Blocking Grace

On my way to work this morning, I noticed the most beautiful sunrise.  There is something to be said for the arctic temperatures we're experiencing - it can create the most breathtaking scenes.  The hazy orange sphere was starting to peek over the city's horizon, cool gray clouds being pushed out of the way except for one, particularly dark gray cloud which blocked the light.  Below this blockade were the soft glow of oranges and yellows but then immediately a dark mass keeping the light low and hidden; or so it thought, for if you looked above the mass, reflecting off the soft white rolls of the clouds above, was the same gentle yellows and golden orange glows that shown below.  These rays were spread wide over the sky above and that's what got me thinking - God's grace works this way too.

For those of us who have released our selfishness and allowed God in our lives, we started by the source, that warm glow of God's love and grace that He gives to all His children.  Then something blocks us from that love, that grace that He willingly provides - or so we think.  It's dark and ominous and in the midst of it, we cannot see even a hint of light.  All hope seems lost as we wander around wishing there was a way around or through this chaos we've found ourselves in.  But we need to remember that our vision is limited to only what we can see; He sees FAR more than we do.  Like the sunrise I saw this morning, His grace is still there, His love is still there, it's just being blocked by this cloud of chaos and it's distorting our vision. 

God hasn't abandoned you while you're in your greatest time of need, He's right there, shining through, we just can't always see it.  So when you're in the middle of a crisis or going through something in your life where you feel God has blocked His grace and His love for you and left you to fend for yourself, remember that simply letting go, stepping back and resting in Him, we can once again see His grace and love shining above and far beyond anything we could ever hope to imagine.

Who is God and Why Should I Care?

We’re going to kick off the year with a nice, simple topic: Who is God and Why Should I Care?

Wait ...  That’s not simple.  What did I get myself into?
Oh well, too late now.  :)

Who is God?  I can tell you who He isn’t; He isn’t cruel, He isn’t spiteful, He isn’t selfish, He isn’t impatient, nor is He unkind or unjust. (Despite what we may think or feel sometimes)  He is, however, wise, grace-filled, mercy-filled, gentle, forgiving, never-changing, a promise keeper, and as 1 John 4:8 states, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  His timing is perfect, His decisions are perfect, He is perfect - He is God our father, our savior, our conscience, if we choose to accept.  He is THE Father, THE Son, and THE Holy Spirit

Why Should I Care? I think to answer this question, we must first answer this:  Who Are We?  Simply put, we are sinners.  Sinners we were born and sinners we will remain.  Being a sinner means to go against God and His commandments (Exodus 20:3-17).  Thankfully God sent His one and only son down to become flesh so He could do His father’s will; to mend the relationship between God and man by shedding His own blood on the cross to cover the sins that we have committed, are committing and will commit.  So that our sins could be forgiven whenever we ask for forgiveness and repent of those sins, to never commit them again (or certainly try). Exodus 10:17, “Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.” Jesus, the son of God, spilled that blood and separated Himself from the glory of his Father God for three days before He rose again to dwell in His rightful place, at the right hand of God. 

So, why should you care about who God is?  Because we, as sinners, will be separated from the glory of God, from all of who He is, for eternity; to dwell in darkness (aka hell) never to see or experience His love again ... IF we never choose Him.  If we deny Him and all He has done for us, then we will sadly experience this eternal darkness.  If we choose not to follow His lead, his vision for our lives or accept the love and the sacrifice He made all those years ago ... the consequences are absolutely devastating.

One should care about Who God Is because it means salvation and salvation is easily achieved.  He simply asks that we believe and accept Him.  We need to believe with all our being/have faith (Hebrews 11:1) that He is the son of God, that He died on the cross for our sins and that three days later He rose again.  That he later ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God.  He asks that we choose to accept Him as our ruler and as the Lord of our lives.  He asks that we choose to accept his love for us, that we choose to put our faith in Him, that we will trust Him to lead our lives in a way that will be far greater and more fulfilling than anything we could ever imagine or hope to achieve.

We need to get on bended knee (figuratively or not) and ask that He forgive us our sins, to remove the threat of death (the separation from His glory for an eternity) and tell Him that we surrender our lives to Him.   That we believe His Word (the Bible), that we believe what He said, what He has done for us, and that His promises will and always have been kept.

Do You Know Me?

What does it mean to  “know”  someone?

I know my husband; I know the foods he likes/doesn’t like, I know how he likes to spend his time, I know how he sleeps, I know that he loves animals as much as I do – I’d like to think I know my husband pretty well after the eight years of being with him.  I know my mother, my grandparents, my brother Tyler; I know their likes/dislikes and most of their schedules.  I know my best friend Kitty, I know her passions, her dreams – I know a lot about a lot of people, but my knowledge of those around me pales in comparison to how our Lord knows us.

Jeremiah 1:5
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.”

Did you catch that?  He knew us before we were even formed/created in a physical sense.  When He says that He knows us, He doesn’t mean just that we will exist; He means us as a whole.  He knows our hearts, minds and dreams.  He knows our passions, our faults and our flaws.  He knows our sins and our glories; He knows us wholly and completely! 

He knows that you prefer cheddar over provolone, He knows that you ran that red light because you were running late to work, He knows that you were thinking that the burger sounded way better to you than the salad that’s currently sitting in front of you; He knows.  He knows that you were having a harder time with this issue than you’ve been revealing to those around you.  He knows that you’ve been lonely and depressed.  He knows that you were over the moon with joy the other day.  He knows that ministry you’ve been struggling to start but struggle to launch. 

He knows.  

He’s know all these things about you  ... before you were even formed in your mother’s womb.  He knows your ways, He knows everything there is to know about you and He knows what is best for you because He created you! 

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember and one thing I’ve realized through my years of doodling on scrap pieces of paper, when you create/draw something, you learn about that subject on an almost intimate level.  Drawing flowers, I would notice the little crevices, the crinkles, the subtle color changes in the petals and leaves and the tiny little nibbles taken out of the stem by pesky caterpillars.  When I drew faces, I saw the scars, the sparkle in ones eyes,  the way the corners of the mouth effect the eye above that cheek that was raised; I learn about the outside appearance of the person on a rather personal level.  However, though I may have noticed all those tiny little details about you there is one thing that I could never understand/that I could never see ... your heart.

I could never see the cause of the sparkle, the reason for the scar, the reason why you smirked; only God knows you that way.  There is a song by a Christian group called for KING & COUNTRY and they have a song titled “God Only Knows”.  It’s about how no matter what you’re going through, God knows and He will find the perfect way to reach you, to save you, to show you His love.

Need more proof? Read Psalm 139.