Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Every good and perfect gift

Despite all the stupid mistakes we make, the bad choices we make evident daily, God waits for us like a dog sitting at the window of our homes waiting for the master to come home safely. I have made some whoppers over the years, and I suspected there are a few bad choices left for me to make though I want so desperately to be holy, to be perfect, to be sinless while I always know that won't happen. It's enough to make heads spin.

But it is that notion, that idea of what love really is that keeps us going when the stakes are high and we have to own up to our own sins.

God spoke to the prophet Isaiah: "Nonetheless, the Lord is waiting to be merciful to you, and will rise up to show you compassion."

Think of it this way, friends. What have you done lately to deserve what you have in this life? There is nothing that you have been given that you deserve, and for that we must be eternally grateful. We deserve punishment. We receive grace. We deserve judgment. We are given peace.

Why? Why would a good and perfect holy God do such a thing?

Good question. The answer is because of love. God's love for his Son and God's love for his sons and daughters. Grace is like the salt on a plate of grits (love). The right mixture of love and grace is enough to make us acceptable before that holy God. He gives and he gives and he gives.

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote it this way: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." Got that? Every, EVERY, good and perfect gift is from above.

In my little world, that's the ministry I stumble over but love; that's my wife, my children, my grandchildren, the very roof over our head, money to buy food that would make a parent in Africa think of mansions. I have all that because, just because, God loved me first.

We, as church planters, spend a great deal of time worrying about building the congregation of a church. We can dress up everything, fix windows and doors and ceilings and floors and put in new sound and light and recording and you name it, but unless people come it is all for naught.

But if you read (CEB) 1 John, you get a feeling the early members of the church knew all this. The author writes, "Little children, I'm writing to you because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus' name. Parents, I'm writing to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I'm writing to you because you have conquered the evil one."

That about does it for relation building, for the gifts given, for the love offered, for the savior loved.

The author concludes this: Dear friends, let's love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn't love does not know God, because God is love."

The love he shows us is so warm, so willing, so unconditional it is rarely seen in humankind. But it's there. It's real. It's lively and literal.

God loves, gifts, gives.

That's just who we are, because of HIM.


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