Reason #639
First off, I'd like to say that I am less than a year away from reaching my 1000 reasons. Can you believe that? Reason #635 marked the countdown. This time next year, I'll be done with this. Aaron asked me what I planned to do after I reached 1000. That's a good question. Sitting down to write every night is one of my favorite parts of the day. It has never been a burden, if you can believe that. I love, love, love getting to do this so that I can go back and see what God has done for me. After all, we humans tend to get busy and forget, so this is a nice reminder for me. Plus, my 4 loyal followers (who consist of my parents and grandparents) wouldn't have their morning reading material, and I'd sure hate to take that away from them.. ha! Well, that's still a year away so I won't worry about it now. Who knows what God will do by this time next year. Until then I'm just going to stick to the original plan.
I've blogged a lot about Job over the past few weeks. I am so grateful for Job's story, and I have learned so much from it, too. However, we wrapped up the study last week and started Romans today. If you don't know much about Paul, the guy who wrote Romans, let me give you a quick run down. Paul used to be Saul. He made it his mission to persecute and kill Christians until he was blinded by the Lord one day. Because of that, he came to know the Lord and turned into one of the biggest evangelists ever. He's an integral part of the growth and spread of Christianity, and when he became a changed man, his name changed to Paul. Anyway, Paul is writing a letter to the people of Rome and he makes a bold statement up front by saying, "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes..." (Romans 1:16).
I am not ashamed...
But we are ashamed aren't we. We are so grateful that the Lord has rescued us, forgiven us, cleansed us, and called us His own, but we're ashamed. Ashamed of who we once were before we came to know the Lord, before He grabbed a hold of us and changed our lives. And because of this, we keep silent. Silent because if we tell others about the changing power of Christ, about the transforming work of the spirit, we might have to tell them about the person we once were. We might have to potentially face rejection or judgment. We might have to let down our walls and let people see that we aren't perfect. We might have to stop the show and be real. And if we do that, that means we have to stop pretending that we've got it all together.
You see, Paul could have been ashamed. He so easily could have said, "Oh no, Lord, I can't go talk to those people. They know what I used to be like. They won't like me or accept me. They'll probably judge me or think negatively about me. They know I was against them, and I'm too embarrassed to admit that I was wrong." But Paul wasn't ashamed because he realized that he wasn't going to talk about Paul. It wasn't about him. It was about God, about what God is capable of. And what an incredibly testimony to see a transformed life right before your very eyes.
Paul was absolute proof of God's power. He was honest, too, and that's one of the things I really appreciate about Paul. He didn't put up a front or lie about who he was. He also didn't make excuses. He didn't worry about who he used to be, he was more concerned about what he was doing for the Lord now that he had made a conscious decision to be a disciple of Christ.
We need to be more like Paul, at least I do. Unashamed of who we are now. Forget what happened then. It doesn't matter anymore. Be real, be honest, don't hide what God has done in your life. People need to see that. They need to see how God transforms and changes really imperfect, ordinary, messy people. That's how His power is displayed. That's how the world knows we're different. We live it out, we talk about it, and we show them. Because we're unashamed of what God has done, of who He has molded us to be, and we're grateful that He did that, too. Grateful that God's grace is big enough to cover anything from our past and give us a new, hopeful future.
#639 - Because His grace is big enough to cover anything from our past so that we no longer have to be ashamed.
"This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” - Romans 1:17
I've blogged a lot about Job over the past few weeks. I am so grateful for Job's story, and I have learned so much from it, too. However, we wrapped up the study last week and started Romans today. If you don't know much about Paul, the guy who wrote Romans, let me give you a quick run down. Paul used to be Saul. He made it his mission to persecute and kill Christians until he was blinded by the Lord one day. Because of that, he came to know the Lord and turned into one of the biggest evangelists ever. He's an integral part of the growth and spread of Christianity, and when he became a changed man, his name changed to Paul. Anyway, Paul is writing a letter to the people of Rome and he makes a bold statement up front by saying, "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes..." (Romans 1:16).
I am not ashamed...
But we are ashamed aren't we. We are so grateful that the Lord has rescued us, forgiven us, cleansed us, and called us His own, but we're ashamed. Ashamed of who we once were before we came to know the Lord, before He grabbed a hold of us and changed our lives. And because of this, we keep silent. Silent because if we tell others about the changing power of Christ, about the transforming work of the spirit, we might have to tell them about the person we once were. We might have to potentially face rejection or judgment. We might have to let down our walls and let people see that we aren't perfect. We might have to stop the show and be real. And if we do that, that means we have to stop pretending that we've got it all together.
You see, Paul could have been ashamed. He so easily could have said, "Oh no, Lord, I can't go talk to those people. They know what I used to be like. They won't like me or accept me. They'll probably judge me or think negatively about me. They know I was against them, and I'm too embarrassed to admit that I was wrong." But Paul wasn't ashamed because he realized that he wasn't going to talk about Paul. It wasn't about him. It was about God, about what God is capable of. And what an incredibly testimony to see a transformed life right before your very eyes.
Paul was absolute proof of God's power. He was honest, too, and that's one of the things I really appreciate about Paul. He didn't put up a front or lie about who he was. He also didn't make excuses. He didn't worry about who he used to be, he was more concerned about what he was doing for the Lord now that he had made a conscious decision to be a disciple of Christ.
We need to be more like Paul, at least I do. Unashamed of who we are now. Forget what happened then. It doesn't matter anymore. Be real, be honest, don't hide what God has done in your life. People need to see that. They need to see how God transforms and changes really imperfect, ordinary, messy people. That's how His power is displayed. That's how the world knows we're different. We live it out, we talk about it, and we show them. Because we're unashamed of what God has done, of who He has molded us to be, and we're grateful that He did that, too. Grateful that God's grace is big enough to cover anything from our past and give us a new, hopeful future.
#639 - Because His grace is big enough to cover anything from our past so that we no longer have to be ashamed.
"This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” - Romans 1:17