Advent Week 4 - The Promise: Grace

Grace is one of my favorite topics to talk about.

Mainly because, without it, I am nothing.

Without God’s grace I would have fallen apart long ago.

As I was preparing to write this, the hymn”Grace Greater Than Our Sin” kept running through my head.

Here’s the chorus:

Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.

This is such a beautiful thing.

No matter what you’ve done in your life.

No matter where you’ve been, what you’ve seen, who you are, where you come from.

None of it matters anymore.

It can all be pardoned and cleansed by God’s infinite grace.

To top it off, it’s free!

I feel like shouting that last line.

This grace that can and will change your life, is free.

If that were not enough, there is absolutely nothing you could ever do to earn this love and grace.

The good news of God’s grace is that He longs to shower us with it.

As I was writing this, it occurred to me, that this never ending grace could and has been used to justify not changing your ways.

But I don’t think that the truth.

If you have truly excepted God’s grace in your life, you will find yourself changing over time. It probably won’t be overnight. We all wish it would be.

But you will notice over time that you are a completely different person if you truly allow God’s love and grace into your life.

So, take time to allow God’s grace to pour into your heart.

Than allow that grace to overflow onto those around you, that they might also see God’s grace in your life.

The Man Behind The Monster

So, this may not seem like the normal topics that I talk about at first. But I think it will get there in the end.

As I’m sure all of you know, this Friday some little movie opened up called Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Now, I haven’t seen it yet, so don’t worry about any spoilers for Episode VII.

I was sitting at home Thursday night in the middle of the night while the whole nation, it seemed was out watching this movie, because my beautiful daughter has decided to switch her sleep schedule again.

While I was sitting there watching something, I realized that I owned all six of the other movies, I haven’t watched them in a very long time.

So, I set about the mission of watching all six of them in the course of the next 24 hours. Starting with Episode I and going through Episode VI.

I’ve never done this before.

Now on the other side of this marathon I can tell you I really think this is the best way to watch these movies.

A lot of you might argue that this is not the way to watch them. That you should only watch the original ones and forget about the newer, “inferior” ones.

I’ve probably always been in the minority on this, but I actually do like the newer ones. They’re not as great as the others, but they are still great movies that tell an amazing story.

I didn’t start this post to write out all of the reasons that I think they actually do work, so I won’t go into that here. Maybe another time.

While I was watching them though, I saw such an amazing parallel between Anakin’s story and Luke’s story.

They were both emotional and somewhat bratty teens, who through a series of unfortunate events have been handed some of the worst luck imaginable.

Through their journey the each are faced with the same choice.

Give in to their anger and emotions and join the Dark Side.

Or keep there emotions in check and choose to be a Jedi.

I believe this is a decision that almost all of us have faced at some time in our lives. I know for sure I have, and that I haven’t always chosen the right side.

The only real difference between father and son is that Luke chooses to believe and to not give in to the Dark Side.

Life is full of these choices, and we must be ready to choose the right side.

I thought that was going to be the overall theme for me coming out of watching all of these movies.

But than at the end of Episode VI, Vader asks Luke to take off his mask so he can, for once in his life look on his own son with his own eyes.

As the mask comes off, I realized that behind this “evil” man, was just a man.

When it came down to it, Vader choose to kill his mentor, not just because Luke was his son. But also, because Luke choose to see the human being behind the mask and believe that there was still some good in him.

It made me wonder, if we stopped looking at the mask of our enemies (the thing that we don’t agree with them about), and looked at the person behind it, would there still be such a thing as an enemy?

May the Force be with you.

Advent Week 3 - The Promise: Joy

This weeks sermon brought something to mind for me that I might have talked about before, but it’s been awhile, and it fits the point so I think I’ll use it again.

It also may not seem like I’m talking about joy for a little while, but I promise I’ll get there.

While I was in college I was in a pretty dark place.

My struggle with depression was at its worst and I was kind of floundering around with no real purpose in my life.

Looking back I can see clearly that God brought little pieces of light into my life even when I didn’t want to see them.

But during the summer after my freshman year, I was home and really feeling lost.

During this time, God spoke to me and showed me that I had let certain kinds of music way to deep into my heart and was allowing them to determine who I was, more than I was allowing God to shape me.

So, in one long marathon night of confession and repentance I went through all of my CDs and broke every one that God told me to.

During this whole thing, I remember several times feeling like I was throwing up, but nothing was coming up.

I realize this might sound strange, but it felt like demons were coming out of me as I was confessing the hold that things had on me.

It was after this that I truly felt the love of God take a true hold in my heart for probably the first time.

I finally felt the joy that God meant for me to feel.

In the 15 years since this happened I know that God has brought so much more joy than I could have ever thought possible.

There have also been dark times.

But I’ve come to believe that you can only know true joy by knowing true pain.

In the years since then, I’ve listened to some of that same music again.

For a while I was really hesitant to do it.

I tried to stay as far away from it as possible.

But I realized that it wasn’t so much the music that was bad, but more the position I let it have in my heart.

I had put this music as an idol in place of God and it only brought me pain and sadness.

Know I lift God up in my heart and listen to music for some enjoyment, and I know the true joy that God has for all of His creation.

Advent Week 2 - The Promise: Purity

As I was thinking about this weeks topic of purity, I was reminded that I haven’t always understood why God only wanted the pure animals for His sacrifices.

It seemed a little discriminating.

He didn’t want the blind, the deaf, the lame, or the broken.

For some reason this really bothered me.

How could a God that claims to love all of us just as we are only accept the perfect sacrifices?

But during the sermon yesterday, I realized, it’s not so much that God doesn’t want the imperfect, but more that He wants the best that we have.

If we only give Him what we have left, it will be a pitiful sacrifice.

He’s asked us to give Him the first fruits, the best of the best.

It’s more about our hearts than the actual sacrifice.

God also calls us to become more like Him and I believe that He does this by putting through the fire of this world.

As we follow Him and walk through the flames around us, God uses this to burn the impurities out of our lives.

I believe that God accepts us just as we are, with all our impurities and flaws.

But as we follow Him and go through the trials of this world, He perfects us in His image.

Pastor Jason talked yesterday about how metal workers would put the metal through the fire to burn away the impurities, so that when they looked at the metal they could see themselves.

I also believe that, as with any good art, when others look at it they will see a reflection of the artist.

I believe this is why God allows us to be try and tested.

So that after we make it through the fire, those around us will see a reflection of Him when they look at us.