Grace.

Its hilarious that we sing songs all of the time about grace, and yet not one of us even comprehends how much grace God freely gave to us. I sin everyday. There are things I hope no one ever finds out about because they would either automatically hate me or just avoid me completely. But the thing is, God already knows. Which really makes me feel crappy, you know that feeling after you did something you know was wrong, small or big, you just don't want to look at yourself or make eye contact with anyone, including yourself, you avoid your own eye contact, turn the rearview mirror away so you dont see yourself, thats the feeling I get when I remember that God knows everything ive done. eee. But the incredibly amazing thing is... he has already forgiven me for it. !!! Thats what grace is! God didn't have a form we had to fill out to make sure we qualified for grace, we just have to say yes! I am not only referring to that initial grace when you put your faith in Christ, but the continual grace. I sin everyday, multiple times a day, why? Because I am a dumb sinner. I slip and fall, and God once again bends over backwards, says hey man its okay, and lets me try it again.

Now, dont take this wrong, we all take advantage of Gods grace, but we should never purposely take advantage of his grace! Like saying "oh its okay to do this, cause God will forgive me." Wow, I once heard that said to me, and i wanted to slap the person. That is incredibly wrong thinking. God didnt give us grace so we could live whatever life we wanted and ask for forgiveness later. He gave it as a gift. If you view grace as just a get out of jail free card, you are in the wrong and I would be as bold to say, that you need to look at your relationship with Christ.

God could have done whatever he wanted to us, we were made for HIS glory not ours. "Holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come" This is straight out of Revelation chapter 4. He has 4 angels, around him saying this repeatedly, then he is surrounded by other angels, then he has 24 "elders" who have their own thrones, and who bow down every-time they say Holy, what is crazy is that these elders are humans. In all the commentaries that I have read can really place who exactly these people are, but most say that they are people from the old testament, old testament saints if you will . But anyways, picture that, a God that created these things so he could be worshiped, sitting on the throne and surrounded by colors we have not yet even seen, with lightning all around him, enclosed by at least 28 beings all worshiping him. And this creator, had such a mercy on us that he gave us grace, grace which we never have or will deserve.

What made me want to write this was something one of my friends said in passing. He said "I wish churches acted more like Jesus. He didnt have a set of prerequisites to hang out with him." He was right, he wasn't like a bank loan or credit approval, we were accepted no matter what. And sadly the church isnt like that. We will act like it, but we go home and say "jeez did you see that guy, he was wearing shorts, in the sanctuary!" or "that guy smelled like alcohol." --- As I look at what I just wrote, Shorts to alcohol, I can see the vast difference, and it dawned on me, that in a lot of churches these things are pretty much on the same scale in "church offense." ---But anyways. Wouldnt you rather have these people in the church hearing the name of Jesus then sitting in a bar, or drinking by themselves??

The next time you sing amazing grace, put the emphasis on the word "amazing," cause it is definitely that plus all its synonym counterparts. And on top of that realize that the amazing and the grace part, dont just apply to you, they apply to everyone that accepts it. Even the guy that has shorts on in the sanctuary...

spontaneous worship

So this story is definitely going to make me look a little girly, but I think it is one that I need to tell anyways. So this past Sunday (palm Sunday) I was flying out to do some wedding stuff with my future Mrs. And as a plus I did get to hang out with the boys who happened to be on spring break as well. But anyways, I went to church led worship, got something quick for lunch and then headed over to the office to get ready for the easter practice. I got there and started running thru the music and before I even got to the Easter music I got stuck on the song Jesus Blood. Mind you, this was the Jake Holman version from about 3 years ago, one of my favorites. But this time there was something that made me listen to the song 3 times back to back to back. On the last time I don’t know why but the word forever just was just yelling at me. “King forever” is the actual phrase that I just couldn’t seem to fathom. And I was thinking about that, the chorus hit me, “Jesus blood NEVER fails me.” This song uses these constant words. There is nothing iffy about them. He will be king forever, and his blood never has or will fail me! But as it so happened I couldn’t think to long about this, I had some singing to do.
After practice was over, I didn’t remember this instance, I had to much on my mind trying to get ready to leave town. So, I guess it was a fleeting moment of the past…but it did end up catching me again.
As I sat waiting for the plane at the airport I was full of thoughts about college basketball, as today was the holy day of the selection day. But the couple in front of me wanted to watch the news, and since they were paying customers of this restaurant, I really couldn’t say much. So as they turned the channel, I turned to my ipod. I clicked one of the play lists and sat there looking at the planes coming and going and how odd it was that every single person outside had orange on. The song that came on was a song called “Revelation Song.” And as I came to a certain part I remembered the thoughts I had earlier in the day, and how the hurriedness of my day had drawn me from them. As I picked up my ipod to go back to the song Jesus Blood, the chorus of Revelations Song kicked in, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” I froze and thought there it is again. There is no questioning this chorus. It isn’t who might have been, and maybe could be, and who just might come again. No he was, He is and He forever will be. This is the girly part I mentioned before, as I listened to these songs, and thought about my Lord, the assurance of my salvation, and the fact that I am so blessed to have faith in the one true God, I began to cry. I was overcome with humility at why me and not someone else. Now I didn’t start bawling my eyes out, it was more like a single tear, like the Indian from those ads back in the 90s who was crying over all the litter in America. So I guess you could say I had a Navajo cry.
All of this to say God can grab you anywhere, out of any circumstance. I was busy, I had a frustrating morning, and was trying to get everything together and God was like slow down, take a minute. Think about me. And finally I did.