Disappointed and Disillusioned

Are you disappointed in your relationship with Christ? Are you disillusioned by the fact that you don’t feel the presence of God near you? Most of have been there. Many have made an attempt at diagnosing why we are there. But how do you overcome your disappointment? How do you change your outlook to become enamored by Christ and encouraged in your fellowship with him? That is not an easy question to answer. Because it is so personal, I have found that it is a process worked out by God himself in our lives that is very difficult to articulate. However, I found the following quotes from Paul Tripp’s new book Broken Down House very helpful. I pray that you will too. You can follow more quotes from BD House on Twitter.

BDHouse

“Here is a sad truth: Celebrating grace is an act of war. The worship of God doesn’t come naturally to sinners like you and me.”

“It doesn’t take long for us to imagine that perhaps life really can be found apart from Christ.”

“We do the unthinkable: we take grace for granted and stop celebrating the one thing in life that should amaze us for eternity.”

“We have to be committed to fighting for our hearts. We have to remind ourselves daily how quickly we get distracted, seduced, & hooked.”

“We need to warn ourselves again and again against disappointment and the danger of looking for life where life cannot be found.”

There is no easy answer here. Tripp describes grace as an act of war. I think what he means is that living in the grace of God and overcoming despair is hard work. It takes commitment, even when the feeling of God’s presence is absent. It takes lectures and warnings to ourselves in which we tell ourselves the truth about who we are, who God is and what He has done. And we wait, repeating the same steps over and over again, trusting that God in His Providence is using our despair to finish the work he began in us.

Blessings, Mark

Where to Look for Grace - Revelation 1:4

Grace is defined as “favor or kindness shown without regard to the worth or merit of the one who receives it and in spite of what that person deserves."1 When I think about that definition I wonder who can show me true grace. To whom should I look if I truly want kindness from them that is rooted solely in their love for me and not upon any merit of my own? We know that we have trouble showing favor toward even our children without some consideration of the joy and happiness that they bring us. There is a natural human inability to show perfect kindness to people who do not deserve it. Yet, I want to be shown favor. I want to be the recipient of unconditional kindness. So, if I am to be shown favor and kindness, to whom should I look?

John prays for the seven churches of Asia that they would receive grace, and he prays that the giver of that grace would be the one who is and was and is to come. In other words, for John, the grace that we need comes from God. Why not just say so? Why not just pray that they would be given grace from God? Why the long title? Well, as you might guess it more than just literary beauty that drives John to use the phrase “who is and who was and who is to come.” There is something in the description of God that makes the receipt of His grace more meaningful and desirable.

In that phrase John expands the idea of God's eternal immutability; his unchangeable character; his sameness yesterday (who was), today (who is) and forever (who is to come). If God the Father, before the foundations of the earth were laid, determined to save me based solely on the merit of his son and not on any of my righteous acts, which are as filthy rags, and if this same God never changes, then based on these two facts, 1. his choice to give me grace on his son's merit 2. his unchangeable character, I can be confident that his grace toward me will always be perfect and motivated solely by his unchangeable love for me. I will never have to earn it. I will never have to work to hold on to it. It will always flow from him to me because of the blood of Christ, which has washed me and bought me and made me his own.

If am to look to anyone for grace, for that undeserved favor and kindness which brings true peace to the soul, then I will look to God and to no other.

1. Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's new illustrated Bible dictionary. Rev. ed. of: Nelson's illustrated Bible dictionary.; Includes index. Nashville: T. Nelson.

Grace

I have been thinking a lot this week about the state of my soul and grace and a thought occurred to me this morning that I wanted to share.

Hebrews 13:9 says, "Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace..."

So often we think of grace as connected to our salvation, that thing that God gives us to save us. I think we often miss the fact that it also strengthens us. As I struggle with sin and holiness issues I usually rely on my strength or the impact of other people and their influence to strengthen me. I look to external things for the resolve to live to the glory of God. But as Hebrews says, I haven't really been benefited by those things. I've realized that this week and have been wondering how grace can help me not only be saved but grow in my salvation. I've at least realized this, that is its purpose, i.e. to help me grow in my salvation.

So what do I do now? Well, I engage God in prayer to have grace, which is greater than all my sins, strengthen me to live like a man whose been saved by grace.

I'm sure there is more, but I'll discover it in God's word as he reveals it to me. For now it's just good to know that God thought about sanctification as much as he thought about salvation when he planned all this before he made it.

Praise His Name!

Leadership - Grace

The following article is an excerpt for John C. Maxwell's Leadership wired newsletter. Along with the many other things Maxwell has to say about leadership in this article, I found this to be humbling and insightful. He is dead on about the tendency in the business world to be critical of our co-worker's and leaders and absolutely correct that when we engage in graceless activity we don't demonstrate tough savvy business acumen. To the contrary we demonstrate insecurity in ourselves, a lack of integrity and a wanting for respectfulness toward others.

This same principle is applicable to every area of live, even in our homes.

So the next time you hear me carping about somebody and how they don't do their job well or some other shortcoming they might have, please remind me about my shortcoming, ungraciousness.

Thanks, MP

Amazing Grace

Courage. Wisdom. Strength. Vision. Influence. We have no trouble associating these words with leadership. Grace doesn't usually make the list.

After all, grace is a rather touchy-feely word, isn't it? Preschool teachers have grace. Ice skaters move with grace. Elderly women are named Grace. It's not exactly a word packed with power. At least, not at first glance.

What exactly does "grace" signify in a leadership context? According to Ray Blunt of http://www.govleaders.org/, grace means acknowledging and accepting imperfections, both in ourselves and others. When we infuse grace into our lives, the advantages we reap are manifold.

However, grace doesn't usually find its way into boardrooms, strategy sessions, or creative meetings. Apparently, we see ourselves as too tough to carry grace into the workplace, or perhaps we deem the business climate too harsh for grace.

Whatever the case, grace gets left behind when we hit the office. Instead, we carp about a teammate's shortcomings, pile cutting remarks on top of a co-worker's failure, or complain about a leader's missteps. We pass judgment quickly and effortlessly. We hold a magnifying glass above the mistakes of those around us, while we try to maintain a facade of perfection.

Without grace, a leader faces the twin perils of insecurity and irrelevance. On the other hand, by apprehending the quality of grace, a leader becomes labeled as secure and worthy or respect.

Christians and OBama

I recently read an email that is going around among Christian groups condemning Barack Obama. The condemnation is not based on the political policies or history of the candidate or even on the things that Obama has said. Sadly, the condemnation of the man is based on his heritage. The email points out that Obama's biological father was a Muslim from Kenya and that his step-father, who raised him, was a radical Muslim. It points out that his mother was an Atheist and that Obama himself attended a Wahabi school, which is apparently a radical leaning Muslim school. It also cynically states that Obama went to a Catholic school and joined a United Church of Christ. The email suggest that his affiliation with the United Church of Christ is only an attempt to assuage the fears of Christians that Obama is some sort of sleeper Muslim who will destroy our Christian freedoms and country if elected, which the email argues is indeed the case.

Not a single mention is made of Obama's political positions, voting history, or even the words of his own speeches. The email is tantamount to religious bigotry and is an embarrassment to the Christian community. Christians should stop allowing themselves to be political pawns, having their fears and ignorance played upon and used by political pundits and hate mongers.

Barack Obama is not the candidate for the Christian, but not because of his parent’s beliefs, where he was born, or where he was educated. Granted, there is some concern, but since when do we judge a man based on the things of his background that were out of his control. Judge the man on his words and deeds.

The type of email that I have described angers me, because it caters to the stereotypical image of Christians as bigots, fear mongers, and ignorant and religiously arrogant people. We must stop playing this role. If Christians want to be politically active, then they should do so with integrity, love and graciousness. You who would condemn a man because his father was a Muslim and his mother was an Atheist, is your genealogy without flaw, is your heritage free of stain. It is only by God's grace that perhaps you have a Christian heritage and have a Christian worldview. Is it not possible that by God's grace a Muslim/Atheist raised boy could grow to be a God-fearing Christian man?

I'm not saying Obama is a Christian. I'm not saying that he is not a Christian. I'm saying, judge him by his fruit not by his original roots. Be Gracious.

Heavenly Petitions

Is it ever wrong to ask God for something? I think most of us wonder about this from time to time. We think to ourselves, "my problem/need/desire can't be important enough to bother the creator and ruler of the world over." In fact, I think there is a strong tendency in the human heart to abstain from prayers of petition because such prayers seem to reflect a weakness on our part. Well, what about that? In fact that is the point of prayers of petition; they do indeed reflect our weakness, because we are weak. Without him we can do nothing. He holds all things together. These are biblical truths that we give lip service to, but our pride in not taking our petitions to God exposes the lie in our affirmation of these truths.

What about the idea that God's too big and my petition is too small? Does that carry weight? Well, let's see: he's the God who clothes the lilies of the field which are here today and gone tomorrow; he's the God who knows when a single sparrow falls from the sky; he's the God who's interested enough in you to count the exact number of the hairs on your head. No, I don't think the "God's too big, my petitions are too small" argument carries any weight.

But, if you are still hesitant to take all your cares to the throne of God, let me give you one care that you should have no doubt about your need for help in addressing and God's interest in hearing and responding to it. That care is the condition of your heart. You are powerless to improve it, you are prone to do harm to it, and only God can repair and keep it. What is more, God wants to repair and keep it. So, if you are remiss to take your petitions to God, leave this one out of your list of "I'll take care of that myself", and rush to his throne, and lay it at his, and by the power of Christ's shed blood he will heal your heart and keep it always fixed upon him. At least cast that care on him.