These writing of mine have been a grace-oriented message for the most part. This posting is possibly the most grace-oriented message I can offer to date. It has everything to do with your life, how you live it and what your expectations are for it.
Allow me to preface this by stating how I am not going to be a cheerleader for your life. If your ego needs this, then seriously you have not an idea where you’re going.
This is a truth which you will wrestle with for the next few days, or possibly even weeks. No one truly lives in reality. We live in what we perceive reality to be and have developed mechanisms, or stories, which allow us to live comfortably a story line which soothes our ego.
Recognize how commonplace this seems because everyone is doing it. Grace exists to enable us to maintain our false sense of reality. In this context, grace allows us to permit others to live in the same illusion as long as we accept our limitations to be seen as perfect in the eyes of others. We invent a new tale to soothe our bruised ego if we ever fall short of perfection in their sight.
There is a high probability where most who are reading this are those who attend a religious meeting at least once a week, if not more. In the time you spend in this community you are instructed to live a life dedicated to the precepts of some particulate writings. Somehow you have determined that the 2-3 hours of weekly dedication will write the script for the remainder of the 165 hours in the week.
Look, I’ve been there. The Lord’s Day is easy to deal with. Monday, however, is when the hounds of hell are loosed. Your best prayer on Monday morning is, “Lord, help me make it to Wednesday night service!”
What happens from Sunday to Wednesday and then Thursday to Saturday night is your life. It is here where we craft the stories which allow us to overcome the difficulties and embrace the few moments of an awe-inspiring touch of the divine. How does your story go?
Your ego is always attempting to survive the attacks which assault you. Yet, according to your ego, everything is an assault. If an event can be used in a testimony service, it is an assault on your ego.
Now I recognize how some might say that this is not according to the meaning of the message of Christ where we are to be overcomers. Regrettably, there is a large faction of believers who are constantly striving to become overcomers without understanding how everything has been overcome through Christ. To these folks, their life story is a never-ending battle against the forces of evil.
Don’t get me wrong here. “We battle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places…” This is a claim which most of these people would like to proclaim as the anthem to their plight, but when Reality reveals itself, these folks soon discover they are merely shadow boxing.
his is the beauty of grace. It allows you to be foolish in your endeavors and assumptions until you come into the knowledge of what the Kingdom of God has secured in and for you. Your ignorance in everything is surpassed by grace.
Allow me to reveal a divine secret to you. God is not concerned with everything that you are concerned with. Even your concern for them does not register with Him in the way you believe it should. God’s grace is greater than your ego.
Whatever story you tell yourself to motivate yourself to continue living a worthy life, grace fills in the gaps and misrepresentations of a glorious presentation of God’s love for all through you, His chosen vessel.
So now that I’ve spoken to the chosen, please allow me to speak to those of you who feel you are not in this special group. I recognize that you have a story to your life which, in your eyes, keeps you far and away from the chosen. You have experiences which many do not have and often distance you from what the “chosen” deem as acceptable. My response to this is simple: Bullshit!
Throughout the gospels the message of grace is proclaimed through those who never measured up to the standard of the prevailing “religious group.” I don’t care about your past story simply because the Father doesn’t either. Read that again as many times as you need to accept it as truth.
What story do you want to live by? One of mud, maggots, and misery? How has that been working for you? Or one that doesn’t allow your ego to have any part in it? What does that even look like?
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
These words express the thoughts of one who took a path in life which actually sought to destroy what God had intended for goodness. If you examine closely, you will find the death of an ego, the revelation of Reality, and a life story common to all mankind. Despite what you may be going through, ultimately this too is your path. The story of all the ages.
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