An excellent choice

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8)

Moral turpitude is a big way of saying a person exhibits behavior that is CONTRARY to the standards set forth by law, a community, or God. When someone has a problem with their behavior that is contrary to these standards, they're exhibiting behavior that may be vile, shameful or even corrupt. God's plan is for us to grow in his grace - to develop a moral standard that matches his standards. He took great pains to lay out those standards for us in scripture. Are we taking as great of pains to live according to those standards?

Moral excellence is possible, but one must submit to the inner working of the Spirit of God. So many times, often without even thinking, someone will say they have been 'trying' to live differently - to make better choices. What they are really saying is that they haven't really given the full control of their life over to Jesus and as a result, they continue to struggle with choices that are CONTRARY to God's commands. The command is to 'respond to' God's provision - because he provides all we need in order to live according to those standards.

The command is not to 'try' and 'try again' - it is to respond to his grace, lean into it, and trust him to finish the work he began in us when we said 'yes' to Jesus. God's grace requires a response - one lays down their agenda or plan for how things might 'work out' and listens, responds to, and delights in God's plan for how things WILL work out. Grace is embraced, not 'worked out' by a constant trial and error method. The moment we ask God for grace to face a temptation, what do you think he gives us? The strength to resist it, walk away from it, and embrace a different set of actions that align with his plan for our lives.

Moral excellence isn't a set of rules we must keep. It is a heart response to grace, embraced over and over again until our behavior no longer is motivated by what once drug us down into the pit of sin. It is a continual choice to allow grace to embrace those weaker areas of our lives until one day, sometimes without us even realizing it has happened, we are no longer struggling to resist those temptations. Just sayin!

Grace to take the next step

 Out of difficulties grow miracles. (Jean de la Bruyere)

We don’t want people to find anything wrong with our work. So, we do nothing that will be a problem to others. But in every way, we show that we are servants of God. We never give up, even though we face troubles, difficulties, and problems of every kind. We are beaten and thrown into prison. People get upset at us and fight against us. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. We show that we are God’s servants by our pure lives, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness. We show it by the Holy Spirit, by genuine love, by speaking the truth, and by depending on God’s power. This right way of living has prepared us to defend ourselves against every kind of attack. (2 Corinthians 6:3-7)

The followers of Christ are never guaranteed an 'easy path' - they are just guaranteed the presence of God with them on that path! We will face difficulties in life, but we have to choose how we will allow those difficulties to affect us - will they help us to grow, or defeat us right then and there? When we face life's issues with the attitude that 'in Christ's power and grace' we will never give up, it is quite different from facing it with "I WILL NEVER GIVE UP". One relies upon Christ in us, while the other leans heavily on our ability, talent, or perseverance. Only one of those will bring us through to the 'miracle'.

Live pure lives - making choices to serve Christ even when it is not easy. It might be easier to follow the crowd, but it won't produce the same results. It is in serving Christ, choosing his plans over our own or those of this world, that we actually become 'witnesses' of how his power and grace can bring us through even the most difficult of circumstances. I have come to realize we don't have to understand all God is doing in order to be obedient. We just need to choose the path least traveled, and we will 'grow into' that understanding. The path least traveled might require more 'moxie' than any other path afforded us today, but you can trust me on this one - it is the one that will produce the greatest reward!

God's power isn't always seen or felt, but we are assured it will be with us when we take steps toward obedience. We rely way too much upon what we can see or feel, making it harder for us to take steps of faith where they are needed. God's plan is to grow our faith - as we take the step forward. Faith isn't grown first and then we are obedient. It comes to maturity WITHIN obedience. Our understanding is expanded, our patience for the 'long haul' expands, and our hearts develop some kind of 'supernatural kindness' ON THE PATH. What happens is that our hearts, minds, and will are all learning to depend fully upon the power of God within us. As we move further and further away from what others may see as 'the way' into what God shows us as 'THE WAY', we will realize more and more of his power - the power that stems from grace - grace that helps us take each step of obedience. Just sayin!

Not what we are, but whose we are

Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. (Romans 12:3)

You will discover one of the most frequented topics in scripture is grace. Themes of justice, purity, and such things as undivided attention abound. Through all the themes in scripture, this thought of grace is interwoven. In justice (right conduct, moral decisions) we find grace - unmerited favor - for not all our conduct is right, nor are all our decisions solid in a moral sense. In purity or righteousness (the state of being good, honest, fair and right) we recognize the prominence of grace, for not all our thoughts will be good, words honest, actions fair, or behaviors right. God's grace is undeserved - but nothing is more needed in our lives than what grace brings and does within our hearts, minds, and souls.

With God's help, we can take our everyday (ordinary) lives and place it before him as an offering. Today, we don't understand the significance of being able to bring something to God as an offering. Offerings had very specific guidelines associated with them in all of the Old Testament worship. They were to be the first of the harvest, suggesting the most tender and desirous. They were to be the animals without spot or blemish, no flaws, suggesting the best which could have been used to gain the most profit or breed the next line. God wanted the best and the first. God wants our "ordinary" - not because it is our best or purest - but because if we present it as an offering, he will accept it as though it were!

We embrace what God does FOR us, not what it is we do for him. A tough one for us to actually "get" because we are all about associating someone's good actions toward us as a direct result of some good action on our part. Although God relishes our right or good actions, they are not what "qualifies" us, nor what gives us "right standing" before him. It is 100% his action on our behalf that makes us able to stand and "sanctifies" us (cleans us up). Embracing this sole fact can be the most important thing we do in our walk with Jesus - for it is there we find rest from "doing" things for ourselves and finally beginning to trust what has already been "done" for us!

We will be "transformed" or "renewed" - made to be something we are not naturally. From the "inside" to the "outside", we are made new. Not because of any goodness on our part, or work we perform, but because of his grace extended and his grace embraced. We live "IN" pure grace - undeserved favor and forgiveness. What we choose to live "IN" determines a lot about "HOW" we will live out our day. If we consistently live in filth, we cannot help but carry that filth out into the world with us. Live in trust and you find yourself taking steps you'd not previously thought possible. Live in hope and you find you are not bound by what others say is impossible. Live in freedom and you find you rise above the habits and "pulls" which once had you bound.

I hear people say, "I wish I could figure out why I am this way", meaning they don't understand why it is they do something, or respond a certain way. I think God may want us to understand something quite different, though. It is not so much who WE are, but who HE is and what HE has done FOR us and is doing IN us. It isn't about what WE are! WE are not ever going to get things right all the time - but with God's help (him living IN us, doing FOR us what we cannot do for ourselves), we can get one step closer each day to living as we are called to live. So many times, we focus on what WE are, do, have, need - God asks us to redirect our focus toward him. When we make this change of focus, grace is able to bring us from where we are into where he designed for us to be.

Grace embraced is what makes for life-change. Pure and simple - God IN us means we don't DO for ourselves what he has already DONE FOR US. Just sayin!