover grace and healing and leave his good works behind.

The same is true for the man who "outed" Haggard. He grew up in a conservative Christian home. There he found no relief for his sexual distortions and temptations so he rejected God and the church. If it does not work... May God draw him into a gracious relationship of love as well so he can find healing, peace and joy.