Grace to Keep Trekking

Grace is to keep you trekking down the right trail. You are not going to become the image of Christ without bumps and bruises and falling. That's why we have grace. So God can catch us when we stumble. We have to have faith in that grace. That it will indeed catch us. And God knows our nature. He knows we like to test things. So grace is not a one time safety net, but it a renewable airbag to prevent us from plunging into the depths of sin. Notwithstanding, God wants us to move past that point of testing out His grace. He wants us to use it as buffer, not as a canal through which we drift along in life.

Grace keeps us following after God.

God understands our frailty. God understands we act on impulse to latch on to what we crave. God understands our tendencies to unquenchable thirsts. He understands and desires to turn that around. He wants to be what we crave. He wants to be our unquenchable thirst. But He wants more than an addictive mentality. He wants us to run to Him and be satisfied. He wants to quench our thirst with His Spirit. And not only that, He wants to make living by His Spirit so powerful and wonderful that we keep coming back to His goodness and mercy and love. Not just an oasis in our desert of life, but to become an ocean dotted with isles the moment we taste of His goodness so that when we journey through life we are surrounded by His love and righteousness, plunging into the depths of His holiness with each step closer to transformation into His holiness.

We know what our task is; we know God's will. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."

Love- long after, desire.
All- a totality, completely
Heart- inner man, innermost core self
Soul- who you are, the essence of your being, what makes you you.
Might- force, your oomph.

So, we are to long after God with our complete innermost self, with everything that makes us who we are (our actions, our emotions, our passions), with every ounce of oomph we have. Not to passively "love" God, but to actively and passionately and personally love God.

But God knew we were going to mess up. He knew that when He said all, we would think some. He knew that when He said love, we would think appreciate. He knew that when He said our heart, we would think only what other people saw. He knew that when He said our soul, we would think who others think we are, not who we really are. When He said our oomph, He knew we would assume just enough to make it look convincing. So He gave us grace.

When we love sin more than holiness          |     We have grace.

When we love ourselves above God             |     We have grace.

When mediocrity triumphs within               |     We have grace.

When we are swept off our feet by sin        |     We have grace.

When we fear and sink in raging waters     |    We have grace.

When we run away from God's love            |     We have grace.

We were given grace not to abuse, but to embrace. We cannot live out holiness on our own. We will fall. We will fail. But grace is there to catch us and push us back onto our feet. God gives us grace to keep on trekking.

When we fall, we mustn't quit. When we fail, we mustn't deny grace. God longs for us to be closer to Him. He draws close when we draw nigh. He doesn't desire or wish for our failure, He wants for us to succeed in Him.

The Offender desires that I fear following God. That I come to the point of fearing that I might screw up too much because I follow after righteousness. When I fall, Satan wants me to remain slumped over in defeat. When I fail, Satan wants me to quit, fearing that my small stumbles in following Christ now is only a twitch of an eye when I'm further down the road of following Christ. That it is better for me to quit now than to be "fired" later.
But I will not quit because God does not quit on me.
I will praise HIS righteousness and HIS love.
I will embrace grace to keep me trekking on my journey to transformation into His Son.
I will not be dismayed by the giants before me. Because it wasn't that stone or that sling; it wasn't that hand or that David; it wasn't David's intellect or His might; not even was it his faith in God that brought down that giant. No; it was God alone who defeated David's giant. David simply decided to be the one through whom God channeled His own power.

Grace: God's design to keep us following Him. He keeps His hand ready to pull us out of our fears and failures. He won't quit on me. Why should I quit on Him?

Come.

We live in a world crazed by sin. We are like the disciples on that boat on the dangerous sea of Galilee. Like them, we are jettisoning our boats of useless things that just draw us deeper into the depths. We are getting pails out and sloshing the water out of the boat. Like them, we are racked by the waves and slammed by the winds.

http://marketingmatters.tv/

All too often we fear. We fear not physical death, but rather the death of our lives connected to the presence of our God. We fear being thrust into the oceans of sin; we fear being rejected by God for the sins of our hearts.  We look out into the darkness and see something that haunts us. Regret? Past failures? It just stands there, unnerved by the storm of sin. That something takes on a more lifelike figure and it begins walking closer to our soul, our boat in the middle of the sea. It looks like a Man of Hope, but it can't be. Hope is unheard of in our distress. But He calls out to turn away from fear. We test Him, and He calls us to walk out on the waves.

The same waves that made us lose our cargo. The same waves that crashed against the boat, threatening our lives. The same waves that crash against our faces, causing us to choke on sin and darkness.

"Come."

Christ is calling us to step out of the boat. To walk to Him and stop fearing drowning in sin. He is calling us out on the waters to faithfully overcome the sin around us. He wants us to supernaturally walk without sinking, live without fear, follow without holding back.

"Come."

When we follow Christ and walk in His Spirit, we will not have anything to fear in sin. We will not be overcome by sin. It is only when we stop loving God that we sin. It is only when we turn our eyes off of the power of Christ that fear has opportunity to jump in and we become afraid.

Maybe we will fear. Maybe we will sink in our sins. But Jesus Christ our Redeemer is right there with His hand outstretched to lift us up and walk on the water again. He doesn't desire our failings. He doesn't expect us to fall short. He wants us to experience His great power. He wants us to triumph over sin by the power of His love. He wants us to walk with life anew and never ever again sink in sink.

He is with us. May we follow Christ and not sink in sin any more.

Beauty in Following.

(http://epiphany-lutheran.com)

There is a beauty in following Christ than is near-indescribable. It is a complex thing when you scrutinize it, but a very simple thing when you take it for what it is.

Why it is complex:

God created man. Man sinned. Man plunged into revolving darkness. Hope disappeared. Darkness prevailed. Light was shadowed. But then Hope was born in the most hopeless of times and places. Hope rose to live a life that pointed to attainable perfection to the law. Hope was the Messiah, the Saviour of Man. Christ abode in God, pleasing the Father and embracing His love. Christ died for sin, though sinless was he. Christ was buried in the grave, fully dead. Hope was buried with Him and darkness filled the world again because the hope found in Christ died when He breathed His last.

Then three days later hope broke free from the clutches of despair and rose with Christ with radiant light, casting off the tendrils of darkness. Christ rose from the dead and brought with Him life everlasting to those who accepted His call to repent and follow. And that's a key thing to note. Christ died for our sins so that we could be reconciled with God and be restored into His Kingdom and be able to live with Him. But then He arose to new life. For one, it was to fulfill the word of God; and another, it was to enable us to walk in newness of life. When Christ died, we were able to die to sin. When Christ rose, we were and are able to rise up again to life anew. And it is with this new life that we can follow Christ when He beckons us.


Why it is simple:

Christ redeemed us. It is only logical to follow Him in respect of gratitude.

Satan wants us to turn that simplicity it to irrationality. He wants us to fear. What if Christ leads us to treacherous places? What if we go alone? What if we get hurt emotionally or physically? What if He leads us to a completely foreign place to our expectations? What if...?

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. --1John 4:18

We have nothing to fear. When we follow Christ, we follow love.

 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love. --1John 4:16

And that is the beauty. Wherever Christ leads us, we will walk in His love. Whatever we experience, we do so through His love. Whomever we meet, we encounter by the love of Christ. We have nothing to fear for what lies ahead or where we will end up because Christ is leading us in the love of the Father.

So follow Christ.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. --Matt. 16:24

Repent and Follow: The Heart of the Gospel.

(http://foundurself.files.wordpress.com)

It's like driving on a highway. First, you need to change your
mind about where you are at and where you are headed,
then choose to take the next exit that leads you to a different place.

The moment John the Baptist stepped onto the scene to announce the Messiah's presence, his message was repentance. The very first message Jesus brings is "to repent." The word repent is an important one. Often we blow it up, making it more complicated than it really is. The Greek word gives the idea to go against a particular thinking pattern as well as going with another pattern of thinking. To change your mind. Thus, Jesus calls us to change our minds--our minds about ourselves, about God, about the future of mankind, and about God's love. Why? Because the Christ is about to reign as King in Earth and in our lives. We ought change our minds that we can live how we desire. We can no longer view ourselves as our own, but that we are property of King Jesus. Turn away from self-ruling and turn to Christ-submission.

The next message Jesus has is on a more interpersonal level. He visits two fishermen. He goes to them and tells them to follow, or to come after, Him. Jesus wants us to stop what we are doing and follow after Him and do things His way. Jesus comes to us in our way of living and gives us the opportunity to come after Him, to follow Him. He then speaks to us on our terms and uses our skills and knowledge to fulfill His kingdom, should we choose to accept His calling. Jesus told these fishermen that He had a task of fishing after men. Of casting out a net and catching people for the Kingdom of Christ. They would use their skills on knowing how not to scare fish (people) off. They would use their skills of patience and endurance. All the while, they would be following Christ. Learning new tricks, learning new methods on how to add to the Kingdom of Christ. And it all starts with changing your mind and following after Christ.

That is the Gospel. "Change your mind about sin and yourself and turn away from the worthless pursuits of darkness and instead understand that Jesus is your King and choose to follow Him, learning His love and experiencing the society of the Kingdom." It's like driving on a highway. First, you need to change your mind about where you are at and where you are headed, then choose to take the next exit that leads you to a different place. Understand where you are with sin and the direction it is taking you (death), and then choose to turn away from sin and follow after Christ and take the road to a different destination (life).

Grace, Scars, and the Will of God.

"But God"...will show you His will.

He will not hide it under a log for you to dig up. He will not dangle it in front of you among five other options and have you grab at one like on a TV game show, hoping you get the right one.
God created you for a purpose He wants to fulfill in you. And that right there is a blessed thought. Because of this: Sin will not so much disqualify you from fulfilling that as it is you turning away from God's path and choosing your own way.
Yes. Sin is stupid. Yes there are consequences. It destroys so many things. But God is greater than your sin. He can overcome it and use your weakness to show Himself strong in you. He will take your flaws and turn them into beauty. He will bind up your wounds so you can in turn point those who have been injured like you to the Shepherd and the Healer.
Sin is stupid. And Life isn't a movie where you ought to pursue after flaws and look out for those plot twists like God using your flaws to expand His kingdom. We are going to screw up enough on our own without intentionally keeping it in our mind that the Grace of God upholds us.

Maybe I am the only one who does that. I find myself in such a constricted world. I enjoy writing and I enjoy pondering in the creative mind. That is how I come up with potential conversations in my head. If I am supposed to have a meeting with someone, then I will recite my lines and concoct all sorts of rivers that the conversation could flow--for better or worse.

And I've somehow become of a mind that says: if you're going to screw up, then screw up big time. That way you can minister to people better. They will see how flawed you are and realize that if the grace of God extends to me, then it will definitely extend to the as well. It's a movie of sorts. The drunkard of a street bum sobers up, starts ministering to street youth to keep them from the dangers of alcohol. Then he seeks out those already in the clutches of their addictions and points them to the Saviour who can break every chain. He will point to his old "home" stained with the spillage of his drunken stoops. He will point to the scars on his body where he barely escaped alive from a car collision that he caused by being drunk behind the wheel. He will then take them to the cemetery where the teenager he killed by his recklessness rested in peace. Then he will raise his arms and, with a tear in his eye, proclaim in a silent roar: "How great is our God! He has broken my chains of greed and lust and addiction. He can break yours, too."

That is what God can do, sure. But it is a thing that ought be far, far away from our mind to pursue in order to further the kingdom. We should never seek to drink the darkness of sin so we can minister to those drunk with the darkness. We should drink of life so we can boldly and with full assurance offer the water of life.


So you were made with a purpose. God created you to be a engineer or a doctor or a teacher or a pastor or a missionary or a mechanic. He gave you experiences and joys and hobbies and passions that has fashioned you for His will. God doesn't want you to have to guess. The faith He requires of you is not choosing the right bend in the fork in the road. But rather this: To take a step in his way even when it seems scary or hard or painful. It is to trust God to provide and to keep and to protect.
The disciples were told to follow Christ. To give up their lives and follow Him. They were placing faith in which road to take, they were placing faith in the fact that if they followed, they would have nothing.
When Zaccheus chose to follow God, he knew that he should stop swindling people out of their money. He had to trust God to provide when he repaid everyone fourfold. He had to trust God not to be murdered on the spot when he came to each house to repay.
Abram was given a direction to go with little else information. He had to trust that God would keep him safe during the journey. He had to trust God to provide him with the land He was leading him to. Abram had day by day instruction, but never the final destination until he reached it. He wasn't making a guess, he was following God strictly.

So we, too, ought to follow God. Not as if we have to hope we jump out onto the right invisible platform. But we should follow Him knowing this is where He wants us and trusting Him to keep His word. If we decide to turn away from Him and we get scraped up, we just need to turn back to Him. Then along the way share with those we meet the truth that turning from God produces pain and wounds that run deep.

So may we follow God. Maybe where we are at now is not the final destination, but the road to make it. We are here to learn, to impact others, and to continue on. Not impulsively, but by God's decree. Trust God. Follow God. Love God. And abide in Christ.

Raking in a Leaf Storm

It's that time of year. Fall in full swing and Winter is knocking on the door. Leaves are changing colors and the lawn is covered in leaves. It is a somewhat comical to watch someone rake leaves and more fall to the ground either while is raking or an hour later. There are two ways to deal with that if you don't want to rake then rake then rake.
One is to let all the leaves fall to the ground and then work to rake them up. If you have a big tree or lots of trees, then the task could amount to incredibly sore arms and blisters on your palms. Perhaps even a bad case of chapped lips.
Another is to cut the tree down and rake up the mess. It's a big option, but if you want to stop raking leaves, then that's a good option. After all, the tree is alive. It isn't death. It just drops off its dead products to the ground. So that's the problem. It is a healthy tree, so why cut it down? It's thriving, just going through a period where it sheds death every five minutes. Your tree could be nice. It could provide fun with a swing or a fort. Or it could provide relief from the heat of the day.

So the question rises: what do we dislike the most about the situation? Is raking really all that bad? Sure it looks bad to have leaves on our lawn; sure it is a pain to rake up the mess; sure we could even bear the marks in our hands where we have labored endlessly. But is it that bad? Is it bad enough to cut down that maple so we don't have to rake again?


We all have trees in our lives that shed leaves of death and decay. Trees of lust and of hatred and of power and of idolatry. They seem to be great. When they're in their ideal stage, we have a shade from the pressures of the day. We also have a fun escape to withdraw from what we fight for day in and out and just play 'house' in the treehouse. But then seasons change. Our trees go from looking green and lush to brown and crackly. One by one the leaves fall, crashing on us the shade of our rest. Now we have dead leaves laying around us that need removing. So we haul out the rake and scrape at our lawns trying to rid ourselves of the disgrace. Days are spent, but the leaves keep coming.

So what do we do? People watch as we foolishly rake up our mess in the midst of the falling down of our mistaken refuge. If we just stop and stare and let the products of death sprinkle around us, then we must endure the glares of our neighbors for having such an unkempt life. Once we get to the point where the leaves are on the yard, we must fight against massive layers of leaves, brisk winds.

Then our other option is to chop the tree down. But we remember the fun. We remember the relief. We remember what it felt like just to ignore the world and bask in our alter-reality. Can we really go through with that? What happens when the sun shines brightly and we must sit under the pounding rays and experience sunburns? What happens when we come home from a stressful day and we have no swing to allow the wind to soothe our head and heart?

That's when Christ sprouts up through the ground. He becomes our True Vine. He becomes the source of our shade and shelter and comfort and rest. He is the one we can latch onto and never die. He is the one we can gain energy and by Him our fruits can be produced in us. No longer is death on the ground by our roots, but we have fruit ripened all around us where people can see and even taste to discover that God is good and is faithful. We can't produce those fruits; we are just branches. But God produces them in us when we attach ourselves to His love and grace and mercy.


So let us stop raking in a leaf storm and start chopping our trees down. God gives us the tools. God gives us the strength. Once we cut the tree down, then we ought to burn the roots. Let's rake the leaves onto the root system and let the fire of God devour our dead life of sin. And then, when all is destroyed and we stand under the face of the sun, may we turn to the True Vine and abide in Him. Then watch as the snow falls all around us as our lawn and lives become as pure and white as snow because Christ love courses through our veins, because God's grace strengthens us day by day, because we have fruit of righteousness and of life because Christ produces them in us.



John 15
Romans 6
Psalm 1

The Power of Sin (but the Stronger Power of God's Love)

On the day the heavens burst out in spectacular light and the earth took form with waters and gases and rocks and plants and life, God knew us. More than that, He loved us. The moment He said "Let there be light" He knew he would create mankind, and He loved us.

He also knew that Man would choose to denounce the love of God and follow after the lure of Sin. Sin is a spiritual "deity" in the sense that it is not a physically seen thing. Satan is a pawn of Sin and not Sin himself--because Lucifer was lured away from God's love, too, by the power of Sin. Sin, therefore, is the opposite of God. God is holy, God is pure, God is light. However, Sin is unholy, Sin is darkness, Sin is all impurity. And God knew Man would be lured away by the power of Sin. And still He created us and loved us.

That love for us is what prompted Him to prepare for that day we chose darkness over the Light. He ordained His son to die as a sacrifice for Sin. Not to push it off as would happen on altars throughout the days of Adam and Noah and Jacob and Elijah, but instead remove it from our hearts completely. Because He loved us.

So Man was lured. Man declined. Man became tainted with darkness. Because darkness cannot exist in the light, man was banished from the presence of God. And instantly sacrificing became the norm of life. Adam taught his sons the way to make amends for their sins by sacrificing innocent blood of a lamb. After a while, Cain was lured by Sin and offered a displeasing sacrifice. Perhaps he thought he was doing fine by offering his first fruits by his duty of the land just like Abel was offering of the fruits by his duty of the livestock. But Cain didn't do fine. God wanted the burning of animal to permeate the air, not plants.

 Sin was vicious and demanded every opposite thing of God: darkness, death, pride, anger, hatred. So Mankind was lured again in recorded history and Cain murdered his brother in an act of hatred and anger. And yet God loved us.

God continued to reveal ways for His creation to follow after Light. He knew the end of Sin's way was death and that the end of God's was life. He gave laws: Do this, but don't do that. He gave priests to help people live right. He gave prophets to send messages on how to follow God. But Man continued to be lured by Sin, deeper and deeper into the darkness. But He loved us.

So finally God acted upon what He ordained the moment He created all. He sent His son to Earth to live with mankind. To experience human life. Christ ate like a man, communicated like mankind. He learned and taught like humans did. He felt pain both emotionally and physically. He grew up alone. He began His ministry and chose 12 followers as He became their Rabbi. They grew close, but soon He was betrayed. He was stabbed in the back by a kiss on the cheek. And then in a (not-so-fast) blink, Jesus was offered as the sacrificial lamb, putting an end to Death's reign and Sin's dominion. Because God loved us.

And that moment we allow Christ to forgive our sins and clean us from the darkness and implant His light into us, we can never regress. Never again will our hearts be stained by Sin and thus would cause us to be condemned from the presence of God. But we now have His Light abiding in us.

And thousands of years ago God knew we would struggle. He knew we would be lured again even after being given the Light. He knew we would trip and fall. He knew we would cry as we neared abandoning His Light. He knew we would deny His grace and give up. He knew we would cling to death and hatred. And yet He loved us and cleansed us.

And now He loves us. He looks on our weakness and our failures. And He whispers to us Life and Love. He informs us that even though we fail, we are not failures. Even if we follow after the darkness, His Light has not departed from us. Even though we are weak, He is strong.

God knows Sin has great power. Sin has had its grip on mankind for centuries and centuries. Sin even ripped out angels from Heaven. Sin is powerful. God knew we would give in to our weakness. But God is stronger. God can overcome that in which we wallow in defeat. God can show us Love so we can deny the false pleasures of sin. God can set ablaze a Light in our heart to ward off the darkness of Sin.

Because God loves us, He doesn't want to see us walk in darkness. Therefore He has given us His Light.
May we embrace that Light and denounce the darkness.
May we encounter His love so we can abandon Sin's hatred.
May we experience His Life so we can reject Sin's death.

Because the power of God's love is stronger than the power of Sin, we can overcome by the love of God.