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

What is faith?

Honestly - faith isn't really something that's hard to come by in our world.  People practice the basics of faith every day.  You get in a car and you exercise faith that the wide pedal on the left (or middle for you manual drivers) will stop you.  You put faith in that chair you're sitting in to read this.  Granted it's easy to have faith in something that you've seen work a million times or more.  It's easy to live by the philosophy that seeing is believing. 

But I'm inclinced to think of faith a little differntly.  Today you are at a monumental point in your life.  You are at a point when your life collides with the truth of Jesus' resurrection and the amazing grace of God given to you.  When these three roads collide, I believe that point is called radical faith. 

Any monkey can have faith, but it takes a follower of God to have radical faith.  Radical faith is leaning into God.  Even when you can't see him, lean.  Even when it seems as if he's gone and left you all alone - just keep leaning!  Never stop leaning into God. 

You see, what happens when you lean into God is simple.  You begin to see him.  You see him because you believe and trust that he's there.  Seeing isn't always believing, but truly believing is seeing.  That's what the writer of the book of Hebrews was getting at when he wrote - faith is being sure of what is hoped for and certain of what is yet unseen. 

When you can see what's not physically there, chances are, you've been leaning into God.  When challenges arise, lean into God.  When everything's going right, lean into God.  When you have needs, lean into God.  No matter where you are or what's going on in your life, lean into God.  He'll never let you down!  He will let you slip and sometimes get skinned up a bit, but he'll never leave you all alone. 

Lord help us to live with radical faith today. Help us lean into you today! 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.

I'm rich! And so are you!

Growing up I learned that grace could be defined as God's riches at Christ's expense.  It's one of those nice acrostic things.  That phrase works really well for those of us who know God's riches but for those who don't know God's riches or was it cost Christ - it's somewhat meaningless. 

But we're going to stick with it today.  We're going to look at how rich we really are.  It never ceases to amaze me how rich I truly am and how seldom I realize it.  I had to get new tags for my car last Friday. I generally dread going into the BMV.  But I had a new perspective when I walked in there.  I realized that I got to do something that less than 8% of the world's population got to do - have a car. 

I rode in a friend's car not too long ago and he opened his ash tray to pull out some change before going into the store.  Not that's rich!  And most of us are just like him - we keep money in a trash can.  We have houses, clean water, enough clothes that we have to decide what we'll wear not where we'll get our clothes from. 

You see if we would allow our perspective to change a bit, we just might see how great God's riches already have been showered on us.  Instead we get grumpy when we don't have everything we want.  We complain and grumble when we work hard and don't get our raise - because we deserve it we think.  We close an eye to those who have nothing.  We turn our heads so we don't have to look at the homeless man on the streets.  We change the channel so we don't have to see the television commercial with the starving children.  We ignore the news so we don't have to see all the families displaced by storms and other natural disasters. 

I believe living in God's grace, his undeserved goodness, means that we walk around with our eyes wide open.  I've challenged everyone at our church to do this and just write down the good that's happened to them this week.  This has caused me to see all kinds of things that I probably would've just ignored.  God has promised you riches that you couldn't even comprehend, and honestly most of us reading this today have those riches and we don't even recognize it. 

Take time today to give thanks for the riches that God has given you.  Lord, thanks for all the things in my life.  For my family, house, car, and all the rest I thank you.   Help me to be more grateful for the stuff you've given me.  Help me to share what I have with those who don't have anything.  Amen.

Grace = a better life now!

There's a great bible verse in 2 Corinthians that contains a quote from Jesus that says my grace is sufficient for you.  I've got to be honest though.  Some days it sure doesn't feel like it.  Some days I'm not sure if God's grace really is enough.  Some days I want God's grace and some kind of assurance for the future. Some days I want to know that it's all going to work out ok, and by ok I mean the way I have dreamed up in my head. 

But that's not what this verse says.  It says that his grace, and his grace alone is enough.  Yesterday we said that grace was getting the good we don't deserve, so what good have you been receiving?  A really cool thing happened yesterday that reminded me that God's grace isn't just an eternal life insurance policy that grants me heaven.  God's grace actually affects me today, that's why his grace is simply enough. 

Yesterday I went to a local home improvement store to help my grandpa get new locks for house.  I picked up the locks I thought he would like and took them to the counter.  I really don't like the self-check lanes at stores because they put hard working people out of a job, so I went to the only line open.  This gave me a chance to meet a man who would show me a better life.  The cashier told me the total and as I was pulling out my card to pay for the locks, this man handed me a card that gave me 10% off the total bill.  It ended up being a pretty good savings.  We talked for a couple minutes more and I thanked him for showing me a better life today and for demonstrating what grace was all about.  Then I left. 

God says that his grace is sufficient.  That means it's enough.  There's nothing you need to add to it or subtract from it to make it work in your life.  I believe there's a common misconception in our world that says grace is for heaven, but I have to work harder for a better life now.  This couldn't be more false!  God wants us to have a better life right now!  He wants us to survive and thrive and be joyful and content and all the things that a loving father wants for his children.  That's why his grace is enough, because it takes care of the heaven bit very well but it does more!  So much more. 

Today be on the look out for unexpected goodness shown to you.  Look for ways that God is bettering your life right now. 

Lord open our eyes that we might see you working among us on this journey we call faith.  Amen.

Grace...what is it?

This week we focus on the grace of God.  All week at Living Truth here in Marysville, we're looking at the grace of God.  As a matter of fact, I left everyone with an assignment after church yesterday.  The assignment was to simply look for times that you have received something good that you didn't deserve. 

You see that's the definition that we're using for grace - getting the good we don't deserve. It's pretty simple actually.  All we have to do is look around us at every turn and we'll see ways that we've been graced without our even realizing it. 

The bible verse that we used yesterday in church is such a great reminder of the fact that grace is given not earned.  Paul says in Romans 5 while we were still sinners Christ died for us.  That's crazy!  That's totally undeserved and it's not something we could even ask for.  That's what makes it grace.  If we could dream it up or ask for it or want it or do something to get it then it's not really grace. 

Grace is totally and completely someone else's work on your behalf.  Very simply grace is given not earned.  That was our big truth yesterday.  Take that phrase and write it down somewhere.  Remember that phrase this week and you'll be amazed at how big our God really is. 

Here's the assignment...just take a piece of paper and a pen and all throughout the week jot down times when you've received something that you didn't deserve.  Write down the ways that you've been "graced" this week.  Then if you're able, bring that paper with you to church next Sunday to Living Truth and we'll do something with it.  I'm not telling you to share this grace with anyone.  I don't want you to even worry about telling other people about it.  Just live in it.  You can't give away what you don't know for yourself, so get to know his grace to you this week. 

Lord we know that there are so many blessings around us everyday that we just overlook.  Help us to see these things today.  Help us to know the blessings that you have graced us with each and every day.  Amen.

When God Breathes

One of my favorite concepts in all of scripture is that the Holy Spirit is the very breath of God.  With a mere breath he brought life to a ball of dust, then named it Adam.  With a simple breath he assured Elijah that he was present.  With a breath he began a movement of people that we would end up calling the church.  And over the past couple of weeks his breath has been a bit too much for us to handle. 

The news is startling.  The faces of homeowners say it best.  The devastation they feel cannot be put into words.  The tornados that have ripped through this country over the past couple of weeks have contained in them the power that only God could allow, or potentially even cause. But why?  Why would this happen?  Why would our God, loving and all that, allow this vast devstation and death to occur on his watch? 

I struggled a bit with this question as I anxiously awaited to hear from a friend of mine who was in the path of these storms in Alabama.  But then something hit me.  Perhaps God was breathing on us a bit.  Perhaps God was using his breath, sometimes gently and sometimes a bit more powerfully, to show us that he still contains the power of wind, wave, earth, and all things.  Perhaps God has a great plan for this devastation.  Perhaps God has noticed that as a church we've become increasingly comfortable with the things around us so he's giving us something to react to.  Perhaps God has a desire for his movement of people (aka the church) to start moving again. 

I know that none of this sentiment will help rebuild homes.  I know none of it will restore power or house displaced families.  It won't raise the dead or bring healing to the hurting.  But there is something that we can do in response to this breath of God that just might change the entire outlook in the long term. 

You see it wasn't until God breathed into Adam that he woke up and began to live a life of faith and service toward God.  So now that we've seen, and some of us experienced, the breath of God the past couple weeks perhaps we will be able to mobilize.  I believe that the church is only the church when it's moving, serving, loving, doing, walking, talking, living the message of God's undeserved goodness.  Today I challenge you to start moving.  I challenge you to respond to the breath of God and come alive with his power and his love and start serving.  Maybe your service will take you to the hardest hit areas to serve and rebuild.  Maybe your service will keep you closer to your home to serve and care for your neighbors and friends.

No matter where you go just go.  No matter who you serve - just serve.  No matter who you talk to - just talk.  No matter who you love - just love the way God calls us to love - with hands and hearts and lives.

Lord protect those without homes today.  Provide shelter for them.  Encourage them.  Show them that you are ever present.  Move your church into great acts of service as these thousands of people attempt to put their lives together again.  God don't let us sit.  Remind us of the wonders of your breath.  Amen.