Sweet Grace For Your Journey

Episode 100--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 099--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 098--How Beautiful

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” It’s right there in Romans 10:15 NIV. It’s also elsewhere in the Bible but it is quoted here to emphasize the fact that no one can become a Christian unless someone first shares with them the good news of who Jesus is. 

In Mark 16:15-16 ESV, Jesus tells His us what He wants us to do. “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

We can only do this through the power of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost when the Spirit descended, the result was that Peter shared boldly and powerfully and more than 3,000 people became believers that day.

This is what our Savior wants us to be doing. He wants us to be boldly proclaiming and courageously publishing the good news of what God wants to do in the lives of people today. 

How could anyone be saved today if Paul had not written half the New Testament? If Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had not written down their conversations, experiences and journeys with Master Jesus?

How can we share the good news with others? We talk about this and more on this podcast.

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

Episode 097--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 096--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. 

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Episode 095--More Than Conquerors

One of my main goals is to be a victorious Christian. I want to be an overcomer. I want to be able to conquer whatever difficulties come my way. Romans 8:37 tells us that in all things we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. But what does that really mean? First and foremost I know I cannot be victorious without God’s leadership. That means I have to lean on Him every step of the way.

Paul, in Romans 8:35, asks the question. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Then he goes on to list a bunch of things that are real fears people have. These are things we are afraid might cut us off from God and everything we love. 

As I share this list that I compiled from various versions of the Bible, think of your own life. Have you encountered any of these things:  trouble, hard times, tribulation, calamity, anguish, hatred, distress, hardship, persecution, harassment, famine, hunger, homelessness, deprivation, bullying threats, backstabbing, destitute, naked, danger, peril, sword, threatened with death, or the worst sins listed in Scripture.

To be victorious, to overcome, to be a conqueror, I can’t focus on difficulties that are happening or may happen. I really have to follow 2 Cor. 10:5 which tells me to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” In other words I have to intentionally take authority over my thought life. 

In this episode we talk more about how to do this and how to be victorious in our lifestyle change journeys.

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Episode 094--God is for Us!

Do you believe God is for you? Are you living that our in your everyday life? Are there times you think you are all alone and have to protect yourself because you feel vulnerable? 

Romans 8:31 NIV asks a really poignant question. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The issue for us is believing completely that God is for us. As this passage continues it uses words that remind us of a courtroom scene. 

Romans 8:32-34 NIV: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.“

In this scene, God Himself is our judge and Jesus is our defense attorney. The question asked is really a no brainer. If the Judge, is for us then who can ever be against us? Really believing this, though may take some introspection on our part. 

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

Episode 093--What is My Destiny? 

You can probably quote from memory the main verse we’re talking about this week. Romans 8:28 NKJV, “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” 

We might see this verse as meaning God is behind the scenes pulling the strings and we are all just puppets. We also focus on the word good thinking this means that nothing bad will ever happen to us. So we think, why do we need to pray if everything is going to work out anyway? Why do we need to try to do what He wants for our lives, if it’s going to turn out great whatever we do?  Still we realize that bad things have happened to us, so what does this verse really mean anyway?

Romans 8:28 is talking about our belief in the promise of what will happen if we are in Christ. It might be said this way: We have God’s sure promise that everything will work out for good because we are called by God. Our confidence is based around our belief in God and His calling on our lives.

This verse is here to comfort us and let us know that even the bad things which happen to us are things God can weave into our lives and use them for good.  I have seen this in my own life. I have made so many blunders and mistakes on my journey. Eating myself towards an early grave was one of those that took up a huge part of my adult life.

For more listen to the podcast.

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

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

Episode 092--Towards Glory

As we’re running this race called life it’s good to remember that we are headed towards glory. 

‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬Suffering is part of living in our very mortal bodies. But suffering for Christ, either physically or in any other way, is not losing. It is winning. Romans 8:18 tell us that “what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later.”

2 Cor. 4:17 NLT echoes that. “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”

I’ve know some great moments here on earth, sweet, intimate moments with my husband, loving moments with my children, beautiful moments exploring God’s creation, awesome times celebrating with family and friends. Multiply those by 1,000 and it still doesn’t come close to the glory that will be revealed to us one day. 

1 Cor. 2:9 NLT says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imaginedwhat God has prepared for those who love Him.”

It’s almost as if God is pulling back the curtain just a little to give us a taste of what is coming. In the great scheme of things, the suffering, the disappointments and pain that we encounter today are not such a big deal because we are in a race to the finish line. We are headed towards glory!

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Episode 091--Run the Race

We have a race to run while we are here on earth. It’s leading us towards a heavenly prize God already has waiting for us. Of course, we know we have an enemy that does not want us to run the race or obtain the prize.

One big obstacle our enemy throws in our way is condemnation. He makes us feel condemned or ashamed, guilty, fearful, unworthy, forgotten, useless, good-for-nothing.  

God, though, tells us in no uncertain terms that we are not condemned. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1 NIV says. Or as TPT puts it, “So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One.” 

As a Christian weight loss coach, I talk to a lot of women who feel condemned and like there is no hope for them because they just love to eat or feel like they are addicted to certain foods like desserts. They try to stop. They know God wants them to get healthy, but they just can’t. When I was in this position and weighed 430 pounds, I felt condemned, ashamed and guilty. I worked through that but it took some time.

If you are feeling condemned, remember what Paul said in Philippians 3:12-14 NLT, 

“Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,  I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

We don’t live in the past so let’s step out of shame, guilt, worry and fear, forgive ourselves and then start running the race. That’s what Jesus is calling us to. His goal is for us to gain the victory prize He has waiting for us. 

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