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Does emphasizing God’s grace and Christ’s finished work produce Christians who are carnal and who are licentious in sinning? Does this message of complete forgiveness cause Christians to go on a sinning binge, doing whatever they want because of their freedom?

Does this message of resting in what Christ has done produce lazy and apathetic Christians, Christians who do not want to serve, Christians who do not want to share the gospel anymore?

Does this message of the Father’s complete acceptance of us regardless of our performance produce children who rarely pray or read their Bibles anymore?

Does the message of freedom from the obligation to give produce stingy Christians who don’t return to God the tithe that belongs to Him and who hesitantly give in the offering and to others in need?

Since I have been teaching a lot on God’s grace, on Christ’s finished work, some people have asked me a lot of these questions.

Based on personal experience, my answer would be a resounding, “NO!”  It is actually those who have NOT had a radical revelation of the grace of God and in Christ’s finished work who are usually afraid of the apparent dangers of emphasizing grace or who participate in so-called “grace abuse”.

I have yet to personally encounter a person who has been so gripped with the grace of God who has abused this grace by becoming like those in the questions above.  I hear about rumors of stories of such people but my personal guess is that these people have little understanding of grace which is why they live such lives. (Please read my related post Unamazed by Grace and my personal testimony in my post, The Great Passion).

Why do I say this?  Because, I know for a fact that GRACE WORKS!  And I don’t base this on just personal experience but, more so, on the Word of God.  Just what does the Word of God say about the results of the message of God’s grace and Christ’s finished work? Here are just some examples:

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
1 Corinthians 15:10

“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”
Colossians 1:27-29

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20

“…for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
Philippians 2:13

The Biblical evidence is clear! GRACE WORKS! Grace produces results, transformed lives!  Furthermore, it is no longer us who are striving to produce fruit but it is God’s grace, Christ living His life through us, that produces fruit as we rest in His grace.

The more we rest in Christ’s finished work, the more we see Christ working on us and through us.  He first works in our hearts, minds and wills so that we will desire what He desires and that our will becomes what His will is.  Then His Spirit empowers us to act on what He desires and wills.  Jesus Christ lives His life through us!

The result is we pray more and read God’s Word more to be intimate with God? Why? Because Christ is intimate with the Father.  He lives through us.  Our new nature is being intimate with God.

The result of His grace is that we are no longer apathetic to the needs of others. The result is that we love to share the gospel to others and do so more often?  It does not become second nature to us; IT IS OUR NATURE!  Christ’s compassion for the lost, for those in need, flows through us.

God’s grace produces in us a generosity that goes way beyond what was expected in the Old Covenant.  The result is the grace of giving which is not just about lovingly returning to God what is His but more so give with such generosity that greatly exceeds what others think we are capable of giving.  Why? Because Christ in us is gracious and generous and He is the greatest Giver of all.

Moreover, we serve more and work more in every aspect of our lives.  We don’t become lazy or laid back but His grace in us looks for every opportunity to serve.  When we get the revelation that God loves us and accepts us not based on our performance and our service, the result is that we love serving more.  Why?  Because our Master, Lord and King who came not to be served but to serve is now living in us.  He continuously serves us and others through us.

And what about this issue of sin?  Does God’s love, grace, kindness, and mercy as expressed by Christ dying on the cross to totally forgive all of our sins, does this produce in us a desire and will to go on sinning?  What does God’s Word have to say?

“For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!“
Romans 6:14-15

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
Titus 2:11-14

“…God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?“
Romans 2:4

 The testimony of God’s Word shows that God’s grace leads us to repentance, the changing of our minds and desires.  God’s grace produces in us a desire and a power to say, “No” to sin and all forms of wickedness (See my related post, The Grace to Say, “No!”). You see,…GRACE WORKS!

So, when a Christian loses his or her appetite to share the gospel, to read the Bible, to serve, to give, etc., these are just a symptoms of something much more important: he or she has lost focus on the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

We do not treat the symptoms by telling them to share the gospel more, read the Bible more, pray more, serve more, give more, etc. We “treat” the root by emphasizing even more the grace of God in their lives, Christ in them. We encourage them to fix their eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

When we see apparent “grace abuse” where a person lives a life not in line with the gospel of Christ, it just means that they do not really understand what God’s grace is all about.  They may have some knowledge of grace but they have not been gripped by it and transformed by it.

So is the solution not to preach too much on grace and then to balance it with some Law?  Most definitely NOT!  The solution is first to pray for people because the revelation of God’s grace also comes by God’s grace. The solution is to preach even more on the grace of God so that it will sink deep into people’s hearts and minds so that, by the grace of God, they will get a life-changing revelation of this grace.  Why?  Because GRACE WORKS!

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Related posts:
The grace to say ‘No!’
Unamazed by Grace
The Great Passion (full version)

Related podcasts:
ALL IN Series Week 2: Grace and Love
THRIVE Series Week 1 Reign
THRIVE Series Week 2 Live
THRIVE Series Week 3 Flourish

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“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
John 14:12

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
Mark 16:17-18

Are you interested to know more about how to move in the ability to heal the sick that God has made available to any Christian who believes?

There will be a Divine Healing Training on March 3, 2012 from 9am to 12nn at the Victory Calamba Center.  This is open to all from Victory Calamba (top priority) and anyone else interested. LIMITED SLOTS ONLY. Kindly contact our office for more information. Thank you.

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Related posts:
Praying, Spiritual Warfare, Miracles and Manny Pacquiao

Related podcasts:
COVENANT Series Week 2: Health and Healing part 1
COVENANT Series Week 3: Health and Healing part 2
ALL IN Series Week 1: Blessings in Christ
ALL IN Series Week 5: Power and Authority

‘Like’ my page on Facebook to receive updates on future posts.

‎”Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
Romans 4:7, 8 NIV

“…that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”
2 Corinthians 5:19

“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
Hebrews 8:12 NIV

“…[Love] keeps no record of wrongs.”
1 Corinthians 13:5

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,…”
Romans 8:1 

Isn’t God’s love and grace so amazing? He does not just forgive our past sins but He also doesn’t keep any record of our sins anymore. He no longer imputes sin to us because He already imputed all of them to Jesus Christ, Who received all our deserved punishment on the cross.

Do you hear that? Not only are our sins forgiven but also God is no longer counting.  He has made you righteous with the righteousness of Jesus Christ!

Now, does this give us license to sin then? Does this truth of God’s grace and kindness cause us to go out on a sinning binge because God is no longer counting?  Most definitely not!

“…God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?“
Romans 2:4

“For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!“
Romans 6:14-15

It is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. It is His grace that empowers us to no longer be slaves of sin.  The more we reflect on His grace, love and kindness, the more we reflect on the ultimate expression of these, which is Christ crucified, the more we will hate sin, the more we will turn away from it, the more we will have power of over it! (See my related post, The Grace to Say, “No!”).

Therefore, rejoice in this truth, beloved of God!  You are totally forgiven! You are totally accepted in the Beloved.

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Related posts:
The Grace to Say, “No!”
To the striving, tired, discouraged or condemned Christian
Faithful to the faithless
Victory assured!

Related Podcasts:
ALL IN Series Week 2  Grace and Love
ALL OUT Series Week 2: No Chains 
THRIVE Series Week 1: Reign
THRIVE Series Week 2: Live 

‘Like’ my page on Facebook to receive updates on future posts.

One of the most important of Christian doctrines is the Incarnation.  The English word “incarnation” literally means “in the flesh”, referring to Jesus the Son of God coming the flesh humbling Himself and becoming a human like you and me.

But why did the Son of God have to come in the flesh?  I don’t want to write a theological treatise here but I simply want to state some of the reasons mentioned in the Bible. This list is not meant to be exhaustive.

Jesus came to reveal the Father and to be the Way to Him.

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
John 14:6-9

Jesus came to show Who the Father really is.  A lot of the Jews thought of God as an all-powerful Creator Who was not easy to approach because of His holiness and justice.  Jesus came to show that God is so much more than that, that God is a Father Who loves us, reaches out to us and is concerned about our every need.

Jesus came to live the life we should have lived

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”
Galatians 4:4-5

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Matthew 5:17

God knew that we could never live up to the righteous requirements of the Law.  He could not just do away with the Law because that would violate His righteousness and holiness.  So Jesus came to fulfill it on our behalf.  In our place, He lived the life we should have lived.

Jesus came to die the death we should have died

“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Romans 8:3-4

After living the life we should have lived, He exchanged places with us and died the death we should have died.  He took all of our sins, past, present and future, and they were nailed on the cross with Him.  Because of this, His life, His righteousness, His fulfillment of the Law has been credited to us, so that by faith in Christ, God counts us as having obeyed the Law perfectly.

Jesus came to destroy the work of the Devil

“…The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”
1 John 3:8b

Have you ever thought of Jesus as “The Destroyer”?  The reason why He came is to destroy the works of the Enemy in our lives: sin, death, sickness, suffering, poverty, curses, everything!  On the cross He already disarmed the Enemy and by His resurrection He showed that He was victorious!

Jesus came to give us life

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10

“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!“
Romans 5:17

Jesus Christ came to give immortality, eternal life to all who have put their faith in Him alone.  But it does not stop there.  He came also that we may have a full life here on Earth.  By His grace and His gift of righteousness, He enables us to reign in this life!  We rule and reign over the Enemy, sickness, disease, death, poverty.  We are bearers of His Kingdom and as we live our lives, we enforce His Kingdom here on Earth!

This is just a partial list of reasons why He came.  Isn’t this enough reason to be joyful and glad that He did!

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Related Posts:
The Divine Exchange
Victory assured!
“…God understands.” – Pastor Jun Cebanico

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In offices, schools, organizations and families, a certain kind of exchanging of gifts has become traditional wherein people each write their names on a piece of paper and put it inside of a box or hat and then each also draw the name of the person they are supposed to give a gift to. Usually there is a price range agreed upon for the gifts. The point is that each person would receive a gift of more or less equal value to the one he or she gave.

This is all nice but let me just say that this is NOT the true essence or “spirit” of Christmas.

A few years ago, I preached a message entitled Exchange Gifts where I talked about an uneven exchange of gifts with God, wherein God gave us the most precious gift of His Son and everything else and then we give back to Him the very meager gift of our lives.

It again sounds better than the previous one but again, I realized that this is NOT the essence of why Christ came. Christianity is not about an exchange of gifts! This is because there is nothing of value that can even be remotely considered as a gift that we can give back to G0d. It is NOT an equal exchange. It is NOT even an unequal exchange. It is a one-sided giving. All we can do is to receive that gift by faith.

But don’t get me wrong, an EXCHANGE DOES HAPPEN! We can see this in the following verses:

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21

He took all of our sin and was crucified on the cross for them. He then gave us His righteousness so that in God’s eyes, through faith in Jesus, we are sinless and perfectly righteous. He gave us the gift of eternal life. He gave us THE GIFT. We gave, or rather, He took our JUNK!

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”
Galatians 3:13-14

Once more this verse shows this Divine Exchange. This time, Jesus became a curse for us, He took all of our curses. He did this so that we would be blessed with the blessing given to Abraham. If you look at the covenant with Abraham, it was not just a spiritual blessing that was given to him but a blessing in every area of life. Once more, Christ gave us a GIFT and He took our JUNK!

“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.“
Isaiah 53:4-5

People often do not realize this but even our health and healing was paid for by Christ in the Atonement. By his wounds (literally stripes or lashes) we are healed. The Apostle Peter in the New Testament restates this as “…we WERE healed” meaning it is already in the past tense. Christ was not even on the cross yet but even while on the whipping post, He already paid for our healing. Once more such a great GIFT. All we have to do is to receive it by faith just like in each and every one of these Divine Exhanges! He took our pain and sicknesses and He gave us healing.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
2 Corinthians 8:9

People over spiritualize this verse but if you really look at the whole context, this talks about finances and provision. Here is another often-neglected Divine Exhange: Christ took our poverty, He became poor so that we may be made rich. This is also based on the richness of His grace and is also received by faith. The reason why many Christians fail to appropriate this gift is because we often do not believe this and we try to “pay” for the financial blessing of God. We think that we should do something in order for us to qualify for His provision. If all of His Grace is received by faith in Christ, then it should be no different for this. Again, He gave us a tremendous GIFT and He took all of our JUNK!

This Christmas, we could exchange gifts with one another but let us be reminded that we can never exchange gifts with God. His grace is undeserved. No one can match His gifts. He gives us gifts and all we can give Him is, in the Apostle Paul’s words, RUBBISH. Let us honor our God by simply receiving by faith, the Gift of His Son Jesus Christ and everything else that comes with Him.

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
Romans 8:32

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Related Posts:
Why Christmas? – 5 Reasons to Rejoice!

Related Podcasts:
COVENANT Series Week 1: The Promise
COVENANT Series Week 2: Health and Healing part 1
COVENANT Series Week 3: Health and Healing part 2
COVENANT Series Week 4: Provision and Prosperity
ALL IN Series Week 1: Blessings in Christ
ALL IN Series Week 2: Grace and Love
ALL IN Series Week 3: Adoption part 1
ALL IN Series Week 4: Adoption part 2
ALL IN Series Week 5: Power and Authority
ALL IN Extended (delivered in Victory Los Banos) Adoption

‘Like’ my page on Facebook to receive updates on future posts.

Can you imagine how outrageous this scene is? If this is his attitude, he won’t win a single match even if he is many times superior to his opponents.

Of course, this isn’t his attitude when he fights. But a lot of times, THIS IS our attitude when WE do. What am I referring to? None other than our attitude when we pray.

When the Enemy throws sickness, disease, lack, etc. our way, after we pray once or twice and we don’t see immediate results, we are quick to raise our hands in surrender and say that it might not be God’s will for us to win. Worse, we think that it is God’s will for this to happen to us.

When we pray and nothing happens immediately, we are to continue to pray until we see victory. That’s why it’s called spiritual warfare. The Devil won’t go without putting up a fight but we need to understand that this fight we are in is not a fight to win. It is a fight because we have already won. The cross of Christ has already disarmed the Enemy and made a public spectacle of him. That is why we are enforcing the Kingdom of God and evicting the Enemy that squats in our lives, in our families and in our communities.

Jesus has already won the victory and the Victor is now living in all who have put their faith in Him. And it was not just sin and death that Christ defeated on the cross but also the results of sin such as sickness and disease.

“When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
‘He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.’“
Matthew 8:16-17

“Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.“
Isaiah 53:4-5

We recently had a healing seminar in our church. This was three Sundays ago since the writing of this blogpost. Since then, we have seen the most number of healing miracles we have seen in our entire lives so far. In just about a week’s time after that training, I’ve estimated more than thirty healing miracles to have occurred all in all. Right now, I’m not even able to keep track of all that is happening.

We’ve seen shorter legs grow in length to match the longer ones. We’ve seen backs straightened and healed from scoliosis and even from a slipped disc. We’ve seen people grow taller and noses readjusting in shape. We’ve seen a lady attend a worship service with a crutch and later go home carrying the crutch over her head in victory!

In some cases the healing was complete and totally instantaneous. In some cases, we didn’t see any visible results at all. In some cases we saw accelerated healing where the injury that would normally take a week to heal get healed in just a day.

In most cases so far, we see zero to little, but sometimes significant, improvement after the first time we commanded healing and then continuous significant and visible changes as we continued to heal them in Jesus’ Name. After some time, the sickness would be completely healed or be almost completely healed.

Whereas before, we would rarely observe instant results, the past weeks we would often see immediate change.

One major factor I guess is that before, we never expected immediate change such that we never even asked people we prayed for if they felt anything during or after the prayer. We would pray for healing and for comfort, yes, but we would never ask them immediately if they felt an immediate change and we would never follow up on prayer immediately if we didn’t see any change. It was like the hypothetical Pacquiao fight I mentioned above.

What changed? We learned that Christ already paid for our healing when His body was broken for us. We learned that He promised us to do the same things He did when He healed the sick and cast out demons. Therefore, we learned to expect immediate results. And as a result, we ask the people prayed for if there were immediate results. And if there weren’t any, we learned to pray again and again and again and again until we did see results.

I’d like to encourage the readers to never give up because in Christ, by His grace, we don’t fight to win. We fight because we have already won. You are determined to keep on fighting not in order to attain the victory. You are inspired to keep on fighting because you know that the victory is already yours!

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Related posts:
Victory assured!

Related podcasts:
COVENANT Series Week 2: Health and Healing part 1
COVENANT Series Week 3: Health and Healing part 2
ALL IN Series Week 1: Blessings in Christ
ALL IN Series Week 5: Power and Authority

‘Like’ my page on Facebook to receive updates on future posts.

I don’t know what’s with this fascination over zombies recently.  After the hit casual game Plants vs. Zombies, a lot more games came out with the zombie theme.  Movies with zombie themes also abound.  So I’m sort of blogging on this to jump on the zombie bandwagon.

What exactly is a zombie? I checked the dictionary and it says that it is a corpse that has been revived by witchcraft.  With all the different zombie concepts out there, I came out with my own more generalized definition: a zombie is something that is already dead which has the appearance of physical life.

With this definition, would you believe that there are zombies mentioned in the Bible? WHAAAAAAaaat?!!  Zombies mentioned in the Bible?!!!

Now before you stop reading and start calling me a crazy horror-loving heretic, let me first say that the word “zombie” is not in the Bible.  What is there is the idea of beings that show the appearance of life but are indeed dead – bodies walking around with spirits that are dead.  Not only that but that God has plans versus these zombies.  Do you want to find out where it is in the Bible?  Check out the verse below.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”
Ephesians 2:1-3

So there it is!  And the surprise is that the zombies are or were us.  The Bible says that human beings are actually dead (spiritually dead) in our sins.  We have biological, mental and social lives but our spirits (the real us) are really dead because of sin.  We live to please our desires, we lived independently of God, we live a life of sin.

The Bible doesn’t say that we are sick with sin.  A sick person can go to the doctor, take medicine, do something about his or her sickness to help alleviate it. The Bible says that we are dead.  Dead people cannot help themselves.

And, because of sin, the Bible says that people became objects of God’s wrath – His divine anger, judgment and punishment.  That’s one way to rid the universe of us zombies: to destroy all of us.  However, God has a better plan to wipe out us zombies.

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.“
Ephesians 2:4-5

God’s better plan versus the zombies is this: to save them and to give them eternal life.  He saved us not because we were deserving, not because we desire to be saved, not because we are good; He saved us because of his great love for us.  While we were still zombies, the walking dead, Christ died for us to make us alive in Him.  He took on ALL of our sins upon Himself and ALL of God’s wrath and judgment as well.  He lived the life we should have lived and He died the death we should have died.

But this does not mean that all us zombies will all automatically have eternal life and then go to heaven when we physically die.  This gift has to be received by faith in Christ.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9

We receive this gift by putting our faith in what Jesus Christ has done to forgive us of all of our sins and to credit to us His righteousness.  It is a gift that we receive.  The reason why people do not receive this gift is because either they do not care about eternal life and are just satisfied living biological and social lives or they are still relying on their own ability and “good works” to receive eternal life.  They fail to receive the gift that has been handed to them already because they don’t believe that it is theirs already.  They think that it is some future reward that they will get after they have worked for it.

The Bible is clear about this: it is not by our works.  It is the gift of God.  The result of this gift is not just eternal life in heaven but eternal life right now while we live on earth.  Jesus said that He has come to give us life to the full.  And now that we are alive spiritually in Him through faith, He now gives us the ability to really live and experience life.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10

So, in summary, what then are God’s PLANS vs. ZOMBIES? He gives them eternal life.

Download the full Sunday Service message here.

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Related posts:
Given Grace has been given grace: A Tribute

Related podcasts:
GOD’S PLANS vs. ZOMBIES
ALL IN Series Week 2: Grace and Love

Download the Facebook Timeline Cover below.

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Oct 16 – No Striving
Oct 23 – No Chains
Oct 30 – No Fear

9am and 11am Victory Calamba Center. See you there!”

It’s been more than two weeks since I posted this teaser on Facebook and things have turned out more than expected.

After the ALL IN Series, for me, this is probably the most important series of messages I have delivered and will ever deliver in my whole life.  ALL OUT is unlike any series of messages on living all out for God that people usually hear.

As mentioned in the teaser above, this series does not push people to do more for God.  On the contrary, it encourages people to rest in what Christ has already done for us.  It brings back people to focus on fixing their eyes on Christ and then automatically everything else follows.

Too many times, messages on Christian living push people, urging people push the “gas pedal” even more.  The problem with just “pushing the pedal” is that it sets the tires and the vehicle on fire if the “brakes” are still on.  The whole vehicle of our lives breaks down.

The ALL OUT series, therefore, focuses on removing the brakes: the burdens and excess baggage of strife, self-effort, sin, guilt, condemnation, bondage to sin, fear and wrong ideas about God.

I’ve delivered Week 1 and 2 to Victory Calamba and Week 1 to Victory Los Banos already and the responses were overwhelming.  People have not just been moved to tears but long-time burdens have been lifted.  They say that it’s like a heavy weight has been lifted from them.  They’ve rediscovered God’s love for them and His grace.  People have been set free from burn-out and also habitual sin patterns.

The thing is that this message goes against a lot of the advice being thrown out there.  By going back to the Word of God, we find out that a lot of the advice being given is actually counter-productive and further enhances bondage to sin and burn out.

Listen to the ALL OUT podcasts and hear the message of God that has been setting people free.

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Related posts:
Sinful obedience?
Living up to personal convictions
The Great Passion (abridged version)
The Great Passion (full version)

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I saw in several posts on Facebook a quote from Pastor Jun Cebanico, Given Grace Cebanico’s father, that says, “We don’t understand but God understands.”

When Pastor Jun Cebanico said this, he probably meant, “We don’t understand why this happened but God does.” And this is so true. We humans have limited vision and knowledge. We experience time in a limited way. But God is not bound by our limitations. He sees all of time as a whole. He knows every consequence and every result of the chain reaction of consequences every single event produces. His wisdom and knowledge takes into account every single event in history. Such things we could not even grasp.

In the book of Habakkuk, Habakkuk asked God why God’s answer to the violence and injustice in Judah was greater violence by the hands of the Babylonians who were sent to invade Judah. God’s answer? “You would not understand even if I told you.”

It’s not that God did not want to explain it. It’s more of that Habakkuk would not even have the capacity to grasp the answer even if God explained it. Why more pain? Why more injustice? It would take a very long explanation here but centuries later, this very event led to the events that would cause the rapid expansion of the gospel in the whole Roman empire, the salvation of the world and the dramatic reduction of violence and injustice in the Empire. But how would Habakkuk understand?

I guess it was like a doctor trying to explain to a 2-year old toddler the intricacies of why he needed to administer the antibiotic shot. Could you imagine this dialogue with me?

“Baby, you have been infected by a strain of Gram positive bacteria that is currently attacking your digestive system. If the infection persists, your system would release so much water through your bowel movement and vomiting that you would soon be dehydrated. Do you follow? What you need is an antibiotic specifically targeting the strain of bacteria that you have. This antibiotic shot I will give you will target the cell wall of the bacteria you are infected with. It will inhibit cell wall development and hence cause the death of the bacteria. You get that so far? However, due to your tendency to vomit, this cannot be administered to you orally. It has to be done intraveinously…yadda…yadda…yadda…”

That toddler will have absolutely no capacity to comprehend that. All he knows is that he will experience tremendous pain but he can only trust that his parents and the doctor know what they are doing.

In the same way, it is infinitely far beyond our remote comprehension as to why such a fate would befall Given Grace. We can only trust that God does what He says He does when He says, “All things work together for the good of those who love Him.”

As to how this work of the Devil can be turned around for the good of Given Grace and her family, I don’t have the slightest idea. In a way, a lot of people have heard the gospel and have put their faith in Christ because of this but I guess this doesn’t even measure up to the whole explanation.

But this is not exactly the point of this post. My point is that what Pastor Jun Cebanico said that “…God understands” goes way beyond “…God understands why.”

You see, He also understands how it feels like to lose an innocent Child to unjust and violent men. He knows what a Father feels to see His Child do nothing but good, healing the sick, bringing good news, raising the dead and then experience betrayal from these very people he helped. When instead of crying, “Thank you, thank you” they shouted “Crucify Him,…crucify Him.”

He saw His Son given the thirty-nine lashes which shredded His back. He saw His Son being made to carry that rough timber of a cross up the rocky mountain path. He saw His Son being spit on and mocked by the very same people He came to save. He saw the the nails driven into His hands and feet, hitting major nerves and resulting to excruciating pain. He saw His Son suffer such violence and heard His Son saying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

He witnessed the injustice as His Son took on all our sins and the punishment due our sins. He saw all the disciples but one (John) forsake His Son during His greatest time of need. His heart was torn in piece as He saw His Son, cry “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me,” as He Himself, had to turn away from His Son because of the sin He bore.

He saw as His Son bore the greatest violence and injustice in all history for the world of sinners He loved. It was in His and His Son’s greatest sacrifice that grace, such as the grace given to Given Grace, was poured over for all mankind, so that by faith in His Son, we would no longer have to suffer the same fate. The greatest suffering and injustice brought about the greatest salvation, the greatest good to all us unworthy sinners who would believe – the forgiveness of all our sins and the crediting to us of all His Son’s righteousness.

You see, for every suffering person, for every person suffering injustice, for every parent who has to suffer the loss of a child, God understands. He more than understands why. He and His Son experienced it.

P.S. As I was writing this another pastor from Nueva Ecija, Pastor Jun Marquez, wrote me that his 10-year old son, Josh Marquez, also suffered injustice and death as he was hit by a car as he was buying food after the Sunday service. I hope we could all join in and pray for them as well. Thank you.

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Related posts:
Given Grace has been given grace: A Tribute
Given Grace – When God Doesn’t Make Sense

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I really don’t know Given Grace personally.  I only read about her.  Her home church is in Rizal but upon looking at her Facebook wall posts and those of her friends, it seems that she had been also visiting our Victory Los Banos church (she had a wall post that says, “Unreached doesn’t mean unreachable”, which was the tagline of our previous Sunday series, CROSSing CULTURES).

I have received a lot of comments and messages of thanks here and on Facebook because the blog post helped comfort them. One in particular was from a close family friend of theirs and co-worker of her father, Pastor Jun Cebanico, in the ministry.  I am glad that this message has reached her family and friends and I do hope that the blogpost helped bring comfort to them.

I also received messages from a lot of Christians who were wrestling with God and were trying to make sense of it all – of why such a young and sweet girl, a follower of Christ, the daughter of a pastor, a child of God, would suffer such atrocities in the hands of evil men.

I don’t have the answers. No one has; only God.  However, for those seeking comfort and understanding because of what happened, and even for those who are going through similar situations where it seems like God doesn’t make sense, I’m posting here for download three of the messages I delivered a few months back from a series called WHEN GOD DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.  Below is the bumper video.

This message series does not provide the answers why, but it does reveal Who God is during times when things don’t seem to make sense, especially when the innocent suffer and when evil and injustice abound.  It also shows us how God wants us to respond in times like these.

There were also those who wanted a deeper understanding of the grace of God that we have been given and which Given Grace had been named after.  I’m also making available a message I delivered more than a month ago entitled GRACE AND LOVE which talks about that which a lot of people, even Christians, take for granted in their everyday lives.  I hope this message inspires you and transforms you just as it has inspired and transformed me and hundreds of people who have heard it.  I believe this is the message behind Given Grace’s name.

I hope both of these sets of messages help bring comfort, encouragement and hope for all of you.

Again, let’s continue to pray for Given Grace’s family, friends and loved ones. Don’t worry about Given Grace.  With the instant that she came into the presence of God, everything that has happened to her, the trauma, the pain, the fear, have all been wiped away.  Such a a torrent of eternal love and peace fills her now, such a spectacle of God’s beauty and majesty fills her eyes that right now to her there are no more tears, no more pain, no more fears, no more shame.

Download links:
WHEN GOD DOESN’T MAKE SENSE
Part 1 – When I Don’t Understand
Part 2 – When It Takes Too Long
Part 3 – When Bad Things Happen

GRACE AND LOVE

May Christ and His peace be with all of you.

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Related posts:
Given Grace has been given grace: A Tribute
“…God understands.” – Pastor Jun Cebanico

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