What is 'enough'?

Some ponderings which I shared at a breakfast I hosted last month:

Enough

There is never enough. Enough time. Enough money. Enough fulfilling relationships. Enough opportunities. Enough love.

1 Corinthians 13

Has anyone ever felt guilty for feeling they want more? More of what?

We live with the guilty feelings that we are not, have not, do not do...enough. Guilty, because we know we OUGHT to feel happy.

But God says to our hearts:

You were enough.

You did enough with what you had.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-2The Message (MSG)

I, Paul, together with Silas and Timothy, greet the church of the Thessalonian Christians in the name of God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ. Our God gives you everything you need, makes you everything you’re to be.

Ephesians 1:7-10The Message (MSG)

^7-10 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

Living Bible ⁷ So overflowing is his kindness toward us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved; ⁸ and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times.

This is why Paul is able to say:

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:11 – 13

The Message: I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

How do we ‘learn’ to be ‘content’ – not yearning for more, whatever ‘more’ looks like in each of our lives?

The clue is in the preceding verses: (The Message, Philippians 4)

Live in the present

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

^6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Focus on the good.

^8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Be thankful.

Thankfulness focuses our hearts off ourselves and on to God, as we look at what we HAVE rather than what we have not.

Thankfulness makes us appreciate God’s gifts to us more.

Thankfulness changes our emotional state away from unhappiness and discontent.

Recognise the truth in our circumstances.

Taking a long, hard look at the situation gives us clarity and helps us to distinguish the blessings.

Identifying truth helps identify lies which stop us from being content.

Determine to press forward, not look back.

Worship: which, as Lysa Terkeust says, is 'the best battle plan'.

http://proverbs31.org/devotions/devo/the-best-battle-plan/  Lysa Terkeust

Romans 12: 1 – 2 The Message

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

RT Kendall speaks to us about enough: and how to get more of God.

He reminds us of AW Tozer's words: you can have as much of God as you want. You can have more of the Holy Spirit.

How? Simple, really: 

Get to know Him:

Study God’s word.

Spend time in prayer.

We need more than just common grace, which is God’s goodness to all mankind. We need God's special, Holy Spirit grace, expressed through the gifts of the Spirit:

1 Corinthians 12:31  “Earnestly desire the greater gifts. I will show you the most excellent way.” The smallest, the least desirable, the most embarrassing. Desire more of God. The way forward is to practise love.

So love. Be a nobody. Tear up the record of wrongs. Stop pointing the finger at others. Forgive TOTALLY and PRAY FOR those who have hurt me. Aspire to be more like Jesus, aspire to know God for HIS sake, not mine: NOT for what it will do for me.

                                                                                                                 

There is joy in suffering – RT Kendall calls it ‘dignifying the trial’. ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.’ Face suffering and persecution and keep quiet about it, that I might know God. Love ‘endures all things’.  Seek after the fruit of the spirit with intensity, waiting for God’s gifts.

And yet we fail to do this. Success seems remote: for who are we, so far short of perfect? As the rap artist Propaganda says, in his 'Gospel in 4 minutes': "You think you can heap up all your good deeds to reach His perfecion? GOOD LUCK!" 

Mary de Muth, author, says: “I also need to redefine success. I have to come to grips with the fact that I will never be the "it girl" speaker or author. But I can be faithful in small things, and that's all He really asks, right?

• Make the integrity choice when no one's looking.
• Serve the person in front of you.
• Take a moment to pray for a friend. Send a note of encouragement.
• Call that frustrated child.
• Remember that the world isn't about you, but it's about serving and the crazy upside down kingdom.
• Do unnoticed things with joy.
• Count your blessings even when things didn't go the way you wanted them to. There is ALWAYS something to be grateful for because we serve and love a gracious God.

I'd love to be able to drone on and on about all the victories, but that wouldn't be honest. More honest is this: perhaps the Christian life isn't about our personal success, but about our willingness to grow and keep taking the next step when things "fail."

Besides, only God knows the Kingdom metric. One small obedience, one dose of trust, one ounce of faith trumps all the spectacular, showy shows that we tend to equate with victory. I want to "win" at faithfulness in small things. It would be a tragedy if I won at external big things, but remained faithless in the background.

And as I think of Elijah and his stunning victory, followed by desperation so deep he wanted to die, I'm reminded that God loved him in both places. That's a comfort for all of us, isn't it? Whether winning or losing, joyful or depressed, succeeding or failing, God's constant love undergirds us all.

My friend Richard emailed this week and simply wrote, "Know that you're loved." He reminded me that I am loved by God, and that, my friends, is the sweetest victory.”

Remember: when we aren’t enough, can’t do enough...God loves us.

Life is becoming simpler, friends. I can pursue God in Bible study, chase after answers to my prayers, yet everything can be summed up in the words of the song: “Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so...”

I cling to, rest in, rely on, draw strength from Jesus’ love, looking to Him to supernaturally sustain me, provide for me, and reassure me that I AM enough. Because of Him.

And when I feel I don’t have, am not, cannot be enough... I remember who I am: a child of God, daughter of the King... and I straighten my crown. Because my heavenly Father and my brother Jesus provide for and make me enough.

And, some final thoughts from the apostle John, who wrote over and over about the Love:

 

1 John 2 The Message 

2 ^1-2 I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s.

The Only Way to Know We’re in Him

^2-3 Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.

^4-6 If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.

^7-8 My dear friends, I’m not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you’ve known it from day one. It’s always been implicit in the Message you’ve heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!

^9-11 Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn’t know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.

Loving the World

^12-13 I remind you, my dear children: Your sins are forgiven in Jesus’ name. You veterans were in on the ground floor, and know the One who started all this; you newcomers have won a big victory over the Evil One.

^13-14 And a second reminder, dear children: You know the Father from personal experience. You veterans know the One who started it all; and you newcomers—such vitality and strength! God’s word is so steady in you. Your fellowship with God enables you to gain a victory over the Evil One.

^15-17 Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

Antichrists Everywhere You Look

¹⁸ Children, time is just about up. You heard that Antichrist is coming. Well, they’re all over the place, antichrists everywhere you look. That’s how we know that we’re close to the end.

¹⁹ They left us, but they were never really with us. If they had been, they would have stuck it out with us, loyal to the end. In leaving, they showed their true colors, showed they never did belong.

^20-21 But you belong. The Holy One anointed you, and you all know it. I haven’t been writing this to tell you something you don’t know, but to confirm the truth you do know, and to remind you that the truth doesn’t breed lies.

^22-23 So who is lying here? It’s the person who denies that Jesus is the Divine Christ, that’s who. This is what makes an antichrist: denying the Father, denying the Son. No one who denies the Son has any part with the Father, but affirming the Son is an embrace of the Father as well.

^24-25 Stay with what you heard from the beginning, the original message. Let it sink into your life. If what you heard from the beginning lives deeply in you, you will live deeply in both Son and Father. This is exactly what Christ promised: eternal life, real life!

^26-27 I’ve written to warn you about those who are trying to deceive you. But they’re no match for what is embedded deeply within you—Christ’s anointing, no less! You don’t need any of their so-called teaching. Christ’s anointing teaches you the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and him, uncontaminated by a single lie. Live deeply in what you were taught.

Live Deeply in Christ

²⁸ And now, children, stay with Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we’ll be ready for him when he appears, ready to receive him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when he arrives.

²⁹ Once you’re convinced that he is right and righteous, you’ll recognize that all who practice righteousness are God’s true children.

No pride

Deuteronomy 9. Full of warning to Israel that future defeat of enemies will not be because of their strength or goodness but because of God's mercy, grace and power. "But when God pushes them out ahead of you, don’t start thinking to yourselves, “It’s because of all the good I’ve done that God has brought me in here to dispossess these nations.” Actually it’s because of all the evil these nations have done. No, it’s nothing good that you’ve done, no record for decency that you’ve built up, that got you here; it’s because of the vile wickedness of these nations that God, your God, is dispossessing them before you so that he can keep his promised word to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And then God says it again... and goes on and on about their wickedness:
Know this and don’t ever forget it: It’s not because of any good that you’ve done that God is giving you this good land to own. Anything but!" (vv4 - 6)

It all comes down to pride, the belief that we are self-reliant. How we make an idol of it!  How we prize self-sufficiency in strong, independent people.

The Gospel turns this all upside down. We are to be dependent on God, as helpless before him as babes...we are not deserving of anything the Lord Almighty, maker of heaven and earth has done but IN HIS MERCY he gives us grace. He showers us with blessings and good fortune. He protects and cares for his. None of this is on our own merits for which we can take credit. None.

Unity.Love.Grace,

This chapter is about unity - and it is Paul who initiated the discussions, going to Jerusalem in response to God telling him, to meet with the apostles and make sure he was on the right track.

Amazing. He'd been 14 years on his own already, doing his own 'following God' thing.  He was welcomed, included, supported ..."I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing. And they supported me....James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews.  Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do."

And yet... the very next thing we find is that Paul confronted Peter, accusing him of doing wrong by no longer eating with the Gentiles. Peter had begun to draw back and separate himself from the non-Jews because he was worried about what the Jews would say: Paul brought this into the open and told Peter openly that he was a hypocrite and wrong to do so.

Oh, to have the courage to tell someone face to face that they are wrong. To risk the anger and condemnation and ridicule that would surely come my way. I have been on the receiving end of it, of course - and am very good at accepting blame, even when something I have done has not been intended, has been taken the wrong way or perhaps I haven't even done wrong at all - it has just been 'different'.

(That sounds like another topic altogether: 'different' doesn't necessarily mean 'wrong'.  Can we not just accept our differences?)

Galatians 2:16 "Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law." This is a reminder that the one thing I NEED is to be in right relationship with Jesus: it's not about just DOING stuff, it's about who I am with him.  It's like my marriage: I can DO all the right things to invest in my marriage - serving my husband, spending time with him - but if our relationship is not right, then we do not communicate well and we do not feel 'right' with each other.


But, actually, if I know the truth of THIS; "I have been nailed to the cross with Christ. 20 I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.21 I don’t turn my back on God’s undeserved kindness." (v19 - 21)  then I can live a life of love given freely: for I was enslaved by sin and have been SET FREE!

I can be generous, even when I feel grudging.
I can give the benefit of the doubt, even when I want to gain revenge.
I can love without expectation, even when I expect loving.

I CAN. Because HE DID. He died. For me. End.of.story.

Unpalatable truths

Sometimes, realising a truth - whether for the first time, or a revisit - is awe-inspiring, life-changing, hit-by-a-train-stopping.
Peter Jobes at Sixty Stadia has just reminded me. He looks at Isaiah 40, where GOD reminds us in a series of questions of how infinitely mysterious he is: 

"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?"

And because of this, we know that God knows everything.

"Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”?
Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. Godlasts.
He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out."

Ellicott comments: "The words come, like so many others like it, from Job (Isaiah 5:9; Isaiah 9:10), and must have been in St. Paul’s mind as he wrote Romans 11:33."

Peter says: "...how fantastic is it to know that He understands completely how you feel and why? That whether you’re in the valley of the shadow of death or at your highest height God knows and understands deeply your circumstance, your feelings, your emotions, your potential."

But actually - and here is the unpalatable truth - I realise that no, it's not fantastic.

It's scary. I sometimes don't like my feelings. I often chastise myself for my thoughts. I regularly feel ashamed of my attitudes.

I'm not as perfect as I think I am.

And I don't really like anyone to see that.

Oh, I'll let friends in to see different little bits that I don't feel too bad about. Feelings or thoughts that I think that other people might also share in, or understand. Ideas which aren't too wacky. Reactions and responses to people or situations which are probably common to man. But it's all on MY choosing.

I feel intruded upon when others seem too perceptive. It feels like an invasion of my privacy. My PRIDE doesn't want to let them see my weakness. I think I am open and vulnerable with folk, but then someone says something which inflates the balloon of vanity and I feel - may it be ever so, ever so slightly - affronted.

I don't want anyone else to point out truth to me about myself.

And, though I am ashamed to admit it, this extends to God, too.

I resist. I don't want insight into the areas which need improvement. I want to maintain the facade of togetherness, got-it-sorted competence.

And yet. God's grace does not take offence at my huffiness and taking of offence, but continues to pursue me, with infinite understanding:
"It says everything about His character that despite His infinite strength He can understand us in our weakness. ...He understands all of us, and a whole lot more besides. That’s why next time you’re in a stitch you can guarantee that if you wait on Him, strength will rise."

And so I can accept, knowing that he loves me more than I can ever imagine, that he also understands me and will do everything to keep me from denying myself.

Even if - when - it means revealing unpalatable truths.

Love, not 'works'

"the great truth that if once a man gets it into his head that God’s principal relation to him is to demand, and to command, you will get no work out of that man; that such a notion will paralyse all activity and cut the nerve of all service. And the converse is as true, namely, that the one thought about God, which is fruitful of all blessing, joy, spontaneous, glad activity, is the thought of Him as giving, and not of demanding, of bestowing, and not of commanding. Teach a man that he is, as the book of James has it,’the giving God,’ and let that thought soak into the man’s heart and mind, and you will get any work out of him. And only when that thought is deep in the spirit will there be true service." Comment on 2 Peter 1, Maclaren's commentary.

Grace, not works.

Receiving love, not trying to earn it.

Gratitude, not guilt.

Advent. Grace.

Christmas: in its own way
predictable.

We know what happened.
Our traditions are familiar.
Routines are kept from year to year.

Today, I was surprised by joy.
An unexpected gift has so gladdened my heart
that I cannot stop smiling.

Was it not so with Your coming?
YOU were expected, yet
we were astonished by the manner of your birth.

The warming of my heart
from those anonymous flowers
reminds me of Your grace.

Unexpected. Unmerited. Freely given.
Pure delight.

Advent. Confusion.

In the dark of silence and waiting
my heart flutters
with second-guessing and anxiety.

In this eager time, looking forward
to Your coming
I am set about, bothered, hard-pressed.

As I strive to follow your calling
I realise
I fail. Over and over again.

I slip and slide backwards, not ever
achieving 'goodness'.
You have done that. You save me from myself.

Perhaps, then, preparing my heart today
just rests alone
on giving all my needs, wants, rights...to You.

Looking to You, stills my anxious heart and
dispels confusion.
You ARE my lord and I am your servant.

Grace - Broken, Living, Grace

Grace. One of my 'words' to live by this year. My actual word was kindness, but I can't do that without doing and being and obeying Grace.

I remembered my 'word' afresh when reading Ed's blog recommendations this week, and was reminded of the beautifully evocative words of Ann Voskamp.
She's writing about abortion, but says:
"When we’re all about the best looking good instead of the broken living grace, some don’t think they can take the shame. Some take an appointment. We can shame a woman for getting pregnant and we can shame her for aborting that baby but it’s shame for sin that bullies into further sin and what if instead of shaming, we weren’t ashamed of the Gospel of extravagant Grace?"

The broken living grace.

Isn't it easy just to try to look good all the time? To hide faults and failures and mistakes and misdemeanours and just pretend pretend pretend I'm better than you? 

A couple of weeks ago a woman I know - in church - came to apologise - in church - for her distance/unfriendliness/offences. She'd realised there was an awkwardness between us.

I'd just thought she was being unfriendly.

I had stuffed the problem away, doing the 'vague friendly smile which doesn't mean anything but ticks the social box'. Pretending. Trying to Look Good as best I could instead of extending Living Grace from my Brokenness.

She hadn't meant to offend me.

I had been unfriendly too, in reaction. But as we talked, who knew who had offended first? The whole situation wasn't even 'about us', but had arisen out of other circumstances and difficulties. Our individual responses to those outside issues had coloured our inward selves and poisoned our relationship.

Misunderstandings, miscommunication... it might have become ugly.

She had the grace to approach me first.

Oh, the temptation. To say 'ohnothere'snothingwrong - youmustbeimaginingit'. To give in to that ever strong desire to hide behind the appearance of perfection.To let the pull of denial send her away quickly to feel bad about herself. 

I took courage to admit she was right. I acknowledged my fault. So did she.

We wiped clean a smeary teary slate.

Broken Living Grace.

And so we shamed sin (our unloving attitudes) and prevented it from bullying into further sin by choosing the Jesus way of honesty and forgiveness. Choosing grace.

Interestingly, today I have also read about love here from Max Lucado's Grace for the Moment, and from Devotionals Daily:

True Love Puts Others First

Love is patient, love is kind... It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. — 1 Corinthians 13:4–5... What is the opposite of love? It isn't hate (although it may take that form). The opposite of love is selfishness. When a husband and wife  (or, if I may add, two friends/acquaintances/colleagues/neighbours/church members) are concerned only about their own individual desires, the stage is set for conflict. The Bible gives us another way—the way of Christ. True love, it says, is self-giving, not self-seeking. True love puts the needs of others first. This is what Christ did when He left Heaven’s glory and came down to earth for us. Begin a new page in your marriage by asking Christ to become the center of your life—and your marriage. Questions for today: What is your response to "The opposite of love is selfishness"? In what ways can you make Christ the center today? We'd love to hear from you! Please share your thoughts in the comments section on our blog. ~ Devotionals Daily Best is Love. and Grace.

Give yourself grace

Just a little gift from  heldbyhishand

Choosing in 2013

Christmas is over, but the message of Jesus' coming isn't: because Jesus IS THE GIFT. Jesus IS Christmas. Jesus "still comes, no matter what. He comes to free us from the failure of our lives, from the broken promises that seem to define us. He says, ‘I saw you in your need. And I still see you. I am restoring all you thought was lost, all you have grieved and left behind. For with Me, all things are new.’” (Adapted from The God Who Sees You by Tammy Maltby)

And there is a lot of inspiration flying around regarding New Year's resolutions. I've never been a huge fan: after all, every day is a new beginning - but still, a new year is as good a time as any to take stock and revisit hopes, aspirations, aims and goals.

Tammy Maltby suggests a list of things to give up:

1. Comparison to others life gifts or things
2. Blaming anyone’s choices for mine
3. Controlling people for my comfort and ease
4. Unforgiveness towards others or myself
5. Excuses for the consequences of my choices
6. Unkindness towards anyone at anytime for any reason
7. Impatience with the process of life and weakness in others
8. Fear that God has overlooked me

And a list of things to embrace:
Trusting a loving God’s promises to take all that was meant for my harm and turn it to good. Peace.

Dear Ayla has reminded me how good and useful it is to choose one word for the year. Last year my 'one word' was kindness. Aka loving mercy. It was a good word to have. I think, on the whole, my kindness account appreciated in value. The word helped me to choose to respond kindly, even when/especially when I didn't feel like it.

Not sure what my word should be this year. Whitney over at Good Morning Girls chooses Christ, quoting Joshua's wonderful declaration “…then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15. This verse has long been a personal and family choice.

Lisa chooses Jesus. I love how she says "one concrete goal is to live out a different discipline each month, beginning in January with Vision—The practice of waking up to God. To become more like Jesus, to love Jesus more, to love others more through Jesus.
I’m aware that planning can only be a rough draft for living, yes? How the Spirit will choose to blow through will surely surprise me, as he always does.
But with Jesus beside me and in me, even when it’s hard, it’s all good, and even when I can’t see it, it’s all grace. That’s Jesus."

Yet my word, in Jesus, has to be forgiveness. He is my example and my inspiration, my model and my hero. For he had far, far more to forgive than I. He did so with GRACE. 

So I am 'cheating' slightly this year. Yes, I want to add forgiveness to kindness. But I will only be able to do that with His grace. 

Grace. Gracious. Graciousness. Graceful. Grace-filled conversations. Grace-filled actions. Grace.

Colossians 2

We've come to an end of the Good Morning Girls study on Colossians, and now it is a week of review, a chapter a day.
So useful to get an overview.
Years ago, I was taught how to summarise at a Bible Study Fellowship seminar. (Aside: how I loved those studies! So deep, so informative, so life-changing - deeply regret leaving my notes, which weighed kilos, in Kenya when we left.) I don't remember exactly now, but I think it was a case of summarising a sentence, then another, then summarising a group of sentences, then summarising a group of a group...until the whole chapter had been squished together into a sentence or even a word.

Thought I might have a try with Colossians 2.

I began with a poem on verses 2 - 5:
May
your heart be encouraged
knit together in love (with like-minded others)
to reach the richness
of full understanding
and knowledge that you really do 'get' God's secret:
Jesus' gift to us all.
Jesus has all the wisdom and knowledge we could ever want -
the ultimate treasure.
What else would we need?
Don't listen to plausible arguments -
it is JESUS who matters.
Nothing else.

Here goes, a rather loose interpretation for the whole chapter:

Paul says that his aim is to encourage the Colossians so that they may be a united, loving church which understands how to live the Christ life. 

Jesus has everything we need to live, truly live. Yet we have to be careful how we do that, by keeping focused on him, always with hearts full of gratitude for what he has done. We should be on our guard against anything which is not based on him: because he IS God. He has supreme power.

We are new people because we have accepted him: we have new lives now, as if we had been brought back to life from the dead.  We have been forgiven by an amazing God who brought his son back from physical death and, in doing so, defeated everything which works against him.  (We call that evil.)

So we shouldn't let anyone try to put us down because of what we do, trying to make themselves more important by doing so or showing off about their spiritual experiences. We need to recognise that they are no longer grounded with other believers and may themselves have drifted away.

We don't need to restrict ourselves to human 'dos and don'ts'.  They look right, but they just address the externals, things which men and women have put into place.  Restrictions that are put on us by others don't have value in helping us achieve self-discipline in Jesus.

And my sentence for Colossians 2: LIVING FOCUSED, FORGIVEN LIVES, DEPENDING ONLY ON JESUS AND NOT ON MEN'S IDEAS.

I'm not sure this is all quite accurate - still, it was fun trying!

Grace and forgiveness

A sweet little reminder from Tracie Miles...

" 'God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.' Romans 5:20 (NLT)

He appeared out of nowhere. Blue lights burst on right about the time I laid eyes on his intimidating, unmarked SUV.

Immediately I checked the speedometer. It confirmed what the officer knew: I was speeding. A sinking feeling knotted my stomach as I prepared to receive the punishment for my inadvertent disobedience of the traffic laws.

I watched in my rear view mirror as the police car crept up behind me. With driver’s license and registration in hand, my fingers tapped in irritation on the steering wheel. My scowl deepened as I impatiently waited for the policeman to walk to my window. “Ma’am, I stopped you for speeding. Driver’s license and registration please.”

Then it happened. The unexpected. The unwarranted. The undeserved.

The policeman glanced into my car and checked out my passengers (including my three deer-in-the-headlights kids in the back seat). Then he startled us all by blurting out a big ol’ Southern “Hey!” to my husband, calling him by name.

Apparently they had grown up in church together and proceeded to spend a couple of friendly minutes reacquainting. He handed back my license and registration and gave me a smile. “Slow it down please, and have a good day.”

We sat stunned and breathed a collective sigh of relief as I drove away – slowly, I might add.

I had not paid attention to the guidelines set forth. My guilt was obvious, and I had no excuse. I deserved to suffer the consequences, but instead I was given grace.

Grace is undeserved favor or pardon. We can’t earn it or buy it. It’s something the giver bestows out of the goodness and love in their heart. The Bible tells countless stories of people who received grace, including prostitutes, unfaithful marriage partners, deceivers, thieves, liars and more. Their sins deserved a punishment, but when they asked God for forgiveness, His grace wiped their guilt away. They were treated as pardoned offenders – just as I was.

In today’s key verse, Paul is reminding the people of Corinth that despite their sin, God is good, and the Giver of grace. It serves as a reminder that God not only offers grace – He offers it in abundance. The more we need, the more we get.

Although God hates sin because it separates us from Him and ushers pain into our lives, His grace is available no matter how big our offense may be. And when we receive the pardon that was paid through the sacrifice of His Son, and begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, we receive grace, forgiveness and mercy.

As much as I appreciated the grace extended to me from the officer that day, it paled in comparison to God’s grace. You see, the officer’s grace was one of kindness, but not one of redemptive love. It was a grace of compassion, but not the life-saving grace Jesus gives.

The truth is, I deserved a speeding ticket that day but grace was given. In the same way, although we deserve punishment for sin, God’s forgiveness and favor are offered anyway… through the gift of His unexpected, unwarranted and undeserved grace.

Dear Lord, thank You for the undeserved gift of grace. Forgive my sins, and shower me with Your favor, even though it is undeserved. Thank You for loving me enough to grant me pardon for my mistakes. In Jesus’ Name, Amen."

Some fun with Ephesians 2:11-13, 8

Grace is for EVERYONE.

For the smug in the pews who have paid all their dues;

the comfortable middle classes sitting on their arses,

the permanently unemployed; the hedonists filling a void,

the hopeless alcoholics and devoted drug addicts,

For the Richard Dawkins and the Stephen Hawkings,

uber-wealthy bankers and city financiers;

for those who have been harmed, those who are charmed,

the youngsters and the ancient, the guilty and the 'innocent'...

EVERYONE.

Even me.

So, remembering that I was completely ignorant about God's inordinate grace

I am, I hope

inordinately grateful and thankful.  

Grace - and failure

I was as good as dead because of my sin.

I used to live a life of self-indulgence. 
I am not alone, but that does not help me to know that.
I am responsible for my actions.
But God has given me LIFE.
LIFE.
Not just life, but LIFE in all its fullness: life of out of this world joy.
Life full of grace - because of one amazing man. One Jesus.
This is a true gift - not because I am worth being given to but because God is the great Giver. Nor is it because of anything I have done.
There is no room for pride. No room. For. Pride. None.
Knowing this, yet still finding it hard, at times, to live victoriously in the knowledge of God's saving grace, I find this week that I need to remind myself of this poem:

Running the Race
Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure's face,

my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
A children's race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn't hard to tell.

They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,
and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire,
to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy's desire.
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
was running in the lead and thought "My dad will be so proud."

But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip,
the little boy who thought he'd win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,
and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.

As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn't win it now.
Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.
But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
which to the boy so clearly said, "Get up and win that race!"

He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that's all,
and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.

He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
"I'm hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn't try to race."
But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father's face
with a steady look that said again, "Get up and win that race!"

So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
"If I'm to gain those yards," he thought, "I've got to run real fast!"
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten...
but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.

Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
"There's no sense running anymore! Three strikes I'm out! Why try?
I've lost, so what's the use?" he thought. "I'll live with my disgrace."
But then he thought about his dad, who soon he'd have to face.

"Get up," an echo sounded low, "you haven't lost at all,
for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
Get up!" the echo urged him on, "Get up and take your place!
You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!"

So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,
and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn't quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he'd ever been,
still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.

Three times he'd fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.
They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,
head high and proud and happy -- no falling, no disgrace.

But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,
the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
you would have thought he'd won the race, to listen to the crowd.

And to his dad he sadly said, "I didn't do so well."
"To me, you won," his father said. "You rose each time you fell."
And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,
the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.

For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
another voice within me says, "Get up and win that race!"

by D. H. Groberg

May I always see my Father's face.

A reflection on the Good Morning Girls study on Ephesians - Chapter 2 this week...

Adventures in Ephesians...

Looking at Ephesians Chapter 2...
...immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! (verses 4 -5)
I found myself thinking of this Al Gordon song:

This is how I know what love is
This is how I know I'm free
This is how I know salvation
Jesus came and died for me

This is why I come to worship
This is why I lift my hands
This is why I now surrender
Everything I am -

Because of Your love
There's dancing in my heart
Because of grace I am free
Because of Your faithfulness
There's a song that must be sung
I will sing, I will sing because of You...

This is why there's joy within me
This is why my spirit sings
Jesus, You're my great adventure
You're my everything.

You came to save the world
To save the world, to save the world
Your love can change the world

Can change the world, can change the world. 

'It is by grace - by love - that we have been SAVED'.

Out of heaviness comes grace...

My heart has been over-burdened and heavy recently. Stress has built up in my mind and body, so that I have had little energy for blogging.

But grace has been present in my life. I have listened to Louie Giglio talk about grace; I have read wonderful accounts of grace-filled, loving lives; and I have experienced grace extended to me through the kindness of friends and strangers.

So when Sarah Markley said this, I was inspired:

' If we wore peace, we might desire the quiet and not distractions.

If we wore grace, we might want to forgive others for their grave missteps.

If we put on goodness might we desire the successes of others?

And if we wore love, do you think we might crave Jesus in a way that we never have?

Peace and grace and love are far more difficult than zipping up a play dress and sitting down to lunch, but maybe clothing ourselves in these grown-up, mature things can be a way to see our hearts and minds changed in the direction of Him.

What do you “wear?” What do you want to “wear?” '

I realised this week that I am in desperate need of a change of clothes...

Magnetic grace and iron bars

I have just read a lovely blog entry over at Discipleship Network: simple, yet so clever. The writer, Kathy Beagles, gives the analogy that we are like random pieces of iron which can only be magnetized when in close contact with a powerful magnetic force. Similarly, we can only draw others when we are 'magnetized' with Jesus' power and grace.

That's it, in a nutshell. Kathy explains it much more clearly than I have, though, so I'm glad I have the link up there!

Needing Grace

Renee Swope talks about this far better than I do - here's the link.

Why am I posting this? Check the labels!

Give God your waking thoughts. Before you face the day, face the Father. Before you step out of bed, step into His presence.~ Max Lucado