When God Smiles

I'm not sure how many of us here in central Ohio have noticed or not.  I don't want to jinks it or anything but the sun has shined for about four days straight.  We whined and complained about the rain.  We talked about building arks and God forgetting his promise with the whole rainbow thing.  But how many of us have taken the time to thank him for the smile he's shown us the past couple of days? 

Today I'd like to lead you in a time of thanks.  God is so amazing and so wonderful that often we just miss the many things he does for us.  We all overlook the "little" things in life.  When small things happen that are wonderful, we rarely say anything positive about them.  When the bad stuff happens we're all over complaining about them.  So today we're going to be thankful. 

No matter what happens today - BE THANKFUL!

We've got so many things to be thankful for - family, friends, cars, houses, churches, jobs, food, money (even the change that we stick in our ash tray - aka trash can), the ability to walk and talk, running with our kids,  even having kids to yell at or who we complain about.  We are so very blessed in so many ways.  Today just go through your day with your eyes wide open to the many blessings that God has put in your life today. 

Jesus - we hardly see you in our lives.  We complain when we don't see you, and when you're blatantly doing something good we rarely recognize it's you.  Help us see you today so that we can give thanks for the many blessings you've put in our life.  AMEN

Grace PLUS?

One of the most popular misconceptions about grace is that it needs something added to it.  Honestly that couldn't be further from the truth.  There's a passage in scripture that says My grace is sufficient for you. There's another that indicates saved by grace, through faith in Christ, and this not by works so that no one can boast.

I believe these two passages really cut through the garbage in our thinking.  They get right down to the fact that grace is all about what God already did for us.  They tell us that God is big enough, strong enough, present enough, forgiving enough to forgive our sins and restore us to a right relationship with himself. 

It blows my mind how many people are in the world who say they have to add to God's grace.  Or better yet that they've done too many wrong things that they can't be forgiven, as if they could take away from how amazing God's grace is. 

Here's the truth of the matter - you can't make God love you any more than he already does.  And the reverse is true - you can't mak God love you any less than he already does.  That's what grace is about -getting the undeserved love and goodness of God. 

Today I encourage you to bask in the grace of God.  See everything around you as God setting you up for something great.  It's truly amazing how God can take something that looks terrible and frightening and turn it into something amazing, wonderful, and full of blessing. 

Lord, open our eyes that we might see you today!  Amen.

A Sinner Forgiven!

There have been some questions about the randomness of the Bible verses used for these updates, so starting today I'll be adding the references to my daily devotional time.  Feel free to check-out the entire reading on your own.  This morning I was able to read Luke 16, 1 Timothy 1, and 2 Chronicles 3-5.  I'm making every effort possible to read through the bible in a year and this is the plan that I've chosen to help me accomplish this task. 

As I was reading from Timothy this morning, I was really drawn to verse 15 and 16 of chapter one: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst.  This is where I always used to stop but there's so much richness in the verse that follows: But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. 

There are two really key elements in this passage that we all need to live by: confession and forgiveness.  Since we don't walk down the street using these churchy words, I'll unpack them a bit. Confession is the act of admitting that we've gone in the wrong direction.  This is fessing up to the crime/fault that rightfully is ours and then turning to move in the opposite direction. Forgiveness is what you'd expect - a complete wiping away of all record of that incident that was just confessed.  I mean completely gone!  The bible says that our failures are removed from us as far as the East is from the West - and let me tell you that's far!  Jesus death and resurrection guaranteed our victory over the sins we would commit.

So we live in a constant state of paradox: sinner - saint.  For the time being we are both.  While we are here on earth in an unholy world filled with faults and brokenness - we will be sinners, people who miss the mark.  But let us not dwell there alone!  Let us be like Paul who reminds us that even though we fail there is forgiveness.  God loves to forgive!  He promises that when a sinner repents, when a person admits their brokenness, he is all over lifting and restoring and bringing that person right back into the family.  He loves to forgive.  He even says that heaven throws a party every time a person admits their brokenness! 

How cool is that!  Heaven throws a party when we admit who we really are - sinners forgiven!  Today live as a sinner forgiven!  Live as one who doesn't have it all together.  Remember that you've got issues, you've got problems, you've got failures.  But remember that God loves you just the way you are.  While we were still sinners Christ died for us!  While we were still far away from him, he sought us out and freely forgave us all of those things we've done wrong!  You are a sinner forgiven!  I am a sinner forgiven!  Thanks be to God for this wonderful gift of Grace!

Lord - today we want to rest in your forgiveness.  Help us to let go of our sins and cling to your forgiveness!  AMEN.