I wrote this a while back to some of my friends – I believe I sent it to a couple of you already. It just stemmed from a late night reading of Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Paul introduces himself in chapter 1 like this, “Paul, an apostle — not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead –.” How Epic!?

I was thinking about this after I read it, and just how incredibly glorious it would have been to live the life Paul did, or for that matter any of the apostles; planting churches around the world, declaring the perfect work of Christ crucified, and living that as your sole purpose in life. What more glory can we bring and do than build the body of Christ Jesus in the short time we are graced with on this earth?

In moments just after the fleeting thought I checked myself… this is our calling! In whatever shape or form it may be. For our sole purpose is for the glory of God. Is that not incredible? It is truly beautiful, humbling, and awe-inspiring that God would choose wretches like us to extend and declare his majesty to the ends of the earth. And we are truly wretches, if you think otherwise, I suggest you take a long look at yourself and scripture.

“But when He who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by His grace, was PLEASED to reveal his son to me, in order that I might preach Him…” – Gal 1:15-16

For this is our same commission. The fact that we are so graciously CHOSEN by GOD before the foundations of the world (Rev 13) makes no sense! It PLEASED Him! Especially with how imperfect each of us are, at least I know for myself… Oh! who are we that God chooses us!? It moves the heart to weep, from the pure grace that is bestowed upon us, it is overbearing! Let us be humbled!

I know we each have had our share of trials, brokeness, worry, and pain these years of our lives. But I know the calling each of us has upon our lives, and it is far from anything “normal.” I have no idea what we will each end up pursuing, but the fact that God uses it for His glory, in all His infinity, should be more than enough lay weighty upon our hearts.

I hope that each of us will be set with burning desire for Him; that we will stand each day in awe of His infinite beauty; I hope that all we live for, will be for his glory; that he would be the first of our hearts desire, and nothing more; because eternity knows nothing but the souls that come to our savior Christ Jesus. We have no greater calling, and we stand in eternity already, I hope we are reminded each day of that.

Let Christ-crucified be the mantel we each carry. Carry it. Let it rest on you. Let “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do EVERYTHING in the name of the LORD Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. – Col0ssians 3:17

Now that is a weighty calling, something we cannot every achieve or hold to, none the less, that is our calling, and it is only achievable by our great God’s incredible grace.And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… And behold I am with you ALWAYS, to the end of the age.” – Mt 27:16-20. We are commissioned by the Creator of all things, unlimited in power and glory, who’s majesty cannot be fathomed, no words can describe the endless riches and abundant love He holds. Our God and Savior, this is who calls us!

Just sit in it!

This was random. I hope it speaks to you in some way. Much love for each of you.

I continue this as an extension of the last post.

“Every knee will bow; let me be the first to fall before you now.”

Let that always be our hearts desire.

The longer I live, the more I know that this is not my home. I am continually reminded of this by the world in which we live; and this does not stem from solely from “our fallen world,” – which bears with it pain, hurt, and sorrow – but rather from the beauty that I see in this world, because all beauty simply points to Him, our God.

And this world is beautiful. Pictures can only begin to capture its magnificence, and will never do it justice. “A picture is worth a 1000 words;” I would argue that in many circumstances a picture is worth tens of thousands of words, for someone could easily write several pages discussing only the way the sunlight rests upon the leaves I see outside my window right now…

The endless stars arrayed through the night sky, the clouds set in a red-orange blaze at sunset, the ragged mountains rising out of the landscape capped with a pure blanket of snow; although so beautiful, they compare nothing with the beauty of our God. Nothing can do Him justice, besides He Himself. And so my heart longs to be with Him in eternity, because everything we see and experience in this world that is good and beautiful, give us just the slightest taste of His great majesty and goodness. I hope these scriptures will spark some of the same longings upon your hearts.

God’s word says:

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” – Psalm 19:1-4

As stated. The things of creation simply give just the slightest taste of His infinity, beauty, and vastness. They are His “handiwork.” They are like a tiny picture, the smallest sliver of the majesty that our great God holds between His fingers. To say it is even a sliver of the image of God, cannot be said, for our God is infinite and nothing can comprehend infinite goodness.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place…” – Psalm 8:3

The stars, our God just flicks them into existence. He flicks our sun, the moon, solar systems, and galaxies all into being. Creation is one of the greatest preachers I know – for it is all from the design and hands of our Creator.

If this is what our God flicks into existence, oh how endless He is! How are we supposed to imagine all the beauty He possesses, “beauty” itself cannot describe Him, it can do no justice! If I spoke with the words of 10,000 languages my description of Him could not begin to declare what He and His glorious kingdom must be like.

What a glorious day it will be when we are united with Him in eternity! To spend an eternity in worship of the God of all things! How glorious and awe inspiring! Forever we shall sing hallelujah with all the saints!

The splendor of our God… Let it forever humble us, and consume our hearts. Let us be in reverent fear and awe of our God who freely pours out His endless grace to us. What have we done to deserve any notice? We have done nothing more than betray our Savior who loved us first (1 John 4:19). Yet He is mindful of us, and it is ridiculous to realize this is so… For,

“what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor.” – Psalm 8:4-5

Read those verses of Psalm 8:3-9, and just allow yourself to be humbled by His infinity, and that even in all His infinity, He loves and cares for you and I. In the scale of all things, we are nothing, we can offer Him nothing, He needs nothing, yet He has CHOSEN you and I.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He LOVED us, even when we were DEAD in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…” – Ephesians 2: 4-6

The implications of this verse extend far beyond the scope of what I have written here, I will later include something on our depravity, and the irresistible grace of our God.

Let us be simply be humbled at the majesty of our God, that He who created all we see, do, and live our lives in, loves us so dearly and chooses to give us His attention. Try to imagine the kingdom of God with which we will be able to spend eternity! I mean, it is impossible for us to imagine, but we can try, we know it will be beyond the beauty of anything of this life! What glorious glory!

Truly and heart fully, go and spend some time sitting in quite awe before Him. That we are already entering eternity with our savior. I hope it leaves you speechless and passionately thankful with a burning heart in your chest for the goodness of Him that loved you first and created all that you behold.

To Him be the glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

People are meant to walk out their lives in love; meant to experience the beauty of perfect love. When we walk outside of that, we are throwing aside and rejecting the fullest life we could ever have. It’s like a bird with its wings clipped, trapped on the ground. The bird is meant to fly, that is how it fully lives out its life. We are cutting the fullness of our lives when choose to reject the love of God, every time we run from that love, we cut ourselves down…

I want to give you a couple of definitions:

Love: a deep feeling of affection for another.

Agape:  the deepest love, which is based on doing good things for another person. This is the love shown by our God, a deeper love, incomparable love, for He has given us the greatest gift of His son.

There is something that I never have been able to fully express, never. It cannot be expressed by any words. It is beyond all reason or thought to be able to grasp how incredible and incomparable it is, and that is the grace of our God shown to us by Jesus Christ. Grace that has been so incredibly lavished on us; us who deserve nothing, absolutely nothing; who if anything, deserve the opposite, deserve punishment and death.

The idea of this grace is worth days, years, lifetimes, and infinity of meditation. The simple fact that I am anything at all, that I exist, let alone am blessed by my Savior to such a degree; which it is out of His good and perfect plan, to bring glory to his name – it is incredible.

A verse we have heard a thousand times over, and I will gladly hear it another thousand times thousands more:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” – John 3:16-17

Who are we that God loves us so much?

A verse from Psalm 8 just shakes me up. It puts “myself” into perspective, and it puts me in steadfast awe.

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” – Psalm 8:3-4

I think that this is one reason why I absolutely love gazing at the stars. It never gets old to me, never; I can look at them for hours upon hours.  I think that it is because I see a sliver, just the tiniest glimpse (honestly don’t know if I can even say that) of the perspective of how infinite our creator is. The unlimited vastness of this universe; he flicks it into existence with His fingers, and yet, it all can’t begin to describe the infinite glory of our God. God cannot be put in a box. It is sobering, humbling, beautiful, and awe inspiring. And this is the God, which loved/loves us, and who chose to demonstrate His perfect love to us by letting His own son to be mocked, spit on, beaten, flogged, and nailed to a cross.  This all was done for you and me, for the very people who murdered him.

The lines from one of my favorite hymns say this:

How deep the Father’s love for us,

How vast beyond all measure

That He should give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the chosen One,

Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,

My sin upon His shoulders

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that left Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom

WHAT?? WHAT?? What is this? Just to rest my mind and dwell on the idea of this. If it was just you, just you alone, Christ still would have died. He went through hell, literally, for you.

His death was so different from any other, no martyr can be compared, no other cause for death. He didn’t die for people who loved Him, or people who would ever love Him, many would, but many never will. They spat on Him, they mocked Him and He died for these very people that murdered Him. Someone who had done absolutely nothing wrong a single day of His life, only pure utter goodness.., pure absolute love, yet… He was murdered.

I give this example (and this is far, over simplifying, the vastness of what Christ did, for it is so simple, and what Christ did is beyond our reason): Imagine a man who is a rapist, a murderer, a betrayer, a molester, an adulterer, a thief, and a liar. Let’s just say that this man has no remorse for the things he has done, and for the sake of this argument, we will even say he thinks he was justified in what he did, more or less he feels no remorse. Now this man was caught and is sentence to death, as he deserves, does he not? I personally would think he deserves to die. But then you come along and you say to this man, I will die in your stead. Then when the day comes for you to be executed in this man’s stead, he comes, he spits on you, then pulls the switch mocking and laughing at you as he does so and all while you slowly die. Then this man goes on for the rest of his days acting exactly as he has done before…

Sound like something you could do? Or for that matter anyone? Yeah, I don’t think so.

That is only the slightest analogy of what Jesus did for us. He took all the of the world’s sin and shame, and bore it in a moment…

I try to imagine this, for me, imagining the darkest moment in my life thus far, then multiplying that billions of times more, BILLIONS, then being separated from my God, and being forsaken by all your closest friends while carrying that burden, and dying with it. It is impossible to understand or imagine, but that is what He did for us. It wrings your heart of all emotion. It is incredible.

Thanks to his burden. You never have to experience that loss and separation from our father God. Never. The divide of separation has been broken.

I feel like all I do is repeat this over and over and over. But to be honest, it messes with my head! It breaks me down. It is the one thing that continually causes me to weep. I will be lost in tears days upon days for the rest of my life trying to understand how incredible this is… It is beyond anything that makes sense, anything reasonable… It is madness, and it is beautiful.

I was listening to a sermon a while back by John Piper and a few quotes stuck with me:

“Your mind should be boggled; I don’t feel like I am truly encountering God unless I am being shocked, why I would think any other way.”

“His scope can’t be anything, if I get within a billion light years of Him, I am going to be shocked; I am in the business of looking to be shocked.”

God should never in anyway seem simple to us, blah to us, just “oh ok” to us. Our heads should hurt, our hearts should ache, we should be heavy with the incredible, awe inspiring glory that is our God. You know the type of ache you get when you get a good workout? It hurts, but its good. It should be like that in your heart and head… multiplied by infinity.

After all, who are we that we that God has done this to save us? We are so polluted, sinful, fallen and lost. Our God, who has the expanse of the stars, all the beauty of the universe, all things beyond and completely unfathomable to us; and even yet, our God loves us so, so, so much. Grace is more or less defined that we get something that we do not deserve.

So many do not know of His love and His grace, they may know of it, but they do not KNOW his grace. They do not know the presence of God; the incredible, beautiful, unreal overflowing grace that shows the most perfect love.

It is beyond me, beyond anything I can write, beyond any words. Yet that is all I can do, is cry out about the beauty and majesty of my God. That should be an all-consuming inferno of your heart. If you haven’t known the presence of God, or if you have gone too long without drawing into it for too long, then cry out to Him, and He will make Himself known. Cry out with your heart humbled and contrite before Him, and He will be there to meet you. Always. He does not change, He is our constant.

There is nothing greater. Nothing more satisfying. For in Him, our Savior, Christ Jesus we are to find all our satisfaction.

“God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.” – Desiring God Ministries

What is one of/if not the #1 thing that all people search for in life?

Purpose and love. From what little wisdom I have, this is what I have seen. And where do these both perfectly originate in? Christ. ONLY CHRIST. In Him is perfect love, in Him is our drive, our purpose, and fulfillment.

As Christians, we are called to nothing more than to love, that is most simply the message of Christ, nothing else. What Jesus did for us upon the cross; His resurrection to life; he took all of our sin, all of OUR responsibility, OUR wage of death and put it all on His shoulders. This is absolute love in its most perfect form. The repitition of love outways every other stressed “command” in the Bible. Without love, what we do or how we live is more or less stated as meaningless.

When Jesus was asked by one of the teachers of the law, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus states it as his only command:

“The most important one is this: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your stregth. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:29-31

This repeated by Paul in Galatians 5:14: “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

First, He commands us to love our God with all our heart, second to love those around as as we love ourselves. Both consist of what, love. Those two commands fulfill all we are called to do.

This is what defines us in Jesus Christ. It (love) shows us that we have been convicted by something truly beautiful. The world “pushes” us to be consumed with ourselves, to satisfy who our desires, our needs, our wants first. It is all about consuming yourself with yourself, that is the nature of man and sin. Love is the opposite. True love functions to oppose the “push” of the world in every way and our souls long for it, every man and woman. The comfort of knowing that there is always someone to love/that loves them and that they can to return into. No matter what burden the world brings, love shatters that, and breaks those chains that weigh the heart down.

This is conserved in every person, no matter who you are.

Love answers every law, everything that Jesus spoke of on the sermon on the mount.

Paul accounts of love in his writing to the church in Corinth. (Im sure you all have read these verses before, or heard them at least, if not multiple times.)

“And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, buthave not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love NEVER fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” – 1 Corinthians 13

The chapter ends with, ” And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Paul clearly defines that every gift we could possibly have is meaningless without love.

Doing things, acting out for the good, giving time, money, efforts are all good… but they are fleeting, they last a moment and then are forgotten. But if done out of love; if love is experienced and then realized in them.. that is something that someone sees and knows forever.

I just want to use the example of giving gifts.

When I am given a gift, an expensive gift, such as an i-phone, i-pod, even a car, I would be ecstatically thankful for these but with time they fade away. They would be broken, lost, or sold. But, if I am given something, such as a card someone wrote to me that shows love in itself, or a gift that has some significance specifically to who I am, even if it may cost much less than a few dollars, those are the ones that I will remember for a lifetime, because behind them is love for the individual. I know how corny this sounds, but it is truth. The heart (love) behind something is what gives it true intrinsic value. Something that is not forgotten.

Now this is a corny, dumbed-down analogy, but I feel it can convey the meaning more simply none the less.

Now what does love look like? What do you think it looks like? What is love in its most perfect form? Look back at 1 Corinthians 13 and really read what love is: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love NEVER fails.”

The traits that this fallen world project upon us are opposite to love in every way, as previously discussed.

But now, more importantly look at Jesus. He is the perfection of love.

And, at least for me, I take what Jesus said in John 15 to co-notate love in two ways..

” This is my command: love those as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15: 12-13

“Carry each others burdens and in this fulfill the law of Christ.” – Galatians 6:2

Jesus Christ CARRIED our burdens. Jesus died as He carried all the burdens of you and I, all the sin, all the pain, all the suffering, all of the brokenness… There is truly no way we could ever understand this, or even begin to know how incredibly heavy this weight must have been on Him; and, in that burden, our God the Father turned His face from Jesus… Something truly unbearable. God being perfect, can have nothing to do with sin. But this is beyond beautiful, to know that this is how much our God loved, and continues to forever love us.

This is what Jesus did, He didn’t just die, He carried all our burdens with Him.

As such, we should model ourselves after Him. It is easy to say you would give your life for someone. Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” – Philippians 1:21. To die is to simply go home to our savior. To live, the only reason to live is for the name of Christ (we can refer back to “purpose” from Ecclesiastes). To lay down your life for those around you, to share their burdens and help carry their struggles, just as Christ carried what should have been OUR cross, that is love. Jesus is the perfect model for us in every facet of our lives.

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that left Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

– How Deep The Father’s Love For Us – Stuart Townend

Now much/most of the lessons I will share with you all are based upon my personal experience/realization, so you may not have the same connection to what I share, as I myself feel. None the less, I hope you all are able to pull something valuable from these!

 
Ecclesiastes has easily become one of my favorite books of the Bible. You may find that strange, seeing of how depressing the book seems to make this life we live, but I find it quite opposite (for those of you who don’t know what Ecclesiastes is all about, open up your bible right after Psalms and Proverbs and find out!).

I think I love it so much because it shows us  the meaning of existence (in a very sobering manner at that); it goes straight to the point. It is applicable to every aspect of our lives and shows us the reality of what has true value in the eternal sense, and that value is only found paired with our God.

I recently have had several discussions about the purpose of life. One of my friends went on to explain that he creates his own purpose, he gives himself the meaning, by what he pursues, by what he likes, what he wishes for the future, and that is all reinforced by how he lives now and who he is surrounded with. But this purpose is subject to change at his whim or circumstance… Now I ask how that is a purpose for your life, if you can alter your purpose whenever you please? That purpose you had previously is no longer… From what I see that is no purpose at all.

If everything you are; everything you know now, love, aspire for in this world was suddenly all stripped away, would you still have purpose for who you are, or would who you are at your core  be changed, or fall apart?

Human nature constantly pushes us towards something; something more, something greater, better… I honestly believe that this is because everyone (whether they know it or not) deeply long to be with their Savior, and until the day we die and are reunited with Him, this is the life we all lead. Many fill that “moving forward” with something other than the pursuit of God though.

My brother recently had an English class at the UW which ended up discussing (more or less) the meaning of life. By the definition found in class; the purpose for living is only found in what you look forward to in the future, that there is always something more and better, something to work for. But I just want to ask you, all this working towards something, to what avail?.. At a certain point all of this will come to an end, this is insured by death.

UNLESS of course what you are striving towards lasts eternally. My purpose for my life will NEVER change, because my purpose is defined in Christ Jesus; our God, who always was, who is, and who always will be. This is just a reminder to remember that the only thing that we know is forever is our God, and the life of every person on this earth; who will either spend eternity in glory or lost in torment. We all have been graced with such a short period (in the scheme of eternity) to make an impact on the eternity of others, don’t let your perspective be lost.

Everything else taken from us in this world; every possession, everything you want or have, even our very self… all that is left is the soul. Whether or not that soul will spend an eternity in the glorious presence of God our Savior, or the in the torment of hell… that is the most important matter we can involve ourselves in.

Always check your view, and ask yourself why you pursue something. What impact/edification does that which you spend so much of your time have in the eternal perspective?

I want to reinforce that without God, what we strive for, ultimately will be meaningless. We will not find comfort/satisfaction in who we are or what we pursue if we create a purpose separate from that of God.

Here are a couple of verses that really started my thought process, but all of Ecclesiastes is what brought it about:

“Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those that consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?” – Ecclesiastes 5:10-11

“Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of heart.” – Ecclesiastes 5:19-20

Before I close this. I definitely am not trying to make the point that the pursuit of worldly items or pleasures is evil, or wrong in anyway (which could easily be taken away from the above verse). Desiring to be successful, talented, create, and yearn for “more/better” is not wrong in the slightest, it only becomes lost when we detach those things we pursue from God, and lose sight of what our ultimate purpose is.

Forgiveness.

It is essential to all that our faith professes in Jesus. Christ, in everything He did, represents this in pure perfection. He died, for OUR sins, our shame, our burdens, and carried them all for the sake of OUR forgiveness. If you just think for a moment about this; God who created us, for no purpose other than for Himself, had his OWN creation choose death (sin) rather than life (Him). Yet Jesus went and died to save us… It is beautiful.

God allowed us to choose Him or this world, and by Adam, who for a moment chose this world instead of His creator, we given into sin. And it is now the sad reality that we live in a fallen world with a fallen nature. We have all been given a jacked up “gift” (as P. Mark put it a few nights ago). But just as we were all brought into condemnation by one man, we are set free by one man:

“For if, by the trespass of the one man (Adam), death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.”-Romans 5:17-18

Over the past several weeks, forgiveness, and the whole encompassing idea of who we are in Christ (something that this short writing will do no justice), has continually been drawn on my heart.

First I will draw my attention back to the forgiveness of others.

Pastor Ben Houston spoke a few weeks back about this. It is SO simple, yet so hard for some of us to accept. But to say it simply, if we reject forgiveness to those around us, then what statement does that make about who we are? Jesus forgave his own murderers as they crucified him and he died upon the cross, all while bearing those very same men’s sin and shame along with that of the whole world!

If you can’t forgive someone in your life, then you are rejecting/denying the very principle that Christ represents in what he did through his death and life… How can we claim to love the man that died to save us from death, but we can’t forgive someone who has sinned against us. God holds no offense. Neither should we.

“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” – Colossians 3:13

Beyond this, I honestly believe that often forgiveness is can often be for ourselves rather than the actual person who committed the offense.

Holding onto unforgiveness only leads to heartache, bitterness, sadness and anger. You harm yourself and you break your own heart more than anything by not being able to let go of what someone has done to you. I have seen people who harbor bitterness towards someone, and it consumes them, it ruins them.

Forgiveness brings peace, it preaches to the world. It testifies about what Jesus has done in, and through us. As stated previously stated in Colossians, we are an example of the work God has done in us.  It was commanded by Jesus himself in Matthew 6:14-15 as he taught about prayer: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

But forgiveness is completely your choice. It cannot be forced upon you, at least forgiveness that actually holds meaning in your heart. Jesus knew/knows the burden that it brings on us, and how damaging and consuming it can be to who you are. It is a chain that drags us down, and we choose whether we want to break free from those clasps or not. And this is often only achieved by the grace that comes through Jesus Christ. So if you struggle with that burden on your life, simply pray for grace to be moved on your heart, which he abundantly pours out on those who simply ask him.

I actually find it ridiculous that many of our last sermons, Brian Houston, Elijah Waters, and Mark Venti a few days ago, all taught about forgiveness and letting go. And much what they used coincided exactly with what I wanted to explain to all of you and what I have been made more aware of myself.

Now unforgiveness is something I have struggled with in my walk of life continually. It has been just in the last few months that I have been able to deal with it, and broken free of it. But for me it has not been my ability to forgive others, but myself.

I often think that unforgiveness of ourselves is what many of us deal with equally with that of being able to forgive those around us.

There was a good portion of my life, around 6 years in which I back slid on my faith. It was without a doubt the worst and most unproductive/destructive time I have ever experienced, especially for the my first two years that I came to college. I lived a life of half-heartedness, thinking I could live in this world and for it, while trying to hold on to my faith. I made far more than one poor decision. Who I was as a person basically just fell apart. You cannot live a life of duality, but I couldn’t choose, so I was torn, and it pushed me to point of almost losing myself completely. When I finally came out of this period there was nothing more troubling for me than trying to deal with the last 6 years and how much of a fool I was, how much I had failed. All I thought about was how I had led my friends astray, broken myself, lacked all form of leadership, lost my heart and desire for what I used to love, missed out on opportunities in who I could have been, and basically threw away almost 2 years of my college career. Who I was still remained stagnant because I was consumed by my failure.

But to think like this is foolishness!

We are not defined by our actions, who we were, or who we will be. We are defined in Christ Jesus alone, nothing else. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” – Romans 3:23. This is why Jesus came. If I we can’t forgive ourselves we are basically denying the completed work Jesus performed by dying on the cross. I heard this analogy once on the forgiveness we have. Suppose there is a child whose biggest wish is to go to Disney land. One day the child wins an all expenses paid trip for a few weeks in Disney land. Wouldn’t this child would receive this overjoyed and ecstatically?! But what if that child rejected it? What kind senselessness would that be? It is the same with forgiveness. It sits right in front of us, the price has been paid for all that we have done, and we have no condemnation left in Christ.

In Hebrews 9:14 it states: “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

And in 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

2 Peter 1:4 states: “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

We have been given a new nature in Christ Jesus. When he died he broke the separation from our Father in heaven. And by our acceptance of him as our Savior, we have been set free from anything that we were, have done, or will do. It is easy to understand/know this, but harder to have the clear realization of who you are. For so long I knew what was defined by Gods word to me, but to believe without a doubt, to have the awareness of who you are and that you have been set free of condemnation in Christ is different than to just know. This is something we need to take to heart. We need to know without a doubt who we are, we share in Gods glory as coheirs with Christ! This is found as truth in Romans 8:17: “The spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

More than this, you need to realize, if you don’t see yourself as new, washed clean, and forgiven in Christ, then you will ALWAYS be hindered and held from your authority/calling in Christ. You will always feel unworthy… There is no reason for this!

Now I understand this life we live is a process. Far too often people pray, ask to be set free from the pain on their hearts and it doesn’t come in that split second, so they give up, they accept the Devils lie that they are unworthy, that they are damaged goods and will never be more. What a lie! We are to live our lives based off of truth, not experience. God recognizes the sincere and humbled heart before him. If you continually come before him, praying and asking for peace, he will meet you. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” – 1 Peter 5:1. He sincerely cares for you, he wishes for you to be at peace and know that you are covered by his grace.

Now this leads me to who we are in Christ. Which Elijah Waters came to speak about not too long ago.

What seems to hold us back in Christ more than anything is consistently ourselves. It seems to often that we either have condemnation of who we were in the past or the conviction of you “don’t have” because we feel inadequate in some way. But this is ridiculous!

Just look for a moment at the men that God uses in the Bible to carry his Church.

Paul: a murderer, who actively pursued the death of Christians. Yet God used Him to advance His Kingdom with a fire and a passion that was incomparable. I mean a man that used to murder God’s people ended up writing 30% of the New Testament.

And Peter: A man who spent almost 4 years of his life the physical presence of God, living side by side with him. Yet when asked if he was kin to Jesus, he disowned him three times in a row. Yet the man who was able to deny his own savior was used as the rock of which God began to build his church. (Matthew 16:18)

We have to see that we all fall short of Gods glory. It is inevitable. We live in a fallen world. It is what we do when we fall, that ends up defining how strong our faith is. Do we get up and stand in what WE KNOW we have in Christ? Or do we become stagnant in the lie of condemnation?

In all our failure, the power of God and His glory is made more excellent.

2 Corinthians 12:9 says:  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

We have to realize, truly become aware that we lack nothing in our Savior, because it is by nothing that we do but Christ alone. It is the Holy Spirit and the beauty of the love of Christ that works in us, that give us strength, and defines who we are. We are all called to be examples/advocates for Gods kingdom, there is no “maybe”, and we lack nothing to be that advocate!

1 Corinthians 1:5 reads: “For in him you have been enriched in every way – in all your speaking and in all knowledge – because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end…”

We do not lack anything then, God has given us everything we need already, we don’t need to ask for what we already have because we already have it! We need only to realize who we are, and step out in faith in Christ. There is no condemnation, no fear, no place for timidity in Christ because we are to be the image of his kingdom. I realize that this is easier said than done, but just try to grasp that we have such an outpouring of love and grace on our lives, and that that perfect love drives out all fear. So we should have nothing to hold us back from “being.”

Take this verse to heart:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me… And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:16&20

Just remember we are heirs with Jesus (Romans 8:16) and that if Christ, who has ALL authority, is with us till the very last days, then what do you have to fear?? NOTHING!

I just lastly want to give this: If we step out in Christ, we may stumble, we may fall from grace, but as long as we have our eyes on Christ, we will always be right where we are supposed to be. It is like driving to your destination. You have to actually leave and start moving to get to where you want to go and even if you do drive off the path, the GPS will automatically correct so you will end up where you were supposed to be. Psalm 37:23 – “If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.”