Tag: courage

Living with Courage

Hello again, I’m Randy Gaudet, founder and director of All Thailand Experiences. Those who have read my profile know how I first came to Thailand and my association with missions and churches since 1989.

We use funds from our tours to help the needy, change lives and spread the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We teach about the Holy Trinity, Love and Grace because of Jesus Christ and to tell Christians they are free from the Law, sin and death.

At most churches in Thailand the old covenant law is being taught and that Grace is not available to you if you break the law. We are training pastors about the New Repentance as written in the Bible with help from Pastors Nathan and Salila Gonmei at Abundant Grace Church in Chiang Mai.

On all our All Thailand Experiences Christian teaching blogs I will point to scriptures and explain the meaning on the topic. As our mission is to reach Thai people we will then watch or listen to Pastors Nathan and Solila give a sermon on the topic in English and Thai Languages.

When the Holy Spirit put doing mission work in Thailand in my heart without support and to start a tour company to support the mission I had about $50 U.S. Dollars. I had to step out, be brave and trust in Him. Courage comes knowing your spiritual identity in Christ.

Today we’re going to talk about Living with Courage.

Proverbs 28:1, NIV: “The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.” NLT: “The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions.”

Righteousness is a powerful concept that is made up of sub-concepts. We are called to seek “his righteousness” (Mt 6:33). Underneath this quality are sub qualities that will be ours when we are righteous. Love, patience, and all the other fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) will be present. And also, boldness will characterize the righteous man or woman of God. You could call this courage or bravery, but righteousness breeds boldness.

2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

We are now righteous because of the blood of Jesus Christ.  We are no longer slave to the sinful nature brought on by the disobedience of Adam and the Law.

How does righteousness lead to boldness? One way is that to be righteous, one must first accept Christ. Our first act of boldness is to come into the presence of God (Heb 4:16), boldly, because we are holy by our justification, redemption, and adoption as sons of God in Christ. God fills us with the Holy Spirit who, himself, is bold. Then as we mature, we learn to care what God thinks of us more than what other people think of us, as we die daily to our old ways and mortify the sin in our flesh. This we do by the power of the Holy Spirit and abiding in Christ in obedience. Finally, as we learn to know the truth in our inner man or woman, we are sure of what we think and believe about things, so that when the time comes for boldness, we are ready to step forward like a lion.

Alternatively, any boldness on the part of the wicked is just for show. Most of them will flee in the face of true and godly boldness. They live life insecure and afraid of being caught in their schemes and deceptions. They have no genuine confidence, and consequently, they must run from conflict except when their adversary is truly helpless, in which case they will attack like cowards.

“The wicked…” The Bible teaches that all of us were born in a state of sinfulness because of the sin of Adam (Eph 2:1). Until Christ saves us, we are wicked. Our motives are wicked. Our actions are wicked. It is not that nonbelievers can do nothing good, but even the good they do is sinfully motivated (Isa 64:6).

“…flee though no one pursues,” This describes the paranoia of the godless. Why would they not be paranoid? If there is no God, anything can happen to them at any time. There is no true boldness, only arrogant bravado. There is no true conviction, only the subjective opinions of the other people whose disapproval they fear.

“but the righteous…” The righteous are those who are saved by grace and filled with the Holy Spirit, learning to integrate into every fiber the truth and confidence of living by the ways of God, abiding in Christ and trusting him in all circumstances.

“…are as bold as a lion.” Sons and daughters of God are like their Savior, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. While being meek when meekness is called for, God’s children, the righteous, are also able to be bold when boldness is what is needed. The fear of the Lord is a remedy against the fear of man or disaster (Mk 4:35-31).

Romans 8:15, NIV: “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.'”

Romans 8:15 is one of Scripture’s most beautiful verses about our relationship with God through faith in Christ. It describes how God has changed every Christian’s relationship with Him through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the previous verse, Paul wrote that all who are led by the Spirit of God are His children. Now he gets more specific. Earlier in this letter to the Romans, Paul wrote that through faith in Christ we are freed from slavery to sin and that we become “slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:18) or “slaves to God” (Romans 6:22). Paul is not backing away from that in this verse. The word used for slaves—doulos—describes what was once known as indentured service: when a person swore their allegiance to remain in the service of a specific master.

Here, though, Paul assures us that God does not view us as His slaves or even just good servants. He did not free us from slavery to sin simply to add us to His team. He rescued us from sin to make us His children. That involves the Holy Spirit.

God did not give us the spirit of slavery, by giving us the Holy Spirit. Abused slaves often live in fear of their masters, and that is not the relationship God wants from us. No, Paul insists, God gave us the Spirit of adoption as his children. In other words, God legally changed the status of those who come to Him by faith in Christ to sons and daughters.

This is not a distant or strained parent/child relationship, either. This Spirit of adoption, another name for the Holy Spirit, allows us to cry out to God as little children call out to a loving daddy. The word Abba is a Greek and English adaptation of the Aramaic word for father. It was often the word used by young children for “papa” or “daddy.” That’s the relationship God wants with us, and He has made it possible through the Spirit.

Pastors Nathan and Salila Gonmei of Abundant Grace Church in Chiang Mai Thailand explain Biblical living in courage and how to walk in it in English and Thai languages in the 16 minute video below.