The Joy of the Lord

November 3, 2010 Marcus Honeysett

Brief post this morning as I am off to speak to London City Mission. The subject they have given me is "Enjoying God." Oh, yes!

Here is an equation that I often think about:

Effective Christian living for Jesus flows from the joy of the Lord. It is a consequence of it
In turn the joy of the Lord is a consequence of justification, receiving grace and living in grace (Romans 5)
Therefore we will dwell a great deal on justification and God giving us righteous status in Christ if we want to live joyfully and victoriously as Christians

Here is another variant on the same theme:

Receiving and living in grace = Living by the Holy Spirit --------> (leads to) Reigning in life (Rom 5:17) ------> enjoying God

It is all about grace in the end. No grace, no joy in God. No Holy Spirit, no joy. No reigning in life, no joy.

Seek him for grace today, and rejoice in all he has done for you in Christ

Discipleship-Oriented Church

January 12, 2010 Marcus Honeysett

Does your church actively train people individually or in groups to do any or all of the following: pray; read, understand and apply the Bible for themselves; give joyfully; forgive; fast; sacrifice; seek God for grace; worship that involves the whole person, affections as well as mind

Grace Based Discipleship

January 5, 2010 Marcus Honeysett

Talking about grace, rejoicing together in grace and spurring one another on in the Christian life is normal Christian living. Regularly asking "what is God doing in your life at the moment?" is the key discipleship question. Regularly being concerned for the joy of the Lord in each others' lives is the foundational expression of Christian love and community.

Testifying to the Gospel of Grace, Pt.1; Acts 20:17f

July 30, 2009 Marcus Honeysett

I know so little about authentic testifying to the gospel of grace. I hunger for more. Will that be hard? - definitely. Will it be glorious? - I hope so. Will it be worth it? - more than anything else in the whole wide world. Jesus said that if someone wants to gain the world and lose their soul then they are stupid (Honeysett translation), but if they lose the world for his sake then they gain their soul, this is what he is talking about. I want every believer in my congregation to sell their soul for receiving, living in, and then testifying to the gospel of God's grace in Christ. I want you to do so to. So did Paul. Most importantly, so does God.

Grace and Glory

July 9, 2009 Marcus Honeysett

All my friends think that I am like a broken gramophone record on the subject of glory and grace. I don't care. There is no other gospel. I search for words to describe the enormity of it and am lost in an ocean of wonder. Like a tiny sailing skiff dwarfed by the immensity of the panorama I am trying to contemplate. My heart was simultaneously filled, expanded, flooded and overwhelmed by seeing God at work.