Grace is still standing!

As I read a friend's story that he sent me about a father who forgave his son's murderer and talk to a high school friend going through a divorce. I am amazed at how God's grace still stands, the power of His love displayed on the cross is bigger than the worst human sin committed against love. We were made to live in God's love and when we go against love we pay deep inside. We may be able to hide the damage inside for a season but like David said "let the bones you have broken rejoice". Our hearts do not heal when we choose justice, our way, selfishness, worry, or indepedence. We are only at home in His love and no other comfort will do. God's Word is timeless when everything around us is constantly changing, but His Word tells us "there is nothing new under the sun". Humans search for answers to the daily problems that confront us and yet God's Word is considered by so many to have nothing but religious language written in ancient times. If we as believers only understood the power of God's revealed Word to transform lives, broken marriages, broken relationships, and ultimately broken societies. His Word is what points us to a relationship with Him that gives life. As I have personally struggled with many fears, anxieties, and darknesses in my life over the past few months which are deeply rooted in my childhood, I am reminded by the Holy Spirit of the passage in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 which says "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everthing give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." This is a difficult section of Scripture for me when I have spent the last 15 months wrestling with deeply held strongholds of belief which have caused me to lose a lot of sleep. I am to rejoice, pray without ceasing, and give thanks. This sounds like insanity but yet the revealed Word of God breathes life into us. I choose to rejoice in His salvation of me though I did not deserve it, for taking me out of the darkness of sin and putting me into the light, and for loving me when I am my most unlovable. I have a wonderful wife, two great kids, co-workers to minister with who love the Lord, and God has given me breath today. I pray that the Lord will do a transforming work in me that I will rejoice always, this is not something that comes naturally to me. Growing up I learned how to complain, look for the worst, be critical, and the pathway to discouragement was paved. I am sowing seeds in life and these negative seeds will bear fruit. We were born to live in Eden where we would walk in God's love and life all the days of our life. We were born to spread His glory over all the earth, grace in places of darkness is what brings His Light. God is light and Him there is no darkness (1 John 1:5). At the end of many lifetimes Grace will still be standing because the goodness of God is what we long for. When we see Him then we are truly alive. Could it be that the darkness in our world is not because of the economic situation, crime, broken families, or war but the lack of God being lifted up. Grace is an atmosphere that softens hearts, heals, brings hope, and restores. Grace is who God is because Jesus is the fullness of grace and truth. My choice today is to live in His grace and love, though apart from His grace I deserve death. I pray you will choose to rejoice in the Lord, no matter what you may be going through.

In His Amazing Grace,
Bret