“To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God's grace means.” ― Brennan Manning
PSALM 78
The Psalm recounts the path of the Israelites and the choosing of David...
ROMANS 7
Paul discusses his own failures and struggles with sin...
21So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
JOURNAL
Paul does not mix words. Living this life is a struggle...it is a battle. That battle rages within our own hearts and minds. It is always there lurking in the dark. The battle is with that part of us that demands and desires to be God. Paul does not shy away from his own struggles and the seeming hopelessness of it all. Yet he ends chapter 7 with the hope that redeems all of us...Jesus Christ.
I have always struggled with making sense of spiritual truths. I've always wanted the puzzle pieces to all fit nicely together. The fact that I can't make them all fit many days causes me to doubt and to shy away from God. It can at times feel foolish and somewhat childish to give my life and heart and dreams over to a 2000 year old book and an invisible God.
Yet what always calls me back is that the basis of Christianity is based on love, forgiveness, humility, sacrifice and the building of a Kingdom whose core is on the principle that every human being is vital, important, not to be dismissed. That Jesus never excludes based on moral failings but actually welcomes and comes because we all need to be rescued from ourselves.
The one thing that is true about my heart and life is that I do need to be rescued from myself. I need to be rescued from the selfish wretchedness that seeks to undo me and to poison all the things that I truly love. This battle is a battle I cannot win...I cannot muscle myself into "goodness". I cannot reason myself into righteousness. I need something beyond me to hold onto. I need something far greater than me to believe in. It is in these moments that I realize the truth and unspeakable brilliance of the Bible and the life of Christ.
I have always struggled with making sense of spiritual truths. I've always wanted the puzzle pieces to all fit nicely together. The fact that I can't make them all fit many days causes me to doubt and to shy away from God. It can at times feel foolish and somewhat childish to give my life and heart and dreams over to a 2000 year old book and an invisible God.
Yet what always calls me back is that the basis of Christianity is based on love, forgiveness, humility, sacrifice and the building of a Kingdom whose core is on the principle that every human being is vital, important, not to be dismissed. That Jesus never excludes based on moral failings but actually welcomes and comes because we all need to be rescued from ourselves.
The one thing that is true about my heart and life is that I do need to be rescued from myself. I need to be rescued from the selfish wretchedness that seeks to undo me and to poison all the things that I truly love. This battle is a battle I cannot win...I cannot muscle myself into "goodness". I cannot reason myself into righteousness. I need something beyond me to hold onto. I need something far greater than me to believe in. It is in these moments that I realize the truth and unspeakable brilliance of the Bible and the life of Christ.
3So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forcesa of the world. 4But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.b 6Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,c Father.” 7So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. - GALATIANS 4:3-7
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