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    No Extra Burden: God's Amazing Grace & Mercy
    No Extra Burden: God's Amazing Grace & Mercy
    No Extra Burden: God's Amazing Grace & Mercy
    Ebook146 pages2 hours

    No Extra Burden: God's Amazing Grace & Mercy

    By Mark Avery Reed and Steve Bogan

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    About this ebook

    What does God really require for eternal life? And what can we say, for sure, that the thief believed?

    It came as a realization, as a result of these questions, that everything we know about salvation has to go through the thief on the cross. For those coming to Him and those now living to please Him, the Lord requires no more than is absolutely necessary. Through this book, discover the many examples of God's grace and mercy to even those who fell well short in their beliefs or behavior. The goal for every Christian should be to show grace and compassion to others as the Lord does to all.

    Experience Mark Avery Reed & Steve Bogan's refreshing Biblical perspective on the Lord's grace and mercy - illuminating how its practice will improve your relationship with Him and with others.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherReed Publishing Co.
    Release dateMar 6, 2016
    ISBN9780997367614
    No Extra Burden: God's Amazing Grace & Mercy
    Author

    Mark Avery Reed

    Mark Avery Reed is an ordained minister with a Master’s degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He also holds two Master’s degrees in Education and Marriage, Family, and Child Therapy plus two Bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Political Science.He has a number of teaching credentials and experience as a chaplain, counselor, and developer of curriculum on spiritual warfare, biblical doctrine, and healthy family living. Mark seeks to enrich God’s people by examining aspects of biblical truth which are largely ignored today.

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      Book preview

      No Extra Burden - Mark Avery Reed

      No Extra Burden

      God's Amazing Grace & Mercy

      Mark Avery Reed & Steve Bogan

      Copyright Pending © 2016 by Reed Publishing Co.

      Distributed by Smashwords

      No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by means or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

      All Scripture documentation and external documentation for this book can be found and downloaded at NoExtraBurden.com.

      Published by Reed Publishing Co.

      Reed Publishing Co.

      732 N Sequoia Lane

      Azusa, CA 91702

      info@reedpublishingco.com

      Visit our website at ReedPublishingCo.com or NoExtraBurden.com

      Produced in the United States of America

      First Edition: 2016

      Reed Publishing Co. Edition: 2016

      This book is dedicated to our family and friends,

      as well as all Christians diligently seekingto discover God and His will.

      - Table of Contents -

      The Apostles’ Creed

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 - A More Enriching Approach

      Chapter 2 - Basic Assumptions

      Chapter 3 - Little Spiritual Progress or Bad Behavior

      Chapter 4 - Scripture Shows Few Beliefs Are Needed

      Chapter 5 - Experience Shows Few Beliefs Are Needed

      Chapter 6 - What Must We Believe About God and Christ?

      Chapter 7 - What Must We Believe About How to Be Saved?

      Chapter 8 - What Must We Believe About the Afterlife?

      Chapter 9 - Consequences For Requiring Too Much

      Chapter 10 - ‘Unorthodox’ People Who Seemed to Be Saved

      Chapter 11 - Being Gracious In An Imposing World

      Conclusion

      Appendix: Answers to Objections

      Appendix: The Person of Christ

      About the Authors

      End Notes

      -The Apostles’ Creed-

      "I believe in God the Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth.

      And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven; and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

      I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen."

      (The Apostles’ Creed is a basic declaration of the Christian faith. One version of this creed was accepted in 140 A. D. The form above is common today and has been used at baptisms and in services all throughout the western church since the twelfth century).[1]

      Introduction

      A few years ago while on a morning walk, I (Steve) got the distinct and powerful impression that all of our ideas about salvation had to ‘go through’ the thief on the cross. The impression was so distinct and out of the blue that it felt like the Lord might be trying to say something about how we, as Christians, are to understand salvation. In many ways, this event was the beginning of the journey that led to this book. What could we say, for sure, that the thief believed? This triggered many conversations, a lot of research, and eventually this book.

      Chapter 1, in particular, shows how this new profound way of thinking and living can greatly enrich every reader’s relationship with God and others. However, as chapter 9 points out, those who fail to come to terms with Christ-like grace may fetter themselves and their loved ones with unnecessary ‘should’ and ‘should nots.’ These needless demands reflect and strengthen greater rigidity, intolerance, pride, and rule-directedness rather than Spirit-directed living.

      In Acts 15 God Himself directed His people to not place any extra burden onto those who were coming to Him, or on those who had already come to Him, other than those requirements which were absolutely necessary, essential, and unavoidable. The Lord wants those who seek Him to be free from needless pain-producing burdens. If we would be like Him, we, too, must not make life more difficult for ourselves or others than it needs to be.

      Hence, we will briefly look at the key beliefs of the Christian faith and do our best to assess whether each belief is necessary to having eternal life or to making spiritual progress. Our great desire is to advocate a Christian faith which is true to biblical teaching. However, which biblical teachings are truly essential? Hopefully, every believer wants to have more than a minimal understanding of God. Yet, we don’t want to impose any unnecessary burden on others. We want to avoid saying a belief or practice is essential to God if it really isn’t. After all, it is a serious matter to put a needless obstacle in the way of someone who is either coming to faith in Christ or trying to grow spiritually.[2]

      We should not require others to believe what God has not declared, in the Bible, to be an essential belief. Likewise, we ought not impose our lifestyles on others when the Bible is not clear that God commands such a lifestyle. However, we do need to be willing to lovingly warn others when the Bible is clear. For example, Scripture seems to declare that drinking alcohol can be acceptable if it doesn’t lead to sin such as being drunk. Hence, those who believe in abstinence should live out their convictions but be tolerant and not insist that others have this ‘extra burden.’[3] On the other hand, 1 Cor 7:2 clearly implies what the Bible so frequently asserts about the two basic types of relational sex: there is sex between a man and a woman in heterosexual marriage but everything else is sexual immorality.[4] In this case, we should celebrate legitimate sex and urge others to avoid all forms of sexual immorality.

      Our heart’s desire is to spread the Lord’s message to all walks of life. We believe growth often comes from community and the accountability that many times is formed as a result of it. We encourage reading this book with your accountability partner(s) or small group to spur further discussion, tactics, and understanding. For additive insight, take use of the many resources we continue to upload on our web page, NoExtraBurden.com. We pray this book enriches your life and provides you with biblical tools for stepping out and becoming all God wants you to be.

      Chapter 1

      A More Enriching Approach

      This book is meant to be a guide towards greatly enriching our relationship with the Lord and with others. It can help us mature individually and facilitate growth in our churches. Not placing extra burdens on others was a key way the early church developed - and it is a key for us as well.

      Chapter 9 discusses many of the destructive consequences of insisting on extra burdens. Our lives are better for avoiding these consequences. In this chapter, though, we will look at some of the positive ways this book can open up a new manner of thinking and living which has the potential to revolutionize our relationships. Specifically, we will look at how learning to not impose unnecessary burdens on ourselves and others promotes our growth in grace, compassion, humility, teachability, tolerance, and love.

      -Grace-

      The Lord is fabulously rich in a grace that is truly glorious.[5] If we would be like Him, we, too, must be full of grace and impart this to others. Grace is the undeserved gift of God’s goodness to those who deserve punishment.[6] It is undeserved favor, acceptance, and help to those who, apart from grace, should be condemned.[7] In several parables, it is more important to God to be gracious than it is to act in a way which would typically be viewed as just.[8] Grace is God looking at Saul, who is imprisoning, torturing, and killing His people, then choosing to forgive, transform, use, and greatly honor Saul, because He loves him. To give grace (charis) to another is to make them more attractive, delight them, enable them to be more positively regarded by others, and to act graciously toward them.[9] Every aspect of our life continuously requires grace.[10] As the moment’s grace is used, new grace replaces it for the next moment.[11] Thus, the Lord intends for our life to be lived as an adventure where we constantly experience a developing intimacy with Him and with those He loves.[12]

      Although many people were saved and lived in ways which pleased God prior to the coming of Jesus Christ, God’s grace and truth were much more fully available with Jesus than it had been before.[13] As a result, those who have encountered Jesus Christ are better able to have trust, knowledge, and a lifestyle that is more consistent with truth. After all, as the blind man in Jn 9 realized, truth is in line with reality and experience.[14] They can more effectively commit their lives to Him and ‘do the truth’ because they have a clearer understanding of God’s will.[15] By embracing such truth, they are able to look past mere outward appearances and see what is true even when a surface observation would seem to contradict it.[16] Having received His grace and love, they are able to act in gracious and loving ways.

      To impose unnecessary burdens on ourselves or others puts obstacles in the way of receiving the Lord’s grace. This impoverishes us and is not a response of graciousness. The Lord wants us to convey grace so others can become more intimate with Him. What an honor this is! It is a way of making them more attractive, as opposed to adding extra burdens to their load that will stoop and deform them. Therefore, by using the grace He gave us to graciously beautify those He loves, we receive added grace and, so, make ourselves more attractive. In giving greater delight we enhance our own; by assisting them in their adventure we expand our own; by improving the favorable response they get from God and those truly directed by Him, we enrich the response we receive. Being gracious enough to not impose any unnecessary burden, we can increase the graciousness of others toward us and everyone else in their world.

      This gracious approach also increases everyone’s assurance that the Lord is pleased with us. It makes us more like Him, strengthens us, and enables us to serve Him in an acceptable way.[17] Increased grace also makes us more inclined to use our experiences to discern what is true even when appearances seem to contradict our view. For instance, Paul’s experience with the Corinthians told him they were saved despite the appearance they gave of being unsaved through lack of spiritual progress, atrocious behavior, and very significant doctrinal error.

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