Grace

I went to Puyallup Foursquare Church this weekend and had the privilege of hearing Rick Bezet speak. He said as Christians we are called to "preach grace but never forsake truth" and that's what I am going to write about today.

Have you ever been caught doing something wrong? You know that feeling of complete horror and shame you get? It's so embarrassing getting caught!

Here's a little story...

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There once was a girl name Rose, and she was very beautiful. Her dad left her and her mom when she was 5 years old, so she never had a strong, reliable man in her life. Throughout high school she had fooled around with different guys but was never in a real relationship. She went to church every week and tried to be a good person, but she never really felt like she fit in there. Wednesday afternoon Josh, a guy from school, asked her to come over instead of going to church that night. She had messed around with Josh before so she just assumed that's what he had in mind. She knew she should go to church because that's what her mom wanted, but it was always so awkward there. Every time she walked into that building she felt everyone staring at her and she could swear she saw them whispering about her. I mean, she wasn't perfect, but who were they to judge her? None of them were perfect either. After arguing with herself for a few minutes, she agreed to go to Josh's house that night.

She had only been at Josh's house for 30 minutes and things were just getting started when suddenly someone slammed open Josh's door. To Rose's horror it was her pastor! He was in a rage--he demanded that she get dressed and follow him. Filled with shame and indignation she grabbed her clothes and left the house. How did he know she was there? And what was he going to do? Was he going to tell her mom? What would her mom say? Was he going to tell everyone at church? Oh no, that would be even worse than her mom finding out!

Once outside, he practically dragged Rose out into the street in front of Josh's house and she sees a group of people. Some other church leaders, some kids from school--what was this? They were all gathered around a man, who Rose recognized as Jesus, the one who claimed to be the Son of God.

"Jesus!" cried the pastor, still gripping Rose's arm. "I caught this girl in the act of sexual sin! How should we punish her?" He roughly threw her at the feet of Jesus.

Rose's mind was racing. What were they going to do to her? Beat her? She looked around the circle, her eyes desperate to find a way out. This Jesus would probably be the one to initiate any sort of punishment, he was supposedly perfect. How did this happen? She was completely surrounded! She could hear her pulse pounding in her ears, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum...

She closed her eyes, waiting to hear the verdict.

Jesus looked at each face in the crowd and said this, "Whoever is without sin, you can decide how we should punish her." Everyone was silent. Rose began to here the shuffling of feet and looked up to see the crowd slowly dispersing. It was then she felt the tears streaming down her face. Shocked and confused she looked up at Jesus. To her surprise there was love and compassion in his eyes.

"Where are your accusers now? Has anyone condemned you?" He said with a gentle smile on His face.

"No, they haven't, they're gone," Rose said in awe.

"That's right," he said, "and neither do I condemn you. Now go, and sin no more."

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Now, you tell me, how does the story end? Does Rose ride off into the sunset and live a perfect life? Or does she go right back to her old ways? You decide.

Jesus has given every one of us that choice. He has looked at each of us and said, "Grace, my child. Don't feel guilty, I have forgiven you. Now go, live your life differently. Don't make the same mistakes." It's up to us to decide how we're going to respond. Are we going to take advantage of his grace and keep on making the same exact mistakes? Or will we make a change and continually ask God for strength to do what's right?

If you want to be that person that "goes and sins no more" then there's some things you absolutely have to do. First, you need to take a hard look at your life and the areas that you struggle with the most and surrender those things to the Lord. Second, you need to identify the people that are encouraging you to sin, or even just allowing you to sin and not challenging you to make better choices. You need to put some distance between yourself and those people. Third, you need to have something to fill the void. If you're cutting things, habits, places, people out of your life, you have to replace them with something. Find a new hobby, make new friends, find a church to get involved in, listen to more uplifting music, go back to school, join a smallgroup. Find something to occupy your mind and time, or you will more than likely fall right back into your old life. Fourth, you have to remember that you are not perfect. Just because you're following all the right steps and praying and reading your Bible, that doesn't mean you're never going to sin again. That's why we're saved by grace, not by our works.

Be encouraged, friends. Jesus doesn't look down on you and judge. His desire is that you would love him more than you love your sin and live your life accordingly. Lay down your pride, admit that you need a Savior, and fall into the loving arms of Jesus. He's waiting.

Faith.Hope.Love

Chelsea Rae

Seventy times seven

Forgiveness: (n) the act of ceasing to feel resentment toward something or someone

Just reading that word "forgiveness" makes me get all defensive inside.

Some people don't deserve to be forgiven. Some people take advantage of your forgiving spirit. Sometimes a hurt goes so deep, a wound is so painful, that you can't imagine forgiving that person. They may not even realize that they hurt you. They may not care that they hurt you. Every time you think of that person or situation you feel angry, betrayed, bitter, sad, rejected, alone, taken advantage of, belittled, and flat out miserable. Do you know what that's like? If not, I envy you. But more than that, I respect you.

How many of you have been hurt by the church? Maybe a pastor or church leader, maybe a family member who is a Christian. I know what that feels like, and I know what it looks like to let my hurt and anger cause me to shut God out. I let my hurts caused by people affect my relationship with God. That doesn't seem very fair, does it?

It's so easy to let our emotions control us. Instead of putting our foot down and having self-control we let our minds go rampant with negative thoughts. We need to remember that we have been given a spirit of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7), and we've also been commanded to control our thoughts. To bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). So we know that it's possible to control our negative thoughts. Now that brings us to a fork in the road.

Are we going to control our thoughts or let them control us?

In Matthew 18:21-22 Jesus talks about forgiveness with his disciples. Peter asked him how many times he had to forgive someone who wronged him. (Sidenote: Isn't that so typical? As Christians, sometimes we get so caught up in legalism that we forget about grace and unconditional love.) Jesus responded with this, "I tell you this, not up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." Did you just try to do the math in your head? Haha, I know I did! Seventy times seven? That's a lot! But Jesus didn't say that so we would count how many times we forgive each other, he said that to make a point. We need to forgive so often that we lose count.

We are told to love our neighbor as ourselves, to consider others more highly esteemed than ourselves. Part of loving others is forgiving them. Read 2 Corinthians 13, it emphasizes how important love is! One verse says that love keeps no record of wrongs--in other words, we aren't allowed to hold grudges. Think about all the things Christ has forgiven you for. We're told to forgive as we have been forgiven, and Jesus has forgiven us of every sin we've ever committed--past, present and future. Also, practically speaking, it's healthy to forgive others. I promise you will physically feel better when you let go of those hurts you've been holding on to.

Now here is the challenge I bring to you. Who are you going to forgive this week? I'll bet there's at least one person that you've been thinking of while reading this. I challenge you to pray and ask God to forgive you for being bitter, and then go to that person and let them know what's going on in your heart. Maybe even ask them for forgiveness for holding on to whatever they said or did. I will also be doing this challenge, my friends. We're all in this together.

Ask God to soften your heart, he will help you let go of those hurts. "If he leads you to it, he'll get you through it."

Faith.Hope.Love.

Chelsea Rae

Hot or cold

Just thinking about what I'm going to write about right now makes me scrunch my nose in distaste and think, "Ugh..." because this topic is convicting. Take a look at the verse Revelation 3:16. It says, "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth." (NKJV) As Christians it's easy to ignore the Scriptures we don't want to think about or come to terms with. This is one of those verses that I don't like to really study because I'm afraid of what I might see when I apply this to my current circumstances. Am I on fire for God? I encourage you to ask yourself the same question.

You might be thinking to yourself, "Hm, I don't know if I'm on fire for God. I love God, I feel like I know God, I talk to God and serve Him. Does that mean I'm on fire for God?" Well let's take a look at what the Bible has to say about that.

In Matthew 7 Jesus talks about fruit. He says you will be known by your fruit. As a human being you have influence, and everything you do and say influences those around you. How you influence people is evidence of the fruit you are producing. Are you pointing people toward God or away from him?

Your works and your fruit are not the only things that define you as being "hot" for God. The most important thing is that you remember your love for Jesus! Revelation 2:2-4 says, "I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love." It breaks my heart to read that! How often do we get so caught up in serving God that we forget to sit at his feet and enjoy our relationship with him? The best way to love God is to have relationship with him, that's why he sent Jesus to die for our sins. We were separated from God because of our sin and he sacrificed everything so we can enter into his presence and be near to him.

I, for one, don't want God to spit me out of his mouth. I can't imagine that would be a pleasant experience. It's easier to live on fire for God when you decide to make each day count.

How are you going to live passionately for God today? How are you going to make today count?

Hot or cold, you choose.

Faith.Hope.Love.

Chelsea Rae

God knows why, we don't need to

We don't always need to know why. In fact, we're not always meant to know why. But isn't that the most common question we ask God? We fall on our knees, we cry out, "Why, God? Why did this happen? Why now? Why me? Why didn't you stop this from happening?"

I don't have all the answers, and no pastor, teacher, parent or scholar is going to have all the answers. The only one who knows everything is God. Instead of trying to figure out God's plan and trying to guess his next move, let's just obey. I am the worst at obeying, I really am, so just know that I'm speaking directly from my heart. But 1 John 5:3 (NIV) says, "In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands..." We need to ask less questions and do what we know we should do.

This is where faithfulness comes in. David could have asked why many times in between the time he was anointed king and the time he actually became king. But what did he do? He served God faithfully and didn't question God's plan. We have a tendency to forget the perfection of the God that we serve. He knows exactly what he's doing, and he is not bound by time. Let us not forget in the darkness what we were told in the light. It's easy to doubt God when we're going through a tough season, but I encourage you to run back to God. Fall at his feet and surrender your plans and your future to him once again. Even if you've done it a thousand times. God won't give up on you, don't give up on him. Don't let your fears, your mistakes, your pride, your hurt, your anger, your relationships, your job keep you from the Lord! That's exactly what the devil wants. Don't let him win, I know I have. If I get one thing across to you today let it be this: the devil is out to steal, kill and destroy YOU and you can either fight or surrender. I say let's fight. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7 NKJV) I'm always up for a challenge. =)

Faith.Hope.Love.

Chelsea Rae

Free for what?

1 Peter 2:15-16

(NKJV) "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men--as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God."

(ESV) "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God."

Well I must say this verse hit home with me. I am free, you are free, God gave every one of us free will. Once we've surrendered our lives to Christ we have a responsibility to use our freedom in a positive manner. As Paul said, it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. By choosing to live for Jesus we sacrifice certain things.

I know that I took advantage of God's grace many times in the last few months. You know that feeling when you're in the car on your way to go somewhere, see someone, do something you know isn't going to honor God? It might not necessarily be that you're "sinning", but you know it's probably not the best decision you could make...well I've been there! We all have. You do something even though you know you shouldn't. I sinned knowing God would forgive me the moment I asked him to, and that's exactly what we shouldn't do! Jesus sacrificed everything so we could be free to have relationship with him, not as an excuse for us to do whatever we want whenever we want because we know he'll forgive us. We've been instructed in this verse (1 Peter 2:16) to use our free will to do God's will--how are you going to use your free will?

Now what exactly is God's will? That's a common question and it can actually create a fear in us that inhibits us from moving forward. It's terrifying to take a step forward when you don't even know if you're going the right direction. God speaks to us various ways, but the most reliable avenue of communication is His Word. Instead of just asking God what his will is for you, why don't you start out by looking at what the Bible has to say about it? The two greatest commandments are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. When you go back to the basics and you do what God's will is for every one of us, he will begin to show you what his more specific will is for you. Ultimately, it's all about relationship.

Judah Smith spoke tonight at United Night at UG, and he talked about how Jesus is the point of everything. Jesus is the manifestation of the glory of God. Sometimes as Christians we try to look beyond Jesus for something that will fill us, satisfy us. We ask for God's presence, his glory, his power, his healing, his attention...but all we should be asking for is his essence. We should be desperate to know God, not only to feel him.

We are free so that we may know him who made us so. God isn't going to force you to love him, he's not going to make you seek him. His desire is that you would want to know him. And that's what I want to be able to say on judgement day, that I sought the heart of the Lord and my deepest desire was to know him. What do you want God to say to you on judgement day?

Faith.Hope.Love.

Chelsea Rae