"The Gospel in a Fallen World."

This week at my Convergence study the topic was "The Gospel in a Fallen World." Now, when I write this stuff it is not an attempt to bring on guilt or feelings of failure in others. I am the chief offender and a big time hypocrite! Remember my "Masks" post.
But heck, this stuff is making me think! It is challenging me, it is scaring the crap out of me, and it is making me ponder very deeply my call.
I'm just going to highlight some things...

Remember one of the AA statements, "You are only as sick as your secrets?" If we are brutally honest about ourselves we can begin to experience the freedom we long for.

How do we live out the hope of the Gospel? By giving space to God, don't confine Him and set Him within time limits. Don't formulate, don't exclude God. Creating more space equals more freedom in our lives.

Are we in awe of God? Are we grateful? If we want to grow in our faith it should propel us to move outward rather than sitting in our little cozy Bible studies talking about what we SHOULD do.

How do we know what work to involve ourselves in? This is a tough one for me. The question is "What do we hate and want to see destroyed?" Therein lies our passion, to create something good in the midst of the sorrow. Basically, just look at the darkest places in the world and you will find Jesus hanging out there. Typically you never saw Jesus with all the 'religious' people but rather He was found with the poor, the ill, the depraved, and the total rejects of society.

Unfortunately, many of us (ME!) pray at the altar of our religiosity rather than breathing Christ into a broken world. And man is it broken! The world needs us more than ever to be real, honest, humble, passionate, and empathetic to the plight of the downtrodden.

I admit, I'm scared! I'm scared to step out in faith, I'm scared of what God might ask of me. I'm scared I won't follow through. Did I mention I don't like fear? :) Yet it drives me to take the easy way out. Sara Groves nails it in her song, "I saw what I saw." She sings,"Your courage asks me what I'm afraid of."

My goal is NOT to sound legalistic. I hate legalism. I'm not saying these are have tos. I'm saying it would be cool if these could be our want tos. God will accomplish what He needs with or without us. But, we are the ones that miss out on the blessing of being involved in His work. Out of our love for Christ, His will becomes our desire.
In case you haven't noticed this is really easy to write but quite another to actually do it! See my former sentence about myself being a huge hypocrite - yeah, you get the idea!

Thank the Lord for grace, love, and the beauty of redemption.