Grace at First Light

  2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”  Through what lens do you view God? Do you view God through a lens of law or grace? All of us respond to God from a sense of obligation to perform or freedom to live life trusting in His work and not our own.  I grew up in the church. I was born, raised, ministered in, and will probably die in the church. And yet I have lived with the tireless effort to please God because the church has conditioned me to believe that while I was saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), I needed to live a certain way, believe the right things, witness to people as often as possible, earn the notches in my belt, espouse politically conservative issues to keep the approval of God and maintain my status in His church. A moral fall, a shift in political viewpoints, or a lack of zeal for the gospel could raise questions to the authenticity of my faith. Why is this? Because we tend to view God as...

Hebrews 4:10- " for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his." Now that you are a Christian, what else is there to do? Growing up, my Dad had a famous saying for me and my brother. When doing chores, it felt at times we would never finish. It was then that we would hear my Dad say, "One more project, boys!" Off we would go to another job.  I fear that we are reinforcing a "one more project" mentality on people in the church without even realizing it. People with a performance mindset relate to God from a reward-based, punishment-minded, and obligation-driven mentality. In other words, we think, "God will bless me if I do right, but God will get me if I do wrong, or worse become disappointed in me."  As a result, people sitting in our pews harbor doubts about their eternal destiny, confusion about what God thinks of them, uncertainty of God's unconditional love, and insecurity from expectations from th...

  Romans 6:14: " For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace." There are many influences on our lives. Our upbringing can influence how we see ourselves, and even God. Our past mistakes can define our thoughts. Guilt from our past and fear of an uncertain future shape how we interpret the world around us. Church hurt often determines whether we decide to show up on Sunday or not. All these influences can affect our view of God, our self-perception, and the relationships we have with others.  The apostle Paul made a statement that suggests that there are two influences that impact our lives. Of these two influences one reveals the brokenness at the core of our human nature. It is the influence of the law that results in a sense of stringent obligation to do the right things or make the right choices that we believe are required by God to please Him. When it comes to our relationship with God, our self-dependance leads us to perfor...

  Revelation 2:4- "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love." Have you ever made a priority list? Having priorities is important for me. I use to-do lists because I am prone to distraction. As important as priorities are, though, I want to say something that may sound contradictory to what is normally taught. Avoid prioritizing God! You read it right.  Why do I say that? Revelation 2 tells the story of a church that worked hard for the faith. They persevered during persecution. They even cleaned house when they discovered false teachers in their midst. But somehow they had lost their way. Detrimentally, they abandoned their first love.  We teach in the church that losing our first love means we have put other things above God. Maybe we prioritized some sin in our life or we put all of our energy into our careers. While prioritizing other things over God may have implicated Ephesus (Revelation 2:5), the wider context of scripture speaks to a deeper m...

  What is truth? Many people have explored that question. Pilate posed that very question to Jesus. "What is truth," Pilate asked when the Lord claimed to be the witness to the truth (John 18:37-38). Pilate is in good company. Many others like Plato, Socrates, Augustine, and many more have explored the complexities of truth.  The Gospel of John delves into our historical quest for truth. It is in the first chapter where John first connects truth to the nature of who Jesus is as God in the flesh. The presumed beloved disciple offered an interesting twist on truth when he wrote that Jesus came "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). He further argued that grace and truth actually "came into being" taking our understanding of truth to a whole new level. Sometimes truth is difficult to comprehend, especially when it is understood within a context like grace. To deal with its complexity we often relegate truth to a way of believing that aligns us with God's ...

  Jeremiah 18:4- "But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make" (NASB). Most of us have regrets of some kind. Usually our regrets are nothing more than the continuation of our journey into new things. I have known my share of regrets. One of the biggest ones came years ago when I left ministry after an unexpected divorce. I still struggle with that decision today.  I am reading a book called "Art + Faith: A Theology of Making" by Makoto Fujimura. The author challenges us to refocus our attention on the creation of God as his work over our usefulness for God as our work. When we focus on our usefulness, or the lack thereof, we make God out to be utilitarian. We strive to know his purpose for our lives. We pray to be used by God. I know since I made the decision to leave formal ministry many years ago I have prayed many times to be used by God again. Fujimura'...