Free(er) from sin.

I know that until recently, my 20 years as a Christian has been a course in ‘sin management’. It has been a course that I have failed badly, because no one taught me (properly) the ‘Grace module’ that gives you a foolproof chance of passing.

When I started to really get how much God loved me, when everything I have ever learned thus far just began to melt away, I really feel that I can get what it means in Romans 5:20;

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.

Romans 5:20 The Message

Grace, and the wonderful abandon that comes from knowing that you are adored and cherished by a loving heavenly Father means that sin just isn’t so attractive anymore. It is just so much better to be in relationship with Jesus and those around you.

If you feel no-one has ever taught you properly about Grace, get straight on to God about it now – He can be trusted to give you a proper lesson!

But I don't deserve this...

I have had just the most fantastic day today. I just think that I really don't deserve it, but it's one of those days that you have to mark as really really good. Everything seems to have gone so right.

I actually don't deserve it, but I am getting used to this grace thing - and it is getting a bit easier to just 'take' stuff that is offered & say 'thanks'

It's so simple

Okay, this is the latest bubbling up of what I believe;

God Loves us, all of us, unconditionally, even Likes us, hard as it is for us to believe and would love us to find out how much, by personal tuition. But it's our choice.

I feel particularly loved today.

A hamster guarding a lion.

This made me laugh...

Quote taken from Darin Hufford; http://freebelievers.com/blog-entry/unlikely-messengers

My question is this:

Does our behavior really add to or take away from the message of truth? Does our behavior make receiving the message of truth more or less difficult for people? Is the truth of the message compromised if we don’t adequately represent it? Do we “win people to Jesus” by our abstinence from sin? Is our “witness” really a changed life or modified and moral behavior? Is that what compels people to swallow this message?

If you really consider the mentality that most of us have been raised in, it is amazingly arrogant. To even think that our behavior adds to or subtracts from the message is downright silly. At the very least it shows a personal lack of understanding and revelation of the message itself. It reminds me of the Christians who feel it is their job to guard the truth and stand up for the Bible. If they knew the truth and had experienced it on any level, they would see how absurd such a thought is. It’s like asking a hamster to guard a lion.

They’ll listen when they’re ready.

There seems to be a real unnecessary pressure to tell, tell, tell people about the good news, at every opportunity, even when the time is actually quite inopportune. We seem to think that we know better than God about when is the best time to evangelise and draw people in to the kingdom, and this is born out of the evangelical ‘tradition’ that time is running out and we have to be quick to get people into the kingdom before it is too late.

It is a shame that, in my experience that we have put so many people off the wonderful, attractive, truth of who Jesus Christ really is, because we wrap him up, and insist that if you choose him, you have to have all the ‘add-ons’ that come with modern ‘Christianity’ – the church – going, the conformity to a set of traditions that the church has accumulated over the years, the belonging to a club that sees itself as distinct and not part of, the very world that God himself inhabits and holds together.

What is wrong with just loving people, and being ready to help them find Jesus Christ, when, and only when, the Father starts calling them. Call them he will, because he loves them. Just watch closely, you will see him at work in so many lives, doing a work that no man could ever do.

Where did the (praise and) worship go?

It's a really odd phenomenon, but I just don't feel the desire to listen to praise & worship like I used to - or even sing the same songs. I have noticed this over the course of the last few months. I just want to log it as a "thing that I have discovered", although I don't understand it fully at the moment. Maybe it is me pulling away from the way I used to worship God - maybe I don't look at Him in the same way that I used to - like I wouldn't "worship" a close friend - but that close friend is Almighty God..

I am not the only one to experience this. See;

http://thegodjourney.com/forums/index.php?topic=326.0

Maybe more of this as it becomes clearer? Anyone want to buy some woship CD's?

What is going on & why

We have been unhappy, not with the churches we have attended, but with ‘Institutional Christianity’ as I would now call it, for some time.

It seems that God speaks to us through books, and at the start of 2009 we read ‘The Shack’ which challenged & altered our perceptions of God and then 2 books that were advertised in ‘The Shack’ – ‘So You Don’t Want to go to Church Anymore’ and ‘He Loves Me’.

The books introduced us to a Grace based approach to God – ‘Living Loved’ put simply – Trusting that God loves you and is working in you to make you more like Jesus. The loving others that God shows you and meeting with other believers just comes naturally.

We have been on this ‘God Journey’ for just over 6 months. Our relationship with God just seems to be so much easier, we talk about Him together and much more as a family. There is less pressure as you relax into trusting He is working in our lives. Reading the Bible is easier, (not easier to understand just easier to read!). Don’t ask me why!

We still go to our church homegroup as we love them and just like meeting up.

We are starting to be aware of how God is leading us to love our neighbours and friends, we have never felt so happy to open up our house to others.

It’s not all sweetness & light, it’s a journey, but He is with us on it.

If you want to find out more visit http://wwwthegodjourney.com/