The Discipline of Grace...

Okay the 2nd Chapter of this book...

He has discussed self-righteousness in this chapter, see what you think...

"I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you.

I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you.

I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you and want you to have the best.

I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours.

I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself.

I am not rude becuse I love you and care about your feelings.

I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs.

I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses.

I do no keep a record of your wrongs because I love you, and 'love covers a multitude of sins'."

Is there any room for self-righteousness in the light of this practical standard of love?

Now think of this one,

"Believers obey Christ as the one by whom our obedience is accepted by God. Believers know all their duties are weak, imperfect and unable to abide in God's presence. Therefore, they look to Christ as the one who bears the iniquity of their holy things, who adds incense to their prayers, gathers out all the weeds from their duties and makes them acceptable to God."

Even our own GOOD performance needs repentance and cleansing!! Even your best stuff is in need of the Grace of God! WOW! Let that sink in for a little while and tell me what you think...

Love ya!

How Good Is Good Enough?

This quote was taken from Jerry Bridges book called "The Discipline of Grace"...

"We know, of course, how central the forgiveness of our sins is to salvation. We preach it, we believe in it. We see that first repentance and surrender to Christ as a glorious moment. We also accept that having come to the Lord, we continue to purify our lives. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. But in talking with many believers, I get the imprssion that most of us consider the on-going repentance of the saved as a not-so-glorious experience. A sort of sad necessity.

Sin grieves God. We must not down-play the seriousness of it in the life of a believer. But we must come to terms with the fact that God's Grace is GREATER THAN ALL OUR SINS. Repentance is one of the Christian's highest privileges. A repentant Christian focuses on God's mercy and God's grace. Any moment in our lives when we bask in God's mercy and grace is our highest moment. Higher than when we feel smug in our decent performance and cannot think of anything we need to confess.

Whenever we fail--and fail we will, the Spirit of God will work on us and being us to the foot of the cross where Jesus carried our failures. That is potentially a glorious moment. For we could at that moment accept God's abundant Mercy and Grace and go forth with nothing to boast of except Christ Himself, or else we struggle with our shame, focusing on that as well as our track record. We fail because we shifted our attention from Grace and Mercy. One who draws on God's Mercy and Grace is quick to repent, but also slow to sin."

How awesome is this? I don't know why, but I have never really thought about it this way...It should be a glorious thing when take ourselves out of the picture, admit where we stand and completely rely on the mercy and grace of God...not only do we need this as individuals, but as "church"!

If only, if only...

My vote counts? Really?

"I pray with every fiber of my being that your children and ours all grow to be the Christians that God wants them to be. Unfortunately though Socialism is socialism no matter how it is sugar coated and it affects EVERYONE. I will be able to stand face to face with God on the day of judgement though and tell him that I stood up for him by casting my vote in this election and I will continue to stand up for God and his teachings until I see him face to face."

I am really concerned about this particular message that I received the other day. Although I am aware that socialism in and of itself is not good, it holds no true meaning for me, my family and my children. But to say that I am not being "Godly" or being unsupportive of God because I did not vote is a ludacris and obscene gesture and minimizes faith and passion for God. To say to someone that they were not doing their "Christian-duty" by not voting just baffles me. Why?

I think about the times when people had to proclaim emperor-deity and "Ceasar is Lord" and were tied between 2 stacks of meat so that dogs could devour them, or have their bodies boiled in oil or whatever...all for the entertainment of the emperor and his "coliseum crowd" of followers. These Christians proclaimed Diety in God and God alone! We in America are nowhere near that!! And if we were, who would be the first to claim YAHWEH as Lord and Savior? I hope and pray that we all would...

So...I need to give proof that I am a Christian within my vote? Please, spare of the self-righteous, pious attitude that claims "you-better-vote-or-you-are-going-to-burn-in-Hell" mentality or spirituality! God doesn't care about your vote...He cares about your heart! He cares whether you love Him more than anything else...

Yes I want my children to grow up and be responsible citizens in a "free" country...but that is the whole point isn't it? We were not meant to be here in the first place! We are meant to be with God...The "Christ-followers country" is bought, paid for, and citizenship is inherited by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Just spend some time reading Hebrews 11..."Instead, they were LONGING for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."

Where is what?

I love this yearbookyourself.com! It makes me think of my teenage days and all those memories...

I have really been reflective lately...I know, to think of me as a thinker is funny! But sometimes I do and it becomes really scary! I don't remember a whole lotta stuff from my younger years. There are some family things that will always stay with me and memories of stuff that you would like to forget, but I understand the "as-you-get-older-the-years-go-faster" thought! It makes you realize what is truly important in this life.

I am having trouble remembering when Connor was learning to turn over on his tummy! I mean it just flies by so fast! Adria and I were talking the other day and we realized we could hardly remember what it was like to NOT have children! Although beautiful and fun and adventuresome as they are, we try and remember those special times we had in Paris or Vienna or Munich or Szolnok. Wonderful places to be and people to be with! Oh the memories!

David says to us,

"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath...My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken...O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water...Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands."

Take the time today to learn what is truly important to you. Just sit, relax and while the children are in bed tonight and just listen to God. He is there...your life is fleeting away...BUT He is always with you! Realize that it is Him through your wonderful memories that He is there and He loves you!

Where's the love?

I have been caught off guard with the newest book and class I am teaching here at Bypass. I have long tried to understand this, all of this. Maybe I am just behind on some things. LOL Anyways, I have come to discover the Story that God has laid before me. The Story continues and it is beautiful and lovely and unimaginable. The joy of marriage, the sadness of pain in that same marriage, the blessings of cute, cuddly children that are angelic in their desire to love you unconditionally, when you feel most of the time you don't deserve that, all of these things are the Romance. The Sacred Romance. The Romance that began many years ago, when years weren't years, and time had no beginning. The Romance that speaks to mankind through our times, experiences, our downfalls, pains, sorrows and joys. With a whisper, God says ever so quietly, "I have loved you from the beginning and will NEVER stop loving you." God speaks to us loudly sometimes, and says "Look, it is my Son and I give Him for you because I want you back WITH Me forever."

Don't think that God is not speaking to you today...He is and He wants you to see Him in all that you have, all that you do, all that is a part of you. Yes, the flat tires, the bounced checks, the cancer, the sexual struggles and disappointments, all lead to God's heart for you and you alone. He seeks and asks nothing less from you than your heart, and draws closer to you, haunts with His desire to have you near Him. Yes, we are seeking God...but He is seeking us in all the mundanity of life's struggles and joys! All you have to do is find Him and it starts today, right now.

Read Ephesians 1...and discover the Story and Romance of God Almighty...have a blessed day!

Just trying it out....

I went fishing today! It was fun...caught a fair share of fishyes! I know it is spelled wrong...have some fun!! Anywho, you ever wonder what it feels like to be caught hook-line-and-sinker?

Imagine you are the large mouth bass that just got caught swimming around in your home. You woke up had a great breakfast of algae, maybe a mudbug, if you were really hungry for breakfast. Then as you try to clean around the house, you see a strange site at first, then it really captures your eye...is it food or an intruder? So you swim over reluctantly, you see it...it is FOOD! As your morning as passed you had gotten hungry from your work around the house and there is some free, floating, moving, jerking, dropping temptuous black lizard food within the grasp of your finely tuned mouth and senses. So you lunge for it, not to eat, but to see how it responds, you play with your food, you love it, bump it, squeeze it...it moves away from you. Hey, I am hungry and you move away from me? Come back here! You lunge with full-open and outright swallowing power and something gets stuck in your lip or your tongue...it doesn't matter, it freggin hurts! It tugs on you, swim away! It tugs again, your lip is about to yank off! Why am I going to the surface of the water? To ease the pain, you swim to the surface and jump out of your home! I think I knew this was up here, but I forgot what it looked like! And oh my, I can't breathe as well up here! What is that thing floating above the water? Get this hook outta my LIP! You swim back down fast, but the pulling continues...you become tired from the workout and end up getting tugged out of your living room...Flopping and flopping, you see this ugly thing look you in the eye with such elation and joy and happiness! As you struggle to breathe, the ugly thing that pulled the hook out of your lip, puts you into another home, that is a lot cleaner and better until some of your friends and relatives start arriving in your new home!

The great thing about catching fish is the fact that God WANTS us to ENJOY his creation, His SPOKEN-INTO-EXISTENCE Creation!! It is wonderful to see that we can experience even God talking to us through His beautifully-crafted Nature! God does not and will not create anything bad! That is why he made you, YOU and no one else like YOU. Understand His beauty and passion in YOU, decide that YOU are HIS and HE is YOURS, share with HIM who YOU are, because after all, aren't we all HIS anyways?

Have a great day and a wonderful week!!