Grace, Grace and more Grace

Lately I have been very exhausted from work. Parched really. Last night I had a little refreshment from the Lord. I had decided to give the guys I was closing with that night a break right after I closed the doors. I started to talk to one of them about God's grace. How I was thankful that I don't have to jump through hoops anymore to get acceptance from Him. I never did really. It was me who had put these unbearable burdens on my shoulders. He was like a friend constantly asking me if he could take them off. I for some reason thought that they were some kind of covering. I thought that if he was to take away my works that he wouldn't love me anymore. I was afraid that he would see my weaknesses. Why didn't I understand that He already did? I didn't understand what scripture meant when it says that in our weakness we are strong. Why are we so afraid of being weak? Our culture has made things that are the key to relationships, weak things. Sensitivity, emotions, caring, honesty and truth. No wonder so many marriages struggle. Men think that they have to be strong not weak. So they show no sensitivity or emotions. They decide not to have a conversation about things that they struggled with when they were young. Men don't cry. Men don't cry! On the contrary, what which our culture considers weak, is the very thing that makes a marriage or a person strong. My wife knows me! My God knows me! and they both Love me! It is the sharing of my weakness that makes me strong. I served on staff at churches for 12 years and didn't understand the most basic principle of Christianity. GRACE You and I don't need to do anything to get Jesus to love us. He already does and He sees our weakness as our strengths, not a burden. We are to rejoice in this Grace and in our weakness!

Being Strong

My wife and I were listening to Focus on the Family today and we heard some wonderful things followed by something disturbing. There have been so many times that we have been blessed by the church of God through Focus. Listening to stories of suffering bloom into ministeries of understanding and healing. We love to hear these stories and understand fully why Focus puts them on. Throughout history, God's people have been comforting those with the comfort they received themselves. People can talk about these things because they see how God's hand was in them, to turn that which was intended for bad, into good.

The disturbing thing that we heard, after some wonderful stories, was a man that headed up their phone lines for those who were needing help. He had mentioned that many of them were pastors that were calling in. Many of them with porn problems. Normally you might think that this is what we thought was disturbing. Wouldn't you? I mean, these are the people who are standing before us every Sunday, telling us how to live our lives and then we find out that some of them are doing this. However this is not what disturbed my wife and I.

Think about it for a second (or more). We would not blink an eye if we were asked the question if these men were still human. We would testify that no one is perfect and all have fallen short of the glory of God. Why then do we expect more from a pastor then a congregation member? Maybe because we have put them on pedestals that no man is suppose to be on?

What disturbed my wife and I was the statement that the man made from Focus. He said that this is troubling because we all know that strong Pastoral families produce strong churches. In context, he was saying that perfect pastoral families will produce perfect churches! To say that being a strong family is to be a family that doesn't fall would be an unattainable goal for any family to meet.

It seems to me that this man forgot where our strength comes from. Our strength is not in our ability to be perfect but the direct opposite. It comes from our weaknesses!! Until we understand this, we will continue to go around and around, not getting anywhere when we are already there.