God working in Sunland

Wow I had an awesome weekend in Sunland chilling with Christian Judy, Jamin Mckeever, Tom Garcia, and Dan Morris!! I want to say thanks to all of you guys for just the love and grace of the Body of Christ that I have experienced out there. And I want to Thank you Heavenly Father for lavishing your awesome grace on me in this regard. (Ephesians 1:7-8) And Jesus Christ, Thank you for showing your face in these wonderful men.

I don't know how to describe it but I think that they guys that I hung out with in Sunland just really show off Christ with their lives and actions, through faith working in love and that just moves me to want to follow their example. Man as I continue to see the grace of God and His amazing love work in our lives together, and how God is relentlessing pursuing my heart to follow Him way more, I can now see the humility in accepting the grace that these guys have given me is one HUGE lesson that I need to learn.

One way that this is especially seen biblically is the way of salvation. My humility in accepting the gracious care of my brothers in Sunland is parallel though not exact to the difference between faith and works. Works is attempting to earn your own salvation through the Law or through good deeds or through what you do. The heart of it is the need to want to be made much of because your own works accomplished your salvation. In Romans 4:4-5, Paul contrasts works and faith by saying that works results in wages that is due versus a faith that accepts the FREE gift of eternal life which is the heart of the gospel. (Romans 1:16-17)

The reasons that faith glorifies God

1. It is NEVER initiatory in salvation. God first FREELY offered me the gift of life in CHRIST ALONE before I excersied faith to RECEIVE the free gift. Romans 10:14-15 clearly teaches that because no one seeks God (Romans 3:11), Christ must first bear our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21) in His death, rise again and conquer death, and present the gospel to us. That is the order in Romans 10:14-15, hearing then believing not the reverse. Furthermore, God's act of His provision of the gospel of eternal life is not based at all on my "deserving" of it because if it were, it would no longer be a gift and it would essentialy be a works-righteous salvation. However, there is an infinitely stronger ground for this grace of eternal life and that is God's unfailing passion to glorify Himself (the essence of His righteousness and justice) and His unfailing passion for my satisfaction in Him (the essence of His goodness) which are ultimately one passion.

2. When I accept the free gift of eternal life by resting in CHRIST's work of salvation, Romans 3:27 declares that faith excludes ALL boasting because faith passively allowing Christ to satisfy us in God as Hebrews 11:6 teaches. It is Christ that did all the work. And so Abraham's faith glorified God as Romans 4:20-21 teaches. Just as a person humbly must accept salvation, God helped me to see that this applies to my humble acceptance of the love of my buddies.

I pray especially now these days that I can love my parents in return. Because my parents are unlovable to me in my sin, I desperately need Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit more than ever so that I can still love them anyways NOT because they deserve it but rather because I am unfailingly committed to God's glorification in their lives (my righteousness) and my desire to see them satisfied in God. (my love for them) And the only Person who can help me now is Jesus Christ who was faced with many temptations not to love someone who woud only hurt him like the 10 lepers in Luke 17 (only one loved Him back). And so I feel more motivated to love my parents thanks to Dan Morris and Tom Garcia and Jamin and so please Jesus Christ help me to not be a cul-de-sac of grace but rather a channel of it to my parents. And I am looking forward to my reward that my Father will provide me (eternal glory) when I endure the trials of loving my unlovable parents. (Romans 8:18, James 1:12, 2 Timothy 2:10 1 Peter 1:6-9, 4:12-13, 5:10, notice the pattern of suffering THEN glory).

Longing to be a trophie of amazing grace as a son of God so the world may believe (Ephesians 1:5-6)
Kevin Chu