Monday, December 30, 2013

Reading for the Grand Story...

Dear Friends,

This coming year (2014) I am planning to be paying attention to the Narrative / History in the Bible while following the 1 year Bible program.  http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/  What that means is If I do not have time to follow the non-narrative or Historical parts of the Bible reading this year... I will not worry about catching up on those parts of the reading.  I will go back and really try to take in the amazing Story / History as presented in the Bible.  I invite you to join me in this... we are all part of God's story and the better we know the God of history the more equipped we will be in seeing God work in our own personal histories and stories.

Join me in this... and let me know that you are joining me in this...

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Why I am a Christian, Part Three

It is one thing to choose to follow Christ. It is another thing to encounter Christ in the midst of following Christ. It is quite another thing to find that God’s loving agenda is at work and that it is to conform our character more and more towards God’s redeeming love. See Hebrews 12:1-14
Having come as far as I have on the journey of faith following Jesus, I find more and more, a growing awareness of my humanness and my human flaws. And I find a growing gratitude in my heart for God’s redeeming grace to challenge, correct, redeem, and refine my character. I continue to watch my capacity to love grow, and I look back and perceive how hardhearted I was in the past, even as I know that God continues to work in me in the present. This action of God that continues to work in me and on me is more persuasive than any argument for or against faith because I know, that because of my choices and God’s work in me and my character, that I belong to God.

I am a Christian because of God’s redemptive power at work in me, for which I am eternally grateful.