295. What Does It Mean To Believe?

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We're taking a little bit of a different direction this week, talking about "belief." What is belief? What does it mean to believe? Is there any given specific way through which people believe? Perhaps this week we present more questions than answers, but we thought it would be a neat subject to explore.

Here's this week's GIG-Bite, a quick sample of this week's program.

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294. Growing in Grace

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Obviously with the title of this podcast being called "Growing in Grace," that's the gist of what we hope to encourage listeners in week after week. So what does it mean to "grow in grace"? Does it have anything to do with progressively becoming a "better" Christian? Does it have to do with striving to become better in our performance of living the Christian life?

We don't think so. Rather than trying to become "better" and rather than focusing on self-improvement, we believe that God has already given us all things and has already made us to be all that we are meant to be, and "growing in grace" means to grow in the expression of who we already are. It means to learn more and more about who God is and who we are in Him (our true identity) and to trust in Him to express His life through us.

Take the pressure off of yourself to perform for God or to improve your performance for Him and instead dig your roots deep down into the fertile soil of His love and grace!

Here's this week's GIG-Bite, a quick sample of this week's program.

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293. Rooted, Grounded and Resting in Grace

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The theme of our weekly podcast has to do with the foundational elements of life in Christ, or "square one" as some people might call it. We focus on being rooted and grounded in God's love and grace. This week we take a look at resting in Christ and in God's grace, and we discuss how no matter what we do in our daily lives, from so-called "spiritual" activities to work to normal life at home, it's all a matter of Christ expressing Himself in and through us as we rest and enjoy His life in us and our life in Him.

Here's this week's GIG-Bite, a quick sample of this week's program.

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292. "Sinners" Saved by Grace?

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In our new lives in Christ, should we continue to refer to ourselves as "sinners"? Having been saved by grace, are we still "sinners"?

Don't we have a new identity in Christ? Haven't we become the "righteousness of God in Christ Jesus"? While we were once "dead in transgressions," hasn't God now made us alive together with Him as new creations? So why do we still refer to ourselves as "sinners"?

Some may bring up the words of the Apostle Paul, who referred to himself as "the chief of sinners." But was he talking about his current life in Christ, or his overall reign as the biggest sinner in the world because of the things he had formerly done in his life? In other words, at the time he used the phrase "chief of sinners," did Paul think of his current life as that of a very sinful person?

Should be a good conversation, as we talk about all these things, as well as what happens if we continue to live with the mentality that we're merely poor, wretched sinners.

Here's this week's GIG-Bite, a quick sample of this week's program.

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291. Already Forgiven and Cleansed of All Sin

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Continuing on from last week with our discussion about whether or not Christians need to confess their sins in order to be forgiven and cleansed over and over again by God, we discuss the many scriptures aside from 1 John 1:9 that say that we have already been forgiven and cleansed of all sin - past, present and future. We then move onto something else that we'll also be talking about next week, which is the question of whether God has simply fixed us up, patched us up and "improved" us, or whether He indeed has made us into something brand new. Should be encouraging!

Here's this week's GIG-Bite, a quick sample of this week's program.

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290. Confess Our Sins to Be Forgiven?

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What are we to do when we sin? Is God's forgiveness of us invalidated each time we sin? Do we need to do something to be forgiven again? Do we need to ask God for forgiveness? Does 1 John 1:9 mean that whenever we sin, we become "unforgiven" until we "confess our sins" again (and again, and again, and again, and again...)?

Here's this week's GIG-Bite, a quick sample of this week's program.

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289. Sin Taken Away Once and for All

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Talking this week about the good news that through the ONE sacrifice of Christ - the one SUFFICIENT sacrifice of Christ - sin has been taken away once and for all!  Walking daily with this knowledge, you can live freely in your relationship with God. Free of guilt and condemnation, and free of a conscience of sin toward God.  There was one sacrifice for sin, and it was sufficient. There is no other sacrifice! So when your actions are contrary to your new nature in Christ, you can trust that through this one sacrifice your sin has been taken away forever.

Here's this week's GIG-Bite, a quick sample of this week's program.

NEW! "Watch" this episode on YouTube.