Words of Life

Just ask, it’s worth a shot.

Chris Farace — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:13:56 +0000

Reading through Exodus 14-16, I noticed that there were SO many times where God did unexplainable things for the Israelite people. From putting a cloud between them and the Egyptian army by the red sea, to opening the red sea for them to pass on, to closing it – killing the entire Egyptian army without them even laying a finger on them. And the whole while, the people complain to Moses, talking about God as though they had forgotten everything He had done for them earlier. Even after the Red Sea experience, the drinking water is bitter so God makes it sweet; then they rejoice and give glory to Him, only before complaining that he has left them to die by going hungry, so what does He do? He gives them quail, AND fresh manner, daily. It still seems as thought these people are just not convinced that God is looking out for them and that He has everything under control.

We serve a God who does performs miracles and is in charge of all things. In the western culture, it is so easy for us to not have to rely on Him, because we have another way out for everything.

I remember when I was younger, I was playing with my mum’s mp3 player, and I accidentally cracked the screen. I got full of faith and sat in my room praying [really hard] for God to fix the screen. I believed so much that when I opened my eyes it would be fixed, but it didn’t fix. I then calculated how much it would cost to get the screen fixed and figured I had enough saved for it. I called the repair store and they asked for the serial number and after giving it to the guy, I was told that the mp3 player was under warranty and it would not cost me a cent to fix. IT WAS FREE. At this point I was shocked! I just thought, GOD! You have answered my prayer!

I realized something, and that was that God can work outside of the boundaries we may put Him in. Imagine how many time we have missed giving him an opportunity to do something amazing. Something outside of the box we would put him in, like fixing a car, or our computer. Multiple times as a kid, my computer would not switch on, or not work, and after a simple prayer and not doing anything different, it would work!

Don’t fall into the trap the Israelites did and forget about everything God has done for you, as if He wouldn’t help you again! Most of the time, He is just waiting for us to ask for His help, but we just forget to.

From now on, Just ask; it’s worth a shot!

Passover

Chris Farace — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:55:41 +0000

S.O.A.P reading for the day. I learnt a lot today; not so much things that I didn’t know before, but just putting things together with other things and realizing that the bible makes total sense, and that everything we read, Old and new Testament, points to Jesus.

In Exodus 12, we read about how after God had sent all of the plagues to Egypt, He finally comes to a point where he does something very significant and ‘Passes over’ the whole of Egypt. He gives Moses and Aaron specific instructions to get all of the Israelite household to take a lamb without blemish, kill it, eat it, then sacrifice the rest. After that, the blood of the lamb was to be put on the doorpost of their house, so that when God ‘Passed over’ He would know that they were under His covenant. If the blood was not there, every firstborn person and animal was killed.

Verse 13 says, “The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 This Day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”
While thinking about this, and the fact that the Israelites since then have kept this ‘passover’ feast as a memorial to God sparing their lives and saving them, I thought about another passover in the bible. In Luke 22:14-23 we see the story of Jesus taking His last passover with His disciples. I see a few similarities in this story, especially in reference to the words Jesus does and says. Verse 19,20 says that he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my body, which is given for You. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood”.

Jesus became the sacrifice for us. His blood is the blood that covers and protects us and includes us in the New Covenant which we have with God. Every time we eat and drink, we should remember, just as the Israelites do at Passover, that God saved us and that it is because of Jesus, our sacrifice, that we have obtained salvation and inherit everything that is of God.

Who’s the Judge?

Chris Farace — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:59:30 +0000

Romans 2:1-5 “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. ²We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. ³Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

As Christians, sometime we tend to get quite a bit judgmental towards other Christians. It’s almost like, in our act of judgment, we forget that God is the ultimate judge and that He sees the bigger picture of everything. In judging a person because of the wrong they do, maybe against us or not, we are deciding their fate, condemning them to our own law almost, longing for them to get what [we think] they deserve.

What will tend to frustrate us while in this mindset is the very thing that saved us all – God and His Grace. God sees the things that people do, but instead of condemning them and wanting them to suffer, He sees His child and longs for them to walk free of their burden. He will walk with them, help them, restore them, and the fact is that they probably will not get what you would wish upon them, rather, they will most likely experience a total freedom and blessing as God works on them – then they might then go and do the exact same thing a week later. And as they begin to realize the Grace and Kindness of God, as Verse 4 says, It is ‘Gods Kindness’ that will lead them to repentance. It’s an understanding of his Love and Unmerited Grace that will set a person free.

It is not our duty to do the judging, and as much as we may think that they deserve otherwise, Do you think you deserve any better? The fact is, we were all bought for the same price. In remembering this, Instead of pointing fingers, we should open our arms.

His endless Grace

Chris Farace — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:02:10 +0000

As we go about our lives, let us remember that it is because of Jesus that we have recieved salvation, and through Him that we have been made righteous. God sees Jesus when He sees us. We have taken on His identity, therefore let us take joy in the fact that it is not about what we do for God that gives us the right to be His, rather it was about everything that Jesus did that we are His.
Take a moment to think about this, and consider the things you do that you believe make you a ‘better’ or ‘worse’ Christian. Are you in condemnation, feeling like you have ‘dropped the bar’? Stop! and know that by the grace of God, that thing that you think you should be doing is not actually getting you anymore of what you have already.
See, nothing you do can get you any more from God than what you’ve already got, not because God doesn’t want to give you anymore, but because He has already given it ALL to you ALREADY!!
Renew your mind and set your mind on this fact, being assured that it is not by your works that you are saved or made righteous, but it is because you are now in Christ that you have inherited this.
Thank God for his unconditional Love and endless Grace for us.

Arms wide open

Chris Farace — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:02:30 +0000

Today I got to explain to someone about how what they do and/or don’t do has nothing to do with the way that God sees them. If they don’t pray or read their bible, they are still 100% completely righteous in the eyes of God. God still loves them the same and always will.
I told him to think about the time when he was closest to God, whether a season or a moment and the fact that whenever he is ready, God is waiting for him with His arms wide open, ready to just hug him and love on him. There’s nothing he needs to do. There’s nothing he needs to say, other than to just give God a bit of time and attention.
God is always waiting for us with a smile on his face and his arms wide open. Go and get loved on by Jesus!

Who are you?

Chris Farace — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:30:04 +0000

If your life is based on what you do rather than who you are, as soon as you can’t do whatever it is that you do, you become nobody.

Remember that you are worth more than what the evidence of your skills tell you. Everybody has traits within themself which allow people to feel uplifted and build up; a pleasure to be around. Focus on being someone who is appreciated for the real you. Not only for the things you can do. Everything else is secondary. For when the day comes where you can’t do those things anymore, you will still be loved and appreciated for who you really are; and that can never be taken away from you!

Chris!

Motivation of Love?

Chris Farace — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:37:43 +0000

God desires for you to encounter His Love. Once you encounter Gods Love, all you will desire is for someone else to encounter Gods Love.

If your ministry is not motivated out of genuine Love for God, which comes from knowing God’s Love for you, then it is worth nothing. [1 Cor 13:1-3]

Chris!

The Little Things.

Chris Farace — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:13:05 +0000

Isn’t it funny how we love the fact that God sees all the little things that we do. We love knowing that when we do something good and no one else sees, that God sees, and we love to know that He will bless us for doing those little things.

On the other hand, when we are not holding fast to our integrity and are doing the wrong thing, we absolutely reject the fact that God sees us. We go about doing things which we know are wrong, yet still do them just pushing God to the back of our minds in the process, justifying our actions in whatever way possible to help us feel better about ourselves. Then almost in the same day we might do some positive act again and think to ourselves, ‘Hmm, God would love that.”…

I wonder how many people out there are trapped in a cycle where they do the wrong thing, feel bad so try and do something good to make up for it, then do the wrong thing again, and the cycle continues, all without the knowledge of anybody else, driving this person to the ground because they fail to realise that they will never be able to break out of those ‘bad’ habits on their own.

We will always make mistakes. We will always ‘stuff up’ if we try to keep a ‘clear conscience’ on our own.

Its important for us to realise, God knows all. He sees everything we do, and everything we don’t do. God knows that you are struggling; all that is needed is for you to reach out to Him and receive His grace, experience His love, and let Him do a work in you which will be life transforming. Don’t waste one more minute believing you have to put up with feeling guilty. Reach out to God NOW. He is waiting.

Chris!

“What is my purpose?!!”

Chris Farace — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:39:09 +0000

One of the biggest desires in anyone’s life is to know what your purpose is. People will do almost anything just trying to be able to put in a sentence, what they have been put on this earth to do. They will ask people for their opinion, they will take ‘purpose tests,’ they will try writing out a life plan, they will try anything! And it is all because we don’t like being left in the dark; we want to be in control of our future. We want to know what is around the corner because we want some sort of comfort in the fact that we know where we are going, and we think that to get to exactly where we need to be, we need to be able to name it in detail.

I was thinking about this and analysing how God creates us and gives us a ‘purpose’ and gives us a ‘calling,’ and came to conclusion that finding out what you are put on this earth to do is what you have been put on earth to do! We aren’t supposed to be able to slap a sticker on our lives and say, for the next 50 years I will do this or that, as if we believe that it actually going to happen! The whole point of us surrendering our lives to God is that He is in control of our lives. It is only through me being in this struggle recently, trying to find ‘who I am’ and find out ‘what I’m meant to do’ that I have just realised, If you truly surrender your life to God, then what you are called to do in the future is something that will happen regardless, your destiny is your destiny. God is God. He can see our lives mapped out in front of Him, but still we try to plan it out ourselves.

I heard this great quote from a movie; it says “If you want to make God laugh, then tell Him what your plans are.”

As God challenged me about this topic, he said this: “Chris, just focus on BEING the person I have called you to be. Don’t worry about what you will do or where you will go, just BE Chris Farace! Everything else is my problem, not yours!” and to tell you the truth, I found so much comfort in this. When you think about it, if you just be who God has called you to be, attaining to you convictions, keeping to your morals, being intimate with God daily and acting upon what he speaks to you about, how could you possibly NOT end up where he has destined for you?!

One more thought about being who you are called to be: Just being who you are should have NOTHING to do with anyone else. It’s letting your heart speak in every situation, being real and being true to who you are in Christ. This is YOU, for the purpose of YOU. Not for the purpose of others! And everything you do from this place of you being YOU just may happen to be what God has called you to be doing for that time…

Be Blessed!

Chris!

God for fame.

Chris Farace — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:12:34 +0000

In the last 3 weeks, a lot of things have been frustrating me when I look at my life, and other Christians around me, noticing little acts of modern day religiosity. I will post a blog about these in detail soon, but for now I want to quickly make a point about something. If this applies to, then please, get offended, and change.

I am sick of people who feel they have a calling from God, and make ‘sacrifices’ to pursue it. They give up things and parade it, making themselves look good in whatever way possible. Then they do what they ‘apparently’ have been called to do, but are still, genuinely from the inside, more worried about their fame and people knowing their name than actually fulfilling a commission and mandate from God, making HIM famous.

If you want to be famous, dont use my God as an avenue to get there!

Do it Yourself.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with being famous. If God will use you and your name gets known then great! Don’t do it for this reason though, thinking that you are actually doing God a favour by serving Him; for He could chose someone else in an instant. It is a priveladge and honour to serve God and be used by Him!

Don’t get high of the fame, then pray, ‘Oh God, all the Glory is for you’.. PFFT! Don’t patronize God.

I think a good way to know if this is you is this: Think about what you do. If you love doing it on stage infront of others, but in your everyday life, it doesnt come out of you naurally, and you dont actually practice that when no one else is looking, and you wouldn’t do it anymore if you never got to do it on a stage again, then something is wrong.

If this is you, consider your motives, ask God to humble your heart, and move on…

Chris!

p.s. I will never blog something that God hasn’t challenged me about and I have dealt with first.