I find myself amazed at the amount of growth God cultivates in our lives through excellent books, and I can think of several authors that have grown in me a greater love for Jesus. After reading Jerry Bridges’ book Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God’s Unfailing Love, I can say that no other book has granted me greater insights on the reality of God’s grace in my Christian walk. In his book, Bridges gives several applications on how Christians can live joyful lives considering God’s mercy and goodness. Truthfully, I wish I would have read the book sooner; when I first became a Christian, I was frequently over-critical of others and seldomly quick to show kindness in conflict or tension. Of course, this was an outworking of the fact that I had not taken time to meditate on the mercy God has shown me in Christ. Thus, I value this book greatly, as I believe God has used Transforming Grace to strengthen both my love for Christ and my love for others. Having read and processed Transforming Grace, there are four applications which God has used to teach me how His grace changes the way Christians live:

1.      God’s grace changes how we relate to others.

The grace of God necessitates change in how Christians handle relationships with others, both in refraining from selfishness or pride and in joyfully serving others. To open his book, Bridges begins with a list of observations on how Christians can display a low view of God’s grace, one of which is that “You don’t understand God’s grace when you can think of someone you look down on.” Such a statement can provide discomfort in me, because I can think of several ways I quietly see myself as superior to others in my life—if I deny that there are people who I actively see as unworthy of my time, I am fooling myself. Christians who succumb to pride or disdain have in fact forgotten who they were before conversion; prior to our walk with God, we once stood rightfully underneath the judgement of God, “having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Rather than giving us the penalty that we deserved, God has mercifully granted us “Redemption through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7). There is no room for arrogance in the Christian life, as God has removed any pretense that we are superior to those around us. Additionally, when we comprehend the grace of God in Christ, we will strive to serve and love others well. Thankfully, we serve a savior who exemplified the greatest display of grace and love, who humbled himself to die for us (Philippians 2:8). Since God has rescued us from a life of vanity and selfishness, He calls us to put away any feelings of bitterness or hatred, instead extending forgiveness to others, as God in Christ has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:31-32). If we understand the mercy that God has shown us, all relationships in our lives will be changed.

2.      God’s grace changes how we fight against sin

My favorite chapter in Transforming Grace is chapter six entitled “Compelled by Love,” where Bridges addresses the motivation behind obeying God and turning from sin. He begins the chapter by stating “You are loved and accepted by God through the merit of Jesus… Nothing you ever do will cause him to love you any more or any less. He loves you strictly by His grace given to you through Jesus” (73). In this context, Bridges is speaking of believers and pointing out that there is no possible way Christians can nullify the grace that God has extended to them. If this is true, why then should the believer seek to obey God? If our salvation is hinged upon Christ rather than our works, what does it matter how we live? Bridges points out that the apostle Paul expects his readers to make this objection in Romans 6:1, stating “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” In other words, some may misinterpret the teaching of salvation by grace through faith to imply that we have license to live however we want, considering that our works are not the basis for our standing before God. Here, Bridges makes a strong statement that “This response is always a possibility. In fact, if our concept of grace does not expose us to that possible misunderstanding, then we do not thoroughly understand grace” (74). To assist in understanding the role of works in the Christian life, Bridges offers several helpful passages, most notably Romans 12:2, which says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship,” and Philippians 2:12-13, which says “… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” In summary, these verses show that the Christian should strive to obey God in response to “the mercies of God” and with the knowledge that “it is God who works in you.” Practically speaking, when we see how precious our salvation is in Christ, that all of our hope is founded in the fact that we have forgiveness in Christ, we live to honor Him out of gratitude for His work. Not only this, but God has promised that He will work in us to cultivate a heart of obedience as we strive for him—We refer to this concept as sanctification, or the idea of becoming more like Christ; God Himself produces within us the ability to grow in Christlikeness. In fighting against sin and temptation, our greatest weapon is a reliance on God’s grace, as understanding the freedom and hope God has given us in salvation grants greater satisfaction or fulfillment than any sin we could think of. As Richard Sibbes once said, “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us,” and this reality is a tremendous comfort to all Christians. Although we will never fully kill sin in our lives, we can freely strive after Christ, and we must do so without a twinge of guilt or uncertainty.

3.      God’s Grace changes where we find our confidence

Looking back on my Christian life thus far, I am thankful for the ways God is working in my life. However, if I examine myself, I see that many of the same flaws in me still remain, and some of them are extremely discouraging in that they provide a daily challenge in my walk with God. Christians commonly speak of “bearing fruit,” which is a term for growing in our Christian walk—but what if I am still bearing “bad fruit,” or there are still practices in my life that are unbecoming of my walk with God? This is where many Christians perhaps give lip-service to the idea that we are saved by the grace of God, but we function as if the evidence of our salvation is defined by our obedience. To be sure, good works are necessary in the Christian life, but if I find myself looking for certainty of my salvation in what I have done instead of what Christ has done, I have settled for a low view of God’s grace. To challenge where believers are finding their confidence before God, Bridges states “To the extent you are clinging to any vestiges of self-righteousness or put any confidence in your own spiritual attainments, to that degree you are not living by the grace of God in your life” (33). This brings up the question of assurance, or whether we can truly know we are a Christian. The New Testament speaks of believers as being “sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the prize of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14); similarly, Christians are exhorted to “not grieve the Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:29). I believe these verses affirm that Christians can know if they are in Christ, the question is on what basis we find our assurance of salvation. To answer this question, Bridges asks “Have you renounced all confidence in your own moral or religious efforts and turned in faith completely to Jesus to be clothed with His righteousness? If so, you do have eternal life” (44). What this means is that we see that our own actions are insufficient to meet God’s standards, that Christ paid the penalty for sin on our behalf, and that looking toward Christ and trusting in His work is the basis of our assurance. Our confidence is found in looking to the work of Christ, which is the fullest extent of God’s grace and mercy. How freeing it is to know that my assurance is based entirely upon Christ, who is faithful where I often fail and holds a perfect righteousness where I am constantly imperfect.

4.      God’s grace changes how we approach spiritual disciplines

There is no denying that I sometimes judge the success of my day on whether or not I spent sufficient time with God. There is danger in this, as a day gone without adequate time in prayer or Scripture reading brings feelings of guilt. I suspect many Christians feel the same way, that some of us feel trapped rather than freed in the disciplines of prayer and Bible reading. Bridges offers a timely word for believers on the subject of our pursuit of God, saying “Spiritual disciplines are provided for our good, not for our bondage. They are privileges to be used, not duties to be performed” (127). He continues by saying that spiritual disciplines—chiefly, reading the Bible and praying—are necessary, though they are given for our benefit rather than our bondage. Yes, we must seek God in prayer and study, even when we don’t feel like doing so; considering this, how does one refrain from seeing themselves as duty-bound to their daily spiritual disciplines? In short, this calls for continued prayer, that God would cultivate in us a heart of joyful worship rather than a heart of begrudging obedience. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:15-19 was that believers would come to a greater understanding of their hope in Christ, the promise of their redemption, and their reliance on God’s power. Similarly, Christians do well to pray that God would increase their affection for Christ and to fight for joy in God on a daily basis. Ultimately, a set amount of time in prayer or reading is not the goal, but an increased love and reliance on Christ is our goal.

Christian, do you find yourself living in a continual state of guilt or shame? I sympathize with you, as I must strive to regularly overcome these thoughts. I encourage you to look to Christ, that you may see the complete work that He has done. All striving, all self-righteousness is diminished when we recognize that Christ is our righteousness and our hope. I am praying that you will live confidently in light of God’s grace and goodness. May we see the precious salvation that has been purchased for us, that He has saved us “to the praise of His glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6, 1:11, 1:14).

Slater Baptist Church is launching a new prayer strategy. In this post, I’ll share what is being changed and why this change is happening.

One of the things that I love the most about Slater Baptist Church is this congregation’s commitment to prayer. Slater Baptist Church takes seriously what the Bible says about the power of prayer. Yet, I still believe there is room for our church to grow in this area. I believe we can deepen the prayer ministry of our church and involve even more of our congregation in the process.

In the past, Slater Baptist Church has had two regular prayer meetings. The first prayer meeting was on Sunday mornings at 9am and the second was on Wednesday nights at 7pm. The Sunday morning prayer time was intended as a time to pray for our congregation and services, while the Wednesday night prayer time was more focused on our community and our world. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, neither of these meetings have taken place over the last several weeks.

During this pandemic, Scott and I have had the opportunity to take a step back and examine the various ministries of our church. We asked hard questions about a lot of different areas of the life of our church. As we examined these prayer meetings, we began to ask “What if we asked people to pray for our congregation outside of a regular meeting? What would it look like to include more of our membership in the prayer ministry of our church?” From those questions, a new prayer strategy was born.

This new prayer strategy has two parts. The first part is a weekly prayer rotation. Each week, two members (or member families) of Slater Baptist Church will be given the special opportunity to pray for specific needs at Slater Baptist Church. These members will be given a prayer guide with prompts on how to pray for our congregation each day of that week. Each day of the week will have a different focus and the prompts will change from week to week. These focuses include things like our church’s leadership and community partners. In order to decide who will be asked to pray on what week, the members of the Leadership Team will be asked first, then the rest of the members will be asked from A to Z (based on last name). This prayer rotation has the advantage of involving all of our members, even the ones who can’t leave their homes! Also, it means that someone will be praying for our congregation EVERY SINGLE DAY!

The second part of the new prayer strategy involves our house groups. Our members really enjoyed meeting in homes during the pandemic to discuss the sermon and get to know each other better. So, we are continuing to meet in house groups during the week even after we started meeting in our building again on Sunday mornings. One of the things we are asking our house groups to do each week is to spend time in prayer. Every week, I send out prayer requests for our house group leaders to bring before their groups. These requests often come from events that have recently happened in the life of our church. This practice allows our house groups to pray for situations and circumstances that our members are currently facing.

These two parts accomplish different goals in the prayer ministry of our church. Through the prayer requests sent to our house groups, we have a multitude of people praying for the same urgent needs. Through the weekly prayer rotation, we have members of our church coming before God daily to intercede for our church.

I’m sure that this new strategy will raise some questions, and I would love to hear them! If you would like to receive a copy of the prayer guide each week so that you can pray alongside our other members every day, please let me know. If you would like to submit a prayer request, then send me an email or find me on Facebook. I am super excited to see how the Lord works in response to the prayers of His people!

At Slater Baptist, we believe that the Lord is using this worldwide crisis to teach each of us something. This series of blogposts is a space for our members to share what they have learned through these difficult circumstances. This first post is from Daria Pittman.

What has the Lord taught you in the midst of this pandemic?

To wait on the Lord and trust Him. Although I knew to do this before the pandemic, this has made it ever so real in my life and shown me the importance of waiting and trusting during a crisis.

"Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart, wait, I say on the Lord."
Psalms 27:14

"What time I am afraid I will trust in thee."
Psalm 56:3

"God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid."
Isaiah 12:2

This is His battle, and man can do nothing about it except abide by the laws of the land as the authorities lay out ground rules. God tells us in His Word to obey the authorities and in doing so we are helping to keep down the spread of this terrible virus. God is ultimately the one in control of this thing though which has caused worldwide fear.

He has also taught me to be content in whatever state I find myself. To be content in staying home most of the time and not even going out to eat with my friends, which is what I really enjoyed doing and about the only place I could go since I'm taking care of my mother. But now I don't go anywhere except as is necessary and He is teaching me to be content. He has taught me to be more focused on Him, His Word, prayer and the good things He gives to us.

I think we all should take more seriously 2 Chronicles 7:14. God's people don't always live as close to Him as we should because there are so many worldly things vying for our time and attention. I read something that I agree with: people love a lot of things sometimes more than they love God. For those who love sports, the stadiums have been shut down; for those who love music and concerts, the civic centers have been shut down; for those who love movies, the theaters have been shut down; for those who love money, the economy is shutting down and the stock market is going down; for those who love dancing, the dance halls have been shut down; for those who love exercising, the gyms have been shut down; for those of us who love getting our hair done, the hair salons have been shut down (I'm even trying to be content with washing and fixing my own hair), and on we could go.

On the other hand, there are those who don't want to go to church and those who love to go to church, maybe more so than they love living for the God whom they are supposed to be worshiping, so now it is that the churches are closed and those who will are worshiping in house churches. Maybe a lot of His people have just taken for granted that we would always be able to come into a church building and worship Him collectively. We have seen that taken away from us during these days. He has not changed, so all of us need to love Him enough to meet together in the house churches with as many as can legally be in one house and in so doing be obedient to His Word that says "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as we see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25).

It is time for God’s people to humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways, then He will hear from heaven and will forgive our sins and will heal our land.