Irresistible Grace

A while ago a friend of mine posted something on a particular internet social media outlet (I'll let you guess which one I am talking about). What they wrote struck me; and for the last few days I have really been chewing it over. They wrote:

All my bridges have been burned, but you say that's how this grace thing works.

It may sound simple to you, and I suppose my mind is simple. Maybe it is the simplicity of it that makes it so, dare I say profound? After all grace is profound. And, I don't think we will ever understand grace completely. Especially the grace that God gives us. But they summed it up pretty well. In reality, weren't all our bridges burned with God? And yet He longs for us and readily opens a new chapter in our lives with Him. Or, as Brennan Manning puts it, God pursues us with a furious longing, and no matter who we are, what we've done, or how many bridges we've burned with God he is always there for us. And most profoundly He is excited about us. That my friends is irresistible grace.

What if we tried grace like that in our own lives and with each other? How would the world see Christians? More importantly how would your life be more like Jesus'?

So, thank you to my friend who shared those words, because when grace works like that it is not only freeing, but irresistible.

Doing Life

Over last weekend I had the opportunity to get away and regroup on a short trip. I was at a conference for Free Church youth pastors and their wives. To say the least it was a great time with my wonderful wife. What was so great is that it provided me a lot of time to think and to chew on some things.

Our speaker talked about the two things every Christian is supposed to do: love God and love others. What I love about Christianity is that  it is not really all that complicated. It is not supposed to be suppressive but instead liberating. Jesus is the God of our freedom. He frees us to live the life we were created to live; to love Him and to love others. In fact when Jesus was questioned about the two most important things he said this:

"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."

-Matthew 22: 37-40 NLT

Jesus didn't make it more complicated, he made it simpler, more liberating, and more intimate. As our speaker worked through his content I kept thinking, "How wonderful it would be if we all could live in a community of people that committed their lives to this." But we do have those communities. They are called church. At least that is what church is supposed to be about. If you want a community like that, let it start in you first, keep it simple. Start by loving Jesus Christ with everything you got (do life with Him) and then love others where they are (do life with them).

Do life together: first with Jesus and then with each other.

Our Sovereign God

Over the last month I have been attending a Bible study on Joseph. I must admit I am not the model Bible study member; I successfully avoided four weeks of homework in a four week class. I know, impressive to some and tragic to others... Either way I did thoroughly enjoy this weekly time with others talking about scripture and life.

"Joseph Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream" -Reginald Arthur

As I mentioned our study was on Joseph, he was the guy in the Bible who's brothers beat him up, threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery, then he spends the rest of his life in Egypt (part of his life there he was in jail and the rest he was a servant for others). Yes that is a really quick recap; you can read it in Genesis 37-50. 

As we met and talked through the weeks about this story and the homework I didn't do, I had a strange feeling about it all. I felt like I couldn't relate to this story. In the story we don't see Joseph's sin (but he was sinful because he's a human and sin is what we do), we don't see Joseph get angry, and we don't see him curse God or his brothers. What we do see is a man have incredible faith in God through some very challenging circumstances and he seems to always make the right decision. See what I mean? I don't relate to that! My life is full of sin and making wrong choices.

However this story is in the word of God for a reason, and I don't think it is to show how awesome a guy Joseph was (he does seem pretty awesome though). I believe it is to show how powerful God is. A lot of times we approach scripture and ask, "How does this relate or apply to me?". But one of scripture's purposes is to teach us about God. Once I began to ask, "What is this telling me about God?", I began to see the purpose in this story. God is presented as supremely sovereign. He is the God of Jacob's hope and the salvation of his people. In this story we get to see just how big and powerful God is.

That was my takeaway from this story. The God I worship is sovereign. He is big enough to save me and to deliver me. I got to see God's sovereignty this week in my work, he sent a great encouragement when I wasn't feeling so encouraged.

Have you experienced God's sovereignty lately... have you looked for it? 

Where Did Mo Go?

I couldn't help myself...

Motivation seems to be on short supply these days. Not sure what is causing my loss of mo. Usually, I can always find motivation in working towards the next big thing.  I have some neat opportunities coming up in the near future, but even those don't seem to be providing much fuel for the flame. The hardest thing for me about all of this is that my lack of mo in my interpersonal life also affects my spiritual life. I suppose that makes since your interpersonal self and spiritual self are not disconnected but are in fact connected.

As a Christian I am called to and have been created to worship God in my  heart and my mind (in spirit and truth).  This is hard enough to do without a lack of mo! While I may have a lack of mo right now, I do still believe in God and I believe that He loves me and understands my lack of mo right now. However, this doesn't give me an excuse not to pursue God and to live in righteousness. He saves me, redeems me, provides strength in my weakness, and cares for me. Today, I will live in His grace and take one small step at a time to overcoming my lack of mo right now. I think I will start by telling Him I have a lack of mo and that I love Him and how thankful that He loves me too.

How do you worship God when you have a lack of mo?