You are More Important than any Label or Category

You are More Important 

than any Label or Category

Oh my, how we love to slap labels on things.  A perfectly organized work shop has jars of …

Wing nuts

Slotted screws

Phillips-head screws

Hand-saw here

Drill bits here

And on and on.  Everything has a place and everything is in its place.

We label things.

Unfortunately, we label people too.  Have you ever worn a label?  I have, and they are no fun.  Here are some I’m worn.

   “You’re an accident looking for a place to happen.”

   “You’re clumsy.”

   “You can’t do that.  You don’t know what you’re doing.”

   “You’re fat.”

   “You’re lazy.”

Well, enough. 

I hate labels. 

I’ve been reviewing Philip Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing about Grace.

I just read this: 

“For Jesus, the person

was more important

than any category or label.”

I love that!  That Christ should see me as someone of worth and value.  How about that!

Remember the woman caught in adultery?  The men who dragged her before Jesus had already labeled and condemned her. 

“Whore” they said. 

    “Prostitute” claimed another. 

         “Unfaithful” screamed another.

Christ said some other words, words that redeemed her.  “Neither do I condemn you.  Go and sin no more.”

Zacchaeus was another who bore labels.  He was a tax collector, and they were a despised lot.  They were known cheats, swindlers, and the low-life of society. 

Christ came along one day, and this wee man got a new label.  Christ invited him into fellowship and Zacchaeus confessed,

“Lord, I’ll give half of all I own to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody at any time, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Christ made a great response: “Today, salvation has come to this man’s house.” 

This thief and cheat was redeemed, forgiven and changed.  No more labels for that man.

King David, the apple of Gods eye, committed adultery.  And he was redeemed and forgiven. 

You see, no matter the label the world slaps on us, God sees us and calls us

“You are my child, my chosen one. 

I have redeemed you. 

I have called you by name.

You are Abba’s little girl/boy.”

In God’s sight, we are His child.  We are the one He loves. 

If we need a label, let it be …

Redeemed

Forgiven

Child of God

One who experiences the Grace of God.

Internet Church Blog Site

Hope Encouragement Inspiration

The Offer of Grace

The Offer of Grace

Here is a novel thought.  Grace is offered to everyone.  EVERYONE.  To put it another way, there is no one to whom grace is refused.

There are no disclaimers on grace. 

~You can have grace if you give.

~You can have grace if you haven’t committed sin in the last sixty days.

~You can have grace if you live in the Southern region, or in France.

Well, you get my point.

There are no qualifiers, no rigid lines drawn in the sand as to who can and cannot receive the grace of God.  It is available to all who will receive. 

The bad get grace.

The pretty good get grace.

The saints get grace.

Women get it.

Men get it.

The beat up, the down-trodden, the outcasts, the ones with torn clothes, the one’s whose breath reeks of gin, or whose teeth are stained with tobacco-they are offered grace.  

Grace is offered to all. 

God is not trying to catch us in a moment of weakness.  He doesn’t threaten us with some snide remark like “you will pay for that.”

He wants to come and join our human festivities, the birthday parties, the bar mitzvahs, the weddings, the ball games, and the awards banquets. 

He is a God who understands that children will always get dirty, they’ll tear their clothes, fall off the swing set, and jump in mud puddles.

The point is this …

We are to experience the all-sufficient grace of God regardless of our condition, in good times, in bad times, in poverty, and in wealth.

God’s grace …

~Will get us through the darkest night.

~Will sustain us when all else fails us.

~Will turn our complaints into confessions of God’s sufficient grace.

God’s grace says this … If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father; one who pleads our case.

That’s the grace with which I identify.

I’ll accept this offer of grace any time.

Will you?

Internet Church Blog Site

Hope Encouragement Inspiration

Afraid to Trust

Afraid to Trust

I wrote a post last week about the intimacy God desires with each of us.  It’s called God as Abba - Papa God.  

I heard from a long-time friend of mine.  She said: “This one made me cry. Want that intimacy so badly. Somehow afraid to let myself feel it.  Never feel worthy enough. Thanks for this.”

When I was teaching Sunday School, before my heart problems, I had a ninety-year old man say basically the same thing.  He put it in the form of a question.  “How can you really know God forgives, and that He loves me with all that love you keep talking about?”

I’m not smart enough to trick anyone into believing anything about the Gospel of Christ.  It is such a ‘faith’ thing, and sooner or later, we have to accept certain aspects of Christianity on sheer faith.  I don’t have a document that certifies that I am forgiven, or that God wants me to have a close relationship with him.  I’ve not had a dream, or had a divine voice speak audibly to me. 

I do have my faith, and I have the Bible as a reference point that I accept as coming from God through human interpreters.  And I choose to believe what is written.

~I believe God wants to be trusted.

~I believe God is offering this amazing gift of His ferocious love, this hurricane-force outpouring of His love and grace, and I am the object of this outpouring.  And so are you.

I’ve had my moments of doubt.  I’ve had my moments of feelings of unworthiness.  I’ve had my moments when my guilt overwhelmed any sense of redemption that God was offering to me. 

And yet, His love still raged on.  His love still reached me.  His redemption seeped into my heart and I accepted, finally, that I am loved as I am, not as I should be. 

“There is no one perfect … no not one.” 

(Based on Romans 3:23)

Romans 3:10 says basically the same thing.  “There is no one who is righteous; not even one.”

God knows us.  He created us.  He knows we are like sheep who wander away constantly without the guiding eye of the shepherd.  And when we wander, He comes seeking us, and finds us, and if we’re willing to come back, He brings us back home.

Seems to me God is doing all the work.  He loves us, He redeems us.  We get a wandering eye, we look at something brighter, something shiny, more desirable, and we wander.  And He misses us, He seeks us out, and He finds us and invites us back home.

Sometimes, we get it in our heads that we’ve gone too far, we’ve done such bad things that God couldn’t possible love us.  No … never.

We say things like …

“But I stink” (either literally or figuratively)

“But I’m a constant disappointment”

“I’m not worthy”

“I’ve lost my credibility”

               and a thousand other excuses. 

And yet, His love continues.  He woos, He calls, He invites, He offers love, pardon and redemption.

Redemption!  What a great word –

   Renovation

   Reclamation

   Refurbishment

   Restoration

That’s what God offers.  He doesn’t say …

“Go make three trips to church on Friday, crawling on your hands and knees.”

“Pay a $1000 fine.”

“Read your Bible all night, for 12 hours straight.”

He simply says “Come.  Trust.  Accept.”

Now who could be afraid of that?

Internet Church Blog Site

Hope Encouragement Inspiration