What do you have to do to become a Christian? It is, of course, a trick question. The reason for this is that being made right with God has nothing to do with anything a person can do. Being made right with God is an act of God's grace. It is this act of God's grace which produces a relationship with God. 
This relationship, like a natural relationship between parent and child, is not the result of the child's efforts. Those who teach that people must do certain things to have a relationship with God clearly do not understand the indispensible role of God and His grace to make this relationship possible. But those who confuse relationship with God with fellowship with God similarly do not sufficiently understand the grace of God.
This relationship, like a natural relationship between parent and child, is not the result of the child's efforts. Those who teach that people must do certain things to have a relationship with God clearly do not understand the indispensible role of God and His grace to make this relationship possible. But those who confuse relationship with God with fellowship with God similarly do not sufficiently understand the grace of God.
No person or their efforts can add any value to God or His worth! This is because God has aseity. This is the quality of 'needing nothing' not merely in the sense of 'contentment', but in the sense of absolutely complete, self-sufficient. God doesn'tneed mankind, neither does He need mankind's permission, invitation, petition, or direction. God alone has aseity. Then why has been gracious to us? Because of His great and infinitely undeserved love toward us. Consider this truth the next time you hear someone declare that God can't do something (bring revival, heal a sickness, save a soul) because people are not letting Him / inviting Him / praying enough / worshiping long and intensely enough ... and then compare these appeals with what the Bible actually teaches about God's grace and His aseity.But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Matthew 19:26
Accepting God's grace is the only means of being made right with God. This is where God reaches out to a person who is spiritually 'dead' (that is, infintely estranged from Him) and enables them to be reconciled to Him (Eph. 2:1-5). This is why it is utter self-deception for a person to believe that they acceptable to God without ever being reconciled to Him by a received act of His grace.God's grace awakens a person's conscience to feel as it should. This awakened conscience experiences the conviction of sin. This sense of conviction of sin is the result of God's grace in a person. It leads a person to cry out to God for forgiveness and then enables them to then turn from sin toward God ('repentance'). Thus, repentance (a 180° turn around) is a gift from God."For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ."
Romans 5:17
When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life."
Acts 11:18
If we can only be brought into right relationship with God by His grace, then it sounds logical to say that our relationship with God could never be established, sustained or enhanced by any of our efforts. Many very popular preachers have built their ministries on this apparent Biblical fact of grace. The grace of God which brings a person into relationship with God has nothing to do with our performance - it is despite our performance! If you are trying to convince God that He made the right decision in forgiving and saving you by performing a level of religious devotion and service within the Church you are going to burn yourself out, suffer misery, and languish in self-loathing. May Paul's prayer for the Ephesians in 1:17-18 be my prayer for you - that the eyes of your understanding might be opened to the wonderful work of God in saving you. But God's grace doesn't stop with your salvation. God's grace enables you to fellowship with God. And I suspect that this is what many so-called "Grace teachers" confuse when they fail to make the distinction between relationship and fellowship.
I have a relationship with my wife. It's called marriage. Fortunately, for me, she's also my bestess friend. But when I neglect her, ourfellowship is strained. Restoring my fellowship with her requires intentional time, focus, sincerity, listening and talking, and taking a renewed interest in her. Fellowship is not performance-based but it is the result of the choices we make and the level to which we are prepared to sacrifice those things that detract from it. Thus, when a Pastor urges his congregation to forsake compromise, engage more with the Scriptures in their private devotions, spend more intentional time in prayer, make sacrifices to attend Sunday church services, he is not preaching "salvation by works", rather he is pointing out what always hinders a believer's fellowship with God and shedding light of God's grace onto how this can be addressed. Even his ministering of the Scriptures highlighting each of these exhortations from the New Testament is itself a work of grace in his hearers' souls. To claim that God's saving grace means that a believer never has to work or strive to develop their fellowship with God is to ignore those Scriptures which plainly state that working (Eph. 2:10) and striving (Luke 13:24; Rom. 15:30; 1Cor. 14:12; 1im. 4:10) are indeed required in following Christ (as distinct frombecoming a follower of Christ).For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
First Tim 4:10
The idea that followers of Christ are exempt from keeping God's laws because they have been saved by grace is called "antinomianism" ('against the Law'). The Law was never designed to save a soul. The Law's purpose was to reveal the glory of God. When the first of the Ten Commandments thunders that there are no other gods but the True God, it is giving due glory to God. When the Law statutes against murder, it is reinforcing that God's image and glory are seen in those who bear His image. Thus, the Law reveals what falling short of the glory of God looks like (Rom. 3:23) and brings a person to recognise their sin and thus their need for God's forgiveness.¶ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."
Romans 7:7
The New Covenant did not make any of the Moral Laws of God (expressed in the Ten Commandments) obsolete. On the contrary, the New Testament restates each the commandments and Christ is the Ultimate Sabbath Rest (Matt. 11:28; Heb. 4:1ff).
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.Hebrews 8:10
After being with my wife for more than twenty-seven years, I know what she likes and doesn't like. I'd like to share the secret of how I discovered this: she told me. Because I love her, I don't want to do what she doesn't like. But would she still be my wife if I did do those things she didn't like? That is, would we still have a relationship if I caused her grief? Of course. We would still have our relationship of marriage. But would our fellowship be affected? From painful experience over nearly three decades I can conclusively report: Yes it is. What if she told me what she wanted from me in order to develop our fellowship (like, "Spend time with me!" "If you're going to be late for dinner, let me know!" "I told you that in confidence! Don't share with others what is only for your ears!"), would she be "legalistic"? Would I be justified in responding to her, "Honey, those things sound like rules, and our relationship is not based on rules but is based on love and grace."? Of course not! Thus, when a preacher urges those he is charged to love/protect/feed to spend time in God's Word every day, not to neglect weekly Sunday worship with the church (Heb. 10:25), take time out to pray, be generous, share your faith in Christ, not to use foul language, not to allow anger in, avoid idolatrous addictions - they are not being "legalistic", and the believer whose heart is yearning to know God and please Him doesn't ever hear those things as hindering their relationship with their Heavenly Daddy. Instead, they hear them as a King's request for Bethlehem's well-water.
And David said longingly, "Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!" Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it. He poured it out to the LORD.
Second Samuel 23:15-16
One final thought for those who are sharply criticising those of us who make this distinction between between relationship by God's grace (Eph. 2:8-9) and fellowship empowered by God's grace (Eph. 2:10; 2Cor. 9:8). Do you realise how you sound when you ridicule/mock/denounce preachers like myself when you do so on your blogs, Facebook walls, and YouTube channels? I personally find it bizarre that often the most viralent promoters of divine grace are too often quite among the most ungracious toward those they disagree with. The venom and nastiness with which they promote the love, kindness and grace of God while attacking those who call for holiness is quite literally disgraceful. Surely the measure of how much a believer appreciates God's grace is seen in how they they display that same grace to others?so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Second Thessalonians 1:12
Ps. Andrew
Anna probably had hopes and expectations for her future just as every other young woman does when they start their married life. But tragedy struck early for Anna. Life can sometimes take unexpected turns - even for a prophet or a prophetess. Her groom became ill shortly after they married, and in just a few short years, all her hopes of children and eventually grandchildren vanished when he died. It was perhaps then that the Lord began to speak sweetly to her heart about the Child that was to come - 'the Redemption of Jerusalem'. 
Being a pastor is probably the greatest job in the world. This is especially true when a pastor is blessed with a loving, Christ-centred, Word-hungry, Spirit-filled church - like the one I pastor. And this privileged job comes with some incredible opportunities to grow in some challenging ways. I get to hear people's stories. I have the sacred trust of stewarding people's souls and it's in their souls that some of the most passionate dramas are played out! These experiences have helped me to learn how to care, how to listen, but most importantly how to begin to understand another person. Against this backdrop, I occasionally see others who don't enjoy this privilege and end up creating utterly avoidable conflict. I want to share with you (what now draws on the learning of several decades of experience) some things I have learned about other people.
"Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here?" Before they had even finished explaining to Moses what their intention was, Moses had alreadyassumed it! But incorrectly! Of course, Moses is not the only one to do this. Weall do it all the time. We hear half of the story. We think we heard their story. Worse still, we think we already know what their story is - and we haven't even heard it yet! When some of the clans of Gad and Rueben came to Moses to ask for pasture and home land on the east of the Jordan, he assumed that they were saying, "We don't want to be a part of this nation anymore." Eventually, after Moses calmed down, they were able to clarify with him that this was notwhat they were saying at all. But a generation later, Moses' successors hadn't learnt the lesson either...
When these clans from Gad, Manasseh, and Rueben decided to build a memorial altar, their countrymen assumed that they had set up an illegal sacrificial altar, and prepared to muster their battled-hardened troops to take action again those east of the Jordan. This is an all-too-common type of reaction by those who assume rather than understand. When people jump to conclusions about what they think someone else's motives are, the end result is more often than not and fractured relationship and hurt. It wasn't until the Promise-Land-Israelites actually talked with - and heard - their East-of-the-Jordan brothers that this potential dispute was diffused. 
If some high-profile preachers are right, Jesus wants to give you whatever you ask for. They also preach that Jesus isn't "against" anything, rather He is a positive thinker who only focuses on positive matters. Someone recently said that if this Jesus had been the actual Jesus who walked the shores of Galilee in the first century, He would never have been crucified - because He would never have offended anybody! It's almost as if Jesus has been reduced to the status of a Genie and these preachers tell their thousands of fans how to 'rub the bottle' and get Jesus to grant them their wishes. While this 'Genie Jesus' might sound like an extreme example of how some people treat Jesus, the more common (and arguably more perilous) distortion is when people treat Jesus as Saviour without treating Him as Lord!
Reinventing Jesus seems to have become a kind of industry today. It's not only charlatans trying to make a buck who have distorted the Biblical Jesus into some kind of Genie Jesus, but there are now non-Christian activists who are attempting to portray Jesus as Someone who was tolerant, non-discriminatory, and endorsing of (or at least silent about) their lifestyles. This commits the same kind of perilous error that some celebrity preachers make: it reduces Jesus into our agenda. It demonstrates an utter lack of understanding of who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him. It diminishes Christ to occasional relevance. Jesus can never be reduced or diminished to occasional relevance. He has no interest in being a segment of someone's life. He does not compromise on what He expects from people - and what He expects is not being religious! You cannot equate following Jesus of Nazareth with merely 'being religious'. He doesn't ask for a segment of our lives. He doesn't ask for an hour and a half a week. He doesn't even ask for a portion of your income. He summons His creation to be reconciled to Him and to begin to live as we were designed.
Genuine commitment to Christ is never about trying to get Him to be our 'Genie'. Of course, His offer of salvation from our sins - resulting in eternal life enjoyed in Paradise is an attractive deal - reasonably too good to refuse. We are the beneficiaries. We gain greatly. For some, their lives get so far off track that they turn to Jesus to rescue them - to save them. But when we receive Jesus Christ as our Saviour it is by accepting the only offer Christ makes- to receive Him as Lord. 'Accepting' requires surrender. The person who receives Christ has accepted that He has gently conquered them. They are no long treating Jesus like a Genie or as the Activists do who distort Christ's teachings into unrecognisability.
At the time of the New Testament being written, a form of slavery was embedded in the Graeco-Roman culture in which the Church was birthed. When the New Testament uses words like "Lord" or "Master" it is drawing upon the background of this slavery language. Does this paint becoming a follower of Christ in a different light, knowing that it uses the words, "Lord" and "Master" to describe Christ, and words like, "follower", "servant", "slave", "bond-slave" to describe Christians? It should!
People who have a 'Genie' concept of Jesus have probably never really considered the Biblical description of Jesus. They have therefore certainly never considered how vital their attending to Christ's church is either. "Do not neglect attending church" says Hebrews 10:25. This has little appeal to the one who treats Jesus like their Genie in a bottle (church becomes one of the several lesser priorities for their Sundays), but it has magnetic appeal to those who know Jesus Christ as Lord of Lord and King of Kings. And then Hebrews points us back to Christ in Hebrews 12:3 by inviting us to consider what Christ endured in order to redeem us and purchase the Church. The final 'consider' invitation relates to considering those who best surrender to Christ in Hebrews 13:7. It says, "Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith." Consider Christ. Consider His church. Consider what Christ went through in order to redeem us. Consider what those who have surrendered to Christ have gone through for the sake of Christ and His Church.
Some change is imposed. Some change is sought. Some change is welcomed. Some change is resisted. Some change is so predictable but still manages to stun us as if it was impossible to see coming! Looking back over the past few years I can see the changes that have happened in my life. There are some changes that are currently happening in me. Looking at what has changed and what is changing helps me to see with increased clarity what changes are about to happen - and indeed,must happen. But, I find myself continually battling the desire to resist change. Perhaps because of my recent health battles, I've been reminded that resistance is a far weaker strategy than management when it comes to dealing with change. The result for me is, I have to make some changes.
It is Friday. My day off. My Sabbath. Each Friday morning Kim and I go on a coffee-date. As we went into Launceston Kim remarked how many vacant shops there now are. I am told that in the downtown central business district there are seventy shops vacant. There will always be commercial property vacancies in any city. And for the most part, Launceston has had around 25 shops vacant at any one time. When online shopping began to take off over five years ago, retailers were advised that they didn't adapt to this change in retail spending habits. Most didn't. This change was utterly predictable, yet, for the most part, poorly managed by retailers. With our recent electricity black outs (not to mention the skyrocketting price of electricity), many people are eager to change the way they power their homes and businesses. Major utilities will have to change the way they go about their business in order to survive. (The laziest way they can manage this predictible trend toward domestically generated renewable energy is to seek government support.) In the city where I grew up, Geelong, its citizens are bemoaning the lack of Government assistance in keeping th highly inefficient Ford Motor Car Company running (Ford has announced that they will shut its Geelong operation in 2016). Someone didn't see inevitable change coming!
Careers, status (single or married), family composition, ageing, retirement, expenses, sicknesses, and death, are all predictible changes that nearly all of us will/have/are experienc/e/ed/ing. Over the past 18 years that I have been pastoring Legana, I have had to change. In even more recent times, I have hadto change. I used to open all my mail. I used to take every phone call. I used to see every impromptu visitor. The busyness of my life now, has meant these things have had to change. The way I pastor our church has had to change. I now meet with the elders and pastors regularly as we discuss how we can care better for those in our church. I now meet regularly with the Home Group leaders as we discuss how to care for and disciple those in our church. These are recent changes. Whereas I previously tried to extend myself to every person, even those outside of our church, I have had to change. As the trappings of comfort lull my sense of urgency for reaching those who are separated from Christ and without hope (Eph. 2:12), I have to manage the inevitable change toward complacency and keep stretching and challenging myself.
It's not only people who have to see, accept, and manage change. Churches must do it as well. I was so proud of our church last Sunday as we implemented some changes. Apart from our Easter events, it was our highest attended service for the year thus far. I'm sure some of you wondered what on earth we were doing, but for the most part everyone soon accepted the changes we made.