Connect @ Grace

Matthew 18:21-22 (NIV)
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
[22] Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Christmas is highly overrated. Not the original reason for the season, but the man made expectations placed on it through our ever growing consumer hoopla and our never ceasing hope for relational bliss. I hope the Christmas holiday was a huge fun event for you and yours. I have to admit, mine was above average this year. But if your Christmas experience went off without a hitch, I suspect you are either in denial or terminally unique!

I got a little kick back yesterday when I suggested that forgiveness be our focus now that the festivities have ended. “Not everyone has dysfunctional families,” was the comment made to me. Ok, point taken. But no one has perfect families either. Relationships are messy both in the home and in the church.

When Jesus told us to forgive 490 times I don’t believe he was giving us the magic number for developing a no-fail grace dispensing mechanism in our bodies. I believe he wanted us to realize how powerless we are to resolve our own resentments. 490 is a big number. It’s an impossible number. It’s a number that tells us we will never be done with forgiving. It’s a number that tells us we can never get it right without God.

The key to resolving the relational messes in our lives is to surrender those messes (and those relationships) to the one who bridged the gap for all of us. I thought this might be helpful for all of us who had the “Wasn’t exactly what I wanted, didn’t turn out as I planned,” Christmas. He’s still God. And He’s still good. tim

I’ve been to Africa and lived to tell about it. I say that tongue and cheek, because although I heard all kinds of scary things about Africa, I never felt like I was in danger while I was there. In fact I really enjoyed Africa. Although I’m sure the scary devastation exists someplace on the continent, Africa is many countries and what I saw in South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia was better, more beautiful, safer, and friendlier than what I expected. What I love about traveling to other countries is that you can get past the negative news you hear on TV and see for yourself that although the needs may be great, that’s not the entire picture of a nation.
Having said that, I did have some sobering experiences in Africa. I’ll tell you about one. We got the opportunity to visit our boy, Godwin, who we support in Tanzania through Compassion International. Tanzania has been experiencing a drought this last year. Fortunately the people aren’t dying yet, but I’ve never seen such emaciated cattle. I heard from our taxi driver that many of the cattle are dying. This fact when hit home when we pulled up to Godwin’s family home. Although it was springtime in Tanzania, there was no grass or shrubs. The small cattle pen that they had next to their house was empty, the goat shed was empty, there were no chickens running around and there was no family garden. All the things that would normally be a buffer between them and bare existence were missing. We asked about their animals and were told that they had been sent away to find grazing. We wondered if they would ever be back. Although we had a lovely time visiting his family and community, I was haunted for days about how they would dig themselves out of the financial setback brought about by the drought.
The contrast between how we were affected by a lack of rain this summer on the farm and how they were affected by drought was dramatic. For us it means less profit, for them it could mean malnutrition and financial devastation. I could only breathe easier knowing that Compassion is in the neighborhood watching over families such as ours and giving us opportunity to give aide in a responsible way.
Jan

In my quiet times recently, I’ve been working through the gospels chronologically, instead of just one gospel at a time – some days much slower than others.  Today I’ve made it to the sermon on the mount, and more particicularly, today, the beatitudes.  A comentary by Mark E. Moore that I’ve used in this study had this to say:

Often Evangelicals have made so much of grace that we have made too little of sin.

My initial thought was, “How can you make too much of grace?”  But as I wrestled with this for a few moments I realized, that if we don’t ever have a propper view of sin, we will never have a propper view of grace.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).  In the same commentary, Moore writes:

It is sad that so few Christians deeply crave righteousness.  We are somewhat like children who have spoiled their dinners with candies.  We are satisfied with recognition, busyness, entertainment, and emotional titillation.  and because we allow such things to fill us, we are distracted from this deeper desire.  Because of this, we have lost our impact in our society.  We are often neither salt nort light (vv. 13-16) but merely another option for benevolent work or social activities.

Ouch!  Not sure about you, as you read that, but that dug just a little deep with me this morning.  Where am I filled up?  Too often I/we are so enamored with what makes us emotionally filled, that we mistake it for a quality relationship with the God who gives us life and breath, grace and mercy.

-Jonathon