weekend fun

Since I seem to be unable to write lately, here was my great weekend. The first picture is at a corn maze that took about 2 hours to find our way out of. It was a really fun weekend.

good enough re posted just because

I wonder at what point we go from confidence to insecurity, or from grace to guilt. What comes into our lives and teaches us that we are not good enough, or that we do not measure up. What tricks us into not believing Gods grace is sufficient. I can trace mine back to events that turned the playing field away from God. I think is is important to look back and identify what caused you to break, and then even more important to take those moments back. You can not undo what happened just as you can not prevent what else may happen, but you can take back what was stolen form you. Our confidence is in Christ, we are good enough, because we are his, we measure up because he created the "we" that we are. And his grace is sufficient. I have heard some talk about walking in guilt because grace seems to easy. Well for us it is supposed to be easy. It is a contrast to the effort of the cross. What Jesus did for us was harder than anything we can fathom. And in his extreme comes our freedom. Accepting his grace is part of recognizing his sacrifice. And grace is not permission to sin, it is knowledge that our sin is forgiven. God knows where we fall short and only in his power will we find strength to change, so it only makes sense to be wrapped in his grace. But we also have to get to a place where we are not wanting more for the image others will have of us. Our desire has to be more for God. It's like going to church, if your thought is "well if I don't go what will They think of me" Or "I go to church so i know they think I am good" Man If either of those cross your mind just stay home. I walked in guilt for a long time and what kept me there was worrying about what this one or that one thought of me. Never looking at what God may think of me. If we compare ourselves and our walk with another then we are not walking in Gods shadow, we're walking in theirs. And the thing about walking in mans shadow, it's small and will keep you looking down, keeps you locked it guilt focused on making the "right" move.
What do you think walking in Gods shadow feels like?

What if

There is a great movie called the count of Monte cristo, and at one point after the man had been in prison for many years, he is talking with the priest and the priest says something about God. The count says he does not believe in God and the priest says back "it does not matter, God still believes in you".

What if that was our attitude towards the world, towards the non believer. Too often Christians find themselves in a world of judgement, a right that God never handed down to us. He alone holds that right. Jesus set things up fairly easy for us, He did the work, and the holy spirit continues that work, our job is really to love and to have compassion. To always remember every unbeliever, every hurting person, every lost soul is a son or daughter that God still believes in. Each and everyone of them is a soul that God himself created and loves, and that he is so very fond of, just as he is of you. I spent a lot of years at a church where the sinner was not loved, in fact over and over they were removed from the church. When did it become okay to replace love with judgement? Who of us can see into the heart of another. Who of us can see what plan God has for the very man you cast a side. Who knew Paul would teach Christians after killing so many. Who knew David would be the man after Gods own heart, after the sin he got caught up in. And who of us has "arrived" enough to even consider judging another? How many men and woman have walked out of prison, or away from addiction, or out of a gang, or ran from abuse, to turn out to be a pathway to God for countless others, because God will not stop believing in them. And we love the happy ending, but what has our part been throughout the story. I want my write up to be that I did my best to show compassion and that they felt love for their soul, not love of the sin, but love for the sinner. That they knew I was someone they could go to for help and for love. I want to be the same in the beginning of the story as I am in the ending. Christians are going to have to work really hard to gain back a reputation of trust and compassion. Our doors have been closed to the world, we have cast judgement and deemed people unworthy. We have taken a power away from God by not believing in the least of these. It is time to give God his place back, it is time to let God love his children and if he will, love them with our arms. So while your neighbor, co-worker, friend, child, spouse may say they do not believe in God, remember God still believes in them.