Stop trying to balance Grace & Truth - A New Post by @ShelleyHendrix

And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.

John 1:14 Amplified

I used to believe (and teach) that Grace and Truth needed to be balanced. I no longer believe this. 

In reality, I understand now that Grace and Truth are two sides of the same coin. You simply can't have one without a full and complete measure of the other.

"...(G)row in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..."

I Peter 3:18 NIV

Grace & Truth 

• Truth Educates. 

Truth is the reality of what is. Truth informs as we spend time with the Author of Truth. Truth sets us free to the extent that we know and apply it to our lives.  (See John 8:31 - 32)

I've observed a sad dynamic in most Christian circles today: using the word "truth" in place of the word "Law." In other words, people are using the wrong definition for the word truth. 

• Grace Empowers.

Grace is the loving-kindness and favor of a God who doesn't lie. His grace rescues, redeems, and restores us as we embrace Jesus as our Savior. But Grace does not stop there! Grace remains in our lives and is what empowers us to grow up into maturity as followers of Jesus who have been given a brand new identity as children of God. 

• They never contradict each other. 

So beware of anyone who says, "Yes, there's grace, but the truth says..."

• They are never at odds with each other. 

You can't "pull the Grace Card" without the "Truth Card" because they are one and the same. 

There are a lot of well-meaning folks today who are trying so hard to motivate people to live for God while also encouraging people to trust God's grace. In doing so, what usually happens is that they speak out of both sides of their mouths. 

When We Try to "Balance" Grace & Truth, we only lose our balance

When people speak out of both sides of their mouths, listeners and learners get confused and usually wind up remaining stuck spiritually in the "Give Up/Try Hard Cycle." 

Jeff Van Vonderen, Tired of Trying to Measure Up

The speaker's intentions are usually good; but their motivations come from a misunderstanding of the Original Good News Jesus came to offer. They, too, tend to live in this Give Up/Try Hard Cycle themselves, so why wouldn't they continually use the same tactics in trying to get other people to shape up and fly right?

A short blog post doesn't permit me to carry this thought out in depth, so instead, I want to share some resources (in addition to the one above) that will help you on your own personal journey to better understanding and embracing God's grace in your own life so that you'll be better equipped to share it with others in your life.

• TrueFaced.com  (Many resources!)
• The Two Paths Talk by John Lynch (Free Video - Start here!)
• The Rest of The Gospel (Book)
• What God Wishes Christians Knew About Christianity (Book)

(Please consider using the Amazon Smile Link at the top of our blog page to order these book titles. Thank you!)

These are just a few trusted resources that are "Church 4 Chicks approved." :-) I do hope you'll take the time to research these resources for your benefit personally, but also for those within your sphere of influence. 

When we can stop using "truth" as a weapon to motivate change in behavior or "grace" as an excuse for our (or a loved one's) bad behavior, perhaps we'll get on with the business of living life to the full that Jesus promised was ours to experience. (See John 10:10) 

May God lavishly grant us both as we "grow in the Grace and Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

"Learning to Lead Others to the Room of Grace" by John Lynch @Truefaced

With Permission from the author, we are honored to pass along this post by John Lynch, Co-Leader of Truefaced 

*Original Post titled "The Note" can be found here.

Learning to Lead Others to the Room of Grace

“There are no together people, only those who dress better”, or as Bruce says, “…only those with brighter teeth.” Everyone needs grace all the time. Everyone needs to live out of their new identity all the time. No exceptions. There are no other types of people. But, there are different applications from hearing the message of grace, depending upon our backgrounds, exposure and upbringing.

When we speak on college campuses, after the messages, some students will always hang back, waiting until almost everyone else has left. They will then, unsuccessfully, try to get out  words, through deep sighs and sobbing. They have either never heard these truths or they are, for the first time, hearing life they way they’ve dreamt it could be and the opposite of what they’ve experienced.

But sometimes, students from really healthy, grace-filled homes encounter a message they’ve seen modeled most of their lives. Their responses are often quite different. One of those students wrote me a note last week:

“Mr. Lynch, (I like this kid)
I was raised in a healthy grace filled home. I have some of the most amazing parents on the planet, but I didn’t realize that until I began learning of the brokenness of the souls around me…I have been given the tools required to heal after getting hurt. During high-school, I knew several people who were “emotional.” I knew that there wasn’t anything wrong with emotion, but I knew that there was something wrong with their emotion. Then here at college, I learned that many of them were simply trying to play a broken instrument without the full understanding what the music sounds like from an instrument that is in complete working order.

This brings me to where I was sitting at lunch, listening to your discussion. The whole time I was thinking about my roommate. The guy doesn’t know who God is. He doesn’t know what a Christian is. He thinks he does. He was raised in the church. I don’t have to tell you what he thinks of the church because you are already aware of how ignorant and self-righteous we make ourselves look.

I want my roommate to know Christ. I want him to know who God is. With my background, it’s hard for me to articulate grace because it’s something that was instilled and not taught. Sitting and listening to you articulate grace has helped me a great deal. I have been able to relate grace to my roommate through lifestyle, but I haven’t felt capable of explaining it to him, and your talk has helped me to order some thoughts in my head.

…I’m not there yet. It’s going to take me a long time to deliver this message fully to my roommate. I’m not just going to sit down with him and explain it in an hour and then have him completely turn his life around during a whirlwind of emotion and epiphany. It’s a lesson he’s going to learn slowly and I have to “teach” it day-by-day. I would appreciate your prayer as I make my way through this last semester with him, before I graduate in May.

Thank you.”

We never get “past” needing to hear the message of grace and identity for ourselves. But sometimes, we get to see the message through the eyes of others and their desperate need for these truths. In fact, once experienced it’s the first response we often have: “Everyone I know needs this! I must begin to learn to not just bask in having experienced it, I must learn how to articulate this way of life.” Those are the words of someone entering a pretty incredible journey of watching God release the captives.

John Lynch

As many of you know, John Lynch's voice is one of the strongest and most trusted in my life when it comes to the message of the Gospel, Grace, Identity and Living Out of Who God Says I Am. I am so humbled that he allows us to share his voice and his words with you, our awesome C4C Family! 

Make sure to check out www.Truefaced.com and his other books, see picture to the left for those. 

(And, forgive my shameless plug...it just means so much to have his approval and endorsement of my work.)

With Love,

Shelley

Super Heroes ~ A Guest post from @Truefaced 's John Lynch

Photo property of Open Door Fellowship, Phoenix, AZ

Super Heroes 

by John Lynch 

I have donned the cape of Middle Aged Man for the last time. Last Sunday ended my run with the “Lesser Known Super Heroes”. I will no longer fight crime next to Poultry Man, Accordion Man and Sopapilla Woman. It’s not likely I’ll be that missed. I think this crime-fighting band has come out of the shadows of secrecy only five times over the last ten years, and that was only to publicize church picnics.

None of them really have any “super powers”, although Sopapilla Woman, wearing a protective oven mitt, does throw really hot cinnamon and sugar encrusted sopapillas at criminals with pretty uncanny accuracy.

I didn’t really want this to end; but, a friend, after our most recent performance mentioned that 55 is pushing the boundaries of middle age. I realized in that moment that my season in the sun was over and that someone younger would need to take my place.

I’ve been thinking about why we’ve done this bit all these years. It gets more embarrassing each time, as the tiny super hero tee-shirts reveal more and more…well middle-agedness. We frighten both newcomers and children alike.

But I have come to understand we never existed just to publicize picnics but maybe to promote a way of life with each other. We are each leaders in our church. And so we are teaching a whole bunch of convictions every time we stumble out in front of our family. Here are just three of probably six-hundred-some:

*Dignity does not come from dressing up in formal clothing.  We look silly and undignified. But we were never supposed to pretend to be any different than the people we serve. There is no clergy-laity separation in our convictions. Over the years I have discovered that I have received incredible respect, dignity, honor, permission and trust, mostly by never pretending I was someone above or apart from them. Influence is never achieved by a title or position, but only through being authentic, faithful and genuine enough to be trusted. Any time we can take off the robe of religious superiority with our own vulnerability, self-directed humor, and commonness, people flock to open their hearts and give permission.

*Church can be the most winsomely fun and enjoyable place in town. We are convinced God absolutely delights in laughter and playful joy. Joy has to be given expression. I really believe God probably gathers His angels around on occasion and says, “You gotta watch this. These guys are funny.” Reverence is not a pious voice or a solemnly quiet room. Reverence is when God is lifted up in all of who He is. We can teach a false and stupid dichotomy. We laugh and enjoy all week long and then we come to church and suddenly we can stage something melodramatically serious, piously trite or manipulatively condemning. It really is possible for there to be tears, repentance, communion, worship…andraucous laughter in the same morning. It’s all who God has made us to be. Cool God.

*An environment of health and grace celebrates. As I looked out at my friends last Sunday, it was so beautiful. We are all hurting, grieving over something. We’re afraid and concerned about twenty things. But for five minutes a family got to celebrate that love wins, that grace wins, that Jesus wins. That His life in us transcends and trumps the cynicism and despair of our culture. Everyone in that audience last Sunday was hooting and hollering and laughing in joy, shouting to us spontaneous blurts of mock offense. Even the most pious, stoic newcomer was compelled to smile, and drink in the infectious joy. The moment wonderfully models and teaches an environment of grace. Such who come under its delight, learn to no longer live a double life: one of pretend moral togetherness on Sunday and mortal inconsistencies and guilt the rest of the week.

I donned the cape for the last time Sunday. But I pray that, like the Dread Pirate Roberts of Princess Bride, anotherMiddle Aged Man is waiting in the wings. I pray that one Sunday morning, a few years from now, sitting in the audience, I will be surprised by the sudden loudness of the theme from Batman as the Super Heroes emerge from the crowd and another Middle Aged Man begins delivering lines. That’s when I’ll know my work here is done.

John Lynch

As a great communicator and writer, John Lynch is a vital staff member of the Truefaced team and co-writer of The Cure and TrueFaced the book. In addition to speaking nationally with the Truefaced team since 1997, John has co-authored a number of books and resources with Truefaced, including the bestseller The Cure and the popular TrueFaced Two Roads audio-video message.

John served for 27 years as teaching pastor at Open Door Fellowship in Phoenix, Arizona, a position that he held since 1985. He recently stepped out of that role to begin working full time at Truefaced. The authenticity, longevity, and playfulness of these two flawed communities, Open Door and the Truefaced group, brings real-world reality and potency to this Truefaced message.

John used his love for writing and performing as the co-founder and playwright for Sharkey Productions, a theater troupe focused on Gospel-anchored theater productions for those still seeking Jesus. John and his wife Stacey are passionate parents to their three children Caleb, Amy and Carly. They are grandparents to Maci and Payton.

***

Originally posted on www.TrueFaced.com Nov. 9, 2008. Used with permission. Original post can be found here.

The Successful Person's Worst Day ~ Guest Post by John Lynch @TrueFaced

The Successful Person's Worst Day

by John Lynch

Those who are of high capacity can have a harder time getting in touch with the pain God allows to free you from a greater pain. In truth, you often don’t struggle with life the way many others do. So, it is tempting to surround yourself with others who appear on their game; operating in a higher gear than others. You can be deluded into thinking you are uniquely and largely impervious to need; like you can override need with resolve, skill, resource, ministry and mission. This is where great danger lives. There is a worst day that the high capacity person is vulnerable to, maybe more than anyone else. I imagine that I can make something meaningful, that I can create goodness or do this Christian life without actually needing Christ, in this moment. Subtle, it goes like this: “Jesus, I’m deeply grateful for the Cross. I know there are things wrong with me. I don’t do the big sins, but I’m aware for those who have been given much, more is expected. I get that. So, I’ll keep helping those others who seem to struggle so much. I don’t know why they can’t just figure it out and get on with their lives.”

It all carries the illusion that great capacity, intelligence and direction equate to a better life. It does not, necessarily. I can carry a delusion that my sins are of a lesser nature than those of others. Again, I play the fool.

You can come to actually live like you don’t need to trust God for every good thing accomplished. Your worst is day is the day you become seduced into thinking you’re able to pull off anything, without trusting Him in everything. You won’t see it right away. That’s why it’s so devious. It might seem like your best day. After all, you were on your game, you pulled off some pretty incredible stuff. But at the root, there is a self-made pride that gives God a tip for capacity and talents. But eventually fruit will be born. It will be rotten and useless. And you will wonder why others don’t let you lead them the way you think they should. Then you will look around and discover you have been paying God with your efforts, instead of allowing His effort in you to shine in great love.

The goal of this life is not having less issues than others, or even being able, through natural gifting and talent, to do more things for mankind. The goal is always letting Christ be great by our trusting dependence upon His ability in us. As my friend Bill Thrall often says to leaders; “He doesn’t need our excellence. He wants us to trust Him, so His excellence can be lived out in us.”

The greatest gift you with high capacity, success and strength can give yourself would be a number of safe others who can tell you what they see. A place where you are loved enough to be able to ask, “How am I affecting you?” They will eventually tell you if you let them. And you may discover you’ve been living many, many worst days, in the midst of your apparent lack of need.

It will take a humility which allows another in, another who is able to tell you, “You’ve forgotten the only thing that matters, trust working itself out in love.” For you who dare risk such a thing, you are about to experience influence over “success”, being trusted over being accommodated, receiving love, over only giving out of appearances of love.

We deeply need you, wonderfully gifted leader. We just first need you to stop believing we need you more than you need him, more than you need us…

Connect with John Lynch and the Rest of the Leaders of this growing Tribe of Grace HERE