Seeing Grace

Since the beginning of time the devil has been in the sales business and he has been pretty successful at it. To get a glimpse of his tactics we have to go back to where his career began. In Genesis 3:1-5 we read “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from [a]any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (NASB) I want to draw your attention to 5 words the enemy used then and is still using today… DID GOD ACTUALLY SAY THAT? The devil as we know is not creative but he is very crafty. The deceptive tactic he uses is one of confusion. He knows he cannot steal our salvation (although many believe and are taught they can lose it) so he goes to his default setting of attempting to confuse as he did with Adam & Eve. Notice he says in verse 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” He was convincing them that they must DO something (eat the fruit) in order to BECOME like God. Is it any different today? Many believers are still falling for the lie of you must perform in order to become. Unfortunately it is widely taught either by the spoken word or is implied that we are saved by grace but perfected by performance. And we wonder why so many people are confused and want nothing to do with Christianity. It is taught that salvation is a gift and cannot be earned. This part we have right. Then we turn right around and say now you must “pay God back” for what He did for you. I believed this lie for years and it brought me so much frustration and lead to eventually burning out. One day the light bulb went off and I discovered that a gift cannot be earned. How insulting if after receiving a gift for your birthday you then tell the person who gave you the gift “ thank you so much now how much will I have to pay you back”? Doesn’t that look a lot like how we approach our relationship with Christ? It’s either a gift or a wage, and God does not hand out wages!

Now to get back to the point (sorry I went off on a rabbit trail) the enemy is still saying “Did God REALLY say THAT?? For example in 1 John 4:17 we read an almost unbelievable statement that says “as He is so are we in this world”. The thought the devil would like you to think is “ Did God really say you are like Him? That can’t be true because your behavior today and this last week looks nothing like Him’. One secret I will let you in on is the devil will never say “you are dirty or unholy, or whatever. He will convince you to say to yourself “I am dirty and unholy.” See the difference? This is where the back and forth in and out of fellowship mindset comes from. Also, a lot of teaching out there will lead you to believe that “one day you will be like Him if you obey perfectly, and confess every sin you ever commit so you can stay in fellowship”. Once you get to heaven THEN you will be like Him. Here is a truth for you to meditate on…everything you will be THERE you already are HERE!! God is not going to do a last minute polish before you go to heaven. What is true there is true here NOW!! You are not waiting to be sanctified there, you are fully sanctified here (Hebrews 10:14) You are SEATED WITH CHRIST in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) Here are some more unbelievable truths that are actually in the Bible! See if you can see why the enemy would TRY and say to you ” Did God REALLY say THAT?”

John 3:17-18- For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged ; he who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Colossians 2:9-10- For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.

1 Peter 3:18- For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.

Let me end with this. Remember the game many of us played as kids where we sat in a circle and one of us was given a sentence or phrase? We would then say it to the next person and it would travel all the way back to the original person? What was originally said sounded nothing like the original statement! This is exactly what has ben going on for centuries, and it continues today when it comes to the gospel. Rather than saying something or teaching something that sounds like the gospel, why don’t we just go back and read the ACTUAL words of Christ and the apostles. Be encouraged today that WHO you ARE in Christ is REALLY true RIGHT NOW!!!

Jeff Fitzgerald

Jesus said that all of scripture speaks of Him in some way. The way to read the Old Testament scriptures so that they are life to you is to look for Jesus in the scriptures like He taught us to do. We read the scriptures not to find laws or rules to keep but to find another picture of Jesus that our faith in Him might be strengthened! (Luke 24:44-45)

The riddle of Samson (Judges 14:2-3) is an awesome picture of Jesus and His work in bringing righteousness to mankind through faith. The gift that was given to those who could solve the riddle were wedding garments for Samson’s wedding, a picture of the robes of righteousness which every believer receives when they believe on Jesus for the forgiveness of all sin.

Yes, the wedding gift for solving the riddle is the garment of righteousness!

But what is the answer to the riddle: Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet? In the story of Samson the answer in natural terms was: “Honey coming from the body of a dead lion.” What is stronger than a lion? What is sweeter than honey? They answered Samson with these words after finding the answer only from being told the answer (it must be revealed because it cannot be discovered otherwise).

In the spiritual I believe we can see the mystery or riddle of Christ in this story. Honey seems to speak of “mercy” in the scripture so what is the opposite of mercy? Justice! I say “opposite” because the heart of the riddle, which makes it a riddle, is that something completely opposite and unexpected happens. The eater, the lion, should have eaten and devoured Samson, but Samson ends up eating something
from within the dead lion, something “hidden” from plain sight: honey. Out of the eater, something to eat!

I see Samson as a type of Christ. His strength is a picture of the perfect righteousness of God. Only Christ could have faced the justice and wrath of God for us in the epoch battle which culminated in the cross. (I say “culminated” because the battle was on the moment He entered earth’s atmosphere on that night in Bethlehem.) We would have been eaten alive by the wrath of God (like a lion devouring his prey) because of His holiness, but His love for us and burning desire to be with us caused Him to take the wrath due us.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah was stronger than the lion of God’s justice and He prevailed because it was God Himself settling the score and declaring that He Himself is enough! So now out of the justice of God a strange thing is found, a riddle unfolds, and because of Samson (Christ and Him crucified), honey or mercy is given. That which would have eaten us (justice) has given us something to eat (mercy) because of Samson’s work, because of the finished work of Christ. And from the “strong” and unapproachable and unrelenting (justice) comes something “sweet” and approachable and and also unrelenting (mercy).

Behold the riddle of Christ and receive your wedding garments, your robes of righteousness, for the King has paid a great price for them and for you, and He is determined to have a party!

- James Barron

“And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He said unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him” – Matthew 9:9

To “follow” means to come or go after, move behind in the same direction: to come or go with; to accept the guidance or leadership of; to adhere to the cause or principles of; to be governed by; obey; comply with (John 10:27-29, Romans 10:9-10,13).

When a person first comes to Jesus, it is impossible to know everything that following Jesus entails. No one, however, should be fearful of making a total commitment to Him because of some imagined problem that may never come to pass. There should be a willingness to forsake everything to follow Jesus. Once we make that decision, then Christ Jesus begins to live through us and we find a strength that is not our own, and is equal to whatever test we may encounter Galatians 2:20).

It is Christ Jesus living through us that is the secret of victorious Christian living. It is not us living for Jesus, but Jesus living through us. Failure to understand this simple truth is at the root of all legalism and the performance mentality. The law focuses on the outer man and tells it what it must do. Grace focuses on the inner man and tells it what is already done through Christ Jesus. Those who are focused on what they must do are under the law. Those who are focused on what Christ Jesus has done for them are walking under grace.

Just as the life of a root is found in the soil, or a branch in the vine, or a fish in the sea; the believer’s true life is found in union with Christ Jesus. The Christian life is not just hard to live; it’s impossible in our human strength. The only way to walk in victory is to let Jesus live through you.

God loves you ! There is nothing you can do about that. Talk to Him today, He’d love to hear from you. You are an important part of God’s plan.

Brother Coop
Right Time—Right Place Ministries

THE SOUND OF GRACE
By: James Schulze

“Do you hear that horrible sound? What is that? The grinding, shrieking, and squeaking rumble seems to be getting louder and louder by the minute. What a terrible noise! WHAT ON EARTH IS IT?”

Well the truth is, it’s possible that not everyone reading this may hear this hideous shrill sound, because it’s only heard with spiritual ears. But if you have heard it or you are hearing it, you probably already know what it is. It’s actually something we’ve been hearing for quite a while, yet it seems to be being magnified at this moment in time. It is a very harsh noise! It penetrates your soul! When you hear it, you can tell that it is something massive and mechanical, and yet it is also very human. If you listen closely you can actually distinguish individual voices that make up the collective clatter.

When you separate the sounds, you can hear a pastor and his wife who cannot handle the thought of one more day in ministry. You quiet yourself further and hear the screams of a believer who is drowning in condemnation. He is seemingly surrounded by and even being attacked by the constant reminder of his sins. Sins, that he was once promised, were buried in the deepest parts of this sea and never to be remembered. The hum is becoming deafening now. You can hardly stand to listen for another second. Just as you’re reaching up to cover your ears, suddenly the clamor dies down and settles to an almost tolerable level. You listen yet again, desperate to understand the abrupt change that just took place, yet all you hear above the sound of the original rumble is a soft whisper saying, “Grace to you.”

What I’ve just described to you is what God showed me a few mornings ago while in prayer. That morning I was talking to the Lord about how I could not understand how the church has missed this incredible message of grace for so long, and the “fallout” that has taken place as a result of it. As so many others that have come to the knowledge of this grace, I have my own story. And I know how costly the absence of the “message of grace” is in the life of a believer. I (could personally) remember sitting behind my beautiful desk in a lush office, flooded with ministry opportunities, but I was constantly frustrated with the religious message I had been “programmed” with. Something inside of me was saying, “There’s absolutely no way that we are preaching the same message that Paul preached.” I knew intuitively and understood that the sound I was hearing was the sound of the religious machine grinding its gears and wounding the Saints.
What I didn’t know was what the Holy Spirit said to me next. He said, “James, what’s happened in religion is this. Instead of trusting in the simplicity of Jesus Christ and making grace the centerpiece and power source of life, men have used grace instead as a lubricant to oil their religious machines.” I asked Him what He meant. He said, “These religious machines always break down and wear out. So whenever that happens and whenever their systems, principles, patterns, and programs don’t do the job, THEN they apply some grace in order to keep things functioning. And in a sense it has, and does, because even a little bit of grace is incredibly powerful. Tragically and typically My grace is used to manipulate things in the direction already chosen by the system.”

This immediately made perfect sense to me and settled some things in my own spirit. Recently I have noticed a spike in interest regarding the subject of grace, everywhere. It has become an extremely popular subject in churches. Grace is the “buzz-word” post 2010. Pastors everywhere are doing Sunday Schools and series on it. I have also noticed, however, that hardly anyone is actually preaching on “the finished work of Christ” with any real revelation, boldness, or impact. The potential for the transforming power of grace in the life of the believer is not being actualized. Everyone wants to say they have grace, that they believe in grace, and that they are preaching grace; but having come to a revelation of grace myself, I know that when it comes in its pure form, it leaves no stone unturned in your faith. It changes everything!

All of this brings the question, with all of the buzz—why is there no massive change or shift in the church at large? The answer is simple. Religionists have looked at the huge storage towers of heaven, filled to the brim with God’s amazing grace, which is ready to fuel the lives of believers here on earth. Then instead of connecting the church to these unending resources, they’ve grabbed a few gallons of grace and used the “oil of joy” to lubricate their own failing operating systems. No Christian group has ever been able to survive with a total lack of grace. Therefore every movement in history has believed in and instituted this truth to some measure, for without it they would be terminal. But few have seen the sufficiency of it and sadly the church for centuries has not fully believed what the Lord said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

I had the opportunity to share what I believed the Lord had taught me with James Barron. He completely agreed and said it back to me in these words- “It seems that many preachers talk about grace but it’s really just lip service. I never thought about it that way but you heard from the Master correctly. Grace is being used merely as a lubricant to keep their legalistic machines running instead of seeing grace as the source of power! I love it! Their religious machines only produce a form of godliness while they deny the very source of power of godliness which is the grace of God in Jesus!”

Grace is enough! Grace is the whisper that overpowers the screams. Grace is the oil dripped upon the religious machines that does keep them going and doing some good in the earth. Can we just imagine if they ever got the revelation that what they had been using as a lubricant was actually the fuel and that the church is an organism fueled by God’s gracious Spirit and not a man-powered machine? Oh Lord, let that revelation come; the revelation of your grace and the revelation of your Holy Spirit of promise! Amen!

Dear James,

I am from Singapore and have been listening to your messages since August 2010
which you articulate week after week has given me a greater understanding on the
finished work of Christ and the Perfect Rest from Him.

I knew Jesus in my late teens, knew He died for me and my sins forgiven, received
Him, was filled with so much love for Him in the initial years but got caught up with
many teachings that I have to be Holy and be Perfect as my Heavenly Father is.
The Old Testament then to me was always showing me a fiery and angry God who
consumed His people whenever they disobeyed. It was too scary for me. My mum
then was also an idol worshipper and coming from a traditional Chinese family I also
faced a lot of family opposition. I grew in my job through the rank and file and soon
my career just became the major priority of my life and became a workaholic with
very long hours of deadline. However the beginning years with Jesus were sweet
wine and His life and presence was so strong as I saw His sustaining strength in
every area. I saw my prayers answered and I just had this intimacy with Him which
gradually became like the dry bones mentioned in Ezekiel. I guess the Lord saw that
despite how I feel towards Him, I knew He was the answer to all my needs and I
would continue to call on Him whenever I need help.

I went to church every Sunday routinely and continued for many, many years. In Sep
2000, a friend introduced me to attend New Creation Church where Ps Joseph Prince
was the Senior Pastor. I was pleasantly surprised when you mentioned Ps Joseph
Prince in your March 2009 messages. Ps Joseph Prince preached from the flow, no
written notes, when we worship, we were not reciting from printed notes and it was
simply awesome as He unveiled the loveliness of Jesus and that the angry God that I
saw was no longer angry because all the anger and judgment was at the Cross. I had
so much to relearn about my sin forgiven, praying in the Holy Spirit, worship, and my
righteousness in Christ Jesus. I kept hearing and listening to the message of Grace
and the Finished Work of Jesus and Jesus awesome goodness and beauty unveiled.

However, I still could not understand the old man, new man, flesh and Spirit and the
fight that we keep having with self. I know I am under grace and not under law but still
frustrated and hungry, I started to check on sermons from other Pastors for answers.
I found Gateway Church, listened to Ps Robert Morris and then to Ps Clark Whitten
from Gateway website. His message on “Why God does not live in a Dirty House” set
my heart on fire. I knew my body was the temple of the Holy Spirit but the awareness
of my union with Him was not a conscious awareness. I started to search for Ps Clark
messages to learn more and hit on Grace Orlando’s website in August 2010 and found
your teachings. I was awed with the 2008 message that we live in a parallel universe,
salvation is a Place, the Mansion to live in is now and not after I leave this body, the
invisible vs. the visible realm, awed with the union that we have with Christ, awed
with the power of sin that was quarantined in this body which is dead and the new
creation, awed to know that my God only judges the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.
(Romans 2:16). The Lord knew that these were messages that I needed to hear
because many of us understands Grace but only touched the tip of the iceberg of
Jesus awesome love, goodness and imparted righteousness but we still do not
understand the power of sin that is in this body, the new creation, the light that is
already in us. What man calls change on the outside is the manifestation of the light
inside, I had new revelation of Jesus light that shone out at Mount Transformation
which made His garments so white that no launderer on earth could make it

whiter..(Mark 9:3, Matt 17:2)…Jesus my light on the inside and clothed with His
righteousness had a new meaning and simply warmed my heart.

My mind was blown away when you expounded on the many sayings of Jesus, the
hidden mystery no longer a mystery now. Everything that Jesus said written in red
makes sense and I understand we were not married to law but married to the flesh
and held by it and the flesh stirred because of the law…..if we live in the Spirit, we
sin not…… the revelation of what Jesus did for me at the cross, the flaming (Blazing
Righteousness) sword that guarded the way to the Tree of Life (Gen 3:24) was the
sword that pieced through my inner man showed me why I still could not rest fully
despite hearing the message of Rest until I see the Union that I have with Him, one
with Him, connected to Him, the Tree of Life. As He is so I am. Connected to the
Vine, Connected to the Head…living through the Life of another living in me. When
I become impatient, it is not me and His light in me will continue to shine through
and as He is so I am. I am not changed gradually day by day but I in union with the
Spirit of Life, manifest Him more and more and His light in me gets brighter and
brighter.(your illustration of the 3 lamps was awesome). Now I ponder the visible
which reveals the invisible, renew my mind, see my new heart, my new mind, my new
soul. I am excited with life and enter His Rest every day.

I know my outward man is perishing but my inner man is renewed. I know I am in
Union with Him and His Life gives life to my mortal body. I see the realm I live in is the
truth, the reality that I live in the Spirit. I worship Him in the Spirit and in Truth I see
the invisible which is eternal and not the visible which is temporal, and why creation
groans for the revelation of the sons of God. All that is visible will pass away and
be dissolved but now we live in the invisible realm in Christ Jesus, we look for new
heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). Absent in the
body present with the Lord. (2 Cor 5:8)…His Mansion is here…and I live in Him, He in
me.

I thank Jesus that my mum once an idol worshipper is saved, so is sister and her
children and I continue to believe that they too will see the awesome work of the
finished work that we not only have a Savior who loves us but we are truly out of this
world one with Him. “In this world but not of this world… holy and perfect” He keeps
us and makes His face shines on us, the good Shepherd that always knows His
sheep.

Thanks James for being a blessing to me and to the many who will get to hear this
awesome gospel of His death, burial and resurrection that gives us Perfect Rest.
Many of the revelation that you articulate week after week, I keep listening and each
time I hear, I hear something fresh. It is the Spirit revealing the great and mighty
things that we know not of. This is reality, the t…ruth. Jesus finished work is perfectly
perfect, completely complete. I died, was buried and now raised from the dead in
Christ, a new creation created after true righteousness and holiness. The Tree of
Death that Jesus nailed Himself is the Tree of Life. It just blows my mind.

Shalom and Love from my union with Jesus who is my Life.

PS: (Can’t wait for Ps Clark’ Whitten’s book, Pure Grace, can we order now?)

(Name Withheld By Request)

As believers in Jesus we cannot and will not ever get over the amazing reality that we have been made one with Christ! Bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, His very body on earth and He our Head in heaven. As Paul wrote, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit!” United with Him as a branch on a vine, one.

Jesus prayed for this reality to come to pass as the day of His death was approaching, saying, “Father, as I am in you and you are in Me, as we are one, may they who believe on Me be placed in Me and I in them that they may also be one as we are one.” Jesus said that by virtue of the Holy Spirit coming inside of us that “the Father and the Son would make their abode within us.” John writes that “as He is so are we in this world.” As He is righteous, so are we righteous, with His righteousness as a gift. Truly an amazing reality. It is in essence “the truth that sets you free” once you see it.

Religious or legalistic people, both believers and unbelievers, have a hard time “seeing” this truth from the scripture because they are constantly remembering their sins. Under the law sins were to be remembered by design yearly, monthly and even daily, but under the New Covenant of grace sin is not remembered by God. As it is written, “In this New Covenant I will remember your sins no more and I will be merciful to all your iniquities.” In Christ we are no longer in our sins and no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit and in Him, our righteousness. In the New Covenant of grace God no longer counts our sins against us. He counts His righteousness for us. I must be one or the other. I cannot be both. It’s impossible to be established in grace and grow in an awareness of your union with Jesus if you are constantly seeing yourself in need of forgiveness and cleansing from your sins on a daily basis. I John 1:9 has got to be the most wrongly taught verse in all of scripture. But I’ll leave that discussion for another day.

Union with Christ is the true Sabbath rest. The Christian life is not about trying to get somewhere, rather it is all about awakening to what is now the reality in Christ. The believer is awakening to what is. We sit with Him in heavenly places. We rest with Him in heavenly places. His work is done. It is finished. We have been made one with Him and we can hardly take it all in.

- James Barron

Our union with Christ is an amazing reality, and the way in which God made it happen is also amazing. Paul writes that it was a secret not revealed to the sons of men how God would bring man into union with Himself until Christ came. Jesus said He would open His mouth and reveal things hidden since the foundation of the world. Paul called this secret “the mystery of Christ” in his letters to the saints. This is what we now know thanks to the revelation that was given to the apostles by Jesus and by the Spirit: God gathered all things into Christ so that He could destroy all things through the death of Christ on the cross and begin everything new again through the resurrection of Christ! That is why Paul tells us that we were crucified with Christ, buried with Him and raised from the dead, a new creation, in Him! Every person who ever lived or who ever will live was placed in Christ in the mind of God. In a great mystery, the origin of all men, Christ Himself, the Word, died for all men. As Paul writes, if One died for all then all are dead. The Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world so that all the world could be included in that death. On that dark day men saw with natural eyes a man on a cross, but God saw the judgment of the world! Jesus said as He approached the day of His death on the tree, “Now is the judgment of the world! Now is the prince of this world cast out!”

So our union with Christ predates our union with Christ? Sort of. God saw us as one with Christ before we believed in Christ so that He could judge us for all our sins, past, present and future, when Jesus died. He predestined all people to be adopted by Him, not because of their own goodness, but by being placed in the Son! All have been predestined through the Son to be the sons and daughters of God. Everyone! God is not willing that a single person perish, but that all should come to see and believe on the Son. The necessary requirement is that they only believe. We are not made righteous by a law of works, but by a law of faith, Paul writes! There is a law to obey, but it is the law of faith! Paul was sent to call the nations to the “obedience of faith” as he proclaimed the mystery of Christ to all people.

We are saved by pure grace, through faith! (Can’t wait for Clark’s book, “Pure Grace,” to be out there!) Jesus became sin for me that I might become the righteousness of God in Him. What a mystery! God saw me on the cross being judged for everything! Now when a person hears the good news of God’s complete forgiveness and believes on Jesus, the Spirit is then given to that person so that the believer is actually made one with Christ by a new creation. The new creation is awesome! New heart! New everything! In Christ, behold all things are now new! We wait only for the redemption of our body as our mind is being renewed every day to what now is in Christ.

What happens if someone does not believe? Then Christ died for that person in vain, the scripture teaches. The unbeliever will die in his sins and face the final judgment for all their sins because they did not pass through judgment for their sins on the cross in Christ and therefore could not be adopted by God. Jesus wept over Jerusalem saying, “I would have gathered you like a mother hen gathers her little chicks and protects them, but you would not.” He would, but they would not. God is love and true love is willing to be vulnerable. True love must allow another to choose to receive that love or not. He came to His own and many of His own did not receive Him. But to those who receive Him, to those are given the right to be called the sons and daughters of God!

Great is the mystery of our godliness! God gathered everything inside of Christ that He might destroy everything in judgment through the death of Christ on the cross so that He could begin a new creation that is without sin by the resurrection of Christ! For Daniel writes that when Messiah comes He will “make an end of sin, finish the transgression, reconcile all iniquity and bring in an everlasting righteousness!” Actual union with the Messiah is now the reality for the believer! As Paul joyously wrote, “It is of God that you are in Christ Jesus!” One!

- James Barron

I used to wonder why God had two thieves on either side of Jesus when He died on the cross. I wondered why the Father did not have just Jesus on that hill that day with no distractions from others around Him being crucified. One day I was reading the gospel of John at that part where John describes the crucifixion and John writes that the two thieves “were crucified with Him.” Immediately the Spirit brought to my mind the verse in Galatians where Paul writes that “we were crucified with Him.” Then I saw it. The two thieves “were crucified with Him” as a picture of what God was doing in the invisible to the entire human race. It was a picture of Christ dying for all men, even the unbelievers, for one believed and entered into actual union with Christ at His resurrection and lives forever, while the other did not believe and died in His sin, separated from God, even though Jesus died for him too. On one side of Jesus was the thief who believed and on the other side of Jesus was the thief that did not believe, but both “were crucified with Him” at the same moment in order to teach us that the Father gave the Son for the whole world!

We are all thieves. We have all robbed God of His glory by going our own way and the iniquity of us all was laid on Jesus! As John writes, “He died not for our sins only (the believer), but also for the sins of the whole world (the unbeliever too)!” For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life! His love knows no limits and neither does His finished work on the cross! As Jesus said, “If I be lifted up (on the cross) between heaven and earth, I will draw ALL men to Me!”

- James Barron

It happened suddenly. In the night while we were watching over our sheep. Out in the fields and under the stars. Suddenly an angel appeared and stood before us! A mysterious, glorious light seemed to surround us, lighting the grass and rocks around us like it was day. The light was so bright we could not see the stars in the night sky. It was as if another realm had opened up to us. A realm where there was no night. We were afraid. We had never seen anything like this before. But then the angel spoke! His voice crystal clear and strong, he said to us: “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!” Born for you? Born for us? Those words seemed to explode inside all of us that night. A Savior born for me?

Then it happened again! Suddenly! But this time on a grander scale! Suddenly there appeared behind the one angel thousands of angels! The light intensified and spread even further around us under the power of the glow. We lifted up our eyes and as far as we could see there were rows and rows of angels stretching up into the sky and on both sides of us! It was like we were looking through a door, a portal, to another world! In one powerful voice they all sang a song! They sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased!” Then they all slowly faded out of sight and the darkness of night was once again around us. But this time the stars seemed different. This time the darkness did not seem so dark. This time we were not afraid! We fell to the ground shouting, laughing, stunned! A Savior for us? God is pleased with us? What does this mean? The angel told us where we would find Him. The newborn. We raced down the hill like kids playing a game. And not far from the fields we found Him. In a manger, a feeding trough, wrapped in cloths, just as the angel said. Joseph and Mary looked up at us puzzled. We just knelt. And we cried. We were not even sure why we were crying. The joy we felt was almost too much to bear. Joseph and Mary seemed to understand. A Savior was born for us. For us. The world would never be the same again. Our world would never be the same again.

What those shepherds experienced that night would forever change thier lives and even the world around them. God had come. Emmanuel. This One. This Son would be given for us. God loved the world so much that He gave us His only begotten Son. It would be this One who would take away the sin of the world. This One would remove the only thing that keeps God and men apart. He would not just cover sin. This One would take it away. No wonder the angel said he had good news to bring! Imagine living on earth for the rest of your days in union with God Himself and your sins not being counted by God anymore. Not counted anymore. Ever. At all. Imagine being able to live in the Presence of God every second of every minute of every hour of every day and your sins of the past, present and even those not yet committed in your future are not even considered by God! Good news! Those shepherds were suddenly shown something God had been planning for a long time. Since before creation. In the fullness of time He came to put away sin. Jesus was born to die that we might be born again. It was planned long ago but it is revealed suddenly. It can happen to anyone. Suddenly. Only believe. (II Corinthians 5:19-21)

- James Barron

And Jesus began to proclaim the arrival of the Kingdom of God, saying, ” Change the way you are thinking (repent) and change how you think about things because another world is here now within reach of all who will believe. My Father’s realm has come. Heaven is here now on on Earth for all who will believe. Those who believe will see the Kingdom of Heaven. Unless you are born from above you cannot see the Kingdom of God, but if you believe in Me you will be born again of the Spirit. This other realm is the Spirit and shall be within you. In this realm called the Kingdom of the beloved Son, sin is no longer counted or remembered, only God’s righteousness is counted and remembered. In this new world is the continual joy and peace of God Himself.” For the Kingdom of God is in the Spirit, within you. There you will find righteousness, peace, and His joy. And now, in union with Jesus, all that He is and has is yours. In Him, in this other world you have His righteousness His peace and His joy. He who has received this abundant grace and the gift of His righteousness shall reign in His life and on this Earth. As Jesus said, “I leave with you my peace and my joy, not as this world gives but the peace and joy that I have in Me apart from this world. In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer for I have overcome this world and I have translated you from this world into My world, into my Kingdom. My righteousness is your righteousness. This is the incredible glad tidings and good news of the Kingdom of Heaven to all who believe on Me.”

- James Barron