The Easter effect is real and it is awesome! Listen as Pastor Mark describes what happens when a person believes the Gospel and is born again. The Easter effect kicks in and the believer experiences a new reality that opens the door to real peace, joy and righteousness.
Please share this latest episode of the Fueled by Grace podcast with your friends and family. Help spread the Good News that the Easter effect is alive and well, and able to give the life-changing power of God’s love to all who would believe.
We live in timultous times. But the rock we can stand on is God’s love for us. We grow more aware of His love through our relationship with Him. A vibrant, authentic relationship with our Heavenly Father can be a reality – in fact, that is the desire of His heart!
Sadly, many believers do not have a real, authentic relationship with God. That is partly due to continually hearing a mixture of law and grace from their pastor or ministry leader.
Enjoying prayer is a by-product of having a relationship with God.
If what believers are being taught does not include teaching about the new creation, and how we have truly been made righteous through Christ Jesus, it is not the whole gospel.
Listen as Pastor Mark shares two keys to having a real, authentic relationship with God. Please be sure to share this podcast on your social media, or text the link to your friends and family members. Tell others about how they too can be encouraged in God’s great love by listening to the Fueled By Grace podcast.
Keep quiet Jesus. Sounds a bit sacrilegious. But, these very words had to be circling around the man Jesus as He stood silently before the Sanhedrin. Silently He watched as they tried repeatedly to bring a charge against Him, but even those set up to lie about Him could not make any charge stick.
Keep Quiet
Keep quiet Jesus. Without two or more witnesses Jesus quite possibly could have gone free. What a temptation for a human! Yet when Caiphas asked him point-blank if He were the Messiah, instead of keeping quiet, Jesus signed His own death sentence and said, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Jesus facing the real temptation to simply keep quiet
Death Sentence
Matthew 26:65 says “After this Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Blasphemy! Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy.” There you have it, Jesus signed His own death sentence. But, why? Why did Jesus not simply continue to stand silently? He spoke and convicted Himself because He loves you! He loves me!
Listen and Please Share. Folks Need an Anchor
Listen to the latest episode of the Fueled By Grace podcast and be encouraged that God loves you. We are living in interesting times, and need an anchor that is secure, something that is unshakeable through things like inflation, vaccine mandates, and supply chain shortages. That anchor, that rock is God Himself, and the assurance of His great, fierce love.
Please share this episode of the podcast. There is no doubt that there are folks you know that need to be encouraged, that need to know that God loves them. Thank you!
God loves you fiercely. During these times when anxiety is gripping hearts everywhere, seeing and believing in God’s great love can be the anchor we need.
Vax, anti-vax, variants, mandates, and uncertainty are churning fear into the souls and minds of even the most emotionally strong. We are living in times most of us have never seen, often not knowing who or what to believe.
God loves you fiercely, like a lion, the Lion of Judah
Listen here to Pastor Mark’s latest podcast and be built up and encouraged in the truth that God loves you fiercely.
Share it with a friend or family member, as they are likely anxious and need a boost of God’s fierce love to help them during these times, too.
Repent. It’s a word that stirs up thoughts of fiery preaching, tearful responses, and altar calls. But in truth, it simply means to change one’s mind. The Scriptures say that even God repented – changed His mind.
Over time the word has basically been used to call unbelievers to salvation. That’s a good thing. Sadly, however, many in ministry use the word for believers, also, and in the same connotation as when using it with those who have not yet been born-again.
Repent and receive Christ is a good message for unbelievers
This is something for which the church might want to repent – to change its mind. The constant focus on a sin-consciousness when speaking to those who are God’s children does nothing to help them grow in the Lord. In many cases, it puts the believer on a spiritual hamster wheel, having them working to “get right with God.”
The church needs a fresh revelation of the Gospel and a renewed understanding of the new creation. Sharing these and other powerful realities with the saints, versus keeping their minds fixed on the flesh will work wonders in actually helping folks overcome their struggles. “For it is the grace of God that teaches us to say no to ungodliness.”
To God you are absolutely everything. But David as the psalmist in Psalms 8, asks in verses 3 and 4, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” Some translations say “What is man that you care for him?”
David, We Get it
If you are like me, you love to see the beauty of God’s creation. It can be overwhelming to see the fall leaves at their peak of color in the mountains. Or, to see a magnificent waterfall or canyon. Looking at a blue sky or a garden full of flowers can lead us to the question David posed, “God when I see your creation I have to ask, what is man that you are mindful of him?”
God’s creation is amazing, but to God you are everything. (Image from southamericadrive.com)
But, Jesus Himself said we are of much more value than other created things such as the lilies of the field or the birds of the air. To God, you are His masterpiece! In fact, this great post at nightbirde.co reveals the real heart of God at the very beginning of his “mindfulness of man.”
Listen as Pastor Mark shares how God really feels about you, and be encouraged that to God you are everything!
Take off your mask. These four words swept throughout the country a few days ago and people are responding with a collective sigh of relief. The joy of being able to step into the fresh air and simply breathe without a mask is exhilarating.
Wearing a mask is not new. It has been going on since Adam and Eve covered themselves in the Garden of Eden after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Throughout the entirety of human existence, we have been wearing emotional masks.
Why Wear a Mask?
Why do we wear emotional masks? It is for the same reason Adam and Eve covered themselves: fear. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we wear surgical masks or other face-coverings out of a fear that we might be infected. We wear emotional masks out of a fear of being hurt, rejected, not liked, etc.
A mask in theater is common, to hide the actor or actress or display an emotion.
Take Pastor Mark’s Challenge
In the episode of the Fueled by Grace podcast, Pastor Mark gives a simple challenge that will help us take off our emotional masks. This challenge will help us be who we really are, free from the fear that causes us to wear a mask with God and with others. It is a guaranteed life-changer!
What’s in Your Balloon is a guest post by my wife, Tammy Shiver. Tammy went to be with Jesus two years ago. But her wisdom and heart for God live on in my life. Hopefully, they will become an encouraging part of yours, too.
Tammy had started to write a few years before she died. This post was actually written a couple of weeks after she was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer. Even in the face of a desperate diagnosis, she never wavered in her love and faith in God. That was Tammy, in love with Jesus and trusting His goodness all the way to the end of her time on earth.
It is my honor to feature some of her posts here at Fueled By Grace. Please let her words encourage you and draw you closer to our Lord Jesus. That was, and I am sure still is her heart’s desire.
What’s in Your Balloon?
As I was praying for a friend this morning, God gave me a picture and illustration that I felt like He wanted me to share with my friend. The more I prayed about it, I felt like He wanted me to share it on this blog also. So here it is…
In my mind, I got this picture of a red party balloon. It was full of air, but laying on the ground. The air that was in it was too heavy to enable it to float on its own. This was because the balloon had been inflated by a person breathing into it (human breath). In order for the balloon to float effortlessly, it needed to be filled with the weightless air of helium. Then, the balloon will soar limitlessly as long as it stays filled with helium.
What’s in your balloon? Hot air or fresh helium?
What God was showing me was that the heavy air of human breath that filled the balloon represents our tendency to rely on our human strength and resources. This “heavy air” leaves us grounded (like the balloon), weighed down with life’s struggles, worries, and cares. God wants us to let this heavy air of relying on our strength/resources out of our lives so He can fill us afresh with the lighter helium air of the strength and resources of His Holy Spirit. We are reminded in Ephesians 5:18 to “…Be filled with the Spirit….” As we seek to stay filled with the Spirit, we will not rely on ourselves, but we will know what it means to live in the rest of God, soaring (like a helium balloon) in His mighty strength and power working in our lives.
God is standing by with the helium tank of His Holy Spirit’s breath ready to fill us up. Won’t you join me in putting aside the things we have been relying on that are keeping us grounded and letting God fill us and give us what we need to soar in His strength?
Prayer
Father, we get caught up in the worries and cares of this life and fail to look to You for the strength, guidance, and resources we need. We rely on ourselves and our resources instead, and in doing so, often create a bigger mess of our lives and then blame You for it. I thank you that right now, we can come confidently to Your throne where we can receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Heb. 4:16). Thank you for providing a better way for us to do things in the power and strength of your Spirit. Fill us now and give us desperation to be continually filled with Your Spirit so that we will rely on Your strength and enter into Your rest. Thank you for forgiving us, filling us, and teaching us how to rely on and live in your strength.
Passover. A significant event – may be the most significant day on the Jewish calendar. We read about it n the book of Exodus. God had displayed multiple acts of power on the Egyptians in an effort to get the children of Israel freed from captivity. Each time the head of the nation, Pharoah said “No.”
Finally, God said through Moses that all the firstborn of Egypt were going to be slain. In order to survive this horrific night, Moses instructed the children of Israel to put the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their homes. When the death angel moved through Egypt, seeing the blood would keep it moving and the firstborn inside any home with the lamb’s blood would be spared.
There are so many things to look at and see how the Christian experience is foretold in this historic event. But, for this podcast, it is the day after that grabs our attention. Numbers 33 speaks of this day and it is astounding! Israel, with the wealth of Egypt, walked defiantly out of Egypt toward the promises of God. Death was all around them, but they walked through it and into freedom!
Listen to the awesome word that God has given for this special time for Pastor Mark to share. It is an amazing, fresh revelation that will truly encourage you as you ponder the truths herein.
Will You Help Spread the Good News?
Be sure to share this podcast with friends and family. Post it on Facebook or Twitter, text or email the link, or share that it is at Apple Podcasts and Spotify, also. Thank you, and God Bless You!
