The Apostle Paul wrote “For you are clearly letters of Christ, the fruit of our work, recorded not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in stone, but in hearts of flesh.
Have you ever gotten a letter or a card that really impacted you? I sure have. I recently had a birthday, and it seems like certain people have the ability to communicate with me in a way that impacts me powerfully. When my wife or my kids remind me of our commitment to one another it stirs my emotions and thanksgiving wells up in my being. For example when my wife writes in a card to me communicating her love, I always cry and when my daughter writes “I have always walked in a certain degree of peace, because I know that you are always there for me”, that strikes the deep chords of my thanksgiving for my family and friends, but most of all for my God. Then there is Andrew my son. We communicate differently, but it blesses me beyond understanding when he reaches out to me. His words are precious to me.
When I look out across the space on the internet and I see the profiles of so many who I partied and “raised hell” with there are so many that have an understanding of this commitment. Not their commitment or my commitment, (which is flawed at best) but Gods commitment to mankind.
I want to take this opportunity as I resume my writing, to tell about some living Grace Papers or “letters of Christ”. I have experienced much in my life and most of the richest of these experiences have involved people. I have come to a radical conclusion that people are good. Yes we struggle with sin, being affected by the fall. I have come to believe that God is good and what He created in his own image is good.
Thus, I am not a sinner saved by grace, but a redeemed man who is restored to his original condition by God’s grace which is defined by the resurrection of Jesus Christ! I challenge the concept of original sin and declare that man is originally good!
Moving on down, let me tell you about a “letter of Christ” who has been a living word to me and my wife Joani for years. Joani grew up in Clarkston Washington and there was a family that lived down street from her named Kotz. Joani was, and is friends with the family and especially with the middle daughter Theresa. If you followed my blog from the beginning Theresa is in three of the posts, and she plays an important role in my testimony. http://thegracepapers.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html . It was here and her husband’s apartment where Joani and I had the argument and the police came. Theresa recently told me that night was best thing that ever happened to her and to me as well. It is amazing how we look at things in the present and we don’t understand. Theresa was also the friend that delivered Joani to her parents to take to church in the post http://thegracepapers.blogspot.com/2010/08/moment-of-definition.html
Theresa has this gift for showing up in people’s life at a time when they are really in need. The funny thing is that she does not realize how powerfully that she is used by God. She would and will continually speak of God’s love and the value of people to anyone listening.
Theresa is flawed, so am I, so are you. She struggles, so do I, so do you. What I love about Theresa is her honesty. She is real. The other thing that I love about her, is watching her and my wife Joani interact. It reminds me of how we are so important to one another, and why we should treasure the relationships that we have in our lives.
She has recently almost magically reappeared in our lives, sent by God to remind me of some very important concepts and lessons that I have learned but obviously need to be reminded of.
God uses my weakness to minister to others. He turns my failures into triumphs for His glory. The things that I have counted as loss can actually be gain when I commit that to God. Since there is really no failure (and this is the very important lesson) never judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. In other words I need to learn to see things like God see them. That means especially people. But most of all she is sent to remind me of God’s commitment, and His unfailing love to mankind and specifically to me.
My friends and family constantly convince me of God’s goodness and the fact that He is love!
Thank you God for the card in the mail, the card is named Theresa but You signed it with love
No comments:
Post a Comment