I Need Grace

I need grace.

I need grace when I take control of my own life.

I need grace when my faith is simply going through the motions. 

I need grace when I'm moody.

I need grace for my rough edges. 

Grace when I'm ambitious and when I'm lazy.

Grace for the dark corners of my character that I hide from everyone but God.

Grace for the times when I give into temptation. 

I need grace when I feel forgiveness is beyond my reach. 

Grace when I say to myself I'm not good enough and never will be. 

I need grace moment by moment, second by second. 

I need grace when the world says I'm too broken to be used for any Godly purpose anymore. 

And no matter how much grace I use or how much grace I need, God is always ready to give more grace without question, shame, or regret to me. 

Turn the Page

Have you ever read a book and you got to a part where you were afraid or unsure about turning the page? You don't know what is coming next. Will it be good or bad for the characters or the plot?  I think we all have been there. It's even scarier when this analogy applies to our lives. 

The problem is we live under the illusion that we are the author of our biography. Our story is made up of the choices we make. Each choice may be a chapter or we may have several decisions in a single chapter. So, that part of our story we can control, sort of. But we aren't the writer of our personal tale. 

God is the author because He is the only one who is in control of our world. He's God. He's in control of all the world. Remember the song we sang as children? "He's got the whole world in His hands...He's got the little bitty babies in His hands...He's got you and me brother in His hands, He's got you and me sister in His hands...He's got the whole world in His hands."

That simple song is true. Now God gave each of us this thing call 'free will' and because of that we aren't puppets on a string that God plays with to control our lives. He allows us to make choices. Right or wrong. He'd prefer we make right decisions. He's taught us how to make right decisions but we ultimately choose.

If I were God, I might do things differently. Maybe allow some choices but if I knew a choice would be detrimental to you, I’d make the right choice for you or make it where the only choice is right. But then it's really not a choice is it? 

God whispers to us in our times of doubt or confusion, frustration or anxiety, turn the page. You aren't at the end of your story. You can still make the right choices. As God pens our biography, He writes it as it is, mistakes, sins, anger, prejudices, love, compassion, hope. It's all there. He knows how your story ends but He doesn't always let us know. 

Sometimes I wish He'd write a rough draft then allow us to edit it to make it sound good, look good. No embarrassments. No sins. No tears. Only joy, happiness, laughter. It might be nice but then we'd miss out on things like forgiveness, grace, mercy, do-overs.

I don't know where you are in your story but let me encourage you...turn the page. Trust the author. He knows you best and loves you most. 

One Day

Not my will...

Betrayer’s kiss.

Trials.

I don't know this man. I do not know Him. I swear I don't!

The rooster crows.

Scourge.

GIVE US BARABBAS!!

CRUCIFY HIM!!

The Via Dolorosa.

Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

Today you will be with me in Paradise.

Woman, behold your son.

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

I thirst. 

It is finished.

Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.

The sky turned dark in the middle of the afternoon. 

The veil was torn in two from top to bottom. 

The earth trembled.

Truly this Man was the Son of God.

Joseph takes the body, wraps in clean linen, places in a new tomb.

The tomb is sealed and guarded. 

God

Consider the sheer, mind-numbing existence of God.

Everything else in our world had a beginning and was created. But only God has always been. Always. We can go back in our minds, thousands of years, then thousands more. There never has been a time when God was not here. It is more than our finite little minds can comprehend.

But God is not just eternal. He’s also everywhere, omnipresent. And as mindboggling as the growing, but the finite expanse of our universe is, God is infinitely huger, if “huger” is even the right word.

Then there’s His power. He is almighty and all mighty. Not only is He the strongest being in the universe, but He is infinitely strong. All the strength, all the power in the universe has God as it's source. Any comparisons pale to the omnipotence of God. Is there a rock so large that God can't lift it?? No, nope, negatory, absolutely, positively no. 

We should stand in awe when we encounter God and catch just a glimpse of His grandeur that is past finding out. The utter reality of God in His eternal nature and size and power brings such a stark contrast to the reality of who we are in our limited power, knowledge and existence that at times the only appropriate response we can muster is stunned silence. There truly is no one like Him.

But, He is an approachable, loving, “I really want to know you” kind of God. So much so that He had a plan before He even began to speak light into the dark expanse.  You and I have always, always been on His mind. Our names have been etched in His hand and even more important on His heart. 

This weekend we celebrate the culmination of this plan as Jesus, God’s only Son, submitted Himself to earthly power and authority. He endured the mockery of a trial, the humiliation of the Roman army as they blindfolded Him and full force hit Him and then taunted Him to prophesy who it was hitting Him. They beat Him so badly that He was a bloody, unrecognizable figure of a man. Then He carried His own cross through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgitha. There He was laid bare on a cross and nailed to the tree. Then He was raised up and dropped into a hole in the ground deep enough to support Him as He hung on display for all to see. For 6 hours Jesus hung in that cross. We can't begin to imagine the agony of pushing ourselves up on nailed wrists and feet to gasp for every single breath. Every muscle aching. Sweat and blood dripping into His eyes, down His face. Pools of blood seeping into the ground beneath Him. 

It was there that Jesus experienced things He’d never experienced before. The perfect Son of God, Son of Man was engulfed in sin. Not just a few sins but every sin of all humankind past, present, and future. And because Christ became sin He experienced the abandonment of His Father. All His life, Jesus was in perfect union with His Abba, Father but now God turned Hus back on Him. Jesus was utterly alone. 

To be continued...

What If

What if is a powerful question. What if my parents never met? What if I was born in Egypt? What if my family wasn't Christian? What if I hadn't quit basketball? What if I became an architect like I thought about in High School? What if I didn't give in to that favorite sin? What if...I could go on forever. I'm sure you could, too. We can waste our lives in What If Land. Many of us do. We constantly wonder about choices we made and how things might be different if we'd chosen differently. 

This is not the life God intended for us. John 10:10, Jesus says, "I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance." We cannot have an abundant life and live in What If Land. Those two are in conflict. What ifs drain us of life. 

Philippians 3:13-14 says, "Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus." What if, (see how I connect this), we move from What If Land to What Nowvile or What's Next Town. 

God calls us to move forward. Pursue Him. Love others. Live in the fullness of the life God has given us. 

Other mss read not yLk 9:62;