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TGP Volume 16
(2016)

The Grace Perspective is written (sometimes densely worded and intense) as a follow-up supplement to past and present counselees.

 Week 52

The Celebration Continues

We celebrate, as Elizabeth did (and also her unborn child who “leaped with joy in her womb” - Luke1:41-45), the announcement that Mary was “with child and that the Life within her was from the Holy Spirit,” giving testimony that God was faithful to his promise to provide for the redemption of his people. But we celebrate even more, beginning (not ending) on the Day of his Arrival, the Birth of the Child, to be Present in our lives.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16L29

Congratulations! Christ Has Come! Why the Lights are Still Lit

Carole was born on the shortest/darkest day of the year (Winter Solstice). But it’s on that date that the days start getting longer and brighter. For that reason, while I celebrate her birth date, I continue to celebrate for a week or more and all year long (because her presence brightens my life).

Also, on Christmas Day, we celebrate the coming of Christ into a dark world to be our Savior. On the days before, we enjoy the anticipation, but it’s on Christmas Day that the celebration begins, not ends. So while we begin decorating our home and Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, it is only in anticipation of the celebration which begins on Christmas Day. This means, the lights on the tree and in the windows are brightest on Christmas Day and are not turned off for at least a week or so in celebration of the real reason for the season.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16L27

Week 51

Did You Know

The Bible word “bless” means to “reverse the curse.” It does not mean to superficially relieve pain.

This means, we bless others at Christmas by giving them gifts, not that
  • feed their addictions or codependency needs or
  • help circumvent the outcome of their foolish choices or
  • purchase their affection or
  • make us feel good,
but that support them for making wise choices which help them grow or that help lift them out of their brokenness.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16L22

GracePoinToday

Christ communicates Truth to his Church by the Holy Spirit through The Scripture, so we do not miss taking extended time each day for reading it. The movie/tv/entertainment industry, books and magazines, Twitter, and Facebook are not substitutes for hearing God.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16L20

Week 50

GracePoinToday

Church attendance, “praise and worship” music, Bible studies, and performance to help the homeless and hurting will, in time, disappoint your hope for a satisfying Christian experience. Only Christ (your experience of him during quiet-time worship) will increasingly lift and sustain you. He (the Life he gives) never disappoints – not after a few years, not after a lifetime, not for eternity.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16L15

GracePoinToday

Nutrition is more important than taste, strength is more important than beauty, substance is more important than image, information is more important than feelings, health is more important than fun, and children knowing about Jesus at Christmas is more important than knowing about Santa Claus.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16L13

Week 49

GracePoinToday

We will lose (be disappointed with the outcomes of) whatever we pursue and attempt to hang on to (including relationships, longevity, and financial success), but will be supported for good outcomes as we wait on God to bring into our lives his Provisions of Grace which will not fail to accomplish his Redemptive Purpose for us (beginning with holiness, but including also health and happiness).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16L08

GracePoinToday

The understanding of Truth the Holy Spirit will give you during your extended quiet time each day to read the Scripture will be different than the religious notions you will have by periodically reading the Scripture like a textbook.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16L06

Week 48

GracePoinToday

The resource that loves us most is not the one that gives us what we want that meets our sinful desires but

  • provides us what we need (information, attention, and structure) that supports us for making wise choices which result in health and happiness (Philippians 4:19) and also
  • disciplines us (does not circumvent the painful outcome of our wrong choices but gives us opportunity to learn from them - Hebrews 12:6). 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16L01

Did You Know:

1. The giving of the Scripture by the Holy Spirit was a miracle; so is our ability to understand it.

2. The same God who miraculously gave the Scripture must also miraculously give us enablement to understand it.

3. That’s because man does not have the ability to understand Truth unless God reveals it to him, which he does by the Holy Spirit through the Scripture.

4. This means, whatever we think we understand about Truth that is not revealed to us by the Holy Spirit during our quiet-time to read the Scripture in order to hear God (but is learned by reading the Bible as a textbook or that is taught to us by our favorite writers or teachers) will not be Truth but will be legalistic notions – which can sound pious and religious, but will be performance-based error which will not set us free but increase our bondage.

5. 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; John 16:13-14; 1 John 2:27

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16K29 

Week 47

Did You Know:

The word "thanksgiving" means more than to be glad or happy about a good outcome or experience. It also means more than to have a positive or benevolent feeling towards a benefactor. The Bible meaning of the word means to give self (to open the door of one’s heart) in order to receive the support provisions being offered which produce the good outcome or experience.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16K24

Did You Know:

God has provided for our full multi-dimensional redemption (physical, psychological, and eternal healing and recovery) (Psalm 130:7).

For example, God has provided for our physical health through the elements in the soil and atmosphere (food, water, oxygen, sunshine, etc.), but if we miss including those elements into our lives in sufficient amounts, we will miss the redemption God has provided for.

God has also provided for our mental and emotional health (information and affection) through leadership relationships in the home and Church. But if they are not available or we neglect remaining connected to them (per John 15:1-8; James 5:14; Hebrews 2:3), we will miss that aspect of redemption God has provided for.

God has also provided for us to experience wisdom (the mind of God to support us for making wise choices) and also love, joy, peace (from God), longsuffering, gentleness, goodness (toward others), faith, meekness, and temperance (towards God) through quiet-time worship (intimate fellowship) to experience Christ.

This means, God accomplishes his Redemptive Plan, not by the imposition of his Will, but
  • according to his law of sowing and reaping (cause and effect),
  • through his Provisions of Grace,
  • beginning with Christ (his Blood/death and Resurrected Life), but including also in Creation (elements in the soil and atmosphere), and Community (leadership in the home and Church), -
  • when we include them in our lives (Romans 5:17).
It also means, we will miss experiencing whatever dimensions of God’s Redemptive Plan for us for which we do not receive his provisions.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16K22

Week 46

GracePoinToday

God not only provides counsel to us for making wise choices, but he also enables us to comply with the instructions he gives us. 

By doing so he models for us (pastors, teachers, parents, husbands, and others in leadership) our need to take care to instruct others to do only what we are willing and able to support them for doing.

That’s because, in our zeal we sometimes tend to offer advice to others on subjects we are passionate about, but are not willing or able to support their compliance.

Grace leadership (GracePoint) is committed, not only to providing instructions – especially for learning how to
  • read the Scripture in order to
  • hear the Holy Spirit communicate Truth in order to
  • experience Christ in order to
  • manifest him (his Light) into the world (the darkness) -
but also to providing step-by-step support.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16K17

GracePoinToday

Who cares for you? The Psalmist lamented, “I looked for support, and found no one who cared for the needs of my heart” (Psalm 142:4). So he suffered. 

That’s because, except for our need to be born again, man's greatest need is for confidence that we have at least one support resource who cares for our redemptive needs (support for information, affection, and decision making/structure). 

When leadership resources fail or are not available, God, who calls us into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ (through quiet-time worship), is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16K15

 Week 45

I predict Trump will win the election with ____ Electoral College votes. My prediction, of course, is based mostly on hopefulness – not really on any special knowledge or insight.

But I have figured out this much:

If liberals win the election, the most irresponsible and morally corrupt among us will have chosen not only the leadership for our nation’s government but also potentially several justices on the Supreme Court – from which America may never recover. But if conservatives win, it may be because God intervened to impart Light into the hearts of his people, moving them to vote Judaeo-Christian values in order to preserve the remaining freedoms we have, so that a broken, performance-driven Church might have additional time to consider “the message of grace in its fullness” (Colossians 1:6, 25)  

Finally, I am not anxious or holding my breath about the outcome. The first work God wants to do in the world is not civic but redemptive, and to do it by the Holy Spirit in and through individual members of the Body of Christ. This means, regardless what our challenges may be on earth, we can experience Heaven in our hearts.

“God, who has called us into fellowship with (to experience) his son, Jesus Christ, is faithful.” – 1 Corinthians 1:9

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16K08

Week 44

Did You Know:

The meaning of the word FAITH is “conviction.” It is produced in our hearts (minds) through hearing (Romans 10:17), but it is not hearing the words spoken by men; rather, it is hearing Truth (receiving Seed) communicated to us by the Holy Spirit during our quiet-time to read the Scripture.

If what we understand about the Bible is only what we have learned from a favorite speaker or writer, we have reason to wonder if what we believe is Truth.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16K03

GracePoinToday

The less essential our needs are (for example, travel to the moon), the more complex the solutions are. But the more essential our needs are (for example, eternal life, health, holiness), the simpler and more accessible God’s Provisions are (beginning with Christ) for obtaining them.

“Come to (receive from) me, all you who are worn out working hard chasing after secondary goals, and I will give you recovery (health and  happiness)." - Matthew 18:28-30 (GIP)

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16K01

Week 43

God provides our needs according to his law of sowing and reaping. That means:
  1. We reap what we invest for – the outcome of his provisions (seed) which we receive into our lives.
  2. Normatively, because he is a wise parent (Father), he does not intervene to circumvent the outcome of our foolish, impulsive choices.
However, we do not doubt that God sometimes, but probably not often, chooses to intervene to save us from certain death or utter ruin. Also, we do not doubt that God can be moved to deliver us by our crying out to him – even though it is not normally how he relates to us.

With that understanding, and because of the current grievous state of our nation, I am personally pleading with God to intervene at this historic election time, maybe just this one more time, to supernaturally move voters to vote consistent with Scriptural values so that our nation does not implode under the weight of its foolish and immoral choices and might have further opportunity to consider the message of grace. If he does not, it may be because members of the Body of Christ are so addicted to their codependent, superficial relationships and feel-good needs that only the pain of “hitting bottom” will motivate an awakening.

God calls us to him first through his goodness (through the offer of his Provisions). When we do not respond, he allows trouble to call us to him. If that fails, he calls us home, perhaps through the rapture.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16J27

GracePoinToday

A performance church begins with a pastor who supports members for going and giving (Especially for giving!) in order to build up the organization.

A ministering church begins with a pastor who provides support to an inner circle for learning how to experience Christ, maybe to as many as 12 persons, who each provides support for learning how to experience Christ to maybe as many as 12 persons, who (and so on), in order to build up members per Ephesians 4:11-13.


DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16J25

 Week 42

Did You Know:

1.  Man can teach what the Scripture says, but only the Holy Spirit can teach what the Scripture means (John 16:13; 1 John 2:27).

2.  For this reason, we can know what the Bible says without knowing what it means - the same as we can know how to spell a word without knowing its meaning. For example, we can know how to spell PRAYER without knowing its meaning (“a place of exchange”) or know how to spell FAITH without knowing what it means (“conviction”) or know how to spell FORGIVENESS without knowing what it means (“removal”) – in which case, we come away with a misunderstanding of the Scripture.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16J20

Did You Know:

Saved people can absolutely lose their salvation.

But it is not our justification / reconciliation to God / regeneration that we lose - that aspect of our salvation that
  • is based upon our relationship to Christ (our placement into spiritual union with Christ by the Holy Spirit so that we are IN CHRIST),
  • makes certain our going to Heaven, and
  • is a one-time event.
Rather, born again persons can lose their sanctification – that aspect of our salvation that
  • is based upon our fellowship with Christ (our experience of CHRIST LIVING IN US – John 15:1-8),
  • makes possible our holiness, health, and happiness, and
  • is a life-long process.
So when the question is asked us, “Are you saved?”, the answer can be both YES and NO!

This means: We can be saved for Heaven, while also at the same time be broken and unhappy!

I thought about this when I saw a t-shirt worn this week by a fun-loving, distinguished looking older man which said, “I am an adult! Well, I am not a real adult!”

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16J18

Week 41

GracePoinToday

One person may be less broken than another, but no one can be established in health apart from experiencing Christ.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16J13

GracePoinToday

Support for information, affection, and structure is the most urgent need of children. Parenting to meet their feel good needs in order to win their favor will have a disappointing outcome.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16J11

Week 40

A Non-Gentle Way to Deal with Geese

Geese graze, poop, and honk. They add nothing to the values in a community. When a gaggle of them show up in my neighborhood, I launch a ground and air attack against them. This, despite other gentler souls in the world who have different views and values. They prefer to play nice with them with the hope the geese will do no harm – but if not to be, the poop and destruction don’t seem to bother them that much after all.

Groundhogs also set out to invade my property to live under my storage barn. But the tunnels they want to dig can create a problem for the foundation. So I have built a big wall (“Believe me, a big wall, I can tell you!”) around the opening at the base of my storage barn to keep them out. Again, other more gentle souls think I am being unkind and that I should learn to coexist, even if I am the loser in the relationship.

God calls us to health. If geese and groundhogs could be taught how to contribute to the health of our community, I would offer support. Otherwise, I’ll keep them out.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16J06

GracePoinToday

A “come and receive” church provides ministry support to hurting people and is filled with renewed members. A “go and give” church sets performance rules for winning God’s favor and is filled with broken members.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16J04

Week 39

GracePoinToday

God’s first goal for us is to experience Christ during our quiet time worship. We can disregard our need for Christ and still find ways, as the world does, to attain our own goals, but the outcomes we accomplish will not be from God. 

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16I29

Did you know:

John 15:7, “If you remain in me and my words (Greek: rhema) remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you,” does not mean that God will give us whatever we ask for (in the sense prayer is commonly understood – that is, “to plead”) IF we follow him and memorize the Scripture.

Rather, it means that, if we take quiet time each day to read the Scripture in order to hear the Holy Spirit communicate Truth to our minds, Christ will transform our values so that
  • our desires will be holy and according to his redemptive purpose (so that)
  • we delight in his Provisions (so that)
  • our experience of answered prayer will be God meeting the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4; 1 John 5:14-15; Romans 8:27).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16I27

Week 38

GracePoinToday

God’s first goal for our lives is our reconciliation to him - which Christ made possible by his death on the cross (Romans 5:10).

His next goal is our sanctification –
  • the healing of our hearts (mind, emotions, and will) and
  • holiness (usefulness as vessels for redemptive service to others). 
This means -
  • Our hopes for any outcome, as commendable as it may be, that disregards this sequence of God’s goals for our lives will be disappointed.
  • When we take time each day to be renewed in our experience of Christ, God is free to give us the desires of our hearts per his promise: “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16I22

GracePoinToday

Performance Churchianity (going and giving) not only wears us out but leaves us unsupported for the healing of our brokenness.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16H16

Week 37

Did you know:

God’s purpose for the Church is not to provide performance opportunities to religious people for winning his favor or becoming “Champions for Christ,” but to provide support to broken people for learning how to experience Christ for healing (beginning with the heart: mind, soul, and will).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16I15

Did you know:

God’s love for us (agape) does not mean he is okay with our lifestyles or misbehavior, but that he values us unconditionally (without consideration of our worth) and provides support to us, faithfully, fully, and freely, beginning with Christ (his Blood and his Life – Romans 5:10), so that we are enabled to make choices which establish us in health. Also, God’s love in us for others does not mean we approve their lifestyles or misbehavior; rather it supports us for providing support to them - not for helping them to feel better (to meet their superficial pain relief needs), but for making choices that establish them in health.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16I13

 Week 36

Did you know:

God allows adversity into your life - not in order (as commonly thought) to
  • punish you,
  • teach you survival skills,
  • make you stronger, or
  • motivate you to try harder or work on yourself - 
but in order to
  • reveal/expose your brokenness and need for him,
  • call you to receive him (his Provisions of Grace), and to
  • give you an opportunity to increase in your experience of Christ, who is Pure Joy (the Source of our Joy). 
This is the message of James 1:2-3.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16I08

GracePoinToday

We have the option to

  • live out of our brokenness (fallen Adamic nature), or
  • research to learn what holiness looks like (WWJD), and then attempt to perform to mimic or duplicate it (religion), or
  • take time each day to be renewed in our experience of Christ in order for him to live his Life in and through us (grace). 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16I05

Week 35

Did You Know:

The Holy Spirit enables our communication to God (Romans 8:26-27, James 5:16) to welcome him into our hearts - and he may do so with song.

But we do not sing to God in order to bless him or for his enjoyment.

Also, the Holy Spirit enables our communication to others about God (testifying, teaching, and preaching) - which he may also do with song.

This means, the Holy Spirit sings through us
  • to God to confess our faith (concerning his Redemptive Plan) and to welcome him (and his Provisions of Grace) into our hearts and also
  • to others for the purpose of calling them to receive Christ. 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16I01

In the final moments before a young couple at the airport said good-bye, they held to each other tight and promised their undying love. But just moments before departing, the flight was cancelled. Meeting up again unexpectedly, they seemed disappointed and their passion for each other seemed gone.

It reminded me of the boredom and tension I see in most lives and marriages, which is relieved sometimes by special occasions (parties, expensive vacations, entertainment), but for only moments.

It reminded me also of the loud and exciting church experience some have on Sunday morning which fizzles by Sunday afternoon. Having been only emotionally stirred and socially served, but without receiving support for learning how to experience Christ daily, they are left in their brokenness for the week with only an occasional pious quote of a religious platitude (“God is Good!”) or tired participation in a church program to represent their Christianity.

Christ likened our experience of him to drinking water, eating bread, or breathing air – which means it is a quiet, daily experience, powerful to touch the deepest part of our being, and not fleeting or superficial, but satisfying and enduring.   

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16H30

Week 34

Did you know:

God does not supply our needs because we
  • plead with him (called “prayer” by some),
  • successfully recruit others to join with us (the more the better) in the pleading,
  • fast (deny ourselves food and even sleep) in order to demonstrate to God how sincere we are,
  • tell him how great he is (the misunderstanding some have of “praise and worship”),
  • think positive (“name it claim it” theology misunderstood as having “faith”),
  • behave, or
  • perform to do religious works that please him (tithe, go to church, help the homeless, etc.)
But Jesus explained clearly in Mathew 7:7-8 how we can have our needs met:
  • ask (open the door of our hearts to Christ/his provisions of grace per Revelation 3:20; Romans 5:17),
  • seek (desire), and
  • knock (step back and wait for God’s Redemptive Plan to work according to his divine law of sowing and reaping – Galatians 6:7-8). 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16H25

GracePoinToday

Fun is a disappointing substitute for Joy, performance (to “go and give”) is a wearisome substitute for preparation (to “come and receive”), and your church experience will not satisfy your need to experience Christ each day during quiet-time worship.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16H23

Week 33

Did you know:

1. Waiting on God does not mean to be patient while God decides whether or not to get involved in our lives. Neither does it mean to bust about serving God like a server in a restaurant waits on customers. Rather it means to take time each day to include God’s Provisions into our lives - especially to read the Scripture in order to

  • hear God
    • communicate Truth to us concerning who he is and our need for him and
    • call us to receive him in order to
  • experience Christ during quiet-time worship. 
2. God calls us to wait on him in order to be healed and strengthened by him (Isaiah 40:31; Romans 8:25). Actually, he calls us to wait more than he calls us to go. That’s because his Plan to heal and strengthen us is not a quick fix, but a process – which means it takes time. But it is not waiting on God a little today and then a little again tomorrow or next week, and not even waiting on God a lot today and then a lot again next week; rather, it is waiting on God during quiet time worship for an extended time today and then for an extended time again tomorrow and every day.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16H18

GracePoinToday

We can read the books men write about the Scripture in order to understand its religious (apparent) meaning (what it says), but only the Holy Spirit can help us understand its grace (actual) meaning (what it means) – which he does during our quiet time.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16H16

Week 32

Did you know:

Adversity does not make us stronger (contrary to the popular notion that “what doesn’t kill us will make us stronger”), but tests (makes a demand upon) our faith which supports/calls us to experience Christ who strengthens us to persevere (to stay the course for making wise choices).

Again,

·       Adversity
o       does not make us stronger to persevere but
o       calls upon our
·       faith which supports us for experiencing
·       Christ who strengthens us to
·       persevere (James 1:2-4).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16H11

GracePoinToday

Our human nature tends to make choices that
  • are performance-based,
  • produce outcomes we can boast about/take credit for, and
  • are religious (with hopes to win God’s favor).
God calls us to 
  • make choices each day to receive his Provisions of Grace into our lives and to
  • trust him for the outcome.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16H09

 Week 31

GracePoinToday

God's Redemptive Plan for our lives begins with a Seed (Christ) which
  • dies (not the Life but its casing, the temporal body – John 1:14) and then
  • when received (John 1:12-13) is resurrected in us by the Holy Spirit to
    • give Life (John 12:24; 1 Corinthians 15:36; Romans 8:11; James 1:18) and to
    • purge from us
      1. our goal-oriented, performance-based dreams and ambitions (which result in defeat, discouragement, and death – Matthew 11:28)), also
      2. our dependency on whatever circumstances (including talent, education, funds, and opportunities) might seem to be to our advantage (Philippians 3:7-11). 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16H02

Week 30

GracePoinToday

The enjoyment of experiencing good health outweighs the pain of making tough choices.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16G28

Did You Know:

God does not decree/pronounce “blessings” upon our lives that
  • he wants us to have for the purpose of him receiving “praise” and adoration (Sovereign View), or that
  • we deserve/earn through obedience to perform/do his Will (The Religious/Performance/Legalistic View) – for example, to
o       fast and pray [ask/plead],
o       “go and give,” or
o       think positive about him.

Rather, God 
  • faithfully, fully, and freely brings Grace Provisions to the door of every persons heart/life (2 Corinthians 9:8; James 1:5) to meet every redemptive need we have,
  • patiently and effectually calls us to them by the Holy Spirit through the Scripture (knocks on the door of our hearts/minds – Revelation 3:20), and
  • gives us timely opportunity to receive or reject them (The Scriptural View/The Grace Perspective).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16G26

Week 29

Did You Know:

We are born again (so that we can go to Heaven) by God’s impartation of the Living Word (Logos: the person of Christ, the Living Seed) into our spirits (the inmost chamber of our being). See John 1:3-4; James 1:18: 1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 3:9.

But we are sanctified (healed from our brokenness and made holy/useful to God as a vessel for redemptive service to others) by our experience of Christ in our hearts (the soul: mind, emotions, and will) through the Spoken Word (Rhema: Truth communicated to us by the Holy Spirit through The Scripture calling us to quiet-time worship). See John 15:3, 7; Romans 10:17; Ephesians 5:26; 6:17.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16G21

GracePoinToday

God helps the people we care about, but it is not because we ask him to (called “prayer” by some); rather it is by means of us opening the door of our hearts to him (the true meaning of “prayer”) in order for him to work in their lives through us as conduits.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16G19

Week 28

GracePoinToday

You will experience tension in your marriage if you work more on your marriage than giving opportunity for Christ to work in you (through Scripture reading, confession of need, and quiet-time worship).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16G14

Did You Know:

The Living Bread (the Life of Christ) which Christ offers us during prayer (at the place of exchange) is the Daily Bread (Matthew 6:11). “Daily” means that our receiving it is
  • absolutely indispensable for life, and
  • to be scheduled – that is to be received daily. 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16G12

Week 27

Did You Know:

  • The New Testament word “prayer” (proseux) is a noun. By definition, it means “a place of exchange.” It is the place we go (where the Holy Spirit takes us) to exchange our will for God’s Will.
  • God’s Will for us begins with us opening he door of our hearts to receive his
    • Blood/death on the cross (for our justification / reconciliation) so that we can go to Heaven and
    • Resurrected Life (for our sanctification) so that we can be healed from our brokenness (Romans 5:10).
  • Refusing to make this exchange is disobedience (sin).
  • “The person who disobeys is double-minded and unstable; he doesn’t even need to think he will receive anything from the Lord” (from James 1:5-8) – not even if he prays all day or for a year, with tears and fasting, and is joined by billions of others. See also: John 15:7; Romans 8:26-28; Hebrews 12:17; 1 John 3:21-24; 5:14.
  • This means, we cannot ask God to provide for, save, or heal others, but we can receive him into our lives at the place of exchange so that he can make us competent as ministers to support them per 2 Corinthians 3:6 and James 5:14-15 for doing the same so that they can be provided for, saved, and healed.
  • God does not provide anything to us that does not accomplish his redemptive purpose (James 4:2-3). 
  • Satan, “the god of this world” and “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 4:4; 11:14) has power in this present age to produce outcomes, provide carnal desires, and work wonders – the same as he did in past ages and will do during the coming Tribulation Period (Matthew 24:24).
  • God is not standing by waiting for us to find a way to persuade him to provide for our needs, but has already provided every need we have and brought them to the door of our hearts for us to receive (Romans 5:17).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16G07

Week 26

Did You Know:

Our health and happiness and the length of our lives are not arbitrarily determined by God for whatever personal reasons unknown to us he may have, but
  • by genetics (as much as 30% some say), and
  • mostly by the result of the sowing and reaping (cause and effect) choices for diet, exercise, lifestyle, and supplementation we make - for which he has provided abundant support through Resources in Creation (elements in the soil and atmosphere), Community (leadership in the home and Church), and especially Christ (Deuteronomy 30:19; Romans 5:17; 8:32; Galatians 6:7).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16F30

GracePoinToday

God does not call Christians to give up their health to be a church member or a woman to give up her health to be a wife.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16F28

Week 25

Did You Know:

Heaven is our inheritance by virtue of
  • our being IN CHRIST (placed there by the Holy Spirit when we trusted the Blood/death of Christ on the cross for us as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his judgment against us because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden), resulting in
  • Christ having residence in (indwelling) our spirit (the inmost chamber/dimension of our trichotomous being) – that is by virtue of
  • our justification and spiritual new birth (being born again).
HOWEVER,

Health, holiness, and happiness is our inheritance by virtue of
  • our sanctification – that is, by
  • CHRIST LIVING IN US (our heart/soul: mind, emotions, and will) per John 15:4-5 (which we experience only through quiet-time worship).
Again, our guarantee (inheritance) of
  • going to Heaven is our justification and of
  • holiness, health, and happiness is our sanctification.
An understanding of Romans 8:9-11, 17 and Ephesians 1:13-14, 17 will bear this out.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16F23

GracePoinToday

Leadership is not something we do, but support for others God does through us. Our leadership may fail, but God’s will not.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16F21

GracePoinToday

Father's Day is an opportunity for children to celebrate their dads, but mostly for dads to celebrate their calling to be a Resource to their children.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16F19

 Week 24

 Experiencing and Manifesting the Light of Christ into a Dark World, the Hope for our Culture

Whatever the need is for efforts to
  • control the manufacturing and selling of guns (But what about bombs?) or
  • change the behavior of broken people or
  • improve the culture through
    • community or church programs,
    • religious behavior (for example, to “fast and pray”),
the benefit will be minimal and disappointing.

That’s because, the darkness in the world and in man’s heart will always prevail – except against the Light of Christ’s Resurrected Life (doxa: God’s Glory) which flows into our hearts during our personal quiet-time worship and through us into the world.

“It is my earnest expectation and hope that I will never be dimwatted, but that with all brilliance, the Life of Christ will be manifested in and though me like a beacon light into the darkness.” - Philippians 1:20 (GracePoint Interpretive Paraphrase).

 “The Light shined into the darkness, and the darkness could not prevail against it." - John 1:5

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16F14

Week 23

GracePoinToday

Reflecting on God (a mental exercise), telling him how great he is (“praise and worship”), reading and even memorizing the Scripture (like a textbook), attending church services or even a Bible college or seminary, giving money to the poor, housing the homeless, or being kind to your neighbor will not increase you in holiness (sanctification). Our only hope to be more like Christ and to manifest his Likeness into the world is to experience him daily during quiet-time worship (John 15:4-5; Ephesians 3:19; 4:13; 2 Peter 1:3) .

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16F09

SlimSUPPORT (Safe, Sensible, Lifestyle Support for Weight Loss Initiation and Management)

To help ensure health:

  1. Eat after sleep/nap/rest (not after work/exercise or when tired).
  2. Work/Exercise (not sleep/nap/rest) after eating; and
  3. Sleep/Nap/Rest (not eat) after work/exercise. 
Consider:

MORNING
  1. eat
  2. work/exercise                
  3. rest 
AFTERNOON
  1. eat
  2. work/exercise                          
  3. rest/nap 
EVENING
  1. eat
  2. work/exercise                          
  3. sleep 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16F07

 Week 22

GracePoinToday

Only God is awesome. Our only hope to experience awesome is to be filled with Christ.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16F02

GracePoinToday
We may need to wait to experience an outcome from God, but we do not need to wait to receive his Provisions which produce the outcome.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16E31

 Week 21

GracePoinToday

We have the option to attack/condemn the misbehavior we don’t like OR to
1.     trace it to the unmet needs (brokenness) at the root of the behavior,
2.     identify God’s Provisions to meet those needs, and
3.     support misbehaving people for connecting to the Resources in Creation (soil and atmosphere), Community (servant leadership in the home and Church), and especially Christ through which those Provisions flow.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16E26

GracePoinToday

We can go to church and Bible study or read a book to learn information (what the Bible says), but we can only understand Truth (what the Bible means) as the Holy Spirit reveals/teaches it to us during our quiet-time (John 16:13; 1 John 2:27).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16E24

 Week 20

Did You Know:

God’s order for his Redemptive Plan targets 
  • first, man’s spirit for regeneration (the new birth) so that he can go to Heaven,
  • second, his soul (heart: mind, emotions, and will) for sanctification (holiness) so that he can be effectual/useful in redemptive service to others, and
  • third, his body for healing. 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16E19

Sanctification: The Surpassing Value

Humans have the natural desire to experience
  • people ( relationships),
  • possessions (houses, cars, RVs, guns, jewelry, etc.), and
  • pets.
But God’s first call to us is to experience Christ by the Holy Spirit through the Scripture during quiet-time worship.

“Whatever was to my profit, I now consider worthless compared to the surpassing value of knowing (experiencing) Christ Jesus my Lord – the Power of his Life to heal and renew. My desire is for sanctification - the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (from Philippians 3:7-14).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16E17

 Week 19

The Promise of Protection and Provisions: Conditional to the Called

The promise of Romans 8:28, that “God is always working in our lives to accomplish his Redemptive Plan,” is to those who are “the Called” – that is, to those who are responding to the Call of the Holy Spirit to love (expressed as receiving) his Provisions of Grace.

We are called to:
  • Trust God’s Provision of Christ’s Blood/death on the cross (as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his judgment against us because of Adam’s disobedience);
  • Receive God’s Provision of Christ’s Resurrected Life into our hearts through quiet-time worship (as our only hope for holiness/ sanctification);
  • Manifest the Light of Christ into the world (Matthew 6:14-16; Philippians 1:20), beginning at home; and
  • Go into all the world, beginning with family, friends, and neighbors (Acts 1:8), to
    • communicate the Gospel of Christ/the message of Grace, and
    • support them for learning how to experience Christ for sanctification (Matthew 28:18-20).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16E12

Did You Know:

1. We do not give support to God (or his Resources); instead 
  • he gives to us and
  • we receive from him. 
2. We give/provide ministry support
  • from the support we receive from God,
  • to our families, and then
  • out of our abundance (but never sacrificially),
  • having met the redemptive needs of our wives and children (not their carnal wants),
  • to others.
    • directly/personally or
    • indirectly/by proxy through (not to) an existing ministry. 
2 Corinthians 9:8: “God is able to make all grace (provisions) abound to you so that, in all things, at all times, (after) having all you need, you will abound (to others) in every redemptive work.”

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16E10

 Week 18

Did You Know:

Christians who are confident they are unconditionally valued (loved) by God are healthier and happier and more fruitful than Christians who feel valuable because they work hard and give money.

Children who are confident they are unconditionally valued (loved) by parents are healthier and happier and more productive than children who feel valuable because they do a “good job” (meet performance expectations).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16E05

Did You Know:

God’s blessings (support provisions for our redemption) have flowed faithfully, fully, and freely into the world since immediately after the Fall of Adam and Eve. This means:

1. The existence of God’s blessings in the world is not the result of anything we do; they are because of God’s Mercy (that attribute of God from which his Provisions of Grace flow to the door of our hearts and lives).

2. But our experience of God’s blessings for our redemption is the result of us taking time to receive them.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16E03

 Week 17

Did You Know:

You are not lost (separated from God) because of your sins (what you do), but because of Adam’s sin (what he did) in the Garden of Eden. (You are sick because of what you do.)

You cannot reconcile yourself to God because you did not separate yourself from him; rather, God separated you (and the human race) from him because of Adam’s disobedience. 

If you are in Christ (have eternal life), you cannot walk out of Christ (lose your eternal life) because you did not walk into him. Rather, you were placed (immersed) into him by the Holy Spirit (when you trusted Christ’s death on the cross as the only payment God will accept to satisfy his judgment against you because of Adam’s disobedience).

(Romans 5:12-19; 6:1-4).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16D28

GracePoinToday

The great need of parents, husbands, and pastors to be filled with Christ is because of
  • our own brokenness and need for healing and
  • the brokenness and need for healing of those we serve who look to us for support.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16D26

 Week 16

Did You Know:
  • Faith comes by hearing/receiving Truth communicated to our minds by the Holy Spirit through the Scripture (Romans 10:17), not by giving,
  • is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:9; 5:22-23), not a purchase or reward for giving,
  • enables/supports us for both receiving (God’s resources) and giving (to others), and
  • “without faith it is impossible to obey God” (Hebrews 11:6).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16D21

Making Wise Choices: God’s Call to Wives

God does not call a wife to pamper/appease the expectations/demands of her husband in order to
    • earn his love,
    • stay out of trouble with him, and/or
    • preserve the relationship; 
rather, he calls her to make wise choices for her health, especially to take time each day for quiet time worship in order to receive spiritual renewal and support.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16D20

GracePoinToday

We do not experience for our redemption (justification and sanctification) what God gives, but what we RECEIVE that he gives (John 1:12; 3:16; 15:4-5; Romans 5:17; Revelation 3:20).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16D19

Week 15

Did You Know:

1. The Bible word “prayer” means “a place of exchange” where our will is exchanged for God’s Will.

2.The Bible word “asking” means more than making a request; it means “receiving.”

3. Drinking water is to hydration and eating food is to nutrition what receiving God’s Provisions is to having our needs met. If we can ask (in the sense of requesting) provisions from God without receiving them, then we can also be hydrated without drinking water or nourished without eating food.

“When a man asks for provisions from God, he must believe (receive them) and not doubt (reject them). The man who doubts (rejects) should not even think he will receive provisions from God” is the meaning of James 1:5-8.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16D14

GracePoinToday

Our health and, for most of us, our finances, are not strong enough to survive a lifestyle that attempts to outrun the brokenness and unhappiness of our unmet redemption needs, especially to experience Christ each day.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16D12

Week 14

Did You Know:

1. We are not saved by grace but “by grace through faith (to receive it)” (Romans 5:17; Ephesians 2:8-9).

2. We are not saved by the Blood of Christ but by trusting in his Blood” (Ephesians 1:7 in context with John 3:16, 18)

3. We are not made holy (useful to God as instruments for redemptive service to others) by the Life of Christ but by our experience of his Life to fuller measure each day during our quiet-time worship (John 15:4-5; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Ephesians 3:7,19; 1 Timothy 1:12; 2 Peter 1:3).

4. This in the same way we are not hydrated by the presence of water, but by drinking (receiving) it.

“All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood it in all its truth (in its fullness).” – Colossians 1:7, 25

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16D07

GracePoinToday

We live in a broken world filled with hurting, broken people, so have no reason to hope we will never experience adversity, but we have the opportunity each day during quiet-time worship to be filled to a fuller measure of Christ who sustains us in joy and peace.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16D05

Week 13

Did You Know:

  • “Blessing” means “deliverance from the curse / judgment/wrath against us (because of Adam’s disobedience).”
  • We are blessed (experience God’s blessings) when we connect to his resources
  • in Creation (soil and atmosphere), Community (leadership in the home and church) and especially Christ (his Blood/death and Resurrected Life)
  • in order to receive his Provisions of Grace.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C31

Aggressive, Passive, or Submissive: Three Ways to Deal with Adversity

We have three options when faced with adversity:

1. (Fear-based Aggressive) Fight it - attempt to overcome/defeat it (the Charismatic’s definition of “spiritual warfare”),

2. (Fear-based Passive) Hunker down and try to survive it (believing God is in control and works out every circumstance for his and our good), or

3. (Faith-based Submissive) Take time daily to include God’s Provisions of Grace into our lives (the Scriptural meaning of “waiting on God”) so that
  • we are supported, and
  • the adversity does not prevail against us.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C30

GracePoinToday

Parents, husbands, and pastors do best to fulfill their roles when they experience God so that they can support those they serve for experiencing him.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C29

 Week 12

Did You Know:

In the Scripture, the doctrine of salvation (soteriology) is presented conceptually - not systematically in the way seminaries present it. This may help explain the difference in

1.     Preaching and teaching:

  • Preaching presents Truth conceptually.
  • Teaching organizes Truth systematically into an easy-to-understand outline. 
2.     Bible study and Bible reading:

  • We study the Bible aggressively (at home or in class) in the way we would dissect a textbook – in order to learn what the Bible says (the facts).
  • We read the Bible submissively (during our quiet time) in the way we would listen to God speak to us over the phone - in order to learn what the Scripture means. 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C24

 Go Figure!

 One would think that religious people – being fear and guilt motivated to perform good works trying to stay out of trouble with God as they are - would be the saintliest people in the community, but they don’t seem to be. Rather, it is those who confess their brokenness and powerlessness to live the Christian life and depend on Christ to live his life through them.

Also, one would think that finding support for learning how to experience Christ’s enablement for living the Christian life would be the most sought after church experience, but it is not. Rather, it is meeting social needs and finding support for learning how to better perform.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C23

GracePoinToday

We are what we are and experience what we do until God transforms us during our quiet-time worship to make better choices. 

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C22

 Week 11

Did You Know:

God makes possible the means and also the way (our response to the means) of our salvation by

1.     providing the gift of Christ’s Blood/death on the cross (the means) and
2.     enabling/supporting our response (the way) to the means by producing in us (through the Scripture)
  • conviction (faith) concerning the means and way of salvation,
  • change of mind (repentance) concerning the means and way of salvation,
  • confession (agreement) concerning the means and way of salvation, and
  • conversion (expressed by acceptance/trust) concerning the means and way of salvation. 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C17

 Outcomes on Election Day: How They Happen

On election day voters and candidates sometimes say, “The outcome is in God’s hands.” What they may mean is that, after they have done their part, God will decide the outcome. 

But consider:

  • God did his part in eternity past to decide outcomes when he ordained/predestined (predetermined) that, in a broken world filled with broken people, the law of sowing and reaping (cause and effect) would normatively determine end results.
Also, sometimes religious people insist “a nation gets the leaders and laws it deserves" - that, since we have displeased God, he will punish us with a corrupt government.

But consider:

  • We get the leaders and laws we vote for, and it is only in this sense that a nation gets the government it deserves.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C16

GracePoinToday

The Mind of God is revealed to us in part through the Scripture. If it could be written in full, the universe could not hold the volumes (John 21:25).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C15

 Week 10

Did You Know:

The Glory of God is the Promised manifestation of God’s Power, Purpose, and Plan Produced in us through his Provisions (primarily Christ’s Presence).

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C10

Church Staff Experiencing Christ: The Essential Support for Successful Church Work

Church staff members working together will help assure the success of their work. But in order for the work of the staff to accomplish God’s redemptive purpose, each member much have an experience of Christ without whom they “can do nothing” of eternal value (John 15:5). Otherwise, their working together is adding zeros to zeros.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C09

GracePoinToday

Our natural minds can understand the Scripture as a religious (rule) book, but we can understand its message of grace only as the Holy Spirit gives us understanding during our quiet-time.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C08

Week 9

Did You Know:

We are justified (saved from the judgment against us because of Adam’s disobedience) by
  1. God’s Provision of the Blood/death of Christ on the cross for us (Romans 5:9) but also by
  2. faith (conviction of Truth imparted to us by the Holy Spirit through the Scripture) which enables us to trust/receive God’s Provision of Christ (Romans 5:1). 
“For by grace (God’s Provision of Christ’s Blood/death) are you saved THROUGH faith.” – Ephesians 2:8)

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C03

Usefulness in Service to Others: Our Assurance of Safety

 If we are abiding in Christ so that he is living out his redemptive work in the world through us, we can expect God to protect us through any adversity or danger according to his promises (including in Psalm 91).

Again, when
  • we are
    • in the place God calls us to,
    • doing the work he has called us to do, and
    • filled with his Spirit for the support we need per John 15:1-8, if
  • we are exposed to any danger or threat at any time (for example, a fire or weather related storm or an attack by beast or enemy),
we can
  • call on God in prayer (the prayer of faith) - in the sense we
    • confess our confidence in the promise of Romans 8:28 that God continually works to accomplish his redemptive purpose in the lives of those who
    • love him (receive his provisions of grace for our health – physically but also for sanctification)
    • so that we are supported for living our his calling and
  • have confidence that he will keep us safe. 
This means, while we may call out to God for help at any time for any reason, and while he may choose to intervene, at least to deliver us from death, we have no Scriptural basis to hope that he will.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C02

GracePoinToday

Truth is the Mind of God revealed to us by the Holy Spirit during our quiet time worship, without ever being exhausted or fully discovered – in this life or in eternity.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16C01

 Week 8

Did You Know:

Faith in God means more than
  • believing he exists or even
  • trusting in him; and even more than
  • receiving him. Most fully, faith means
  • receiving God’s Provisions of Grace, beginning with Christ (his death and resurrected Life).
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B25

Getting It Right Now to Live Longer Later

 We have 70 years to get it right so that we can not only live longer (into our 80’s and 90’s) but also live in health (Psalm 90:10). Again, the more we get it right during the first 70 years of our lives, the longer we can expect to be healthy.

Consider the following basic guidelines for getting it right:

1. Make wise choices daily for

  • Diet (food choices) – 4 ounces lean meats, 7-9 servings of raw fruits and vegetables, nuts and whole grains, and pure water (minimum 64 ounces per 120 pounds weight);
  • Exercise to increase strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance –
    • Aerobic - moderately (walk/run) for 45 minutes on most days and intensely (run/walk) for 20 minutes once weekly,
    • Anaerobic – weight lifting on alternate days, and
    • Stretching (mild) – daily;
  • Lifestyle – scheduled sleep and rest, work, ongoing education, and, especially, taking time each day for Scripture reading and quiet-time worship in order to experience Christ more fully; and
  • Supplementation (especially to ensure antioxidants) – quality vitamins, minerals (including MSM), amino acids (protein), essential fatty acids (especially to ensure omega 3s), probiotics, herbs (including grapeseed and tumeric), green tea, raw apple cider vinegar, and coconut oil. 
2. Limit/Avoid processed foods (especially sugar) and stimulants (for example, caffeine supplements).

The health resource I most highly trust and recommend is Ray D. Strand, M.D.. Email me your mailing address and I will send you (no charge) a copy of his best-selling book, “What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutrition May Be Killing You.” 

 DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16b24

 GracePoinToday

We can aggressively study the Scripture like a textbook in order to understand what it says but must learn to submissively read the Scripture in order to hear the Holy Spirit communicate Truth to us in order to understand what it means.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B23

 Week 7

Did You Know:

The meaning of “As you help us with your prayers” (2 Corinthians 1:11) is not the Corinthians’ prayer specifically for Paul, but for themselves in behalf of those they are burdened for - which they could word as follows: “Father, we open our hearts to you to be filled with your Provisions of Grace so that we are made competent in our ministry (2 Corinthians 9:8) to others through Paul.”

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B18

Experiencing Health, Happiness, and Heaven: Christ, the Essential Factor

 Factors we consider when identifying health issues are, of course,
  • heredity and
  • aging, but they are not the only factors that predispose us to declining health, and certainly do not need to be the most significant. Other factors which can be far more concerning are:
  • inflammation – the toxic result of the body’s metabolic process to produce energy (the same as the harmful fuel exhaust from an engine or burning ashes from a fire) which damages the cells of the body;
  • inactivity - not only physically but also mentally, relationally and socially, and even vocationally; and
  • a compromised immune system. 
One of the core principles that guide our counseling is: Broken health is not the result of the presence of adversity in our lives, but of the absence of God’s Provisions which support and establish us in health.

For example, God has
  • provided compounds in our food called antioxidants that help neutralize inflammation and probiotics to support our immune systems,
  • given us a physical body with the capacity to respond to the demands our work and exercise make of it. 
Most critically, God has provided through Christ (his death and resurrected Life) for our spiritual and eternal need to experience him so that we can be holy and happy and also go to Heaven.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B17

 GracePoinToday

Sometimes adult children do not seek their parents as a support resource, but parents and children using each other for superficial pain relief (codependence) is worse. 

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B16

 Week 6

Did You Know:
  1. In the behavioral sense, no one is a sinner or condemned to Hell because he or she rejects Christ, but more correctly in the theological sense, because of Adam’s “one disobedience” in the Garden of Eden (Romans 5:12-19). 
  2. We are born “condemned already” (John 3:18) because of what Adam did. We are saved from that condemnation because we trust/receive what Christ accomplished by his death and resurrection.
  3.  For illustration: In the behavioral sense, we are not thirsty because we do not drink water, but more so because we were born subject to needing water (“the frustration” of Romans 8:20).
  4. Trusting Christ for salvation or drinking water would not have been necessary if Adam had not sinned.
  5. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve did not thirst or hunger or need exercise but drank and ate and exercised in order to increase health – the same as in Heaven, we will not thirst or hunger or need exercise but will drink and eat and exercise only in order to increase our health. (Remember, we will not arrive in Heaven knowing and being all that Christ is, but will forever be increasing in his likeness throughout eternity as we open our hearts to him (the same as we have already begun to do in our Christian journey on earth during our quiet-time worship).
  6. God subjected fallen man to thirst and hunger and atrophy because, in our broken, sinful condition, we would not have otherwise been motivated to make wise choices.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B11

God’s Life: The Essential Provision for Health

God has provided for our health in three ways:
  • Spiritually: God’s Life - experienced by the Holy Spirit through Christ and the Scripture (Christ),
  • Psychologically: Information, Affection, and Structure (support for decision-making) - experienced through leadership resources in the home and Church (Community), and
  • Physically: food, exercise, lifestyle (e.g., sleep), supplementation, and sometimes emergency medical support - experienced through elements in the soil and atmosphere (Creation).
God’s provisions to support our psychological and physical healing are powerful and essential, but the most powerful and essential provision is God’s Life.

“In Christ we have gained access to God’s (provisions of) grace which enables us to stand.” – from Romans 5:2

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B10

GracePoinToday

An opinion that is expressed with vulgarity is not from God and not to be trusted.

 DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B09

Week 5

Did You Know:

  • The Word (The Living Seed) identifies who the Son of God is (past, present, and future).
  • Jesus is the incarnate/birth name of the Son of God for his identity in the world (to family and friends, etc.). 
  •  Christ (the Messiah) identifies the Son of God in our relationship to him as our Savior (Redeemer) in whom we trust for our justification. (If Jesus had not been the Christ, his life and death would have meant nothing for our salvation.)
  •  Lord identifies the Son of God in our experience of him as our Spiritual Husband, Fountainhead, Support Vine, Shepherd, and Great Physician for our sanctification.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B04

Spiritual Renewal: The Beginning of Good Health

 An older lady speaking to me at the close of a group session did not understand why she was in poor health. She had always been faithful to her health, she insisted.

But by that claim she meant she had no bad habits and had not neglected to see her doctor and to take his prescriptions. She missed understanding, however, that faithfulness to health meant taking time each day to include God’s provisions into her life, most importantly, spiritual renewal through Christ.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B03

GracePoinToday

We can understand the message of God’s grace through resource support (leadership in the home and Church) for understanding the Scripture or be left to learn it through our experience of failure and brokenness.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16B02

 Week 4

Did You Know:

The Holy Spirit calls us to
  • come more than go,
  • receive more than give,
  • prepare more than perform,
  • worship more than work,
  • surrender more than strive, and
  • trust more in what he can do than try what we can do.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A28

How Loved Ones in Heaven View Our Brokenness

 The well-known teacher insists that our family and friends in Heaven do not now know about our brokenness here on earth, that such knowledge would ruin their experience of Heaven. He misses understanding, however, that 
  • in Heaven, our family and friends have the mind of Christ, that while they may grieve because of our brokenness, their knowledge of it does not diminish their joy of Heaven,
  • we here on earth can have the heart of Christ for people who are broken because of our opportunity to experience him each day in our quiet-time worship, and that
  • we don’t mind anyone knowing about our brokenness if they have the heart of Christ for us. 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A27

GracePoinToday

God has given us
  • provisions for our support,
  • guidance and conviction (faith) to identify the resources through which they flow into our lives, and
  • desire for receiving them. 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A26

 Week 3

Did You Know:
  • More than follow Christ, we trust him;
  • More than know about him, we experience him;
  • More than give to him, we receive from him;
  • More than commit to him, we surrender to him;
  • More than serve him, we give him opportunity for his service to us.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A21

Entering the New Year Assured of God’s Promise for a Good Outcome

 The New Year can be a good year, but not because we
  • think positive about God - that he will mercifully intervene into our lives to give good outcomes (“bless” us),
  • behave more than misbehave,
  • earnestly plead with him, or
  • sacrificially give our money to him (the Church) or to others (who we think are “less fortunate” than we are), 
but because we take time each day to
  • connect to God’s Resources in Creation (elements in the soil and atmosphere), Community (leadership in the home and Church), and especially Christ (during quiet-time worship) in order to
  • receive the flow of his Provisions of Grace into our lives which produce the certain and unfailing outcome of health and happiness. 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A20

GracePoinToday

If our experience of Christ can recover us in this life from brokenness to health, it will certainly have no less power in Heaven to increase us in perfection. In this life we have day and night; in Heaven there is no night.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A19

 Week 2

Did You Know:

Wisdom is God’s Provision of the Mind of Christ (imparted to us at our new birth and renewed in us during quiet-time worship) to support us for making wise choices.

“If anyone lacks wisdom, he can receive it from God” (James 1:5).

DonLoy Whisnant/Did You Know 16A14

Supporting the Church for Experiencing Christ: The First Work of the Pastor

 Preaching to identify and condemn sinful behavior may motivate religious performance, but it will not produce holiness. That’s because of the weakness of man’s sinful nature.

"I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death." - Romans 7:10; also 8:3

The first work of the minister in the Church is to support members for learning how to experience Christ daily through quiet-time worship (Ephesians 3:19; 4:13; John 15:1-8; 2 Peter 1:3-4).

“Christ living in you is your hope to experience glory (doxa: the ways and virtues of Christ manifesting in and through us by the Holy Spirit).” - Colossians 1:27

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A13

GracePoinToday

Happiness is health, contentment, and opportunity for service.

Expanded: Happiness is not the same as feeling good or fun, or the absence of sadness or grief, but the presence of
  • health;
  • contentment – a satisfied state of mind which does not depend on recreation, entertainment, intoxicants, expensive experiences (vacations, cruises, etc.), codependent relationships, or winning the lottery;
  • opportunity for usefulness in redemptive service to others.
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A12

 Week 1

Did you know:

We TRUST in the Blood/death of Christ for us for justification and regeneration so that we can
  1. go to Heaven when we die, and
  2. EXPERIENCE his Resurrected Life in us for holiness (sanctification), also for health and happiness, while we live. 
DonLoy Whisnant/Did You Know 16A07

 Coming and Receiving: Our Enablement for Going and Giving in the New Year

Our first commitment in the new year is
  • not to performance goals, but to making scheduled choices each day which include God’s Provisions of Grace into our lives,
  • not to outcomes, but to the choices which produce those outcomes,
  • not to performance, but to preparation, and
  • not to work (“go and give”), but to worship (“come and receive”) - so that we are enabled for going and giving. 
DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A06

 GracePoinToday

The solution to every problem we have begins with taking time each day to experience Christ during our quiet-time worship.

DonLoy Whisnant/The Grace Perspective 16A05

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