The Grace Path

Grace is a wonder. God is the Author of all grace.....I Peter 5:10. Grace is huge. At the end of nearly every letter written to the churches of the New Testament, the writers wrote of grace to the readers. "Grace be with you all," "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all," and my favorite, "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (II Peter 3:18) 

But, how do we grow in grace? How do we access grace in our lives? How can we know we have grace?

There is a path to grace. For the sake of time and space limitations, I've summarized the path of grace into three steps. These are not steps you can take for a result, they are steps that God has already put in place and that He takes in your life. Grace is His. 

The steps of grace:

Learn > Desire > Action

First, we learn of grace.....meaning we learn of Him, our Savior Christ. In Matthew 11:29, Christ says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of (from) me..."  Step one: we learn from Him. Since He is the Author of grace, there is no better teacher of grace! 

Learning from Him and about Him has remarkable results. Just simply learning of Him changes our lives. This change can barely be defined as we go about our lives. We don't really see it happening, but one day, as we are going about our lives, we find old desires slowly being replaced by new ones. 

This is grace at work. 

This is God's work in your life. 

You did not create these changes by your strict obedience or anything else.

It is God. Even the very desire to learn of Him comes from Him. 

One day, you notice that your desires are filtered through God's Word, a system of thinking that you have never experienced before. You begin to change. 

This is grace at work.

It is God.

This change taking place in you has a mysterious focus. Suddenly, you want to tell others about your Jesus. You find yourself motivated to look for opportunities to share His love and grace with others. This leads to teaching, serving, prayer and a host of other actions. 

Service = a sign of grace at work in your life.

God's grace. Grace at work.

Philippians 2:13, "For it is God that works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

God works IN you. 

My husband once said......"We are totally saved by grace, while totally depraved." I added, "In need of total grace."  

Totally saved while totally depraved in need of total grace.

It is God. 

Learn of Him.

Your desire to serve Him comes from that learning.

You will become driven to action by that desire.

Grace be to you.

~Tricia

A Simple Start

It started with a simple prayer. As we went about our business in our new town, we saw many who needed Christ, but we didn't speak their language, we didn't understand their culture, we didn't know how to reach them.

So, we prayed. It really wasn't anything special at all.

Often while out shopping, I saw many Hispanic people. I would smile and sometimes say, "Hola," but that was as far as I felt comfortable going.  So, I would pray, "Lord, look at these people. They need you. I don't know how to reach them, but You do. Show me." And then I would generally be interrupted by a phone call, a child needing me or something else pulling me out of that grocery store prayer.

At home, I shared my burden for these people with my husband. He agreed. We prayed, "Lord, we see these people who need You. Show us what to do; we can't reach them because we don't speak Spanish."

And this went on. I, personally, prayed daily for the opportunity to reach the Hispanics in our town. We prayed occasionally as a couple and as a family. My prayer often held Matthew 9:36-38 where Jesus tells his disciples that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. He instructs them to pray, very specifically.

Prayer is not a flashy activity. It's a humble thing which we are told to do in private. For such a humble activity, it has great results.

Out of the blue, one Hispanic family came to our church. The next Sunday, they brought a few friends. They continued coming, even though they could not fully understand the preaching. More came. We worked through language and cultural barriers and saw people come to Christ. They were baptized. They were added to the church.

There is now a thriving, growing, bustling Hispanic church in that town.

Oh, and another grew out of that in another town in a neighboring state.

Oh, and another grew in Mexico because the original group became burdened for their home town there.

Simple prayer. No flashy gimmicks. No long planning sessions. Prayer.

"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." Matthew 9:38

Just pray.
~Tricia

Priscilla Power

In Acts 18, we read the story of Priscilla and Aquila's encounter with Apollos.

Before we look at that encounter, I want to look more closely at Priscilla. Married to Aquila, she was from Italy. (Acts 18:2) She had recently (at the time of the writing of Acts) come to Corinth with her husband due to persecution; Claudius had commanded that all Jews depart from Rome. Acts 16:19 tells us that Priscilla and Aquila had a church in their house. Paul stayed with them in their home because he had the same occupation; they were tent makers.

This brief glimpse into the Priscilla's life speaks volumes about this amazing woman. She was not a silent bystander while her husband did everything. She was not in the background simply cheering him on, praising him for what he was doing. She was hands-on. The Scripture says "they" were tent makers. She was a tent maker. She had suffered the same persecution as her husband. She was right in the thick of that church in her house. She and her husband traveled on a missions trip with Paul, first to Syria, then to Ephesus (Acts 18:18).

While in Ephesus, Paul left them there and went to various places. While in Ephesus, Priscilla and Aquila met Apollos, an eloquent man who spoke mightily in the Scriptures. Verse 25 says he was "instructed in the way of the Lord," was "fervent in spirit," spoke "diligently the things of the Lord," but that "he only knew the baptism of John." His information was incomplete, yet he "spoke boldly in the synagogue." Guess who was there and heard him? Priscilla and Aquila. As soon as they heard him, they pulled him aside and they "expounded" (explained) the Scriptures "more perfectly" (accurately) to him.

Priscilla and Aquila did this, together. The Scripture gives no indication whatsoever that Aquila did all the talking while Priscilla silently listened. They explained the Scripture to Apollos. They gave him the full, accurate story. They.

God treats men and women as equals.

I met a traveling evangelist once. I spoke to him, introduced myself and shook his hand. He did not look me in the eye one time. I was very frustrated about that and said, "Is there something wrong?"

His reply shocked me. He said, "I don't look women in the eye, and generally don't talk to them. My wife can't always travel with me, so looking at and talking to women can be a problem."

This man has a problem all right. If he can't so much as look at a woman and talk to a woman, his problem is severe and he is not qualified to be an evangelist or in any spiritual leadership position. Imagine! How would he take it if Priscilla confronted him? Would he listen? Apollos listened, took her and her husband's advice and went on to "convince the Jews, and publicly, that Jesus was Christ."

Priscilla was not afraid to be grounded in Scripture. She was not afraid to talk to anyone about doctrine and straighten them out if she needed to. Priscilla was  not a silent bystander who only listened while her husband did the work of the ministry. She was in the thick of it, boldly serving, speaking out about incomplete doctrine and serving and traveling right along with the men.

And God approved.

Ladies, don't let anyone ever minimize your role in the church, in the influence of those around you (male and female) and treat you like you are not allowed to be spoken to or listened to. That is spiritual abuse and you can rise up and demand it stop. Do not allow yourself to be minimized. You have a voice for Jesus Christ and you have every right, and even obligation, to use it.

~Tricia

A Term Of Convenience

Last night, there was a news special on the news show 20/20 and it piqued my interest. William and Kate are having a baby this summer and 20/20 decided to devote an hour to their story. It was interesting to learn a few things about the British and their babies. I learned they don't have baby showers because they think it's incredibly rude to invite people to give them gifts. I learned that a royal baby's nanny becomes proficient in Tae Kwon Do in order to property defend the baby. And they learn evasive driving techniques to avoid the paparazzi.


Kate is still pregnant. Yet not one time did they refer to her unborn child as a fetus. They called him or her "the baby." Every. Single. Time.

Fetus is a term of convenience. Abortionists know that using the term fetus for the unborn sounds medical and helps pregnant women come to terms with an abortion more easily.

What does it mean?

According to even a simple source like Wikipedia, the word fetus is from the Latin and literally means "offspring," "bringing forth," and "hatching of young."

So, an abortionist could say "I will abort your fetus," yes, but they could also say, "I will abort your offspring" or "I will abort your young."

Abort means simply to terminate some process. In pregnancy, that process is the development (growth) of the fetus. So, an abortionist could say, "I will terminate the growing process of your offspring now," or "I will terminate the growth of your young now."

What if abortionists actually talked like that?  It would be more humane. It would be more understandable to the young women in their clinics.

Wouldn't that be something?
~Tricia

Eternal Rewards

Today, as my husband preached on multi-ethnic ministry from Acts 13:1-4, I was struck by the wonderful memories it evoked. Before the message, he showed a video of a bi-lingual baptism we'd had in the past and I was nearly overcome with joy at the knowledge of where those brothers and sisters are now.

They are serving. They are evangelizing. They are working for the Lord Jesus Christ in their local church and that church continues to grow. They practically need a building program already! God is so good. He has remained faithful to these brothers and sisters. I'm incredibly thankful that we are able to keep in touch with them and continue to see their obedience to the Lord and their work in His church.
Seeing our spiritual children grow in the Lord and in His work is one of the huge joys of ministry. (This is not only true of our spiritual children, but of our physical children, too, who are all our spiritual children, too!)


This growth did not come without hardship, obstacles and persecution. But, it was worth it all! Not one brother or sister was lost in all the hardship we suffered together. They remain faithful, true and close as we all now serve from different places. These are eternal rewards.

Praise be!
~Tricia

Guilty! Justice!

The jury said "Guilty" on three counts of first degree murder for Kermit Gosnell. Guilty of murder. Justice for these babies, slaughtered where he thought no one would notice or dare go against him.

Justice is served.
The death penalty would solidify this decision further.
~Tricia

Do You Tell your Broccoli Where to Go?

What does broccoli have to do with Inductive Bible study? Read on.

I could write a whole boring post about why I love inductive Bible study, why I think it's the only way to truly study the Bible and why I think people who do not practice it do not grow as they could spiritually. I could make arguments for all that and more, but, instead, I'm going to make a list.



Inductive Bible study does the following:

******It protects you from false doctrine.
******It protects you from spiritual abuse.
******It keeps you from making presumptions about the Bible.
******It gives you discernment.
******It hones your ability to perceive God's will in your life.
******It empowers you to stand against oppression

One woman I know had never done inductive Bible study before and I taught her how. Years later, she said she's now able to understand the Bible better and that learning this "opened the Bible up like never before." Praise be. Mission accomplished.

I have met people who feel intimidated about doing inductive Bible study. It is not difficult. Our gracious Holy Spirit guides us to comprehend only what we are ready for. He wants us to understand the Bible. There is no mystery. You need two things:

Observation
Interpretation

Observation of Scripture means simply to observe what's written in the Bible. I highly recommend going through a book of the Bible systematically to avoid making assumptions. I have done a few studies that were not simply through a book from start to finish. I led a study on Christology and another on prayer. I'm always nervous to do that, however, for fear I will alter something. No one is immune from doing that. Observation leads to interpretation. We observe what the Bible says, dig deeper for word meanings and tenses. Pay attention to grammar and locations, history and traditions of the day, etc. It's a good idea to write your observations down.

I do not include application as one of the steps of Bible study, but many people do. That makes no sense to me. I have had people try to apply the Bible to my life and they have all missed the mark. We simply can't apply the Bible to another person's life, nor can we really apply it to our own lives. That's the job of the Holy Spirit....Who is perfectly capable of applying His Word to our lives as He sees fit. It will not return void...this is a promise....it's enough for us to read It, observe it and not take His matters into our own hands. Because It is alive, It will change your life without your help.

Trying to apply God's Word to your life, or to someone else's life, is like telling your food where to go in your body. If you are eating broccoli and chicken, do you tell that broccoli where to go? Do you say, "Now, broccoli, go to my legs, they are feeling weak today." Or do you say, "Meat, shine up my hair, it's rather dull." It simply doesn't work that way. You eat a steady, healthy diet and the food nourishes your body over time. A steady diet of inductive Bible study, coupled with expository preaching in your local church makes for spiritual health.  This is one reason my husband has been fully committed to expository preaching for 30 years.

Applying the Bible to someone's life is also fuel for legalism. Most people want to please other people and get the idea that if they change their behavior, they will be accepted. Changing outward behavior can never be a goal of true spiritual growth. If there's a heart change, the outward behavior will automatically follow. Many pastors push for behavior changes and many people comply. It's like saying, "Behave yourself as you go to Hell!"

Remember:

God wants us to understand His Word. (Colossians 1:9 & 10)
He wants us to know Him. (Philippians 3:10)
He has promised to help us. (Matthew 28:20)
He has promised us peace. (Philippians 4:9)
He has given us His Spirit forever. (John 14:16)

Read.
Observe.
Study.
Grow.

~Tricia