Sweet Grace For Your Journey

Episode 263-Focus on Jesus, Not Sugar

I’ve been reading and studying Romans 14 for several weeks. I thought when I first read it that it would an easy passage to talk about. I knew it related to my journey but in what way?

So I asked Jesus, “What is the message of Romans 14 for my listeners?” And He said, “Focus on Me, not on anything else. Not on sugar, not on food, not on diet laws, not on what to celebrate or not celebrate. Just focus on Me and everything will fall into place.”

Then it finally made sense. As a kid, I learned Romans 14:17 in the KJV, but I didn’t know the context of the verse. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” 

The Amplified Version says it this way: “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking what one likes, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Did you hear that? It’s not about eating and drinking what we like. It’s all about the Kingdom of God. It’s about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Nothing else matters but allowing Him to lead us.

The MSG adds, “God’s kingdom isn’t a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness’ sake. It’s what God does with your life as He sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy.”

That makes a lot of sense because verse 18 in every version talks about serving God. We have to get our focus right before we can serve Jesus. I know that was certainly true in my case. For most of my life, my focus was definitely on sugar and not on Jesus. 

Romans 14:18 AMP says, “For the one who serves Christ in this way, recognizing that food choice is secondary, is acceptable to God and is approved by men.”

This entire chapter is about the freedom Christ brought. This was especially important to the Jewish believers. When Jesus brought us His freedom, it cancelled the rules about what foods are clean and OK to eat and which were unclean and shouldn’t be eaten. 

I get it. I really do. All their lives they had lived by what their “church” told them was proper. They knew that Christ’s liberty had set them free from all of the rules, but they weren’t ready to make the switch just yet. This was causing arguments in the church. In this chapter Paul is trying to tell the new Christians that what we eat or don’t eat is not something that matters regarding our heavenly destiny.

I talk about this as well as my own journey with sugar addiction in this episode.

Overcomers Academy: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/Overcomers/ 

Episode 262-Time to Wake Up

It’s time for Christians to wake up to what’s going on in the world around us. The time is growing short. We are closer to meeting Jesus now than we were first saved.

In Romans 13:11-14 Paul gives a dire warning about the future and describes how we as Christians we are still always one day closer to meeting Him. 

He tells us how we should live by describing a normal day. First we have to wake up to the spiritual issues around us. Romans 13:11 tells us to wake up from our slumber. Second, we have take off the old clothes we were wearing in the darkness. Romans 13:12 tells us to “strip away what is done in the shadows of darkness, removing it like filthy clothes.

Next we must dress for battle by “putting on the armor of light,” as it says in Romans 13:12. We also must know our enemy and how to defeat strongholds. 

Finally, we have to know where we are going. We have to be dressed to run with Jesus. Romans 13:14 MSG tells us we can’t loiter or linger. We have to be up and about what God is calling us to do.

Overcomers Academy Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/ 

Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds Link: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Teresa-Shields-Parker/dp/0986159247/ 

What is A Stronghold Link: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/what-is-a-stronghold/ 

Episode 261-Holy Spirit Glow

Do you want glow with the power of the Holy Spirit? It’s certainly something I desire. This is lesson 20 in our study of the book of Romans. We’ve learned that Romans is all about the foundations of the Christian life, how to follow Jesus, how to renounce our fleshly desires, how to renew our minds and how to transform our lives.

Now in the latter part of Romans 12 we learn about serving God. After we learn to lay down our selfish desires, we begin focusing on what God wants us to do with our lives. It’s then that He starts showering us with His grace gifts so we can do the tasks He has called us to do.

These aren’t gifts to hoard. They are gifts to be used to serve Him. This where Romans 12:11 TPT says, “Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward Him boiling hot! Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let Him fill you with excitement as you serve Him.” The Message says, “Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame.” 

Overcomers Academy link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/ 

Episode 260-From the Inside Out

We can be changed from the inside out. We can renew our minds which will then transform us.

Romans 12:2 AMP and in the MSG gives us several keys to consider which we visit in more depth on the podcast.

First, to renew our minds we can no longer just go with the flow. We have to ask ourselves, is this really what is best for me or is it just what my flesh wants?

Second, we let God mess with our priorities, our habits and our comforts in order to transform us from the inside out.

Third, we don’t allow our old programmed minds to talk us into doing things that are not best for us.

Fourth, it’s not enough to just recognize and know what God wants for us we must quickly do what He wants us to do.

Fifth, our goals should always be follow God’s plans and purposes for our lives. 

Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds Link: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Teresa-Shields-Parker/dp/0986159247/

Overcomers Link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

VIP Freedom Coaching Link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/vip-freedom-coaching/ 

Episode 259-Surrender Delights God

Why should we surrender to God? Because our surrender delights God. If there is anything we should want to do it is to please God. Surrender also has great value for us on our journeys which also delights God. Romans 12:1 AMP: “Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, dedicating all of yourselves, set apart, as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational, logical, intelligent act of worship.” What does it means to be living sacrifices? It means to be alive to what Christ wants for us and dead to evil things. It means to surrender to God and that means everything on our journeys. When God talks about living sacrifices, He is talking about the fact that we have died to living for what we desire and have decided to live for what Jesus wants. Gal. 2:20 NLT: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice to God is intelligent, rational, logical because we are obeying God. We are following the God of the Universe who is bigger than we can imagine, but small enough to fit inside us at the same time. Who He is and who we are makes surrendering every single part of our lives to Him a rational, and at the same time a very emotional, course of action. Doing this now and every single day is more than a starting place. It will define how we live in tandem with Him for the rest of our lives.

 Overcomers Academy Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/ 

Episode 258-Listen to God

Why don’t we listen to God? The other day I was jogging in the water and pondering what I would share on this podcast. I had been reading Romans 11 for several days but I had decided I was going to go on to do the next podcast on Romans 12 because I understood how it fit into my journey. Still, the last four verses of Romans 11 kept calling me back. 

It’s a great section of scripture but I knew there was something I wasn’t getting. I have to grab hold of it first before I can share it with y’all. So I asked God to show me.

That’s when He asked me the question, “Why didn’t you listen to me when I told you to stop eating sugar the first time back in 1977?”

Then I saw clearly three reasons I didn’t and they all come from Romans 11:33-36 TPT, the passage I was going to skip over and not include in this series. But now I understand that it may be one of the most important lessons yet. 

First, I want to read the passage.

“Who could ever wrap their minds around the riches of God, the depth of His wisdom, and the marvel of His perfect knowledge? Who could ever explain the wonder of His decisions or search out the mysterious way He carries out His plans?

“For who has discovered how the Lord thinks or is wise enough to be the one to advise Him in His plans? Or who has ever first given something to God that obligates God to owe him something in return?” 

“For out of Him, the sustainer of everything, came everything, and now everything finds fulfillment in Him. May all praise and honor be given to Him forever! Amen!”

Here are the three things He dropped into my heart. All of them hit me hard because I remember believing them and feeling them at the time. They hit me hard because I knew each of these things aren’t true theologically, but at the time they felt very real to me personally.

1. You didn’t listen to Me because you felt I was too difficult to understand.

2. You didn’t listen to Me because you didn’t think I cared about you, really knew you or really wanted the best for you.

3. You didn’t listen to Me because you felt like you knew better than Me.

Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds link: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/sweet-surrender/ 

Episode 257-Grace is Amazing

I know a whole lot more about God’s amazing grace today than when I accepted Jesus at age seven. I knew I had been saved by grace, but that’s all I knew. I also knew it was amazing because we sang about that all the time in church.  

I love how grace is explained to believers in 1 Peter 4:10 AMPC: “Each of you has received a gift, a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment. Employ it for one another as good trustees of God’s many-sided grace, faithful stewards of the extremely diverse powers and gifts granted to Christians by unmerited favor.

God’s grace is many-faceted because it is as vast as God. Grace is the DNA of  God. It’s what He is made of. The grace of God cannot be explained or contained in a few words, but I see at least seven words that help us understand how grace operates in our lives. Each one seems to build on the other. 

Grace saves us, sustains us, surrounds us, searches us, stretches us, strengthens us and stands us each in the place of our assignment or mission. 

On this episode we are going to look at each of these aspects of grace.

Overcomers Academy link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers

Episode 256-Rebuilding Jayne & You

This fiction book, Rebuilding Jayne, and the nonfiction book, Sweet Grace, are very connected. My biggest issue when I was super morbidly obese and Jayne’s issue in is we are both refusing to do what God was telling and showing us to do. I resonate with Jayne because in many ways she and I are a lot alike. We’re also very different. She is wealthy and I am not for one. 

At one point God even told me, Jayne is you. Well, certainly at the core of her being she is. I do think it is so true that we are all alike in many ways and so very different in others. Yet, we can learn from each other. I never expected a fictional character in a book to minister to me, but she really did. 

Even though I wrote the book, God had a lot to say to me through the story of the book. He told me what to write many times when I didn’t have any idea how to get a character to the point or decision they needed to make. I was just the scribe. He is the Author.

I wrote Rebuilding Jayne to help people understand God is not this big person in the sky ignoring what we are doing. He’s with us in every aspect of our lives. When He speaks to us, we need to pay attention and do what He tells us to do.

God knew His plan for me was what I needed in order to live. It took me many years to understand that what I told Him was the truth—I can’t stop eating sugar. I can’t do it by myself. But I can do it when I  follow what God shows me to do. I had to surrender every part of me to God, even what I eat. 

To Join Overcomers Academy go to https://Teresashieldsparker.com/Overcomers/ 

To check out my new book go to Amazon.com and search for Rebuilding Jayne by Teresa Shields Parker. Available in kindle, paperback, and hardback.

Episode 255-The Master Potter

We are all lumps of clay in the Master Potter’s hands. God is God. He created us for a purpose. When we find that purpose it makes all the difference in the world.

Instead, a lot of us rebel against how God made us. Romans 9:20-21 TPT: “Who do you think you are to second-guess God? How could a human being molded out of clay say to the one who molded Him, ‘Why in the world did you make me this way?’ Or are you denying the right of the Potter to make out of clay whatever He wants? Doesn’t the Potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay an elegant vase or an ordinary pot?” 

God is telling us that no matter what we look like, what our gifts or talents are or what family we were born into, whether we are rich or poor we all have to make a decision about whether or not we are going to follow God’s will for our lives. 

The problems come when we want to be something God never intended us to be or we refuse to step into the destiny God has for us or we desire the same destiny someone else has. 

God sees us for what we will become. He also sees the ways we have failed Him, but tells us time and time again that if we repent and turn to Him, we will be saved because He is alone is God. 

Our bodies are like dust and to dust they will one day return. This is why God uses the analogy of clay and the potter. Our bodies are like the everyday common clay pots and dishes those in Biblical times used to eat their meals on.

The difference between us and those common utensils is God’s presence lives inside of us. “We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours.” 2 Cor. 4:7 TPT.

The problem is that dishes get broken and so do we. Our dreams get dashed. People fail us. We fail ourselves. We do bad things that we can’t undo and feel, just like the broken dish we threw in the trash that there is nothing good left in us. If a broken dish needs to be thrown away, then what should be done with a broken person? 

God, though, sees value in everything. He will use our brokenness to make something truly beautiful from our lives. 

Overcomers Academy Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds Link: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Teresa-Shields-Parker/dp/0986159247/

Episode 254-Jesus Loves Me

Romans 8:38-39 are some of the most dramatic, poetic and impactful words in scripture. They are so monumental that we sometimes just pass right by them. However, when we finally internalize what they really mean to us it will change how we view God and drive us to trust Him more.

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 NKJV 

For eight chapters in Romans, Paul has been laying out the plan of salvation and sharing who Jesus is and why trusting Him is important. In this conclusion to the first part of Romans, Paul is telling these new believers that Jesus’ love for them is a trustworthy foundation  for their faith. It will stand any test they might throw at it. His conclusion is a convincing and persuasive argument that NOTHING, can separate those of us who are in Christ from Jesus love for us which gives us access to Father God.

The depths of God’s love is seen in what Jesus did. It should be a big deal for someone to say, “I love you.” As awesome as that is, it’s quite another thing entirely for them to tell us that nothing will stop them from loving us. Nothing. 

I love my husband. We’ve been married for 44 years. Not every year was perfect, but the imperfect years were mostly my fault. I say mostly because it does take two, right? See, God gave me a gem when he gave me Roy. He is calm, patience, loving. He has a servant nature that I could never outdo. 

He loves me and I love him, but are there things that could separate me from his love? I’m sure there are. But he has already put up with a lot  from me, think 250 more pounds on my body. That still didn’t stop him from loving me.

However, if I yelled and screamed at him every day, that would do a lot of damage to our relationship. Are there things that could come between even the most committed couple? Yes, I’ve witnessed it happen to those who thought they’d be married forever and then out of the blue, something happened to separate them.

My question then is how can God say that there would be nothing at all that could ever stop Him from loving me? We are humans and we aren’t perfect. We learned that back in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All means all, everyone, yes, me and you, too. 

But here’s where Romans 6:23 ESV comes in. “ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This verse solidifies our fate as sinners, but it also gives us the way out. Jesus is God’s pure gift of love to us. It is only because of what Jesus did that God can love us. 

Without Jesus willfully agreeing to leave His heavenly throne and come to earth as a human, die on the cross, be buried, rise again from the grave, and ascend to heaven, God couldn’t love us. We are sinners by nature. It took God with skin on to rescue us when we accept His gift of salvation.

If we have accepted Christ, God now sees us through Christ’s righteousness and as such we are welcomed into God’s presence. 

Link for Teresa’s Website: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com

Link for Overcomers Academy: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

Link for Teresa’s Fb page: https://www.facebook.com/TeresaShieldsParker

Link for Teresa’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/treeparker/

Link for Teresa’s Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/treeparker