stumbling into grace

Is this thing on?

2009-09-24T11:29:00.002-05:00

So . . . is it possible to resurrect a blog that was never really alive? Well, that is what I am going to find out. After three years of silence, I am planning on trying to use this thing once again. What can that one guy who actually has this feed set up in his blog reader expect to find (and I am probably that one guy)? Well, I am not totally sure yet, but I am going to make an attempt to post something weekly. It may just be some random thoughts. It could be about a book I am reading. It could be an album review. Most likely, it will be something interesting to me, and maybe no one else.

If you are interested, check back next week.

The cobwebs are getting pretty thick!

2006-09-23T08:43:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know, the blog experiment has pretty much been a failure for me so far. But I have yet to give of hope that I will actually begin to make more use of this blog, if for nothing else to be an outlet for writing, which I have a desire to do, but seldom do write. Today I have found some inspiration to continue trying to blog as I read a this wonderful blog post from Jenni. She is a wonderful young aspiring writer here in Houston, as well as a friend of our family. She has the wonderful ability to draw you into the scene she is experiencing.

Blog?

2006-04-04T18:03:00.000-05:00

I figure three months is a long enough time not to post anything. I have been journaling alot this year, which is a new thing for me. My plan is that some of that journaling will make it onto this blog, but I don't really want to bore people with the more mundane aspects or half thougts that get scribbled down in my spiral notebook. Hopefully a couple times a week, I will have some thoughts complete enough to share online for my friends, family and whoever else might be lurking around "out there" might read.

I have been really struggling with the idea of what blogging really acomplishes, and what is motive behind my blogging. I want to be sure I am not just trying to be a voice out there saying, "Hey look at me! I am important! I have something to say that alot of people should be reading and everyone should be subscribing to my feed because I am just the coolest person in the known universe!" If that is or becomes my motivation, then blogging for me will have to stop.

But, at least right now, I don't believe that is my motivation. I see blogging as a way to share some thoughts that someone else might stumble upon and God might use in their life, or through comments, God would use others in mine.

Steve McCoy has some interesting thoughts about blogging over at the Missional Baptist Blog. It has stirred up some contorversy anyway.

Ok, so here is to trying to blog more often, and following Steve's advice to not "suck".

2006-01-10T15:37:00.000-06:00

John 3:26-27
They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him."
To this John replied, "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.”

As I was reading this passage of scripture, John’s statement here really jumped out at me. John’s disciples have come to him with a report. In actuality, it seems they have come to him like little children ready to tattle on their brother, or a band of gossips who cannot wait to deliver some gossip that is sure to send their listener into the midst of some heated drama. They want John to get stirred up. Some guy is stealing their converts!

“Look man, that dude, you know the one YOU said was the Messiah, the one YOU baptized, well he is over there baptizing too. Everyone is starting to go over to him instead of coming to you. You need to do something about this.”

John’s response probably took them by total surprise. It is the opposite of what they were expecting, the opposite of how almost any human would have responded. John didn’t jump to his feet and set his PR Firm into a Follow John campaign. He didn’t come out with a new sermon series highlighted by the most dazzling and advanced multimedia equipment available in all of Judea. Here is what John says:

“That is cool. I can only receive what God has given me.”

John is at total peace with this. He doesn’t get all puffed up and outraged that Jesus was moving in on his turf or that his flock was starting to follow Him. John realizes that everything we are given comes from the Father, and to expect more, to kick and scream about it, to try to change this is as futile as futility can be. He is content with God’s will for him.

John’s response leads me to ask a question, are we satisfied with what God has given to us? Do we sometimes try to go beyond God’s will in acquiring things we don’t have or a ministry that isn’t ours? I believe that often we do, at least I do.

Now, does this mean that we shouldn’t strive for the best in our lives in ministries? Does this mean that we shouldn’t do everything we can to live a great life or have the most effective ministry possible? Not at all. But what is most important for us to strive for is the best life and ministry that we can have in what God has given us. What we want to do is look at the things that God has given us and say, “Am I doing all I can, am I taking care of everything that God has given me to the best of the abilities that God has given me?”

Too often, we are looking for more and better. We examine our lives, our ministries and compare them against others and find ourselves frustrated because they don’t measure up to someone else’s. We want what they have. We want more than what God has given us. This is dangerous to our faith in Christ. Ultimately, not being satisfied in what God has given us leads to disillusionment with ourselves, our lives, our ministires, and in the end, God.

I examine my own heart and realize that I have been guilty of this dissatisfaction, and that the confusion in my heart and mind can be directly attributed to this. But when I think of John’s answer to his disciples, I feel a peace about my life that I haven’t felt in a long time. I am thankful for what God has given me, and I truly want nothing more. And more than that, I am thankful for the mercy God has shown me by teaching me this.

2005-11-03T17:29:00.000-06:00

Well, it has been a couple of weeks. They sure have flown by, and it has been longer than I expected since I have posted. These last few weeks, I certainly have felt as though I am stumbling into grace more than I am walking in it, and a light bulb of sorts has gone on in my head. Even when we are stumbling, tripping, and rolling headlong down the path of walking with Christ, we are still on the path. Whether we are stumbling into or walking in grace, God's grace and mercy abounds in our lives. Of course, walking in God's grace is much easier and full of less skinned knees than tumbling down the trail, and is of course the preferred method of travel.

When we are stumbling though our lives, it is important that we keep remembering that God still extends His grace to us, because when we forget, that is when we will stumble along the trail, and then frustrated, walk off of it, and away from the goal and the prize toward which we run, walk, jog, sprint, and stumble: God Himself.

2005-10-15T19:35:00.000-05:00

I have been writing a blog at Xanga for awhile, but I am planning to start blogging over here. There are things about Blogger that I like better, so I thought I would try it out. I may be posting the same blog at both spots at first, but will eventually choose one.

I am trying to get back in the habit of spending daily time in the Bible and in prayer, and I am using Oswald Chamber's My Utmost For His Highest, to help me get started. I generally don't like using devotionals, kind of feeling like I am cheating, and often feeling I am above them. That sounds really humble, doesn't it? Well, I am coming to find out two things: 1) Don't tread on those who have walked the path before, whose wisdom has stood the test of time, 2) A thirsty soul will lap up any droplet of water that it can find in the wilderness. So far, Oswald Chambers is both of those things to me, wisdom that has stood the test of time and a droplet of water for a thirsting wandering soul in the desert.

This part of today's reading really resonated within me: "It is easier to belong to a faction that simply tells what Jesus has done for me, and easier to become a devotee of divine healing, or of a special type of sanctification, or of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But Paul did not say, 'Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,' [or preach about divine healing, or sanctification, or baptism of the Holy Spirit] but, '. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!' (1 Corinthians 9:16). And this is the gospel-'the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'"

This message is getting lost in the Church today. You can walk into churches throughout the United States today and often never hear about the fact that Jesus died to take away your sins. Sermons, today abound on topics like: purpose, marriage, success, peaceful life, joy, healing, intimacy with God. But often in the consumer market of the Church, pastors don't want to preach the simple gospel of Jesus Christ. Many reasons can be made: it isn't sexy, it isn't seeker friendy, everyone knows that already and this truth is more important, it isn't warm and fuzzy. The reasons are many. But most likely the ultimate, untalked about reason is that, in order to do that we have to address the fact that we are all sinners, and hey we don't want to OFFEND anyone by calling them a sinner now do we.

It is easy to judge the Church as being impotent in this area, but I have to look at my life, and the lives of those who are claiming to be Christians and I realize, we aren't doing that much to live out the message of Jesus' redemptive work in our own lives. What about me and what I do and say points out to my co-workers the gospel. Do they see that living a life redeemed by Christ is any different or better, or more fulfilling than the one they already live? Mine often doesn't. And if I, or we are going to accept the fact that we are ALL missionaries, and that by using the giftings that the Holy Spirit has given us, we are to bring all Glory and Honor to Jesus, and thereby glorifyiig the Father, we have to examine our lives and say, "Does the life I live preach the message of the Gospel?"

Does this mean that we must be perfect, by no means. But it does mean this, people should be able to see how we live and recognize that even though we are a mess, there is something different about us. We can say to them, "Yeah I know I am a screw up, but it doesn't matter, because Someone came and erased all that."

All this may be nothing new to you, but like I said, I am a thirsty soul in the desert right now, and a droplet feels like a river to me.