Okay, so it's been a while. There have been so many things happen this summer that has made me lapse (or fail miserably, depending on your perspective) in blogging. I've disappointed many of you who were daily readers. I've let you down and I'm sorry. My goal is to get back into the groove as the kids go back to school and I get on a more regular routine. (yeah, like that is really going to happen!)
Anyway, I do hope someone reads this. (I see that there have been almost 3-4 hits per day still, that gives me hope!) But I also hope you respond. This blog was created not only to be a devotional thought from me, but a devotional discussion, where we as a community can look at a passage, a daily thought and add our own two cents in it. So, here goes...a new chapter for a new day.
"But sin...doesn't have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is puting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life - a life that goes on and on and on, world without end." Romans 5:20b-21, The Message.
I'm a little behind in my daily Bible reading. I end up reading weeks and months ahead for my sermon planning but try to come back to the daily scripture readings so that I can spend time devotionally. Today I read this passage from Paul's letter to the Romans and it was just what I needed to hear.
Grace. That's what I need today because of the thoughts that have been going through my mind; because of the pain that people cause; because of the trust that is broken; I could go on, but I won't. The details of my issue aren't important in this space, the really important thing is grace. I need it, God gives it. The church needs it, God grants it, I try and live it.
I only wish it were that easy.
This morning I'm focusing on the meaning of grace for me so that I can show grace toward others.
Maybe you can do the same.
It's a healthy exercise and we might just all be more spiritually fit for it.
Peace ><>
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4 comments:
I as well have been having some negative thoughts in my mind. I have been doing alot of talking to God and asking him to help me let go of these thoughts. I sometimes think we forget about the things we say and how they are preseved.
Welcome back. We have missed you. God's Grace. What a wonderful gift. It is scary at times how sin can enter our lives. The struggles that we as a church are going through help us to we grow. I always try to look for the blessings that we have been given amidst the struggles.
thank God for grace! thanks for this reminder as it has come all too timely for myself as well. i struggle with passing on the grace that has been given me to those around me. sometimes it is all too easy to forget that we too are human and are relying on nothing but the grace of God also.
Death... the absence of life. There is no hope, no understanding of anything. There is absolute nothingness without even a shred of awareness that there is nothing to begin with.
I sometimes think for all our faults and flaws that there was something pure in our conception. When flesh was given life... When the dust and desolate enormity of the physical universe was given a spark of value by our creator.
I love to look outside on a clear night and look at the stars. None of us would ever know it existed if it wasn't for the mercy of God.
We tend to think about the 'now' in our lives because it is our nature. We think of our friends and family and work and money. Some of those things are important, but when I think about grace it seems like even when we are being open minded we're still missing the bigger picture, the sheer size of it.
I sometimes feel like I'm stuck looking through a tv camera that is zoomed in on a familiar microscopic piece of the puzzle(my life). Never realizing there is anything much further from that small spot. To me that spot seems enormous and it wears me out trying to keep up with it.
If I could just look to the side I'd realize the puzzle never ends, that my mind cannot even begin to grasp the depth of this puzzle, this power, this awesome existance we call life.
As if breathing life into a hollow universe is not enough, He gave one special creation its own spirit. We were given the ability to not only live in this physical world, but to live ultimately beyond it as well.
Grace is a power so strong it is beyond any physical force or energy science has dreamed of.
We try and often fail at forgiving our very own loved ones for a single act. When I think of all the hate and evil humankind has fostered in just the 22 years I cringe in disgust with myself and my brethren for the shame of being part of that human imperfection. I cannot fathom the love and purity of a force that has not only withstood this darkness for all of our existance, but has the ability to crush it into non-existance. To furthermore purify those who have struggled and failed, because we have merely refused to forget the name of our savior who gave everything.
With all the universe coldly echoing mysteries I can rarely imagine, I take heart when I think I am of the living, the chosen, and most amazingly: the forgiven.
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